Fate and Free Will

There is a purpose to our lives. Each and every person has a different purpose; part of life is figuring it out. The other part is choosing if we are to fufill our purpose, or ignore it. Perhaps I should rephrase--there are purposes to our life. Life doesn't boil down to simply one moment in which fufillment is reached. There are opportunities every day for us to do something that is worthwhile for ourselves and for others. Write a song, make someone who is sad happy again, enjoy a walk on the beach or in the forest with someone. The question is--are these things fate or choice?

They are both.

It almost seems a paradox to believe in both fate and free will, but I do completely. I believe that there are certain things which we are meant to do--that it is in God's plan for us to do; but that doesn't mean that his overarching scheme will be foiled by one person simply ignoring what they were made for. There are multiple pathways that anyone can take to still be within the will of God. Free will is more than just the ability to choose between right and wrong, it is the ability to choose the lifestyle that we want to live.

Life is not simply a train track which goes in one direction and no real meaningful choices can be made--it is a road with different paths where many still lead to the ending that God has meant for us. It is difficult to understand and even more difficult for me to describe. Each choice that we make opens up new doors which in turn open up new choices. This continues on for our whole life. It even brings us back to my Butterfly Effect Post.

An example--Marraige. It is popular belief that there is one person who is made for you and you alone. To me, it is not this simple. I beleive that there are any number of people you can end up with. There is a large percentage of people who meet the person that they marry while in the college age group. While in this age group, people are constantly moving around to go to different schools and taking different classes at these different schools. While I am not one to point at someone else's life and tell them that they are or aren't within the will of God, I do not beleive that God's plan is dependent on such an insignificant factor such as whether or not Psychology 101, or Philosophy 101 was taken. If the girl I was someday to marry was in the same Psychology class that I could have taken, but I decided to take the Philosophy class instead, that path is closed.

I made a choice, not even knowing the potential outcome, and it wasn't necessairily against the will of God. But Say also that I decided not even to go to that school, but to a different one completely, or if I decided to work full time instead of going to school, or I decided to go on a missions trip to another country for a year. There could be a possible marraige partner for me in each of these locations, all of which are within the will of God. I am not trying to promote Poligamy, I am proving that different choices can be made every day which will lead us down different paths. Some choices are wrong choices, but some are perfectly fine, and it is our job to find out which ones are the wrong ones. As for the rest...Well, that's why life is so interesting.