Alea Iacta Est…

“The die is cast…”

History (via Wikipedia) tells us that these were the words uttered by Julius Caesar upon crossing the Rubicon in 49 BC. Caesar stepped over a stream and into history, rejecting an ancient Roman law which forbade any standing army from entering Italy proper. This bold move led him to Rome – and eventually to the head of an empire. Since Caesar’s day, the phrase has come to connote a point of no return, a watershed moment from which there is no going back.

When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord, we are in effect, crossing the Rubicon. The die is cast, we’ve reached the point of no return, we’ve risked trust in God, and our lives will never be the same again as the Holy Spirit transforms us from the inside-out. We have surveyed the landscape of the world around us, and by the grace of a loving God, have made the leap to faith, to eternal relationship with our Creator.

Unlike Julius Caesar, whose ambition led to his ultimate demise, a watershed transition to faith, leaves us with room to grow and develop, to know God more deeply, to love our neighbor more accutely, to embrace His calling on our lives to be salt and light to those around us in need of their own moment before the Rubicon as they seek to understand the purpose and meaning behind their existence. When one proclaims that Jesus Christ is Lord, that is when the adventure of self-discovery, purpose, passion, and relationship truly begins. As the die is cast, we are bid to come and die and find that we might truly live.

So as we declare alea iacta est in regard to our faith,  we are setting our motto on solid ground: “Jesus lives…the rest follows.”