It’s the age-old debate—so ancient we no longer think about it. Put it another way: God’s will vs. man’s choice. or predestination vs. free will. In my post-adolescent years, we’d debate about it into the night, and in my early Christian years, we’d search the Bible for pat answers to it. It never has been resolved to my satisfaction.
Why do I bring it up? It seems especially relevant to me in these times, and the relevance lies in our decisions to go out that front door. My wife and I see the choice a little differently, as I expect most couples do. Neither of us takes an extreme position: I do not throw caution to the wind, and she does not huddle in our house.
Here is my side of the coin: God really is in control of my life. I try to make the best choices I can make, but I can’t control the ultimate outcome of those choices. It is impossible for me to get Covid-19 without God knowing about it. That would be fate. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t want it. But I am not going to worry about getting it because God loves me and will use whatever circumstances to draw me nearer to Him.
Here is how I imagine the other side of the coin: God gives you a brain because He wants you to use it. Yes, He will bring you through whatever circumstances befall you, but He is going to expect you to live with the consequences of your choices. You know the best way to avoid Covid-19: stay home as much as you can, practice social distancing, wear a mask, wash your hands… If you don’t do that, you might very well be okay; but if you do get Covid-19, don’t blame God. That is chance.
I’m willing to bet most of my readers lean toward that side of the coin. I don’t blame them—it makes perfect sense. That is the intelligent response to the virus. But do you see that I am right, too? If you are a person of faith, you probably hold all of the statements in my paragraph to be true. The two sides of the coin are compatible. Mine is about attitude and the other is about action. Faith without works is dead.
God is speaking to me more about balance these days. Karen and I are living together more intensely (as we all are), and we’re learning that balance works between us as well as within us. Take things in stride, shake things off, be kind to each other. There are many spiritual lessons available to us in these times.
I don’t think the God’s will vs. free choice dilemma is supposed to be resolved. This is the best explanation of the conflict that I have ever heard: Life is a journey and I am walking on a railroad track. The rail on my left is fate, and the one on my right is chance. Every step forward I take, the left and right rails remain on my sides, equidistant from each other. Step after step. It is only when I look to the horizon, at the end of the journey, that the two rails meld into one.
In Paradise Lost, God explains to Jesus, who is struggling to understand why God did not intervene when Satan formed a legion against him, why He granted man free will. I love God’s reply in this passage from Book 3:
“Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have given sincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,
Where only what they needs must do appear’d,
Not what they would? what praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
When will and reason (reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil’d,
Made passive both, had serv’d necessity,
Not me. They therefore, as to right belong’d,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,”
Excerpt From
Paradise Lost
John Milton
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Bet you can guess which side of the coin I fall to?
Psalm 91
of course i can, amanda! i’m a zealot and i feel like i have to calm you down. i actually went and read psalm 91–how comforting! you keep pressing on!