I Will Choose Free Will

RUSH: Free Will (from the album Permanent Waves)
Lyrics
(chorus)
You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose free will

The writer of this song clearly states that his choice is free will. IN OTHER WORDS, "I will dang well do as I please!" He acts as though he can do that with no consequence to fear, and no one can make him do anything else.In some ways, there is truth to that. When God created us, he gave us free will. He laid out a place for man to live and enjoy, with only one rule. Don't eat of the fruit from a certain tree! I don't believe it was apples though. I love them too much and I've never felt bad after eating them (unless it was a lot of pie and ice cream, and then, I deserved what I got) so I am not sure of what that fruit was. I think it was a fruit/tree that is not available to us anymore as it is shut tight in the garden that is now hidden from mankind. But there was going to be trouble with that tree and God knew it. When He created mankind, he knew everything that would happen until the end of time (does time really end???) and yet he still decided to let man have a choice. Free will, in other words.
He could have built a fire around the tree that would have kept us from reaching it. Or He could have left that tree out of the garden altogether and we would have never had to make a choice. His rationing could have been that, "Well, I'm about to make a human and I know that if I make him the way I want to make him, he is gonna screw this thing up royally. So I'll just skip that part and set everything in motion so that there is no choice, there is no consequence, there is no pain, no suffering."
Well why in the h-e-double LL didn't He choose to do that?!?!?! Man that would have been easier and simpler!
Because He loved us. While man was laying on the ground, motionless, perfect in every way, He loved us. And He wanted us to love him. Well, duh, what would have been hard about that for us?
Think about it for a second. If all you've ever known, or will know, is just someone who is Love, and you have no imperfections or flaws, how will that ever keep you close. When everyone around you is on the same level as you, the same playing field so to speak, and you've never known anything else was possible, how can you truly say that you are loved and appreciated.
Humans learn that in their lives. A baby is born, and all it knows is how it is treated. For most of our parents with a newborn, the child is held, cradled, fed, diapered; it's every whim and care is taken care of. It never wants of anything nor knows the feeling of true pain and unworthiness.
That baby grows up into a teenager and suddenly, there is nothing that you can do right, you don't know squat, you're stupid and out of touch and unusable. They might have a flash of a moment where they appreciate you, especially if you are the kind of person that gives them everything they ever need without letting them earn at least some of it on their own.
Then they grow up, and they have a "life crisis." Who do they call? Mom and Dad. They realize that you actually do love them, care about them, and just maybe you do know a little bit about the world that they live in. And their appreciation for your knowledge grows when they have a child of their own to care for.
Life truly is a circle.
And God knew this. He wanted us to understand just how freakin great His love is, even though we know we don't deserve the things that He gives us. So God HAD to give us a choice, even though He knew it would turn into a disaster. There is an old saying that I grew up with; "You never knew what you had until it was gone." Think about what Adam and Eve must have felt when they got kicked out of the Garden. OMG! Your every whim and need is right before you with no way to supply anything for it anymore. In the garden you never wanted for anything. Now, you don't have squat. "HOLY CRAP!" is the thought that had to be going through their minds as they stared out at the barren empty land.
Like I've said in the previous blogs, I have a past. And a lot of it I am not proud of. I pushed my boundaries one too many times and got what I deserved. One time it included being kicked out of my mom and grandparents house. I was stubborn and it only caused me even more trouble. But with no place to go, I looked at my future and made some choices that were even worse than what had gotten me into the initial trouble in the first place.
But, I did come back home. Tired, defeated, deflated, and like the prodigal son, I was still welcomed back in. I did work to change my life, though I was still screwing it up quite a bit, but I knew that I was loved, and I was able to appreciate everything that had been restored upon me.
The "free will" that God had allowed upon me caused me to make some grave errors in judgement, but I also was able to make a "free will" choice that brought me "back into the fold", as my pastor used to say when I was growing up in church.
A lot of people get mad at God, or choose not to believe in God because of events that they see happening to themselves and others around the world. They say that if there was a God that He would not have allowed something like this to happen. Like I explained in the beginning, had He not allowed things to happen, we could never count our good fortunes for the things that we do have. Sin was brought into the human life by Eve, then Adam. And we're stuck with it. As with any disease (yes, sin is a disease that will cost us something as we go through life), our bodies do pay the price. People act upon evil choices, diseases are communicated openly and at will by our world. It isn't that God doesn't want it to happen, He wants us to choose NOT to let it happen. We can't go back to a sinless body. But we can have a restored body again in Heaven one day if we make the right choices. Will our lives be perfect? NOPE! Will our lives be HUNKY DORY? NOPE! Will we suffer in pain? YEP! Will we be able to appreciate when times are good? I CERTAINLY HOPE SO!
So in closing, what choice will you make? You have free will. You can say this is a bunch of "bunk". Or you can say to God that you do believe and you want to have what He desires you to have. Doesn't mean that He is going to give you everything you want!! But you will have what you need, and when you do come upon those things that hurt you, whether physically or emotionally, you'll have a parent that you can go to that will never leave you, nor forsake you for another more favorite child.
I choose free will. I choose God!