Intercepting Entropy

Timism of the day: Intercepting Entropy:
• Ortberg shares how Max Depree was asked the most difficult thing he had to work on. He replied: "It's the interception of entropy."
• Entropy is a term from physics that has something to do with the second law of thermodynamics and the availability of energy. It speaks to the fact that the universe is winding down.
• For this message, here's the loose definition that we're using for entropy: everything that is left to itself has a tendency to deteriorate.
Entropy is a great enemy of the human spirit.
• Illustration: If you have ever bought a new car and driven it off the lot, or seen a group of kids on summer vacation, you've witnessed entropy.
• Everything when left on its own—when not given attention and energy—has a tendency to deteriorate.
• When you become apathetic or complacent or settle for the path of least resistance in some area of life, entropy sets in and dreams die and hopes fade.
• Then a terrible thing happens: you learn you can live with mediocrity. It's not a great life, but you can tolerate it.
• Entropy is a great enemy of the human spirit.
• The Book of Proverbs says that the wise person is always on the lookout for early signs that entropy is setting in.
• Proverbs 27:23–24 shows us the picture of someone who has livestock and how they need to monitor its condition.
• Everyday you have to be on the lookout for entropy. Though things might have been okay yesterday, that doesn't mean they stay okay forever.
• Put any important area of your life on autopilot, and risk entropy that is both subtle and destructive.
o Illustration: Max Depree has made a list of the signs that entropy is advancing: superficiality, tension in key relationships, no time for celebration and ritual, confusing heroes and celebrities, a loss of gratitude, and a chronic sense of guilt.
• Entropy can damage every area of life: our friendships, our work, our families, our characters, and our finances.
• Entropy can certainly damage a church. When a church first starts, the people dream of being used by God to touch their community. Over time, entropy sets in and the dream dies.
God calls everyone to action in life.
• God's will for the human spirit—for individuals, families, workplaces, and churches—is that it would never suffer entropy.
• Much of the Book of Proverbs deals with this problem.
• Consider Proverbs 24:30–34.
o Illustration: Ortberg's wife took him to Nappa Valley for a romantic getaway. What struck him about the vineyards was all of the thought and action that went into the rows of vines.
• A fruitful, productive vineyard is a thing of beauty. But vineyards don't just happen by themselves. Someone is behind them.
• To understand the angst behind this proverb, you have to understand that in the ancient Middle East, a piece of land capable of growing crops was one of the most valuable things in the world.
• Entropy starts with the failure to comprehend that this is my one and only chance at existence on this planet.
• Everybody gets a "vineyard" in life—a body, a mind, a will, and some relationships.
• God never forces anybody to take action and care for their vineyard.
• The writer of this Proverb says, "I was walking past a vineyard, and I thought of what it might have been."
• It could have been a blessing to everybody around it, because in ancient cultures a place that grew things that people could eat or drink from was a blessing to everybody; sadly, it fell tragically short of what it might have been.
• The writer wonders why: Was there some catastrophe—a drought, flood, or fire?
• It was just sheer negligence on the part of the owner of the vineyard.
• That's the strange power of entropy; it's sheer neglect, and people throw their lives away because of it everyday.
o Illustration: This proverb makes Ortberg think of a man he knows who is not content with his work, but he always has an excuse for why he can't change the situation.
• One proverb says: "Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies lack judgment."
• The proverb is talking about living in reality. I must work in the land that I actually have—my life, my body, and my relationships.
o Illustration: Ortberg has a writer friend who says people ask him how to become a writer. When he tells them the hard work it takes, they say, "No. I just want to write a book and have it sell millions and be rich and famous."
• The writer of Proverbs says we must start with reality. Work the land that is your land—your body, your life, your relationships, your work—because that vineyard is all you have.
• If it's ever going to be different, it won't be because the vineyard fairy comes and sprinkles fairy dust on it. It will be because I asked God, "What's the next step that you want me to take?"
Entropy goes unchallenged in a number of ways.
• We allow entropy to go unchallenged, because we justify it.
• Proverbs 24:30–34: "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest"—and then one day disaster breaks in on you like a bandit.
• Sleep, slumber, folding of the hands to rest—those are all pictures of passivity or inactivity.
• How much longer does the sluggard say it's going to go on? "Just a little while; I'll take action soon." That "little while" turns into weeks and then months and then years.
o Illustration: Ortberg read a story in the L.A. Times about a guy who finds a receipt for a shoe repair from 20 years earlier. He takes it to the repair shop, and the guy at the counter says, "Come back a week from Thursday."
• That's the mind of the sluggard: they don't say, "Never;" they're always saying, "A week from Thursday."
• We do the same thing with our diet, our finances, or our spiritual lives.
• When we say, "A week from Thursday," we give ourselves permission to avoid doing what God is calling us to do today.
• Sometimes we justify inactivity because we tell ourselves we are overwhelmed and fatigued—that we do not have enough energy to do what we know we ought to do.
• Consider Proverbs 26:14: "As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed."
o Illustration: It's like a husband sitting on the couch. He should play with his kids or mow the lawn, but he says he doesn't have any energy. Yet when his friend asks him to play golf, suddenly strength and vitality come swooping into his body.
• Proverbs 26:16: "Sluggards are wiser in their own eyes than seven people who answer discretely."
• In the ancient world, seven suggested completeness or fullness.
• The idea of this proverb is that in the sluggard's mind, the rationale for not taking action is always stronger than authentic wisdom.
We all suffer from selective entropy.
• A lot of people would say, "I have problems, but laziness isn't one of them. If anything, my problem is that I'm too busy."
• Most of us suffer from selective entropy. We may be quite active—even hyperactive—in a bunch of areas in our lives, but there's always one vineyard that we don't like to think about despite the fact that the weeds are getting pretty high:
o Illustration: Ortberg shares a number of illustrations about this idea—illustrations concerning family time, a marriage, and a financial crisis.
• So what do we do?
• The writer of Proverbs 6:6 has some advice: "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise."
• The ant does not require external motivation—no commander, overseer, or ruler applying the whip.
• If you're waiting around for somebody else to get your life into shape—if you expect your boss, parents, teachers, spouse, or friends to make you do the right thing—you're in serious trouble.
• The ant understands the law of opportunity. Even in the summer, the ant stores its provisions.
• Whatever season you are in is reality; it's your vineyard. We have this one life, and it goes so fast that we're surprised by it.
• Here's the good news: though we can never overcome entropy on our own—because it's too much for us—it's not too much for God.
• Part of the law of entropy is that the universe is winding down, and it is irreversible.
• But entropy isn't irreversible to God. Entropy will not get the last word in creation, and it doesn't have to in our lives either.
• If you trust God and take one step of faith in your vineyard, God will help you in such a way that you will think, This isn't nearly as overwhelming as I thought it was.
Where is God calling you to action in your life?
• Where is God calling you to ask him for help and to take action? In your work? In your finances? In your health? In your soul?
• God created the world and then watched as human beings brought sin and death into the picture. God could have said, "Well, that's it. I'll just let entropy take over and let the world go to hell."
• But God wouldn't do that. So he developed the plan expressed in John's gospel: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish"—shall not have entropy take over his life—"but have eternal life."
• Maybe God is showing you that you've never really trusted him with your soul, but always say, "A week from Thursday."
• If you've never told Jesus, "I want you to be my forgiver and the Lord of my life," do it now.
• This is your day. This is your vineyard. This is it. If you take that one step, God really does respond.