Free Will

Did you know that the Lutheran Church says we don't have free will? It's a theological thing. Not sure what it all means but I think I'll have to take it up with someone and have them really explain it to me. In looking into a little bit, it seems that since God, being all knowing, knows what we are going to do before we do it, so the choice isn't really ours and there is no free will, 'cause that means that God has no control over us.

To my way of thinking, when we were given choices, we were given free will to choose. Sure, some of those choices, well all of those choices, come with consequences, either good or bad, but it's our choice, our free will, and our consequences. If you keep God first and foremost, then you'd most likely choose on the side of good, but so often we choose based on what's going on with us at that time; who we're with, what mood we're in, etc. Eve chose to eat the apple and Adam chose to go along with her. Cain chose to kill Able, and so on. I feel that God gave us choices to empower us. God wants us to better ourselves, to prove ourselves. We do that with the choices that we make.

The other day I was at the grocery store. A man with 3 kids came up to me and pointing at the floor asked it that was my $100 bill. I thanked him and told him it wasn't but that I would turn it in to the store manager, which I did. We both made a choice. He did the right thing in front of his children, teaching them right. When I turned the money in, the manager took my name and number and said if no one claimed it, it would be mine. That wasn't right either, since I wasn't the first one to find it. I got the first man's number and told him that if the manager called, I'd have him call him and give him the money. An easy choice since it was never my money to begin with. Turns out someone did claim the money so it went back to the original owner. My choices were easy. I didn't find the money and I didn't lose the money. It would have been wrong for me keep the money. Free will? Yes, I freely and willfully turned the money in. Did God know that I was going to do that? Sure, but it was still my choice.

We're here to learn lessons. We're here to live consequences. Not every choice is the right one, or the smart one, but if we learn from it, then it was the worthwhile one. I can't see a God who dictates every thing we do. We don't do that as parents. Now, I'm not saying we are as all powerful and all knowing and all loving as God, but we know enough to let our children make mistakes and learn from them, even when we know in advance what they're going to do...because we mostly, in free will, did the same things ourselves.