A pastor writes: ‘The second law of thermodynamics states this physical truth: If left to their own devices, everything in the universe moves towards disorder and decay. Cars rust. Food rots…It’s also called the law of entropy. And the only way to prevent entropy is to introduce an outside energy source to counteract it. The technical term for this is negentropy. And the refrigerator is a good example. You plug it into an electrical outlet, and it produces cold air that keeps food from rotting. If the refrigerator gets disconnected from its energy source, entropy will take over again. And things will get smelly. Isn’t that what happens when we get disconnected from God? Life moves towards decay and disorder. So how do we overcome our entropic tendencies?…[Solomon answers,] “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” If sin is entropy, then investing our energies in a God-sized vision is negentropy. The word perish comes from the Hebrew word para, and “entropy” is a fair translation.’ Perhaps many church problems don’t come from an abundance of sin but rather from a lack of vision? We’re not suggesting that there aren’t sin problems or that those problems don’t need to be dealt with. But in too many instances, there isn’t enough vision to keep churches busy. Our vision isn’t big enough to demand all our energies, so we focus on petty problems to keep us busy. The same is true on a personal level. If we had a larger vision of what God wanted to accomplish in us and through us, our problems would diminish because we are consumed by a cause greater than ourselves. © 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.