Are you free?

Make straight paths (Mark 1:2) 
Are we free? Next time you make a simple choice, toast or cereal, coffee or tea, laugh or cry, is it possible, with no change of circumstance, that you would choose differently? I suspect not. I mean now you will of course, just to prove me wrong. But if you hadn't read this then you wouldn't do anything differently. 
So are we free? We think we are. We treat others as if they are for we punish the wicked and reward the good. But whenever we look at how we actually behave we realise that our choices are decided by our experiences and characters. Nature and nurture determine who we are and what we do.
But are we free? Look at it this way. We are made up of stuff, matter, which obeys universal laws, physics. Is there anything you can do to change the laws of physics or to alter the nature of matter. No. Again the freedom dilemma. We think of ourselves as able to choose when all of physics tells us we can't. 
How then, are we free? Well, I am convinced that we are cannot be free without God. Only if there is a more fundamental authority than physics that gifts us the ability to reorder our existence can we actually be free. And my strong suspicion is that this gift is rarer than we would like to imagine.
So let us pray that our paths are made straight, that we have freedom when we most need it and guidance when we have no idea where to go. For when God gifts us a moment of real free choice we really need to make the most of it.

Roses in the sunset


Location: United Kingdom

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