The Nehemiah Way

Leadership Principles – Calming the Waters of Chaos

(Today’s thoughts - Government shutdowns, ICE sweeps, Global threats & Late-Night Olympic Outrage - Sadly, we are a country in chaos)

Depressions, recessions, two world wars, fuel and financial crisis, space race and a cold war marked much of the 20^th century, yet through the storms, America could count on presidential leaders who displayed calm amidst the chaos. While we might debate their politics, we could lean on them to lead. Possibly Ronald Reagan said it best: “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things, he is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” Practitioners of the Nehemiah Way don’t create chaos they navigate it.

A recent Forbes article suggests “The short-term benefit of manufactured chaos may be relevance for the leader, but the long-term cost is heavy. Productivity declines because employees spend more time reacting than planning. Morale suffers as staff feel manipulated into constant urgency. Trust erodes when people sense that crises are exaggerated or avoidable…” (8/24/25)

The NIH argues chaos is damaging to family systems “Household chaos, characterized by high levels of confusion, disorganization and hurriedness in the home, is increasingly recognized as an important risk factor for adverse child outcomes. Early research on household chaos and child well-being was largely within the field of developmental psychology, where greater levels of household chaos has been associated with greater behavioral, attention and learning problems in young children…”

Chaos for any length of time is neither healthy for families nor countries. On January 6, 2021, rioters stormed the United States capitol including the heart and symbol of governance – the rotunda. – some claim that the reluctant outgoing president, urged them on. Ironically, due to the exceptionally cold weather, Donald Trump was inaugurated again on January 20, 2025 – in the rotunda. We should have seen the storm coming.

In the first thirteen months of his administration, we have witnessed the DOGE debacle, kidnapping of the president of a sovereign nation, trade wars, ICE invasions, and repeated abuse of the judicial system. The president’s chaotic attempts to ‘make America great again’ have become grating to many.

It might be time for the president and his followers to consider the words of Theodore Roosevelt.

Appearing at the 1901 Minnesota State Fair two weeks before becoming the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt used an African proverb as he spoke …

“Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far.” If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few things more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting; and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So, it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples.

It might be helpful to remember – “God is not a god of confusion, but a God of peace…” (1 Cor. 14:33) Chaos within a church or our country is neither glorifying nor godly. May we calm the waters of chaos.