A Case for Free Will....

Every so often I run into someone who in conversation will remark about the Will of God. That person may state that a certain event occurred because it was God's Will or they may remark that something might happen to them if it is God's Will. In my usual non-confrontational manner, I usually do not respond to their statement. However, in the wake of the events of the past 24 hours, I will respond now. Yesterday, on the campus of Virginia Tech, a 19 year old college student walked into a dormitory and shot and killed 2 students. He then proceeded to a classroom building, chained the doors shut and opened fire on countless more students. When the shooting was over, 31 more students lay dead on the floor including the shooter, who had taken his own life. Where was God's Will in this incident?

I stand by my belief, as I always have, that God has given us an enormous gift. That gift is one of Free Will. We do not live our lives by a script; but rather, each day are given the opportunity to write the book that is our life. We write it with our own hand, with our own words. Random acts of violence are not God's will, they are the will of an individual....an individual who has chosen the wrong path for his own life. War is not an act of God. It is the result of a collective decision of men who chose to solve problems through violence. Natural disasters are not acts of God...they are the natural occurrences that happen as a result of our Earth being acted upon by physical forces both internal and external.

The only act of God that exists in these cases is the original one.....that of the gift of free will. God has given us this Earth, our life and all of the faculties to make of it what we chose. We are not his puppets. We are his children. And just as we can teach our own children right from wrong, it is ultimately their free will that determines their choices. And so God watches.....and prays that His children use their gift of free will for Good. But it is not always so.

Today, we mourn the loss of our children who were so senselessly struck down, yesterday, just as we continually mourn the loss of our children all over the world who die in random acts of violence or war. We cannot make sense of any of this if we chalk it up to God's Will.

But just as we cannot blame God's Will for the evil in the world, we cannot also say that good things will come to us only if it is God's Will. No, if we must take responsibility for the bad, then we must take responsibility for making good happen also. We must take hold of our own lives and steer them toward the destiny that we want. We have been given the ability to end life if we chose. Conversely, we have also been given the power to create a glorious, positive, loving life. It is time to take responsibility for our destiny. Perhaps if we all felt that power, we would be more inclined to try to move the mountains that presumably stand in our way(or at least that stand in our minds).

We have been given an amazing gift....Free Will......but if we do not use it wisely, we pay the price.