December 4

‘Life without war is impossible, either in nature or grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.’ – OC
Entropy. I remember the lesson in junior high science class in which the subject was introduced by Mr. Germer as, ‘We’re all born to die.’ OC notes that everything external of our physical lives is designed to expedite our death. Is this an overly negative view? Perhaps, but it is admittedly an honest one.
Rather than focus on the doom and gloom, OC reminds us that we are to balance our external assaults with exercises in vitality. Physically speaking, this would consist of exercise and healthy eating. Spirituality and morality are no different. You get what you put in. Virtue is not latent, it is acquired.
The concept of spiritual and moral virtue is more difficult to grasp, perhaps due to the non-physical nature of the attributes. We can see that eating more pie in November and December lead to unwanted pot-bellies in January. It is more difficult to see that watching pornography or being physically abusive correlate directly with our jaded, self-centered view of the world.
A lot has been said about what type of things Christians should NOT be doing as they pursue morality and spirituality. The unfortunate truth is that if you are not cloistered, it is unlikely in our modern society, that such things can be avoided. Instead, I’d like to take a moment to hit on the things that we CAN do to strengthen virtue. We can pray at any opportunity. We can help others, either strangers or loved ones. We can be proactive in our communities and loving in our families. We can study and we can confer with fellow Christians. We can live our lives without shame in the understanding that we are imperfect creations who are subject to the redemption on Christ. We can accept our consequences honestly and allow God to show us the way to improve through our failures.
Again, I am reminded of my favorite lyrics by the band DC Talk. “What if I stumble? What if I fall? What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all? Will the love continue, when the walk becomes a crawl?”
In short, nothing worth having comes without effort. The nature of our creation requires that we fight daily against the entropy of this world spiritually, physically and morally. Per OC, “Holiness is the balance between my disposition and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.”