  I was thinking about a friend the other day who was in the process of developing a relationship with a co-worker who was curious about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness.
His past experiences exhibited little in the way of arrows pointing the way to God. In fact, if you looked carefully, you might only find chaos. So I tried to think of a biblical response or address to someone who feels like life has dealt them some crappy cards, some poor building blocks for a stable spiritual life. Perhaps it would be helpful, in biblical terms, to look at Genesis 1 and the Priestly account of creation.
I think that we often think that God is a God who creates something out of nothing (creatio ex nilo), but this chapter of creation says that the earth was "formless and void. " The Hebrew words for "formless void" refer to a state of disorder and chaos. Interpreted in this way, we see creation as God's ordering of disorder, God's action to bring an end to chaos and to replace it with something intentional, something capable of sustaining life.
We see chaos in the world, like my friend's co-worker mentioned, and we see God's absence. However, what if we saw the chaos in terms of formless material through which God could form great things, beautiful things, redemptive things? While we may wish that there were no chaos in the world, life would be boring without it. The key is not to get overwhelmed by confusion or become disillusioned with disorder but to see our role as co-creators with God to take part in the God's creative activity in the world.
Who knows, maybe this God who performs great works with disorderly material will be able to redeem our chaotic pasts through this same creative action. Even more exciting is our role in that continual creative activity, for we, too, are the incarnation of God for this world.
It is my prayer that we will see our pasts not as something that impedes God's ability to order our personal chaos but as the material through which God is able to reveal once again the Divine intention to redeem all creation. In answering this prayer God will equip us to act in accordance with being made in the image of God as we learn how to make something beautiful out of chaos. 
