Made to tend

Entropy is real.

We can clean and organize all day long, but we can’t clean and organize our way into a static, finally-done state.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Except that it isn’t bad news.

God made a world that needed tending, even before the fall. It’s harder and comes with frustration now, but tending and keeping is one thing we were created for. It’s not a punishment.

Tend, v.

• care for or look after; give one’s attention to
• regularly or frequently behave in a particular way or have a certain characteristic

What if entropy were not a problem to solve, but a gift?

After all, entropy is part of the way the world works. If we fight it, we will never win.

Our work is not a fight, our work is tending.

 

 

If entropy ever loses, it will only be in a final victory, won by God on the last day – or, that is, the first day of the New Earth. If, that is, it really is part of the Fall and curse.

But caring for, tending, creation – people and places – was Man’s job before the Fall, before the curse.

So when we are tending, we are caring, not fighting. We’re not battling the world, we’re loving others.

And in His grace, mercy, and good Providence, God works in us as well as through us when we tend to our duties. It is sanctifying work.

Sanctification is not a once-and-done prize to win. It is the continual process, the daily repetitions that cause us to grow and that will never be over until the Last Day – or, that is, the first day of the New Heavens and New Earth.

Then, we will be ready for the eternal good works God has in store for us.

Until then, we practice.

Entropy is like a treadmill.

If we don’t keep at it, we will fall behind and likely become injured in a spectacular mishap.

But what if the treadmill is there for our good rather than there for us to figure out how to unplug and get off?

The treadmill is on, and our heart rate increases as we expend effort to keep up. In the process we become more fit, more able. Our heart grows in the process.

Remember as you run the race before you: The course was marked out for you to run, not to figure out how to shortcut. The treadmill is there to increase our stamina and grow our faith, not to figure out how to short circuit.

Thank God for entropy, for the repeated opportunities to grow in faithfulness, day after day.

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