Resisting Entropy
“‘All who see you will flee from you and say, “Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?” Where can I find anyone to comfort you?
Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall.’”
Today’s Text: Nahum 3:1-11 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
I learned in physics (or maybe chemistry) that the property that seems to govern all matter is entropy. Entropy is the property where all matter tends toward chaos. And in a way, life is like that too. Our lives tend toward chaos, and we do everything we can to resist entropy.
We all easily take for granted the protections that we have around us. We all easily forget difficulties and even tragedies that we encounter in our lives. We wouldn’t know that we are at war with Iran, except that our newsfeeds remind us everyday or every other day. COVID started just a little over six year ago.
But the fact that we so easily take our prosperity for granted is a sign of how much we long for prosperity. We pursue prosperity and we put it out of our minds that some incident could set us back at any moment. And even if we prepare for those incidents, we very well may come face to face with something that we are not prepared for at all.
Of course, if we live our lives expecting an imminent disaster at every turn, we would find ourselves in limbo. We would find ourselves living paranoid, anxious, and unfruitful lives.
But God wants us to live fruitful lives. How then do we reconcile the reality of a world corrupted by sin (Romans 8:20, 22) and our need for prosperity?
The answer lies in the one solution that the world, as a whole, has never attempted: Living under the sovereign hand of God, according to His plan, according to His purpose, according to His ways. From a biblical perspective, we could say that the world has continued to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of simply eating from the tree of life.
Many people in this world rant and rave against Christianity, when they have never really experienced a relationship with Jesus Christ. But what is more sad is when unloving people in churches (who don’t really have a relationship with Jesus Christ} are the reason that many people abandon the church to become ranters and ravers against the faith. In effect, those unloving people in churches are contributing to the chaos that challenges our prosperity each and every day.
But one day, Jesus will come. And on the one hand I so look forward to that day. On the other hand, I fear that day, knowing that all of my thoughts and actions will be exposed, whether good or bad. Even so, may it be so. Because in the end, I am a child of God, and I will live under the eternal glory of Christ and live under His eternal prosperity.
Father, Your kingdom come. Your will be done. I pray for myself, and I pray for Your children. Let us have a keen sense of “Your kingdom come,” so that we might live our lives of “Your will be done.” And come, Lord Jesus, come. In Your precious name. Amen.
