A few weeks ago, my brother-in-law sent photos of flooding in northern Kentucky. Heavy rains caused the Ohio River to run over its banks, causing massive flooding in low and not-so-low lying areas. Recent storms moving through our area reminded me of the unpredictable power of nature as 70 mph winds roared horizontally across a tree line in our backyard and thunder rumbled so deeply as to shake the back porch of our house. Sitting on that back porch, fear and trembling gripped me as the storm struck swiftly and violently. I was frozen in the face of such awesome power. How often do we get such reminders of our own insignificance?

Thinking of that flooding in Kentucky, I’m reminded of the tension between order and chaos. The banks of the river provide order, guiding the flow and its life-giving power onward. However, there are times when nature’s chaos overwhelms that order, spilling the destructive and life-taking potential of that flowing water into unsuspecting areas. Order eventually returns but, for awhile, chaos rules the day.

Walking along the streets of New York City this week, I was reminded of the tension between order and chaos. The flow of humanity moving along its streets, through its buildings and parks, into and out of every nook and cranny across that island, delicately balanced between the physical barriers of its geography and the invisible barriers of law, social norms, and the individual wills of millions of human beings. The city is electric with such energy and somehow thrives amid the danger of a human flow that perpetually threatens to overflow its banks.

In many ways, the chaos represents the dynamic energy of creation. The unformed potential of the kinetic, waiting to be directed. But it doesn’t wait, it spills over into all directions if left to its own device. Such creative energy becomes destructive when left to its own devices. Order is necessary to form and direct that chaotic energy to useful, creative purposes. Waters left to their own designs flow in all directions, for better and often, for worse. The chaos of human energy behaves in much the same way. Left to our own self-serving devices, our energies can become destructive.

We often rail against authority. Don’t tread on me, right? But the rules maintain the necessary tension, pressing against a chaos that can overwhelm. And like a storm, it can happen quickly. We need the invisible barriers of law and norm to help keep order. Even more, we need the invisible fabric of Natural Moral Law to help guide and temper the selfish will that can also consume. The tension must be maintained.

But the guardrails that keep chaos at bay aren’t necessarily guiding its creative power in constructive directions. The banks of the river give the water form and direction, but human potential needs another structure to help it thrive. We need leadership to harness the creative potential from the chaos of human energies.

My wife often speaks of the “beauty that flows through us” in the context of humanity’s potential to reflect the Divine. As creatures, we are each endowed with the dignity of this image and the capacity to reflect it into the world. At the individual level, we can see ourselves as banks allowing this river of creative power to flow through with beautiful purpose.

At its best, leadership is serving this purpose at scale. Bringing order to chaos is part of that purpose. Being steady and present. Calm and measured to help still the raging waters. However, the power to help that flow of human potential reach its apogee, it’s highest point of flourishing is leadership’s true purpose. Allowing the beauty of other to flow with order and meaning and safety, through here and toward beyond is what the best leaders do.

Unfortunately, leadership and authority are frequently confused and many of our leaders are more about the power and control aspects than about the flourishing aspects of their positions. Sometimes maintaining order is about using power to keep things under control. But the temptation is always to “lord it over them” as we find it difficult to not wield power in this way.

However, moving beyond the structures and hierarchies we use to control society, opportunities for leadership as a the banks of the human river of creative potential abound. We lead in our homes, in our churches, in our communities, in our extended families, in our classrooms, and in our workplaces. Many of these opportunities for leadership move far beyond control or managing others, giving us the chance to let the beauty of those around us flow through and beyond us.

This kind of leadership is nourishing. It helps channel and direct the chaos toward cosmos, the right ordering of these creative energies that ultimately helps others flourish. The tension of order and chaos must still be maintained, but rightly ordered, it’s creative potential can be unleashed. This is the place where we, as individuals, can become fully alive.

I realize that most of us will not do this well and our own wants, needs, and fears, will continue to interfere with our call to these leadership opportunities. However, this too is part of the tension necessary in a system that never sustains perfect equilibrium. Cosmos may be right order, however, there will alway be times when too much order or too much chaos will win the moment. There is no cruise control or autopilot, leadership is a contact sport that demands the hard and messy work of engaging in the demands of those human beings around you. We are all called to it. We will all fail at it. We all must keep trying to be better in it.

This week, look at the chaos in your world and think about where you might be the river bank to direct the flow. Letting go of where you want it to flow and allowing it to flow through and beyond you might be a good place to start.