Colossians 2:23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

If you have followed my blog for any time now, you will understand that I am a Civil Engineer, an engineer that designs and manages transportation projects.

I am very thankful for the second law of thermodynamics, for this law describes the world we live in, a world that is going from order to disorder. Simply put, this second law of thermodynamics speaks of the world progressing into greater disorder and randomness.

Things fall apart, and engineers get to rebuild them, or provide maintenance processes that extend their life by slowing the process of decay, or in some circumstances, covering over the decay – but that is not preferred, and you didn’t hear it from me!

Nevertheless, the process of decay is unstoppable.. It does not only effect the world around us, it is a principal force that impacts our lives everyday. The creaking of my back, the weakening of my eyes, and the decreasing muscle mass makes entropy a minute by minute reality in my life.

For those who may be young and fit, enjoy these days of freedom. Entropy and the second law of thermodynamics is coming for you! But I digress.

In the world around us, I find the destruction of high strength concrete, the type that is often used on highways and byways by the lowly weed to be instructive.

As concrete ages, microcracking occurs due to the constant variation of temperatures it goes through, expanding and contracting. Microscopic cracks become tiny cracks, which become small cracks. At some point the temperature variations become less of the problem, and the mighty “weed” takes over. Oh, it is just a little dandelion, or some other weed seed that settles in a welcoming crack, but as the weed sends out it’s roots, it continues the decay process.

Given enough time, the concrete will have been defeated by the lowly weed.

Engineers have sought to fight against this decay system for centuries. There have been some amazing breakthroughs in concrete technology, but alas, concrete will break, and weeds will dominate. It is merely a matter of time!

But let’s cut to the chase. This entropy that I speak of, that all the fancy physicists describe, is simply the result of sin entering creation.

But as an engineer, I am trained to find solutions for problems, and I spend my days in “solution” mode. Before I was trained as an engineer, I also sought to solve problems. Problems that were not necessarily of the physical world, but of the spiritual world. Let me explain my failure.

As a very young believer in the Messiah, I became very religious. I fell into very good churches and had amazing folk teach me truth. I am very thankful for the patience of the saints when it came to dealing with me. I was (am) a piece of work!

But as I grew in the Lord, I also took on religious habits that, though beneficial for my knowledge of the Lord, also became a target for my faith. I walked a little bit away from the Lord and a little bit toward religion, thinking I could solve the sin problem with rules. A little more dedication at Bible study, and few more verses to memorize, attend one additional church service, teach one more Bible class. The list seemed endless.

Now don’t get me wrong – all of these practices are good and were meant to honor the Lord, but I began to trust them as opposed to the Savior.

I think I was falling into a trap somewhat like the Colossians. Yes, they were not touching, handling or tasting, thinking that the ascetic lifestyle would present themselves in a better light before the Savior.

Colossians 2:21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
Colossians 2:22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)–according to human precepts and teachings?

Their refusal to take part in certain activities, and my dedication to certain activities resulted in exposing our loss of focus.

Entropy / sin is in our very veins and both myself and our brothers in Colossae were trying to create a stronger concrete than that which had provided. We sought to build a concrete structure in our lives which would not crack, which would not allow any weeds to settle in.

I depended on habits that indeed appeared to have wisdom, but in all of my efforts, weeds continued to grow in my life. Eventually my whole family were sprouting weeds all over the place. The weeds were out of control, and my solution? More rules, more strictness. Heavier concrete!

Engineers build better concrete, and the result is cost savings, and less construction interruptions on the highway hopefully. Better concrete reduces the rate of decay, but we live in a world of decay. Stronger concrete simply stalls the decay slightly.

Personally, in my relationship with the Lord, I am thankful for the disciplines I was introduced to early in my faith. The disciplines became a focus of my faith, and became rules that lorded over my spirit. Yet the very rules I trusted in did not stop my flesh from indulging in it’s desires. Even as I applied stricter and stricter rules, my old flesh simply found other cracks in my concrete!

As I close, I want to be clear that the disciplines I spoke of were noble, right and provided my life great guidance and knowledge of the Lord and His ways, even as I was pursuing a sanctification that was leaving the Lord behind. I had chosen rules to control my life and the concrete got heavier and heavier. So heavy!

Consider which rules in your life are taking the place of faith in the Living God. Don’t put this self review off, for though I speak of entropy as the decay in our daily life, we all know the trendline of entropy is death!

1 Corinthians 15:56-57

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He even saves us from entropy. Trust Him, and not your rules. He is the Savior, and not yourself! He is much better at dealing with entropy than we are.

Now I need to go put some ointment on my shoulder! Ooooo the pain!

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