Crossroads

Recently a comedy TV show depicted a scene where a guy walked into his boss' office. He didn't speak. Instead, he pointed one foot in front of the other and dragged his toes across the ground in front of him. His boss asked him what he was doing. He responded, "I like to draw my lines before I cross them." I thought it was quite clever. Now I think it was quite insightful.

It is sometimes hard to see how our actions, even small apparently benign actions, have bigger implications for our lives. I wrote a blog entry on a similar topic (see faithisavirtue.org). Yet, we should know that each action does imply some consequence. There are very few absolutely neutral actions in life. Some of life's bigger decisions make it easier to spot when we've "crossed the line." But even when the line isn't so clear, I've had to learn to ask myself, "if I had to draw a line here, where would it go?" Sometimes I've already crossed it, e.g. when I didn't reign in that thought I had weeks ago that dominoed into the choice I'm facing today. Sometimes I find that I am right on the edge, and I've still got time to turn back.

Now we know that when God is in the picture, there is always an opportunity to choose differently, to turn things around. But the key here is that WE have to do the choosing. We have to decide whether we will step over the line, or not. God is happy to show us where the line is, just in case we are confused. And when he knows that we won't see it for ourselves, he is kind enough to send someone our way whose vision is clearer and will point out the line to us. Even still, we wind up at a crossroads: to cross or not to cross, our choice.

The crossroads we face in life can lead to good places. In the law, there are so-called "threshold" issues. That is, before a court will look at B, the party making its case must first show A to a sufficient degree. I think that there are spiritual thresholds as well. We face pivot points in life. God gives us the direction, and only when we follow do we find that we've opened the door to something wonderful, something God had waiting for us just on the other side. Of course if we choose not to open the door, God will not rub our face in it. But he will be grieved by our loss, a loss he didn't intend us to have: a loss of joy, peace, or other blessing that would have only enriched our lives.

I believe I opened such a door recently. It was a tough, painful journey (most of which I could have avoided had I been paying better attention). But now that I'm here, I can't wait to see what is on the other side!