Free will. Or is it.
Without getting into an extensive theological discussion of free will and determination issues (its boring and I don’t know much about it), I’d like to address the question of just how ‘free’ we really are.
John Locke (the philosopher, not the guy on LOST) was wrong. We don’t come into the world tabula rasa style–blank slates ready to be molded. Bad news: We come with parameters. Genes, a temperament, a gender, and a family (or lack thereof). We are born into a specific city in a specific country in a specific point in human history. These are things over which you have no control, and yet which have great influence on you. Influence so deep you may not even be able to discern it. Is this determination in the strict sense? No. We are left with a range of choices and a great deal of possibility.
But was B.F. Skinner right? Can people become, with the proper teaching and reinforcement, anything? Serial killers, physicians, or hippies? Probably not. As they say, “The sky’s the limit” in terms of personal development. Guess what. The sky is not that far away compared with, say, Jupiter. Can you become anything? It becomes rather a non-issue in light of the fact that most people tend to become something that falls within their parameters. Is it any mistake that my father, the math major/computer engineer/Marriage and Family therapist guy has kids who have chosen to teach math, work on computers, and do psychotherapy for their livings? No. Did we each choose these things? Yes. Did life and the uncontrollable variables with which it presents us help choose these things for us? Yes.
The upshot is, we have more and less freedom than we think. Is there a pre-fabbed life course set out for us by our circumstances or (theologically speaking) by God’s will? I think not. Definitely not. Our choices are important and we are free to make them. Ever wonder what God wants you to be doing with your life? I have a prof who says, do whatever you were gonna do anyway, just do it to honor God. Wanna make movies? Have kids? Farm? Do it. Don’t let the compulsion to discern and follow God’s secret will stymie you. Or, if you feel like you’re being called to be a missionary in Zimbabwe but don’t want to “follow God’s call” (for example), then don’t go. Let someone else who does want to go have the chance. “God’s will” isn’t a preset, ironclad path we must search out. Neither does God delight in making us do things we hate.
The other upshot-the less freedom part-is that you probably can’t be ANYTHING when you grow up. No sense telling people who are 5’1″ they’ll be Jordan someday. Have people broken boundaries? Sure. But for every Spud Webb, there are 1000 other short guys thinking, “If I just work hard enough and trust God enough, the impossible is gonna happen.” Don’t be afraid to know what you’re good at, even if it isn’t marketable, popular, or what you would’ve chosen for yourself. There are no special, or better gifts. God wants you to aspire to what he’s made you to be. Nothing more, nothing less. So relax. If you don’t make it to the NBA someday (I know this analogy is gonna be big for my female readers), it’s not on you. What is on you is to use what you’ve got. Use it well. Use it for God.
P.S. (or is this a pet peeve): Doing God’s will does not mean it will always be easy (see Moses trying to convince God that his speech impediment might interfere with his leading the Israelites). Doing God’s will also does not mean you are free to opt out of certain kinds of activity, like saying hi to strangers at church or giving money to charity, cuz they don’t fit within your gifts. We can all grow and stretch and, as Christians, there are a group of responsibilities we all share.
November 30th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
i remember a long, long time ago you told me that it’s not hard to figure out what God wants us to do with our lives. Just to look at what we are good at and what gives us joy. you said, “God isn’t going to give you the talent and ability to be a great actress, as well as the pleasure that comes from acting, and then say, ‘But I want you to be a banker.’” That just stuck with me. In a way, I can see that we have less freedom because of what we’re handed in life (i.e. our genetic makeup, our character traits, personality types, and talents and abilities) but in a way, I don’t see it as less freedom. We could still make the choice to pursue things that seem out of our reach, like you said. There are people who break boundaries. But it seems like people who choose to pursue what they’re good at or capable of aren’t less free, just sane. The option is still there. Just seems stupid to pursue, I guess. Blah blah blah, I’m not even really aware of what I’m saying anymore. Where’s my book…?
December 1st, 2005 at 1:22 pm
I agree, the playing field that we start on at birth is not even (or the same, or fair, etc) and it never will be. Not to make this political, but liberals don’t understand this. They complain and complain about a level playing field, but the reality is there never has been, and never will be. Some people are born in the ghetto, some are born in Beverly Hills. Where you go from there is up to you. It’s not the governments job to make sure everyone gets the same thing. Ok, I’m done.
As for with God and stuff…I agree. I don’t think he controls what we do, because we make choices in life. What God wants us to do is really simple (to seek and save the lost). The bible never says anything about “Don’t worry, I’ll send you encrypted signs in your daily life about what I want you to do.” No, he doesn’t have to because he’s already told us what to do. That along with the bit on spiritual gifts is all the direction God needed to give, now we just have to do our part.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:37 am
I think that we often put a lot of high expectations on ourselves about who and what we think we ought to be. Certainly we all bring innate and learned limitations with us, and some of those can be discarded or minimized with awareness and effort, but as imperfect people this a life-long endeavor for all of us. Simply being ourselves and making incremental improvements along the path of life is about all that we can do or expect as we strive to reach the personal and spiritual goals that we have set for ourselves, either deliberately or not.
I sometimes wonder how much of who I am was learned and how much just came as part of the original package. Even with those learned or innate influences I know that I have an obligation to understand those areas of my life that that require my time and attention so that I can then influence and improve those areas. We all have an unlimited number of choices available to us in life. I think the challenge is to find an area in our life that needs some work and then take the necessary steps to bring about the change. I know that I can often spend hours researching the purchase of some item that I really want to possess, but I often lack the same dedication in my pursuit of becoming a better person. Some choices are much more important than others and discerning those which truly have priority is sometimes the first and most difficult hurdle to overcome.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
There’s something in here about submission and freedom. How doing what God made you for, even if it seems like you’re not totally free to choose what you were made for, well, it makes you free when you follow it. I think that’s how God operates generally. Want to be free? Do what he says. Follow your own choices and desires limitlessly and you might not end up living a very free-feeling life. Freedom, true freedom, comes from living inside the way given by God.