Belief in Something Greater

The theme for Belmont University in its 125th year is "Belief in Something Greater". After hearing a few intriguing lectures in my Biophysical Chemistry class and reflecting a bit on what God had to say on this matter, these thoughts came to my heart.

So I will share them with y'all.

The Science of Something Greater
In the late 1800's to the mid 1900's a German Physicist named Max Planck created the field of Quantum Mechanics. There were many great things that this man discovered, but there was one that troubled him a bit: at the base level of all things, molecules moved completely at random. There was no order to the little particles that made up everything. After growing up in a strong Lutheran family and ultimately converting to some sort of deism, Planck struggled with the ultimate randomness of the universe. After all, if God made everything, and if God made a plan, then shouldn't all things have order?

Planck's struggle with the randomness of the universe is similar to that of our own lives. We go through random experiences and we do random things and sometimes we feel as if our lives have little effect on the world around us. After all, we are just one person.

"One tear in the dropping rain
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart"

~Hold My Heart, Tenth Avenue North

I had this thought while sitting in my gazebo the other day. Belmont University has been around for 125 years, and several people have sat within the open walls of my gazebo. My story was small in comparison to the many stories that came to be from that gazebo. Yet for some reason, everything that happened there changed my whole life, and I became a different person there.

Perhaps there was something greater at hand.

Ironically, there was an answer to Planck's questions far before he asked them. In the mid 1800's, two men named Boltzmann and Maxwell applied statistics to systems in order to understand them more clearly.

What they discovered was that regardless of temperature, enthalpy, and a few other factors, that systems all had the same result. Entropy was increased.

Entropy is typically defined as disorder. After all, that seems to make a bit more sense to us. And it does call for some pretty funny comics.

If you did not want to read about physics, stick with me for just a second.

What Entropy really is is not increased disorder. Instead, it is an increase in possibilities. All systems move towards having more possibilities, even if it doesn't make sense. For example, sometimes a system gets colder after it does some amount of work. Everything else in science would say that this reaction would not happen, but it does...every single time.

Now let's think about the little random particles that Planck was studying. They were moving about randomly, and it seemed like they were not functioning as a unit.

But if you put them together, you can see that they are moving so that more possibilities may be made possible. Not only that, but if you look at the system as a whole, you will see that the majority of these seemingly random particles are moving towards that greater end. And as more and more particles come together, less and less of them are found in the outskirts.

All of creation is moving towards creating more.

God uses our seemingly random lives to create something greater.

Separated, it may all seem meaningless and empty, but in context, all of life has an ordered end: creation. Once in Heaven, we are unified with God, and through that Communion, we continue to take part in the creation of the world. God wills for more and more to happen.

But the increase in Entropy, the increase in possibilities, would not happen if it were not for the seemingly random motion of each molecule in the system.

So then, let's return to Belmont for a moment. Let's go back to my little gazebo in the middle of campus.

My Something Greater

At first, I was a scared and lonely girl. My family had just moved to Nashville, and my best friend from high school had decided that we were no longer friends. Heartbroken, lost, and confused, I decided to force myself out of my shell and talk to people that I never thought I would talk to before.

My first best day happened in the little gazebo across the giant stairs of Pembroke. In that place, the little girl was vulnerable for the first time. She talked to a boy she hardly knew about everything and anything; she was real.

Nostalgic and sentimental, I returned to that gazebo day after day. Most of the time, I did not bring anyone along with me. Nearly every day, I talked to God, and I thanked Him for the safety I had found in those I met. I had a story to tell, and I felt like I was part of something. If anything were to go wrong, I knew that I was safe in my gazebo, clutching to my rosary and begging God to give me the life I needed.

As my time at Belmont progressed, I met more and more people outside of my little gazebo. Some of them strengthened me. Some of them broke me down. They each had their own stories to tell, their own lives to live, their own little safe places on campus.

But I still had my gazebo.

And I hid inside it instead of talking to people about the more important things in my life.

I did not believe in something greater.

Then one day, I saw that I was alone. No one came to sit with me in the gazebo, and I felt completely silent in the context of the greater story. I felt tiny and worthless. The woman that had grown in confidence, beauty, and grace was now a girl consumed in desperation, infatuation, and sarcasm.

So I stood up and walked out of my gazebo. I walked to the people sitting in the Beaman, laying on the floor on my hallway, dancing in the BlackBox, recording on the weekends, playing in the Curb, drinking coffee at Bongo, and praying in the chapel.

So many lives

So many stories

So many different purposes

So seemingly random

Yet...these lives were part of something greater. They were each part of the Belmont community. Regardless of their majors, their creed, their relationship status, their age...anything really, these people were the surroundings that encased the system of my heart. I could release any of the pent up aggression, fear, or sadness that had broken my heart. I could participate in their activities. I could listen to their songs. I could listen to them. I could dance with them.

I could do anything with them.

I just had to release my energy and allow for the possibilities to come through to my heart.

I had to accept the laws of the universe and increase the entropy of my life.

Because of each of the lives at Belmont University, I found myself again. Instead of anger, I found peace. Instead of sass, I found empathy. Instead of silence, I found a solid prayer life. The seemingly random lives that I encountered every day were simply moving in my life so that I may move towards the ordered end of that God gave me: a life where anything was possible.

I was not stuck in the life I had created.

There was so much more.

Believe in Something Greater

I know that my experience of something greater is not the only one in Belmont's 125 year long story. Each member of the Belmont Community is deeply loved and respected and needed.

"For you are all one in Christ Jesus." ~Galatians 3:28

God put each life here to do something great. He did not just put you on this Earth by a whim. It wasn't just some silly joke. He is not playing Simms with your life.

No. He gave you a life so that you could be a part of what brings each person to Heaven, to that ultimate level of possibilities and creation. He made you so that more life could be found in you. Each person in my life has made it possible for me to find more life within my own little story, from the boy on night one to the sisters who sat with me in the Beaman this morning.

Belief is such an amazing word.

It is better than wishing for something greater, which is a sign that there is not something greater and you are desperate to find it. It is better than hope, which is a sign that you have given up and do not even know if you could find something greater. It is better than dream, because dreams are not reality. Take belief and turn it in to a verb:

Believe.

Believe is an active verb. It calls us to move towards that greater end. By believing in the "something greater," we are able to create something far greater than we could have ever imagined on our own.

So thank you Belmont for calling us to believe in something greater.

Thank you for letting me come back to my gazebo, day after day, and letting me pray for each life that will some day sit in the same spot as me, growing in to that great man or woman you created.