Fighting What?; It's About Time I Explain...

I started this blog last November.

I started this blog with a head full of doubt (hey, that's a song) and a heart full of hope.

I didn't think I'd keep up with it.

I didn't think people would read it.

I didn't think I would love it as much as I do.

When I sat down to create this blog, I had two names in mind.  Even though I debated between them and asked my Mom which she liked better, the choice was already clear to me.

My blog was going to be "Fighting Entropy".

What?

What's entropy?  And why are we fighting it?

Shocking confession: I did NOT come up with the name.  (Are you super let down now and never want to read this blog again?

Thought you would be.)

Funny story, actually.  I learned this phrase from my eighth grade English teacher.  One day he was telling us (I have no idea WHY he was telling us this) that he once had a bumper sticker on his car that said "fight entropy".  He laughed like it was the most hilarious thing.  

We stared at him with blank faces.

Like we knew what entropy was.

Entropy, he went on to explain, is (and I am looking this up in my chemistry notebook, so bear with me, it's awfully scientific) the second law of thermodynamics (I am SO out of my element right now).  Basically, it's a measure of disorder. (If you science nerds want to know the specific facts look here: Entropy).

But the way our teacher explained it is this: if you go into the woods and put a white plank of wood on the forest floor, and leave it there for a year, what will happen to it?  The answer is obvious: moss will grow on it, the paint will fade and chip, the wood will rot, insects will make homes in it.

That's entropy.

After our teacher told us about it, I wrote it down right away and couldn't stop thinking about it.  I just loved it and everything it represented and meant not only scientifically, but also in every person's life.

I had this phrase mulling around in my head for a year.  I tried writing poems about it, but none of them could suffice.

So when I started thinking about blogging again, there was only one name I could think of that would be absolutely perfect.

And here I am "Fighting Entropy" for over a year now.  I prove my doubtful mind wrong every time I sit down to write and every time I look at the name on my blog page, because I still love it, and it still mystifies and inspires me every day.

That leaves just one more little thing I must explain, so as not to leave you in the dark about anything.

Why "fighting", you might ask?

Well, I've thought about that a lot, too.  What are we really fighting against in this world?

I think sometimes - well actually, most times - we're just fighting ourselves.  For me, I fight insecurity and complacence.  Some fight lethargy.  Some hatred.  Jealousy.  Hopelessness.  Some fight all their lives, determined not to be what their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents were.  Because entropy - human nature - will take over if we don't try to fight it.  To be better, to love more, to try harder, and to trust God.

Entropy is not the devil.  It is not the evil forces that we can't control.  It's not nature.  It is what we all fear becoming.  It's what's in us that could potentially destroy us.  But fighting it means that we won't let it.

And it's not this glorious battle we all fight to defeat it.  It's the slow, daily struggle of our lives.

But the hope in it is this.

Every day, every hour, every season of our lives that we struggle and fight against entropy and everything else that burdens our hearts, we do not have to struggle alone, we do not have to lose alone, and we do not have to win alone.

"The Lord will fight for you,

you need only be still."

Exodus 14:14

...Love, Anna...