Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | You are not to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit.  Deuteronomy 12:8

The word that a parent uses most often when there is a toddler in the house is, “No!” and the expression that kids use is, “Why can’t I?” not really listening for an explanation.  The word “No” draws the lines of battle.  And that line is intact from the cradle to the grave.  The reality is that a lot of life is circumscribed by the negative prohibition, “No!”

Mark Chester is a professional photographer, and he began noticing the number of signs he saw which, of course, contained the big negative, “NO!”  And he began photographing them.  Over 300 of them appear in his book NO in America such as “No parking, no smoking, no bare feet on escalators, no loud music in the park, no dogs allowed, no photography, no shirt or shoes–no service, no spitting on the sidewalk, no loitering” and so forth.  Some are amusing, such as the sign on the gate leading to a cemetery, reading, “No permanent plantings allowed–by order of trustees.”

The mayor of a town where a seminary is located is quoted as saying that the students who come there have ten dollars in one hand and the ten commandments in the other, and are afraid to break either one of them.  The reality is, however, that most of those Ten Commandments to which the mayor referred are negative.  There’s a big “no” in them –The first says, “You shall have no other gods before me.”  The second: “You shall not make for yourself an idol.”  The third: “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God,” and so forth.  Moses included in the list of negatives, “You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, give false witness, and covet your neighbor’s house and wife.”  There is little in this list of 10 laws for life and living which is positive

But here is the problem–the same one observed in the nursery–we like the word “Yes.”  It makes you feel good to know that you can do whatever you like–take pictures in the museum, go down the escalator barefooted, sit on the curb and swap yarns with your friends, run naked on the beach, go into dinner restaurants in shorts and a t-shirt, and blow smoke in your neighbor’s face.  Restraint has all but gone out of style in a society that puts the emphasis on free expression, but the line between is spelled “discipline,” and it is that line that makes it safe for you to live where you are and gives definition to what is meaningful and important.

Without personal discipline that leads us into the “No” territory, life would be an absolute jungle.  In the Old Testament book of Judges it speaks of a period of great lawlessness and chaos when everyone did whatever he pleased.  The writer explains, “For in those days Israel had no king, so everyone did whatever he wanted to–whatever seemed right in his own eyes” (Deuteronomy 17:6, Living Bible).

“Doing whatever is right” is old but it is the very heart of existentialism that makes your personal encounter more meaningful than absolutes that say, “This is right; this is wrong.  You can do this, but you cannot do that!”  It is the act of rebellion that carries you across the line of discipline, giving you the license to do whatever you like.

It is discipline that separates life into positive and negative divisions–what you can do and what you cannot do–that makes it safe for your children to play in the street, for your wife to shop at the mall, and for you to live in peace and harmony.

No kidding, there’s no word in the English language like that word no.  Of that you can be sure.

Resource reading: Exodus 20:1-21