Shambolic is not a word commonly used in the USA. But I am aware of the word “shambles.”  Mom would sometimes say that word to describe things that were in chaos or messy. If she told me my room was a shambles, I would have understood that it did not meet the family requirements. Shambolic may have come from shambles, and it means “very disorganized; messy or confused”.

According to a recent Investopedia article I read recently, successful people have habits. They are generally good habits. One of the top ten habits of successful people was “Organization.” That is another way of saying that they don’t like their lives to be shambolic. Mom was not shambolic, and, for the most part, she lived an orderly, organized life. She had a “to-do” list, kept a calendar and even had an extensive prayer list. Her prayer list included her four children, their spouses, her grandchildren, their spouses and her great grandchildren. She had an organized prayer life. Recently I have been trying to do the same with my prayer discipline. When someone asks me to pray, I record their specific request so that I don’t forget to pray.

Mom also was organized when it came to grocery shopping. She had a list and she clipped coupons. She would seek to use every penny wisely. But this wasn’t so that she would have more to spend on herself. She was organized so that she would have more to give to others. She even moved into a smaller apartment so that the savings could be used to help support missions.

My encouragement to anyone who is a shambolic drifter in life is to find someone who is organized and learn from them. Ask them to hold you accountable. Learn how to manage your calendar, priorities, budget, praying, and your giving. You might not make the list of famous people, but you will use your life more wisely.

Even God is organized. Creation shouts organization from the stars to the smallest amoeba or atom. God also wants the church to be organized, so he gave some the gift of “administrating.” 1 Corinthians 12:28 (ESV) says, “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.”

The image given with this post is one of the first pages in a Bible my mom received as a gift from her mother on March 28, 1950. This was the year before I was born. Note that the words in A.W. Tozer’s “The Marks of The Spiritual Man” cry out priorities, choices and, therefore, organization.