3-8-09 Slow Fade

Big Idea: Everything that is left to itself has a tendency to deteriorate.  God calls everyone to action in life.  Is God calling you to action in your life?

 

If you have ever bought a new car and driven it off the lot, you’ve witnessed entropy. You lose several thousand dollars as soon as it goes off the lot, because things have a way of deteriorating on their own. That new vehicle is great when you get it, but over time it starts to squeak, rust, loose power – it just starts to fall apart – that’s entropy. If you’ve ever witnessed a group of kids on summer vacation, you’ve noticed that by late August, when they’re sitting around somebody’s house and one of them says, “What do you want to do?” everybody else says, “I don’t know; what do you want to do?” That’s entropy.

 

Everything when left on its own-when not given attention and energy-has a tendency to deteriorate. That’s the way it works in human life. 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, so the writers of the Book of Proverbs have a lot to say about it. One thing they say is 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. Though the words speak of livestock, they are true in any area of life:

 

“Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.”

 

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.

 

There are signs that entropy is advancing:

• A tendency toward superficiality – the American Church
• Unresolved tension in key relationships
• No longer having time for celebration and ritual – no joy, no parties, no fun – ritual sitting down for dinner together as a family
• Confusing heroes and celebrities
• A loss of gratitude
• A vague, 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 gets started, it’s a little group of people whose dream is to be used by God to touch their community. They realize there are poor people who could be helped; there are children that need to learn about God; there are people who are a million miles away from God and need to be reached, prayed for, and brought into the community to meet Christ. Over time, though, a really bad thing happens: entropy sets in and the dream dies. Entropy takes over in the church and the focus shifts from “What’s God calling us to do in this world?” to more internal things. People go from living as servants to being consumers. Their mindset moves from “What can I do to make a difference in this world” to “what can I get out of this world”. They start to argue over stuff that doesn’t matter.

 

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. That’s why much of the Book of Proverbs deals with this problem. Consider Proverbs 24:30-34. The writer says:

 

I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw

 

Have you ever noticed some of the vineyards around here? A fruitful, productive vineyard is a thing of beauty. You can tell the difference between someone managing their vineyard well and those that don’t. The ones that aren’t managed well have trees growing in them, weeds that overtake the vines, wires sagging, end posts rotting off – they’re a mess. But here’s the thing about vineyards: they don’t just happen by themselves. Vineyards don’t just spring up by accident. Someone is behind them.

 

The writer of Proverbs 24:30-34 says: I was going past a vineyard, and it was a mess. There were thorns all over the place, the grounds were covered with weeds, and the walls were falling down.

 

To understand the angst behind this proverb-to understand what we’re dealing with today-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. To be the owner of a vineyard was to be blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime.

 

Entropy, then, starts with the failure to comprehend that this is my one and only chance at existence on this planet. Everybody gets a vineyard. When you were born, you got a vineyard. You got your body, your mind, your will, and some relationships. You got financial resources and the chance to do some good work. You got a soul. Everybody gets a vineyard, and that vineyard is my one and only shot on this planet. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and I don’t even have to care for it on my own. If I ask him, God will partner with me.

 

Nonetheless, 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.”

 

He sees that the vineyard could have been a thing of beauty. It could have been a source of pride, joy, and income to the owner. 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. But the vineyard the writer observed wasn’t any of those things. It fell tragically short of what it might have been. The writer wonders why:

 

Was there some catastrophe? Was there a drought, flood, fire, or some other disaster? No. It was just sheer negligence on the part of the owner of the vineyard. He had no idea what he had. He was throwing away the opportunity of a lifetime. That’s the strange power of entropy. It’s not even a thing. It’s sheer neglect, and people throw their lives away because of it everyday.

 

Here is another proverb:

 

Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies lack judgment. Proverbs 12:11

 

What the proverb is talking about is living in reality. It is saying that I must work in the land that I actually have-my life, my body, and my relationships.

 

I have a friend in the writing and publishing business, and people will sometimes ask him, “How can I become a writer?” He’ll tell them how it usually happens: You write an article and submit it to a magazine, and then it gets rejected. You submit it someplace else, and it keeps getting rejected. Then you write another article, you submit it, and it gets rejected. Then you get to know the editor a little bit, and you find out more about writing and keep working on the craft. Eventually you write an article, and it gets accepted. You keep writing articles for a while, and then you do a couple of chapters in a book. Then maybe you co-write something with somebody else as you keep learning.

 

My friend says that when he tells people this, they have a consistent response: “No. That’s not what I want to do. I want to write a book and have it sell millions and millions of copies and be rich and famous and humble and give God all the glory. That’s what I want to do.”

 

People have these fantasies: I want the perfect marriage, I want the perfect circle of friends, I want the perfect career and the perfect education; if I can’t have that, then I won’t do anything, because I’m beyond the vineyard that I happen to be in. 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 to help me. It will be because I’ve asked him, “What’s the next step that you want me to take” and then I go to work.

 

Entropy goes unchallenged in a number of ways.

Let me explain the way our minds allow entropy to go unchallenged. The writer of Proverbs 6:6 says:

 

How long are you going to lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?” In Proverbs 24:30-34, he observes: “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 – like a thief!

 

John 10: 10 The thief or the bandit has come to kill, steal and destroy and most of the time he does it ever so slowly; oftentimes without the person ever really noticing it.

 

The words of the proverbs tell us something about how sluggards justify their inactivity. 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.

 

Apathy – inactivity – opposite of love

 

The writer of Proverbs tells us that the sluggard specializes in making excuses. It doesn’t take much of an excuse. It could be a pretty flimsy one. That’s how the mind of the sluggard works: because their commitment is not to doing it, any pretext will serve. 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.

 

It’s like a husband sitting on the couch. His wife says, “Why don’t you go outside and play with our son?” or “Why don’t you go mow the yard; the grass is so high that the kids went out two days ago, and we still haven’t been able to find them.” The husband explains: “I don’t have any energy. I gave it all at my joy. I worked hard today, and I’m completely worn out.”

 

Yet then the phone rings, and someone asks him to go golfing or the races. What happens next? It’s a miracle! All of a sudden, strength and vitality come swooping into his body like a red tailed hawk going after a chicken. It wasn’t an energy problem after all, but he told himself it was.

 

We all suffer from selective entropy.

My guess is that a lot of people in our community would say, “I have problems, but laziness isn’t one of them. If anything, my problem is that I’m too busy. I’m running too fast and working too much. I’m a Type A overachiever.” Just because we may think this about ourselves doesn’t mean the sluggard has nothing to teach us. 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 talk or think about despite the fact that the weeds are getting pretty high.

 

Imagine the dad whose career is going great. He’s climbing the corporate ladder high and fast. He’s got a PDA full of names, but the kids are drifting away. That vineyard is a mess.

 

Or it’s the mom who drives to a lot of soccer games and is going full blast at work, but her soul is shriveling away inside.

 

Or it’s the couple that has what looks like a great house, a great life, lots of friends, and lots of stuff. But they haven’t had a meaningful conversation with each other in months. Everyday they’re drifting a little further apart. Everyday there are more weeds in the vineyard of their marriage.

 

Or it’s the middle-aged guy who looks okay on the outside but whose finances are so messed up that sometimes he can’t sleep at night.

 

Most of us have at least one area where there is some entropy.

 

Entropy of our physical bodies can’t be stopped. Our bodies will continue to deteriorate. One day we will die. We can’t stop entropy from happening to us physically, but spiritually, we cannot only stop the dying, but we can begin to grow in that area.

 

The good news is that Jesus says, “Just ask me, and I’ll help you with it.” This is the strangest thing about entropy: it has such power, but it’s also weak. 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, You know what? This isn’t nearly as overwhelming as I thought it was. If God will help me-if I trust him and take one step of action- entropy is not nearly as formidable an opponent as I thought it was.

 

So what do you do? If you’re willing to say, “I have a vineyard where there are some weeds”

 

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)

Are you doing that? Maybe your attitude about work has been going south, and God’s saying, “I want you to do it with all your heart; just take one step in faith.”

 

Maybe your vineyard is a financial situation. Proverbs has a lot to say about finances. In Proverbs 3:9 the writer says, “Honor the Lord with all your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops” – with everything that you make. Maybe finances are the vineyard that you’ve been neglecting, and God is saying, “Trust me; just take one step in faith.”

 

Maybe your vineyard is a circumstance concerning your physical health. Paul writes to the church at Corinth, ”

 

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? I Cor. 6:19

 

Therefore, honor God with your body.” Are you doing that? How are you treating the temple? You don’t have to be obsessive about it like our society can sometimes get, but maybe you’ve been neglecting your body, choking out the life that God wants for you.

 

Maybe your vineyard is your soul. Jesus said:

 

What will it profit a human being if they gain the whole world, but forfeit their soul? Mark 8:36

 

Things may be going great in the career vineyard, in the financial vineyard, or in the social vineyard, but what about your soul? God says, “I’ll help you with that if you take a step towards me.” God is our model in this. He 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.

 

He never follows the path of least resistance. 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.” I don’t know how to plead with you any more urgently: do something today. 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.