No, not predestination – the concept that your fate is already determined – nor procrastination – the artful dodging of anything that should be done today but can be put off indefinitely – but prodestination: the power each of us has to decide where we want to be at the end of each day, and eventually at the end of our lives. Yes, I made this up.

It is an old and profound wisdom that we cannot control what happens to us, but that we can decide how we will respond. For Christians, this should be a slam dunk. Be kind, be patient, be loving, make peace, exercise self-control, be merciful, generous, gentle, and joyful. Easy peasy. But… no.

See, all of these things – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (thank you Paul), mercy, compassion, justice, etc. would be easy except for one thing: other people. Other people are difficult. Other people are annoying. Other people think they have rights to different opinions, values, and behaviors. Stupid other people.

BUT, we know other people will be difficult, do we not? Think about the following for just a couple minutes.

• Someone you meet today might have a chip on their shoulder.
• Someone on the road might cut you off or pull a bonehead stunt.
• If you call Customer Service you might not get the service you want.
• If you provide Customer Service you might have to deal with dissatisfied customers.
• You might be the person with fifteen items behind the person with 40 items in the “15 items or less” check-out lane.
• Someone with a cell phone might not understand that you don’t want to hear their conversation.
• Someone else’s dog might poop on your lawn.
• If you are a Republican, you might have to listen to a Democrat.
• If you are a Democrat, you might have to listen to a Republican.
• You will get junk mail, spam email, and perhaps have to eat Spam.
• You may be mansplained to.
• You may be called a racist, a sexist, a fascist, a deplorable, scum, sleaze, ignorant, or a podcaster.
• You may have to listen to people who call themselves Christian attack, demean, disrespect, demonize, dehumanize, or detest a precious child of God.

Need I go on? If you are breathing, you already know without any doubt that you are going to meet people who will test your patience, frustrate you, anger you, perhaps threaten you, definitely disappoint you, and in many ways make your life harder than you want it to be. If all of this is true, why wait to be reactive instead of deciding right up front how you will respond in any and/or all of these situations? This is prodestination – taking the God-given power you DO have (Lord knows there is SO much beyond our control) to decide what kind of person you want to be – today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life. We all know who we ought to be, but we also know we are not that person. We may try, but the fact is? There is no try (thank you Yoda). Christian discipleship is not a do it or not, succeed or fail endeavor. It is a lifelong process of continuous improvement designed to lead us ever closer to Christ-likeness. Abdicating responsibility for our actions and reactions is abdication of a relationship with God in Christ. To fail to grow in our ability to love, give, and forgive is to abandon Christian discipleship altogether. I don’t believe we are predestined, but I do believe we pursue prodestination – deciding today ahead of time how we will confront and transform the many situations that will try our patience, test our faith, and display to all the role that God’s Holy Spirit is actually playing in our lives.