Story by Randy Grathen.
Are we free to choose our path in life, or has God already laid out a course for us and we are just along for the ride? Are the choices we make our own, or does God orchestrate a set of circumstances that move us to make a decision that matches His overall plan. I’ve searched the bible and most references regarding “free will” have to do with choosing to accept God’s gift of salvation. That’s different than “choosing” what we want to eat for dinner. For example, the most quoted verse in the Bible, John 3:16 reads, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” There’s our choice. We are free to choose or reject the offer.
Conversely, we read that He already had a plan for us before we were born.
Psalm 139 verses 13, 14 & 16.
13) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14) I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well.
16) Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Jeremiah 29, verse 11.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
We are told God stands outside of time; therefore, he knows the end from the beginning. So, He already knows the choices we’re going to make throughout our lives. Are what we perceive to be coincidences in our life actually divine appointments which God orchestrated in advance, putting the right people and circumstances in our path to create the outcome He chose for us?
If you know anything about data collection and statistical analysis, you can graph the probability of something occurring as you correlate the data.
If you walk off a cliff, given its height and whether there is a trampoline, water or rocks waiting to greet you, the probability of you dying varies.
If you drive to work on your usual route, leaving at the same time as you always do, driving the same speed as always, hitting all the traffic lights as usual, but getting T-boned in the intersection by another car, what are the odds of that happening? What sequence of events aligned in order for you to get hit? Change any one of the parameters and you would probably end up with a different result.
If you left a house the few minutes earlier or later, would it have happened? Probably not.
If you happened to drive a little slower or faster than usual that day, would it have happened? Probably not.
Did you stop at Starbucks and the line was longer than usual? Starbucks is too expensive. Don’t stop there. Gas stations are where it’s at.
And what of the other driver? What events played out that day for them to wind up at that same intersection at the exact moment in time to hit you. A lot of “coincidences” had to line up for the two of you to have met. Neither one of you set out that morning planning to have an accident. Here is a real-life example of how an “accident” was the catalyst for me to learn an amazing life lesson. “How Do You Plead?”
If our life is planned out for us before our birth as Psalm 139 verse 16 suggests, then how can we have free will? I have heard many people express the opinion that if God has a plan for us that we have yet to fulfill, then virtually nothing can take us out. We won’t die until we have accomplished His plan for us. We may be a small part of a much larger plan, but our part could be integral to helping accomplish it. God only knows. It’s His plan. Unless, as in some cases, He has actually told someone what His plan was. Think Noah and the flood. Or Sodom and Gomorrah. Or the Pharaoh and the seven plagues.
I still don’t know what God has planned for me, but I’ve survived getting T-boned at an intersection. Had an F-4 tornado destroy our house while Laurie and I were in it. Fell out of a high lift from 23 feet up landing on the blacktop parking lot. And surviving a Cat 4 hurricane since moving to Florida. (you can read about all of those events at OurHighPlaces.com.)
So, on this “Road of Life”, is our route preordained, prearranged? Does our “Road of Life” contain all the other people we will encounter that are part of Gods plan for us? Or, are there side roads, detours we take making us think we just freely chose another path when in fact the detour was intended for us to intersect with someone else’s road so we can do whatever God needs us to do for that person before we wander back onto our own road? Does our road have curbs? Are we free to wander all over the road, weaving back and forth while the curbs define our boundaries so we don’t wander off into the weeds, and get lost? Or can we? It reminds me of The Parable of the Prodigal Son. That boy really got lost in the woods.
I do know that we are all on a one-way street. Some roads are longer, some shorter. Some smooth, some have potholes and some are made of gravel. The proverbial rocky road. We are all headed towards the same destination though. My road of life and yours terminate at a Dead End.
The bible tells us the streets of heaven are paved in gold. Maybe our road ends where the street of gold begins as we cross over. Of course, that is assuming somewhere along our journey we make the choice to accept God’s offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Romans 10, verses 9 & 10 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
So, is free will an illusion? I don’t know. But at the end of the day, or at the end of our “Road of Life”, the only question we need to answer is, does our road end where the streets of gold begin, or does it end at the edge of that rocky cliff?
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