(Here are thoughts on a reading from this morning.)
They say life is about the choices we make. We are free to make wise choices or foolish ones. In all spiritual beliefs it is universally held that the paths we choose determines how our life goes. We Christians call this ‘Free Will.’
It seems ironic that a God who love mankind so much to create us in His image would make this so, that we could choose to harm ourselves. But He did and why I ask myself! After all there we were in the Garden (Eden) with the whole world to enjoy. Yet God gave us a choice (this is my interpretation) that we may enjoy everything in the Garden (the world) but we are not to eat from the ‘Tree in the Middle of the Garden.’ That tree has been called: the tree of knowledge or the tree of good and evil. There we made are first unwise choice. We (Adam and Eve) thought eating from the tree would make us like gods. Pride had raised its ugly head in the form of a snake (serpent). The serpent (with a naturally forked tongue) was a smooth talker. Eve and Adam were easily convinced that this (to eat of the fruit) was a ‘wise choice.’ Oops! That was the beginning…
Here is part of CS Lewis’ discussion of ‘Free Will’:
“Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata – of creatures that worked like machines – would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight, compared with which the most rapturous love between and man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.”
In a sense our choices are simple. We are to make our choices to be in harmony with His Will for us. How do we do that? When asked what was the most important law (commandment), Jesus said that we were to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls. What else they ask Him, He said that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In such choices the paths of our life lead to joy, peace, contentment and harmony with all creation. We travel this path of our choosing taking one step at a time, one choice at a time, one day at a time…
That’s my humble opinion….
This photo, called ‘Fairfield Lake Hike’, reminds me the wonderful Octobers we spent at the Mountain House…