{Monday, October 02, 2006
. Destiny And Free Will}
Quite a few months back I had been trying out for the basketball team for my school. My friends who had tried out for another division had told me that the coach would be choosing people based on their chemistry with the teammates. I didn't think much of it, as I went for the trials every week. Problem was, I only knew one person in the entire division and was never teamed up with him, so my chemistry with my teammates never went well on the basketball court. It went well for them, since all of them knew each other, so when they announced the people who had made it to the team, common sense would tell you I did not make it. However the final trial session earlier had pumped me with adrenaline, and my thinking wasn't very good. It was so bad that I said my in my head "God, this is what you call answering prayers huh?" Indeed, I sounded very petty. But back there being quite pissed off and not thinking properly, I thought that, and in my mind said that I would not be doing good works for the next few days, as some form of payback for not making it to the basketball team. I do not blame you if you feel like slapping me, I feel like doing that now that I think about it. Well let me tell you that no one makes "deals" with the Lord, and even if you put it in your own terms, it won't succeed. A hint of this was apparent to me when I felt that Someone was telling me I would be doing much more instead.
The next few days I started helping out my friends more, did my school work with greater effort and read the Bible every day. During a cellgroup meeting later on the week I even helped explain some prayer issues to the spiritually younger members, talked about their spiritual lives, gave some pointers to help out a bit and told them even more about God and His good grace. Now hold a second. I said that I would not do good works and I meant it, petty as it was. Yet God had said He would use me to teach more and do even more good works. I'm known especially well to be a slacker in school and only put in good effort when I put my mind to it because of some reason. Back then I wasn't known to be helping out a lot and even less for teaching and guiding younger members, yet I did all this because the Lord had said it. In spite of what I tried to do with my thoughts, His rhema word came to pass instead of my pettiness. Now the Lord never forces anyone anywhere, or to do anything, but His grace does enable us to do things we wouldn't have done otherwise. Yet whilst I still had my free will to not do good works, He knew I would be doing more than I usually did.
Amazing how free will fits with destiny. God, all-knowing, knew Adam would sin, but He died for our sins as payment for what Adam did. God, all-knowing, knew I would not make it into the basketball team, but He knew I would do otherwise from what I had thought to myself. How exactly does God use sinful people who I'm sure have worse thoughts than mine? How does free will make sense with a planned future? Even I don't know... But I thank God that He uses me for His purposes instead of me snubbing good works. And so He can use everyone too, no matter what the circumstances. A young shepherd boy kill a gigantic warrior bigger than Yao Ming? A prophet who did not want to preach but did? A good friend who says he'll never leave you and will die with you, but moments later he denies every knowing you, not once, not twice but three times! God called on David, as a young boy to fight a nation's war. As an adult, he was called a man after God's own heart, even though he committed adultery and displeased the Lord on several occasions. Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet, for all the death he saw when God gave judgement to Israel. Simon, which meant a wavering reed, was called Peter, which meant rock, by Jesus. He called him something he wasn't but would later become. When God calls us for something, He will call us something we never thought we could do, but because He is always there, we can. He certainly knows. Amen?