Command and Control: Entropy Pt. 2
In physics, entropy is a measure of the unavailability of a system’s energy to do work. It is a measure of waste, humanly speaking. We must budget our energy as we budget our money: in order to have more, we must either make more or spend less.
Most of us spend a lifetime “making more” in a cycle which reminds me of a dog chasing its tail. No matter how many positive affirmations and goals we focus upon, we still end up in the same too-human dilemma.
We feel unfulfilled, trapped, anxious, angry and frustrated. Diplomas, awards and benchmarks at the end of life seem empty compared with fruitful family relationships which might have been.
Stress Free Discipline seeks to train family teams.
It teaches ways to achieve balanced, energetic and fulfilling relationships. It provides a way to save energy which would ordinarily be lost to stress. Thus more energy is available for fruitful family relationships. Stress Free Discipline minimizes waste.
Yet before we can command and control our children we must first do that successfully within ourselves.
My Parents Legacy
I’ve been dissecting my parents’ relationships to find out what legacy they left to me. They were certainly self disciplined in order to accomplish their parenting and personal goals.
My father helped build the A-bomb, achieving an honorary degree and a Navy Commendation Medal signed by Admiral Forrestal in the process. Dad worked three decades in a defense plant where he rose to the top. He exercised command and control over those under him until he left home for an assisted living environment at age 91.
He inspired my two sons to join the Navy, where they were offered Nuclear Physics as a career. They chose flight training and SEALS training instead. One earned two combat medals, the other left SEALS training only after suffering permanent physical disability. They both rose to the top in order to qualify for their chosen paths. Only the top 2% of applicants qualify to even enter SEALS training.
My mother supported her mother and sisters when her father committed suicide during her teens. She did tailoring for teachers, earned an average of 98% in high school subjects, and worked a part time job. She helped put my father through college, and then became the ideal corporate wife. She raised my brother and me, educating us well. She served in various charitable positions of control and influence.
In our college years she became a successful stock broker. She always said, “The greatest brain drain in this country is the drain in the kitchen sink.” She rose to the top of war years women through sheer spunk. She exercised command and control of those around her until she left this world at age 88. She was camping in the high mountains of Colorado at the time. She was doing exactly what she wanted to be doing.
All of these efforts required great self control. I see a problem in all these “making more” activities. The problem is this: simply achieving our goals, however successful we are, is never satisfying enough.
We never arrive at the top spiritually. As we swim to meet life’s challenges there is always an undertow of anger bred of pain, frustration and fear. We always fall short of our own desires even when we win the race. There’s always another race to run, imperfections to address, deals to make. Entropy. Waste. Frustration. Anger. We reach a place empty of meaning.
How can we find that elusive joy—that place of peace which surpasses all else?
I suggest that place is one of grace. In that place of grace there is no performance burden which makes us feel empty when we’re too old and ill to compete. There is no perfectionism which defies our need for rest. There is no dysfunctional striving to put forth a false front, a pretty face, a handsome image. WE ARE REAL.
Surprisingly, the place of grace is the ultimate position of command and control. By turning over command of our lives to the control of Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, we achieve complete peace. Whether we are rich or poor, ill or healthy, we spend less effort when Christ is our leader. We then budget our energy, eliminate waste, and focus our resources.
Our limits become His opportunity. His glory. Ahhhhhhh. At last. There is rest for our souls this side of the grave.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:34 am
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