Decisions and Dots

“There is no dot.” So says Mr. James McDonald of “Walk in the Word”, a radio broadcast ministry. Mr. McDonald, in fact, wrote an entire sermon series about how there are no dots. I was a part of a great small group in Chicago years ago who chose it as one of our studies. We’d plug in the CD, that funky “Walk in the Word” theme music would come on (to which there may have been some silly small-group dancing), then along would come James regaling us with his tales of Christian decision-making. It was one of our most-favored and well-remembered studies because every Monday night little Jimmy McDonald, like an unsuspecting prankster, would light this firecracker of an idea, throw it in the middle of our living room and run. When the sermon was over, our discussion would start and the sparks would fly. It was great.

“There is no dot.” This means there is no one, pre-determined outcome which your life is supposed to follow or otherwise fail. There is no one school you’re “supposed” to attend. There is no one person you were “meant” to marry. There is no one job or career that you were “destined” for all time to have.

This was heart-breaking news for some of us. The romantic in me was especially displeased with the notion that I wouldn’t someday meet “the one”. But for others in the group, there was freedom to be found in the idea that they no longer had to agonize over decisions and their far-reaching consequences. There was freedom to be found in the ability to, as Augustine said, “Love God and do what you want.”

Sometimes I think we face such tough decisions in life that it is comforting to believe that things were “supposed to”, “meant to”, or “destined to” happen. To have the freedom to do what we want? Well, that’s just fraught with dangerous possibility – like being responsible for our lives.

But take heart, friends. We are richly blessed with both freedom and promise. Our Father gives us the gift of a life freely chosen. He also gives us the gift of comfort in knowing that Jesus was supposed to come, he was meant to die, and he was destined to rise again.

How’s that for a firecracker of an idea? May the sparks fly in your life and mine!