A Step to the Block

In Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot writes that “any action is a step to the block.” He means that our actions always draw us closer to death, and in that sense every action we take is a wager of our time. 

When I read Eliot’s poem, I imagine a wrongly condemned man calmly and decisively walking to the executioner’s block with his head held high, maintaining his dignity in the face of injustice. 

Each step brings him closer to death, but each step is also his own action, taken by his own feet and in defiance of the condemnation he is under. The onlookers observe his defiance and his dignity. His action is a testament that death is not final. That is the difference between a secular stoicism and bravely acting in defiance of our fears and hopelessness. 

For the stoic, though they can choose to face death bravely, death is the final word. For the Christian, death has been conquered, so we can face it bravely regardless of our fears. We can take a step to the block, confident in our hope.

Likewise, any action we take gambles the limited time we have on earth. We wager all other possible actions by choosing one. Whenever we choose a medical treatment or a school for our kids or a career path, we risk something—being wrong, failure, regret, time, poverty, and so on. 

Whenever we sin, we wager offense against God and the possibility of uncontainable harm to others (sin is never containable). Whenever, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we turn from sin and choose to honor God and love our neighbor, we wager our fleshly desires. 

Like Paul, it costs us to obey. To deny sin is to die to self. And that, too, testifies to those watching. It is precisely because our actions are wagers that they communicate something about us and our understanding of the world. They may communicate our trust in the medical community or our trust in public schools or the moral imperative of pursuing our dream jobs. But our actions always speak.