The town-house we were checking out was built twenty-five years ago.  But it looked much older.  There were three good reasons for that.  Two years ago a violent storm seriously damaged the roof.  Water got into the ceiling and walls.  The roof was fixed but the ruined plaster work was never repaired.  A second reason why it looked much older was no doubt because an elderly disabled gentleman lived there for the past decade.  I could imagine that it’s hard to stay on top of home maintenance when one is both elderly and handicapped.  But there’s a third (and more important) reason for a town-house no longer looking ‘as neat as a pin’ – as real estate agents like to say.  That’s because we live in a world where things habitually run down as they age.

Well, you didn’t need me to remind you of that last reason.  We all know only too well that everything around us has a habit of running down eventually.  Children learn that early in life when they are given a battery-powered toy.  It’s not long before the batteries go flat and the toy stops working (sometimes thankfully so!).

In our teenage years we learn in more painful ways that everything slowly but surely falls apart.  I remember well my first motorcar.  The engine was often out for repairs and then the inevitable rust spots began to appear (that was before cars were made of plastic!?!).  Eventually it became a rust bucket that was sold to the wreckers in the hope that some parts might take a new lease of life in someone else’s vehicle.

By the time we get to adulthood and are forced into the inevitable program of home maintenance we know only too well that everything has a habit of disintegrating.  Tiles break loose in a storm; dry rot leaves a hole in the decking; cracks in the walls become so serious that the house has to be restumped.

Hardest to handle is that this same inevitable disintegration also happens to our bodies.  We see it when we look in the mirror and notice new wrinkles or the fast receding hairline.  Arthritis begins to slow us down and then a stroke furthers that process.  The hymn-writer was spot on!  “Change and decay in all around I see!”

What many are not prepared to admit is that the same thing also happens in our spiritual life.  Sometimes we see it starkly in the life of a new convert.  They begin the Christian life with much energy and enthusiasm – and we often envy them for it.  Later they settle into a routine and sometimes their newfound enthusiasm even disintegrates into a rejection of the faith they once so excitedly embraced.  It’s fatal to think that we will automatically always stay on the same level in the Christian life.  Here too, as in the rest of life, things have a habit of running down.

It’s interesting that this truth – that things run down – is enshrined scientifically in what’s called, ‘the Second Law of Thermodynamics”.  I’m no scientist but I understand that simply put, this law states that within a closed system the energy available for useful work is always decreasing.  In other words, things have a habit of running down; inevitably things fall apart... sooner or later.  The apostle Paul (I presume!) didn’t know this law of physics but he was nevertheless very much aware of the principle.  In Romans 8 he speaks about it as this cosmos being in bondage to decay.

So what’s the solution?  This side of the return of Jesus there’s no permanent solution for batteries or for motor vehicles.  Nor is there a permanent solution for homes or for human bodies.  Only in the renewed creation will all things stop ageing and disintegrating.  But for our spiritual life there is already an answer here and now.  The Second Law of Thermodynamics applies to a closed system.  When that system is open to energy coming from an outside source then the available energy will not decrease.  Sometimes people say that they went to church to get their batteries recharged.  There’s much truth in that statement.  When we gather with God’s people in His presence we are revitalised with spiritual energy through the “means of grace” that God has appointed.  In church and in worship we open ourselves to the power of the risen Christ.

So next time you’re tempted to stay away from church think about the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

John Westendorp