Noun– lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.
Two weeks ago, I lamented that while work was being done on our water filter system, we had a minor flood that meant I have to replace the carpet in the basement. In addition to needing to replace the carpet, our heat pump/AC decided that it needed to have the coils replaced, our toilet decided it needed an overhaul, and now our refrigerator has died (we just replaced the dishwasher about a month ago.) The fridge is still under warranty, but we’ve been eating food that is at or above the right temp for the last week (which might explain my nausea) and they can’t tell me when a repair person can get here to fix it. Add to that, we have yet another groundhog digging around our house (under the deck that needs some boards replaced.)
Others have bigger problems than any of this, and I’m grateful to have a roof over our heads, and have generally good health, but entropy is the natural order of this world. Like our house, our cars, our bodies, and our world is made up of parts that are either broken or will soon be. Some breaks are merely an inconvenience, and can be easily fixed. Some can’t be repaired. When Humpty Dumpty has a minor crack, he is reminded of his frailty, but typically gets it repaired, and moves ahead, blissfully ignoring the reality that the day will come, when all the king’s horses, and men, won’t be able to put him together again.
Perhaps you are like me, and feel like Humpty, sitting on that wall, and feeling it begin to rumble underneath you, and you’re afraid. In 4 months, I turn 65, and have no clue how soon it will be before my shell cracks, but as I look at our nation and our divided society, I see entropy at work, and it depresses me. I want to fix it… bind up its wounds and make it better, but that is beyond me. Looking past the depression, I am grateful for a hope that overcomes entropy. A hope that will move us from disorder to order. If I look too long at the “before picture” of the decay of this world, I risk missing the joy of the promised “after picture.”
“I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” John 16:33
Is our nation beyond repair? Do we have the tools we need to repair it? I don’t know. Nations come and go, and perhaps our day is over. Only God knows the future, but He has given us a future and a hope that transcends our national identity. We do have valid concerns in “earthly things,” but when we place them before our Creator, or before our neighbor, we forget our true citizenship is in heaven.
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Philippians 3:20,21
This world, this nation, my body, my house are subject to entropy, but the day will come when Jesus will “bring everything under his control,” and thoroughly fix Humpty Dumpty, and for that, my shell and I are grateful. In the meantime, I’m waiting on LG to fix my broken fridge.