Since it’s the day before Christmas, it makes sense I’m thinking about free will.
Aristotle called choice “the seat of the soul”—meaning our decisions don’t just reveal who we are, they create who we are. We write ourselves into existence one choice at a time.
But no choice is still a choice. It’s the empty space where the choices we could have made go to die.
And there’s no choice without risk. Which reminds me of the “dignity of risk.”
The dignity of risk is a phrase from disability rights advocacy arguing that when we overprotect people from failure, we rob them of growth. The freedom to fail and the freedom to succeed are the same freedom.
But when I searched for “the dignity of risk,” I accidentally typed “the divinity of risk.”
Which felt appropriate for Christmas Eve.
Because the Christmas story is, at its heart, a story about divine risk.
God came not as a king in a fortress but as a baby in a barn—dependent, fragile, fully human.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)
That’s the divinity of risk: love that chooses exposure over safety, presence over protection.
Cheers to a day filled with the people you love, the warmth of good choices made, and the courage for the ones ahead.
Merry Christmas.
