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Chaos Can't: Overcome What Comes Against You in This Shaken World
Chaos Can’t Ultimately Win. But With God…You Can. The hopeful yet defiant message of Chaos Can’t is that it's possible to remain unshaken in this world of chaos. But you won’t find the answers on the nightly news or social media. They report chaos, stir fear, and take sides…but have no clue for a cure. Because they’re looking in the wrong places. This quest offers a refreshingly different approach. Rather than focus on current events, we’ll take a mythic yet practical journey that starts before time began. To experience God as Creator. To expose an ancient enemy who uses chaos as a weapon. And to understand why our dreams, hopes, and hearts are under attack. What is chaos? How does God approach it? And can we overcome it? Through this book, you will • why chaos hits in such personal ways; • how to not let the swirling outside chaos…within; • the possible origin of chaos; • how to counter fear with love; • why your creativity matters more than you imagine; and • 11 ways to restore your dreams and renew your surroundings. God continuously fills the empty, void places in our world—and in us—with light, hope, beauty, and order. Which is what our souls need most in these chaotic times. This is your invitation to join the Creator…and to be astonished.
- GenresNonfictionChristian
292 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2020
52 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 11, 2021
The world is in chaos. It's trying to soak into everyone and control them.
The news is filled with stories of people who respond to this chaos with more chaos -- and think they can "fix" what they perceive as wrong with this world by being more chaotic.
Wrong!
Chaos is out to destroy us to keep us from finding the fulfillment and our purpose in life with God as our Creator.
But chaos can't win.
Once again, like in his first book, The Story of With, Allen Arnold takes readers on an incredible journey of growth and assessment, of identifying the enemy's tactics and learning to free our creativity instead of succumbing to fear and chaos. Healing needs to take place within, rather than using chaos to fight chaos in the outer, physical world.
From the back cover: "God continuously fills the empty, void places in our world -- and in us -- with light, hope, beauty, and order. Which is what our souls need most in these chaotic times. This is your invitation to join the Creator ... and to be astonished."
This is one of those books I will need to reread several times before everything soaks in. I look forward to it.
The news is filled with stories of people who respond to this chaos with more chaos -- and think they can "fix" what they perceive as wrong with this world by being more chaotic.
Wrong!
Chaos is out to destroy us to keep us from finding the fulfillment and our purpose in life with God as our Creator.
But chaos can't win.
Once again, like in his first book, The Story of With, Allen Arnold takes readers on an incredible journey of growth and assessment, of identifying the enemy's tactics and learning to free our creativity instead of succumbing to fear and chaos. Healing needs to take place within, rather than using chaos to fight chaos in the outer, physical world.
From the back cover: "God continuously fills the empty, void places in our world -- and in us -- with light, hope, beauty, and order. Which is what our souls need most in these chaotic times. This is your invitation to join the Creator ... and to be astonished."
This is one of those books I will need to reread several times before everything soaks in. I look forward to it.
July 3, 2025
In a world of life-draining, mind-numbing chaos, this book is a Godsend. Whether you are an artist or novelist or musician or teacher or parent or businessman or farmer, we are all created to create. And sometimes life tries to get in the way.
Allen Arnold’s words of wisdom and light speak peace into the hearts of those struggling to find creativity when the enemy is doing everything he can to stop it. He reminds us that our gifts are from God and that we don’t have to create alone. We are invited to create with God-one of my favorite things I got from this book.
If you find it difficult to create when life gets chaotic, whether you’re trying to paint a picture or create a meal for your family, I highly recommend this book.
Allen Arnold’s words of wisdom and light speak peace into the hearts of those struggling to find creativity when the enemy is doing everything he can to stop it. He reminds us that our gifts are from God and that we don’t have to create alone. We are invited to create with God-one of my favorite things I got from this book.
If you find it difficult to create when life gets chaotic, whether you’re trying to paint a picture or create a meal for your family, I highly recommend this book.
February 17, 2021
Beautiful book. I love the analogies and the creative and practical ways to keep chaos out and pursue Truth.
November 30, 2021
Chaos Can’t opened my heart and mind, then inserted meaningful gifts to ponder and embrace. It’s true that we live in world full of tribulation, but it’s gloriously possible to live in this world with eyes, ears, feet, hands, heart, and mind awakened each day expectant and ready for what God is up to.
It was a delight to read Allen Arnold’s pages about God’s gift of Creation out of the empty chaos. Reading about the beauty and glory of the Genesis story with a fresh perspective ignited love for my Creator. I felt like I was given spiritual armor in reading the passages of how our love of God will always win when our enemy strives to use chaos to sink us. I especially appreciated the inspirational passages about the vitality of our own creativity. God created us to be creators—His artisans to change people and the atmosphere for good. Chaos Can’t – Overcome What Comes Against You In This Shaken World certainly changed me and my atmosphere for good.
It was a delight to read Allen Arnold’s pages about God’s gift of Creation out of the empty chaos. Reading about the beauty and glory of the Genesis story with a fresh perspective ignited love for my Creator. I felt like I was given spiritual armor in reading the passages of how our love of God will always win when our enemy strives to use chaos to sink us. I especially appreciated the inspirational passages about the vitality of our own creativity. God created us to be creators—His artisans to change people and the atmosphere for good. Chaos Can’t – Overcome What Comes Against You In This Shaken World certainly changed me and my atmosphere for good.
September 16, 2021
I found this book immensely encouraging. If I gave a subtitle to "Chaos Can't" it would be "Creativity Can."
Chaos is not just the big stuff like wars and hunger. It might be our kids quarreling or crazy drivers or whatever sets us off. Recognizing chaos gives us the chance to defeat it--to create something new that restores order and silences the chaos. Creativity is not just for the arts. It is in every walk of life and encompasses everything from flying to Mars to lightening someone's load with a listening ear.
As a writer, this book particularly spoke to me. As one human who wonders how I can make a dent in the big problems of our troubled world, this book spoke to me even more.
Chaos is not just the big stuff like wars and hunger. It might be our kids quarreling or crazy drivers or whatever sets us off. Recognizing chaos gives us the chance to defeat it--to create something new that restores order and silences the chaos. Creativity is not just for the arts. It is in every walk of life and encompasses everything from flying to Mars to lightening someone's load with a listening ear.
As a writer, this book particularly spoke to me. As one human who wonders how I can make a dent in the big problems of our troubled world, this book spoke to me even more.
June 4, 2021
Ooof.
I really wanted to like this. I did. I mean, it's about overcoming chaos as a creative person! What's not to like?
Well. A lot of things.
Just for the sake of starting with the positive, I will start with what I liked:
-There were a few legitimately helpful practical suggestions about how to deal with chaos. (But really not that many.)
-The short story at the beginning was pretty cool. :) And there were some legitimately funny bits.
-He references Narnia!
-Nadine Brandes apparently helped...y'all know that all you have to do is say "Nadine Brandes" and I'm at least partially on board.
-The emphasis on God being the one who gives us our gifts, and not trying to do things on our own, as well as sacrificial creation, was cool.
-His chapter about the limitations of personality tests was really nice.
-The references and analogies to the hero's journey.
-I think the author is similar to me in temperament, so there were parts that were quite relatable.
-He names chaos as a tool of the devil, which I was worried that he wouldn't. That was good.
Okay. On to what I disliked.
-First off, my main (huge) peeve. His use of quotations from The Message/The Message Bible. I'm sorry if you like it, but in my opinion, that book is the single worst thing to have happened to Christianity in our time, and I am SO grateful that Catholics will not even countenance it, and I wish Protestants wouldn't, either. (Because. I mean. There's a huge amount of irony in Protestants being like "Scripture only!" and then ALSO being like "Okay, yeah, you can mess with the scripture/tweak the words of scripture however you want to make your point, and we will be super happy about that.)
Just the inclusion of these quotes irritated me. (I mean WHO TRANSLATES "today I have begotten you" as "today I celebrate you"???? BEGOTTEN MEANS SO MUCH MORE. That's probably my main peeve with The Message--the people who use it are MISSING OUT on SO MUCH.) But ALSO, the author tries to analyze the wording to make his point, and dude, do you not realize that this was written by a man? You can't analyze the words, because it was a human who wrote them, paraphrasing the Bible, and it just doesn't WORK!
-He seems to have a literalistic view of Genesis. GENESIS IS POETRY. It's not meant to be taken literally.
-On top of that, he has a weird view of angels. (This is probably to be expected--Thomas Aquinas is not as embraced by Protestants as by Catholics??? Go figure. #sarcasm.) *irritation*
-He talks about God setting the rhythm of the day, saying when to stop, etc., etc., etc. And that just seems unrealistic to me. We're called to follow God's will. But God gave us intelligence, and a conscience, and we're generally called to use those God-given gifts to figure out what *exactly* to do at a given time. Of course, we can talk to God about it, but if you really want to discern exactly when to start and stop work every day, that's going to take a LOT of extra time that you could be using to...work. Or pray. Or spend with your family. Idk, just my take.
-"Be willing to call off the endeavor if you don't sense God's presence." This is probably the single MOST harmful sentence in this ENTIRE BOOK. Look, God doesn't always give us a sense of His presence. Even when I'm LITERALLY in the presence of God, at Mass, during Adoration, even after Communion, I don't always feel His presence. Feelings are not enough--one needs discernment, using prayer, prudence, one's intellect, and one's conscience. And one has to accept that sometimes God might want one to do something, and one WON'T feel His presence. And that's okay.
-"God is the least religious person I know". Um. Guys. Religion is literally the virtue of giving God what is due to God. It's not whatever set of rules that you're attacking here. COME ON.
-I actually saved the worst for last...he attacks Tolkien. NOT EVEN KIDDING. Mr. Arnold. You cannot mess with my favorite Catholic author. I will TAKE YOU DOWN. He seriously says that Tolkien's view of sub-creation is BAD because he'd rather embrace the idea of "co-creation", creating with God, rather than under Him. SIR. YOU HAVE MISSED THE POINT ROYALLY. And in fact, this feeds into his entire WEIRD view of creation/God's creation. He seems to miss that God literally created the world out of nothing? And makes it sound that he kind of formed it out of already-there stuff? Nothing could have already been there! God created out of nothing, or else He wasn't really God!
Anyhow, back to Tolkien. Tolkien calls the creation the humans do "sub-creation" because we're not creating out of nothing. We're taking what God made, and making something new. Because we're not God. #surprisesurprise. That doesn't mean AT ALL that Tolkien didn't think that his gifts were from God, or that he was working with God to create what he created. Much the opposite. (See: Leaf by Niggle. (I think, at least, from what I've heard. I haven't read it yet. *sheepish look*)) So, basically, Mr. Arnold, you are denying the well-thought-out term that Tolkien came up with because it doesn't *sound* exactly like what you mean, when what you mean is partially erroneous? AND you're belittling my Tolkien? NOPE. SORRY.
So...I think I'll go with 2 stars for this one. Sorry. But if you attack Tolkien...I'm not going to rate you highly. Be warned.
I really wanted to like this. I did. I mean, it's about overcoming chaos as a creative person! What's not to like?
Well. A lot of things.
Just for the sake of starting with the positive, I will start with what I liked:
-There were a few legitimately helpful practical suggestions about how to deal with chaos. (But really not that many.)
-The short story at the beginning was pretty cool. :) And there were some legitimately funny bits.
-He references Narnia!
-Nadine Brandes apparently helped...y'all know that all you have to do is say "Nadine Brandes" and I'm at least partially on board.
-The emphasis on God being the one who gives us our gifts, and not trying to do things on our own, as well as sacrificial creation, was cool.
-His chapter about the limitations of personality tests was really nice.
-The references and analogies to the hero's journey.
-I think the author is similar to me in temperament, so there were parts that were quite relatable.
-He names chaos as a tool of the devil, which I was worried that he wouldn't. That was good.
Okay. On to what I disliked.
-First off, my main (huge) peeve. His use of quotations from The Message/The Message Bible. I'm sorry if you like it, but in my opinion, that book is the single worst thing to have happened to Christianity in our time, and I am SO grateful that Catholics will not even countenance it, and I wish Protestants wouldn't, either. (Because. I mean. There's a huge amount of irony in Protestants being like "Scripture only!" and then ALSO being like "Okay, yeah, you can mess with the scripture/tweak the words of scripture however you want to make your point, and we will be super happy about that.)
Just the inclusion of these quotes irritated me. (I mean WHO TRANSLATES "today I have begotten you" as "today I celebrate you"???? BEGOTTEN MEANS SO MUCH MORE. That's probably my main peeve with The Message--the people who use it are MISSING OUT on SO MUCH.) But ALSO, the author tries to analyze the wording to make his point, and dude, do you not realize that this was written by a man? You can't analyze the words, because it was a human who wrote them, paraphrasing the Bible, and it just doesn't WORK!
-He seems to have a literalistic view of Genesis. GENESIS IS POETRY. It's not meant to be taken literally.
-On top of that, he has a weird view of angels. (This is probably to be expected--Thomas Aquinas is not as embraced by Protestants as by Catholics??? Go figure. #sarcasm.) *irritation*
-He talks about God setting the rhythm of the day, saying when to stop, etc., etc., etc. And that just seems unrealistic to me. We're called to follow God's will. But God gave us intelligence, and a conscience, and we're generally called to use those God-given gifts to figure out what *exactly* to do at a given time. Of course, we can talk to God about it, but if you really want to discern exactly when to start and stop work every day, that's going to take a LOT of extra time that you could be using to...work. Or pray. Or spend with your family. Idk, just my take.
-"Be willing to call off the endeavor if you don't sense God's presence." This is probably the single MOST harmful sentence in this ENTIRE BOOK. Look, God doesn't always give us a sense of His presence. Even when I'm LITERALLY in the presence of God, at Mass, during Adoration, even after Communion, I don't always feel His presence. Feelings are not enough--one needs discernment, using prayer, prudence, one's intellect, and one's conscience. And one has to accept that sometimes God might want one to do something, and one WON'T feel His presence. And that's okay.
-"God is the least religious person I know". Um. Guys. Religion is literally the virtue of giving God what is due to God. It's not whatever set of rules that you're attacking here. COME ON.
-I actually saved the worst for last...he attacks Tolkien. NOT EVEN KIDDING. Mr. Arnold. You cannot mess with my favorite Catholic author. I will TAKE YOU DOWN. He seriously says that Tolkien's view of sub-creation is BAD because he'd rather embrace the idea of "co-creation", creating with God, rather than under Him. SIR. YOU HAVE MISSED THE POINT ROYALLY. And in fact, this feeds into his entire WEIRD view of creation/God's creation. He seems to miss that God literally created the world out of nothing? And makes it sound that he kind of formed it out of already-there stuff? Nothing could have already been there! God created out of nothing, or else He wasn't really God!
Anyhow, back to Tolkien. Tolkien calls the creation the humans do "sub-creation" because we're not creating out of nothing. We're taking what God made, and making something new. Because we're not God. #surprisesurprise. That doesn't mean AT ALL that Tolkien didn't think that his gifts were from God, or that he was working with God to create what he created. Much the opposite. (See: Leaf by Niggle. (I think, at least, from what I've heard. I haven't read it yet. *sheepish look*)) So, basically, Mr. Arnold, you are denying the well-thought-out term that Tolkien came up with because it doesn't *sound* exactly like what you mean, when what you mean is partially erroneous? AND you're belittling my Tolkien? NOPE. SORRY.
So...I think I'll go with 2 stars for this one. Sorry. But if you attack Tolkien...I'm not going to rate you highly. Be warned.
August 9, 2021
In simple terms and short segments, Arnold presents a profound message. Trying to combat chaos with chaos-initiated chaos never works. We can only fight the devil and his chaos by living our lives in the presence of God. When we create—co-create (Arnold’s word) or sub-create (J.R.R. Tolkien’s word)—we are answering God’s calling to join him in his work. It doesn’t matter whether your creation is in the construction trades, preparing food, or painting, writing, or composing; whether you create through your job or a hobby, you can find joy and peace in creating when it is done with God. But, since the fall, this relationship isn’t automatic. We need to work on nurturing it daily or we, all too easily, drift back into the old habits of chaos.
Allen Arnold writes to remind us that if God is with us chaos can’t win.
Allen Arnold writes to remind us that if God is with us chaos can’t win.
June 15, 2022
This book is a devotional, but it reads like a story in a way, full of a sense of mythic wonder and emphasizing the concept that our lives are one big story. It’s an incredibly quick read—I flew through it in three days. The sections are so short it’s easy to just keep reading, and reading, and reading.
The writing style is somehow calming and absorbing all at once; it draws you in and makes you take a few deep breaths. The book is structured around the idea that a right relationship with God can help you handle the “chaos” in your life—and it delivers, providing a lot of good insights that all come together in an effective overall point. I love the way it focused on creativity and how it’s important, because that’s something that often gets shafted in Christian circles.
All in all a very enjoyable, helpful read!
The writing style is somehow calming and absorbing all at once; it draws you in and makes you take a few deep breaths. The book is structured around the idea that a right relationship with God can help you handle the “chaos” in your life—and it delivers, providing a lot of good insights that all come together in an effective overall point. I love the way it focused on creativity and how it’s important, because that’s something that often gets shafted in Christian circles.
All in all a very enjoyable, helpful read!
October 15, 2021
Excellent!
"...invite wisdom and order into your creativity..." God brings order into chaos...he brings light and fills the void
So many awesome words, I could just keep going, but then I would practically write the whole book with all the quotes.
The beginning was a little difficult to stick with, but I did, and I'm so glad I did.
I finished the book, but I keep going back and re-reading so much of it.
God is bringing his order to my current chaos! He is doing it. I am loving this tender, intimate closeness, that is allowing his creativity into my life.
Thank you Allen Arnold for creating with God!
"...invite wisdom and order into your creativity..." God brings order into chaos...he brings light and fills the void
So many awesome words, I could just keep going, but then I would practically write the whole book with all the quotes.
The beginning was a little difficult to stick with, but I did, and I'm so glad I did.
I finished the book, but I keep going back and re-reading so much of it.
God is bringing his order to my current chaos! He is doing it. I am loving this tender, intimate closeness, that is allowing his creativity into my life.
Thank you Allen Arnold for creating with God!
August 30, 2021
Seeing with new clarity
If you are always battling something or someone in the journey to becoming your best self, you may want to meet Allen Arnold through his books The Story of With, and Chaos Can't. First of all, he doesn't waste any time or words getting to the heart of the matter, to identifying the enemy, and to giving language to what you've been experiencing in your desire to live fully, successfully, and joyfully ever after. Tired and confused? Wake up and smell the coffee as you read and re-read these books.
If you are always battling something or someone in the journey to becoming your best self, you may want to meet Allen Arnold through his books The Story of With, and Chaos Can't. First of all, he doesn't waste any time or words getting to the heart of the matter, to identifying the enemy, and to giving language to what you've been experiencing in your desire to live fully, successfully, and joyfully ever after. Tired and confused? Wake up and smell the coffee as you read and re-read these books.
November 1, 2021
There is something about Allen Arnold's writing that draws me in. I love the mystical way he writes, with word pictures and a sense of wonder. This book is about co-creating with God in the midst of a chaotic world. It's about transformation of the heart and a surrender to the One true Creator who gifts us with creativity - all of us! This is a book I will re-read when I get discouraged in my writing.
June 13, 2025
This book was encouraging and strengthening. It discusses how chaos is everywhere in the world around us and how to steer away from that chaos. It talks about finding and developing our creativity to spread light and to have a strong faith that will allow us to follow God and keep the chaos out of our lives. It explains chaos as Satan and sin and all of the things that attempt to lure us to stray from Gods light. It is an easy read. A refreshing read, and was inspirational.
March 1, 2021
Not enough good things to say about this book! It was my first with this author but won't be the last. Allen Arnold has a gift for explaining difficult faith concepts in a unique easy-to-understand style and plenty of Scripture. His explanation of chaos and how it affects our world and more importantly, our creativity is sweet, utterly true, and makes the reader long for more.
March 12, 2021
Basking in the afterglow of finishing this book, it feels like this is the best book I've ever read. It answers so many of my questions that my life almost makes sense. However, knowing me, I have decided to reread it a little bit every day so I won't sink back into the confusion soup I was cooking in before.
December 8, 2021
This is a very, very beautiful book and is now among my all-time favorites! Allen takes you on a journey to discover the origin, tactics, and methods to defeat the chaos that tries to wreck havoc on our lives and to instead learn to co-create with God. You'll be inspired and encouraged by this amazing book Chaos Can't!
January 1, 2022
Very encouraging book. I read "Chaos Can't " during a very chaotic couple of months. My default was to roll my eyes and think, "really God?" But yes, really God. It wasn't an accident that I was reading this in the midst of evacuations, plumbing problems and sickness over the holidays. It was His perfect timing.
February 10, 2023
What a fantastic book for Christians involved in creative pursuits. Allen takes us through the chaos we face in life, its roots and how to overcome it. He once again makes a masterful plea for the idea of doing things with God rather than for Him and this writer came away convicted and seeing the need for change.
January 5, 2021
Easy and Encouraging read
Chapters split up well and easy to get through even for a non die hard reader.
I loved the message and will be recommending this book to friends, already have actually
Chapters split up well and easy to get through even for a non die hard reader.
I loved the message and will be recommending this book to friends, already have actually
January 15, 2021
An easy to read him that I found to be inspiring, eyeopening, filled with blessings on every page. I highly recommend it! Hated to read the last page.
February 10, 2021
Another wonderful book from Allen Arnold. Challenging, encouraging, and strengthening for both the spiritual and creative life.
April 20, 2022
More amazing wisdom from Allen Arnold for the Christian creative. God refreshes my soul through Allen's words!
March 26, 2023
Excellent book for creatives and anyone who wants to know how to defeat chaos with God
November 12, 2024
Excellent book about how to eliminate the chaos around us and focus on creating beauty with God. Challenging and inspiring!
November 17, 2025
A book that helps one understand how chaos is what keeps us from being close to God.
August 28, 2021
Wonderful book to help focus beyond the chaos of this world.
Allen's quote... "The world has grown cold. We need stories, songs, and art that warm our souls and light the way. And we need them from those who have spent time with the Creator." ~ Allen Arnold
Thank you, Allen!
Allen's quote... "The world has grown cold. We need stories, songs, and art that warm our souls and light the way. And we need them from those who have spent time with the Creator." ~ Allen Arnold
Thank you, Allen!
December 30, 2024
Excellent Companion to The Story of With
I love how Allen Arnold simplifies the truths into digestable nuggets and practical applications. A must read for every person--whether they think they're creative or not.
I love how Allen Arnold simplifies the truths into digestable nuggets and practical applications. A must read for every person--whether they think they're creative or not.
October 14, 2024
"In whatever you create, let good and hope ultimately prevail."
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews