What do you think of this statement – everything happens for a reason? This was a slogan of mine until about a week ago when I was challenged to think differently. The challenger said – Do you really think if my wife leaves the house and gets hit by a car this is part of God’s plan? Do you believe her time to go is her time, so, if the car doesn’t hit her something will fall from the sky? Do you think the accident may have been caused not from my wife, but others free will?
The challenger was asking me to challenge my old belief system. My belief system to ask God “why” as soon as life doesn’t go as planned. My belief system which says difficult times are part of God’s plan. The difficult part when you can’t blame God is being honest in who you can blame. Sometimes life is so crushing you want to be able to point a finger. It’s harder when the finger is pointed at humanity as a whole. In the challenger’s scenario, you can’t run away from sin because there is always a consequence. You may not be the one to shoulder the consequence, but someone will feel it.
In many ways, this new belief about free will is harder to swallow. It’s harder to swallow because we have to rely on ourselves and other humans to do what is right and none of us is 100% worthy. God can help us get out of the muck and mud, but he is not the reason for it. With this knowledge, it is hard to face your past. It’s hard because you know you have hurt someone. Like everyone else, you have been the one in the driver seat who has taken a wrong turn and hit someone you shouldn’t have hit. Your free will has caused someone else trauma.
Good examples are: the studies which have said putting chemicals into everything has caused different types of cancers. There are people in the factories who know putting bleach in foods can’t be good but they also want their produce to last longer so they can make more money. The consequence is families lose their children at too young of an age or children become parentless. Also, think about adultery where one person said it started as innocent lust. In my experience, adultery is never innocent and it never ends on a good note.
So what do we do? You just wait for the volcano to hit? No, what you can do is keep your relationship with God close, realize how your actions impact others, and try to keep on the path of doing what’s right. Yes, we will all falter, but we will also be able to get up, brush ourselves off, and start over. The good part is God frowns at sin, but he loves us unconditionally. This doesn’t give us an excuse, but it does give us security to wake up another day and face life. It allows us to know you can’t hide from free will and life’s hurdles, but he gives us solid ground to walk on.
On the flip side, free will also allows us to have good things in life such as building strong relationships, finding passion in our lives, etc. The goal is to not abuse it, but to realize its power. So the next time you want to blame God for something bad which has happened – ask yourself who is really at fault?
