Free Will, Gift or Curse?

God’s original plan was for us to love Him so deeply that we followed his every step, He wanted us to walk by His side. But we messed up, we thought we knew better. So, with a breaking heart, knowing it would end badly for us, he gave us what we craved, choice.  Then why do we question God’s willingness to give us free will?

As a society we have reached a point where there is little that we cannot predict. We know that certain actions will produce a given reaction. Negative behavior that we know will lead to consequences that, we as a society, do not want. Yet, always we require the opportunity for choice.

We know that life is a series of decisions and we have to find ways to navigate with as few complications as possible along the way. Still, we find opportunities to put ourselves in harm’s way, go into situations we know we can’t handle, and, in ways too numerous to count, cause ourselves grief. However, we continue to demand our freedoms, our choices.

Even so, our loving God looks down on us hoping we make the right decision. And, over and again, we choose the wrong path, the hard way. We make mistakes so often, we forget which way we were supposed to be going in the first place.

And when it all falls apart, when we’ve reached the end of our choices, when the only way is final destruction of ourselves or those around us, that is when we cry out, “God, why do you let bad things happen.” As if at any point we had given him the control. No, we hold on tight, never letting go, wanting to be in charge. And if all goes well, we love to take credit. And when it doesn’t work out quite as planned, well, we know who to fault, then.

Humans are as full of hubris as our minds can allow. We constantly proclaim our power, our might, our superiority. Yet, when there is reckoning, we don’t want the accountability. We deny our God until it all falls down around us, and then we are quick to deny our free will had anything to do with the mess.

The wonder of this system of free will and choice, is that it allows us, any time we want, to go right back to our Heavenly Father’s side. That’s where he wants us, that’s where our free will should lead us, especially when we’ve gone off course. I love that making the wrong choice, falling on our faces, can send us right back home, where we belong.