#MundaneWisdomMonday is an ongoing series where I share bits of wisdom found in ordinary things, in those seemingly mundane places where God’s wisdom quietly hides in plain sight. Each entry is a reminder to keep your antennas up, to tune into God’s frequency, and to discover God’s wisdom, the Logos, even in the most ordinary moments of life.
I recently returned from an amazing cruise vacation with my family. If you know anything about me, you know I’m a big proponent of extracting wisdom from even the most ordinary things in life.
One of our ports of call was Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. The town was beautiful and full of life, but what caught my attention wasn’t the beach, the music, or the food; it was a row of garbage and recycling bins placed on the side of the road by the city’s government.
In the photo I took, you can see three containers where people deposit their trash, plastic, and glass. It’s a scene you’ve probably come across hundreds, maybe even thousands of times, almost anywhere you go. Yet it wasn’t the bins themselves that stood out to me. It was the text above them.
For those who don’t speak or read Spanish, here’s my translation of the sign:
A clean city, or a city without litter, is not the one that cleans the most, but the one that produces the least litter.
That simple statement stopped me in my tracks. The idea is so simple, yet so profound. The city is calling on its citizens to change their mindset, a principle that echoes the biblical wisdom Paul often taught: it is better not to produce litter than to expect someone else to eventually come along and clean it up.
It captures what I’ve believed for years: order always trumps chaos. The universe naturally leans toward disorder, so it’s far better to maintain order than to keep rescuing yourself from chaos after it takes over.
When you set up systems that help you maintain order in your life, your family, your home, and your environment, you save yourself from having to constantly fight the same battles.
Too many people live their lives in what I call “maintenance mode,” or worse, “limp mode.” In the automotive world, limp mode is when a car still runs but with limited power and efficiency. It gives you just enough power to reach a repair shop. The problem is that limp mode is often the product of neglect. By the time you reach that point, the vehicle’s systems are in disarray, sometimes requiring expensive repairs, all because preventative maintenance was ignored by the owner/driver.
Life works the same way. We let conflict grow because we avoid difficult conversations. We allow bitterness to take root because we refuse to forgive. We let our homes become chaotic because we never create simple routines to keep them in order. We even allow relationships to deteriorate because we delay addressing small issues until they become big ones.
Maintaining order isn’t about being perfect. Entropy, the universe’s natural drift toward chaos, affects everything: our bodies, families, churches, institutions, even governments. The goal isn’t to stop it completely but to create systems that make restoration quick and simple before disorder takes over.
Sometimes this looks as small as washing your dishes before bed so the next morning starts clean. Sometimes it’s as practical as putting your car keys in the same place every time so you don’t end up losing them. Sometimes it means changing your car’s oil and other disposable parts just before you get a red light on the dashboard. And sometimes it’s as difficult as sitting down with someone you love for an honest, possibly uncomfortable conversation.
This is a call to do your part, to contribute your grain of sand toward making the world a little less chaotic. In doing so, you participate in the divine act of creation itself: transforming chaos into order and maintaining it that way.
