I have a love/hate relationship with writing. I love how it can gather up vaguely interconnected thoughts, arrange them into some kind of sensible order, and steer them towards an epiphany. I hate how, in the gathering process, there are nuances that escape, lost. One can only articulate SO much. Thoughts transcend words, but words shape thought.
I’m mulling over something, and I already know that all my attempts to pin it down in words will fail to capture the full picture. At this point, I am not even sure what will come out at the other end of the funnel. I DO know I will have fun trying…
I have been circling back, for the past few years, to a particular scripture that keeps popping up when I least expect it, unfolding itself in different facets. It is the passage in James 1 that talks about the person who is a “hearer” of the word, but not a “doer,” who is likened to a man that sees himself in the mirror and walks away, forgetting what he looks like. It is a metaphor that makes sense to me, when I think about it. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time conjuring up my own face in my mind’s eye. Of course, I recognize myself when I see myself in a mirror or in a photograph, but I see OTHER people more often. It is THEIR faces I could probably sketch from memory, far better than my own, if I had to. (And if I had any ability in that area, which I don’t. 😀 )
If I wanted to make a self-portrait that had any real resemblance to the real me, presuming I had the skill, I would have to park myself in front of a mirror and stay there, looking up frequently as I work, until I am done.
The passage goes on to say that the person who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in all his endeavors. For many years I used to read these two portions of the passage in a disjointed manner, not carrying the idea of looking into the mirror from one verse into the next. But if you look at the two verses together, you’ll see the second verse talks about looking into something too. Not only that, it talks about continuing in it. Continue does not, in this passage imply a moving ahead. It implies a fixed gaze. One bible translation says it like this: “whosoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and keeps on looking…”
The mirror, in this case, is Jesus, who is the light of the world that illuminates our path and guides us into truth. There is one thing I haven’t mentioned about the word “continues” – it is the Greek word parameno, which means, in essence, to be near something, to abide, to be in a close and settled union with someone. So, in my mind, there is a close parallel between this passage and John 15 where Jesus says: “I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you remain (abide) in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
And it is this thought that led me on a science-y tangent this week. Earlier this year, I encountered the concept of entropy in conversation with a friend, and when I mulled over the doer/hearer passage, my mind went back to some of the thoughts expressed in that conversation. Five Khan videos on entropy and the second law of thermodynamics later, I THINK I have found yet another parallel between the laws of science and the words of Jesus, which thrills my nerdy little heart to no end.
So, let me explain my understanding of entropy, as gleaned from those videos, to those of you who are unfamiliar with it. (Those of you who ARE have permission to correct me if I am wrong, since I am NO scientist and am in jeopardy here of not having a clue what I am talking about.) Entropy is the general tendency of everything in the world to move from order to chaos. It is so widely observed in our world, indeed in the universe, that scientists call it a “law.” It pervades everything. We see it in a fire that burns to ashes, a sun that is slowly losing heat, our skin becoming wrinkly as we age, rocks that are eroded into particles of sand, galaxies that keep expanding, muscles that atrophy when astronauts go to space, ice that melts, pool water that gets green, the way my house can go from tidy on a Saturday morning to having a plethora of dishes by nightfall.
Synonyms for entropy would be disintegration, decay, degeneration, decline, collapse.
What I found interesting, is that there is a correlation between the amount of entropy a thing has, and its usefulness. A system with very high entropy is in such a state of disarray that it is difficult to harness any of its components to do work. This is because entropy is the measurement of the total possible states a system can be in – in a high entropy system there is such an enormous amount of possible states that its sheer randomness prevents it from being serviceable in any way.
And here is the kicker: in science, a “closed system” always evolves towards a state of maximum entropy. A truly closed system is something that is difficult to approximate in real life, but it sounds just like its name: it does not interact with its surroundings. An insulated ice cooler is near to being a closed system…albeit one that we have learned to put to use. In contrast to open systems, it isn’t wildly useful though, it can pretty much only keep your drinks cold for a while.
A closed system has higher entropy because input or energy of some kind (usually in the form of heat) is required to stave entropy off, and to bring order to the chaos. Wood and oxygen is required to keep a fire burning (and incidentally, also useful) chlorine is needed to counter the pool’s degeneration into greenness, some elbow grease is needed to keep my house in order. I am too little to keep the sun from cooling, and I can’t keep myself from getting older. I guess that is God’s problem.
My point is that something, usually some purposeful action, is required to turn the world away from its general course towards destruction, and to create order in it. (You can apply this idea almost universally to any phenomenon.) In my conversation with my science-y friend he suggested that the force that turned the chaotic state of a formless and void earth (Genesis 1:1) into one that sustains life, is none other than the intentional creative energy of God himself. The beauty, complexity, and magnificence of our world is such a contradiction of the law of entropy, that it must have come from a place that supersedes it. Life as we know it cannot have been anything but miraculously God-breathed. God himself is the antidote to entropy, decay and destruction.
In the scripture passages I mentioned above, it is inferred that you have to keep in close proximity with Jesus who constantly reflects his truth to us, in order to be a doer of the work. Take your eyes off of him, and you degenerate towards being an ineffectual hearer. In a parallel scripture, Jesus says that unless we abide in him, as branches that get their support and sustenance from the vine, we have no hope of bearing fruit. If we don’t stay in connection, we can’t function.
Can you see where I am going with this? If entropy is maximized in a closed system, I must avoid being shut off from my life source at all costs. Entropy (chaos, disorder, confusion, disarray, collapse) sets in the moment I close myself off from God, and from the people he sends into my life. I have to stay plugged in. I NEED the mirror. I need to hold myself up to its scrutiny. I need to be in constant dialog with the truth as it presents itself in the face of Jesus. If I stay in that place, and allow truth to constantly guide and fuel my actions, it will be harnessed and put to effectual use for His purpose. If I walk away, if I shift my focus, what I may have seen in the mirror just moments before will be diffused into a randomness and lack of focus that will render me useless and ineffectual in the kingdom of God. Even worse, I may think that I am still affecting my world positively, since I have already seen and recognized the truth, haven’t I? But just like molecules have a way of bumping into one another and dispersing themselves to the furthest corners that they can reach, truth can become vague and distorted if it isn’t held in front of us at all times.
I could be like a little ice-box, holding its own, closed off, keeping things cool for a while yet impotent in preventing the gradual transfer of warm air from the outside. But I would much rather be spent as a flame – generating some heat, being a beacon of light, doing some real work mirroring the One who brings order out of chaos, beauty out of ashes, and life from death.
Sweeter than honey 