Friday, September 12, 2008
Gods power
Tonight something was brought to my attention. Does God make our fate or do we? Well, i got into a car accident nothing major just a couple scratches. What made me think was my mom. She said, "I believe in God, and that what happens is fate." See i was on my way to go see my boyfriend, when this happened. I guess it was his way of telling me to not go. See my mom didnt know that i was and it was a white lie. Thinking about all of this now, i came to the conclusion that he didnt want me out there. That i shouldnt lie anymore. This whole thing just made me think about what we are learning and the decisions that people make. I still wonder if it really is him making our fate or do we push ourselves in the direction that he wants us to go??
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15 comments:
I think, to my understanding, it's like this...
God has a plan for you. He knows your every move before you make it. But you also have freewill to make choices that are either for Him or against Him.
And it's good to know you aren't hurt from your car accident!
Just a thought, maybe you've been feeling guilty or convicted about your lies a lot lately. I mean, it doesn't take a minor fender-bender to remember that lying is wrong right?
Anyway, I guess I'm just saying that we really don't know what God's motivation for anything is. But if his intent was to make you confront your lies, then I am glad you listened and learned from him. Either way, his true purpose can be found in prayer.
Good luck!
I dunno--from my perspective--you probably want to listen to your parents, because, generally, unless you have bad/crazy parents, they probably have your welfare in mind. I'm not of the mind that your car accident was fate or that God caused it; however, I do sometimes marvel at the connections of various events/words/coincidences. The important thing is to make wise choices that you won't regret later. And to really think about what makes a wise choice. Sometimes the obvious "do-the-right-thing" isn't really the right thing.
I also agree that god has a plan for you. You might think that day should I see my boyfriend or should I because my parents don't know. The answer is god already knows your plans before you even do it.
Thanks for your imputs. I guess my thinking of it now is that somethings are fate but other times it just happens.
honestly i'm a bit confused by the idea that god has a plan set out for us all. if he already knows what's going to happen and he already knows what choices we're going to make, then the idea of free will is just a sham.
free will would imply that we're in control of all our decisions but the idea that god has a plan for our lives implies that he has already made those decisions for us. to believe in both seems contradictory.
I like this. You prove a good point that even the smallest, most insignificant things could always be broader tools. People often look past the simplest things. Whether it's something as cliched and comically obvious as the Bruce Almight "STOP," or your casual story. Open-minded watchfulness.
Also, in response to Boo, it's only contridictory on the level of it being point blank--God marks out every action, every thought for us and we just zombie through life...God doesn't care what we do or the choices we make so long as we repent.
Neither are correct.
The way I like to look at it is this: God has a purpose for us, and he plans out..."checkpoints," let's call them--and these checkpoints are scattered aplenty throughout our life. However, these checkpoints are CHOICES. God gives us the the choice to do as we will, or to DO through His will. And that's where "free will" comes in. We have that choice, to follow our own path, or follow the one God has set for us.
i wasn't arguing that either free will exists or god's will exists, i was merely stating that i often hear people describing them in their system of beliefs in a very contradictory way.
the idea of a system of checkpoints makes more sense to me as well. i guess i only vary on the idea of free will being given to us completely. i'd like to believe that god's plan merely consists of us living then dying. the rest really is up to us.
What a sad picture of God though! I believe in a god of compassion and mercy. If God is just sitting up in heaven waiting for us to die I'll be pretty sorely disappointed.
As others have said, I too believe we both have free will and, yet, God knows exactly what our choices will be. We must have free will, otherwise life wouldn't make sense. Why would God feel it necessary to create a bunch of zombies that run around doing his bidding? For lack of a better word, that seems pretty stupid...something I don't believe God is.
Likewise, God by definition is omniscient. So the idea that he has no idea what we're going to do with our free will doesn't make much sense either.
At times these two ideas do appear contradictory, but maybe it comes down to us - as humans - just not being able to wrap our mind around them.
i don't mean to present god as sitting in heaven waiting for us to die. i'm curious as to how you pulled that out of what i said. i only meant that by thinking a higher being controls our destiny, some may forget to listen to their own inner voice.
have you ever heard the story of the man trapped on his roof during a flood? he prayed that god would save his life as he sat there watching the water rise. suddenly, another man passed in a boat. the man offered to give him a ride to safety but the man on the roof said "no thank you. god will protect me."
a few hours later, a helicopter flew by. hovering over the exposed roof, someone called down "grab onto this rope! we'll pull you to safety!"
but the man again said "no thank you. god will protect me."
as the water rose higher, the man eventually drowned. when he arrived in heaven, he approached god and said "i only have one question lord. why didn't you protect me after i prayed and prayed?"
god replied "i did try, my son. i sent a boat and a helicopter to rescue you but you did not accept their help."
see my point any better? i don't believe that god planned this man's situation before hand. i don't think he put "get trapped on a roof during a flood" on this man's 'to do' list.
the events that occur in our lives, the situations in which we find ourselves, those are up to us. how we get out of them and continue on, that's where god steps in.
I think God has a plan for all of us. But, in my opinion this wasn't part of it. God isn't out to get us. I believe that your car accident had nothing to do with Gods plan. It's just one of those strange situations that makes you think.
p.s. Glad your okay!
thank you sunshine.
whether you know it or not, you just supported my point. haha
I always though of God's plan as more of a flow chart kind of thing. We start at one point and out choices lead us in different directions. But, no matter what we choose, God is there to give us the signs we need to be directed back to Him. I don't think that God's avility to know in advance what we will choose inhibits our freewill, it simply allows Him to stay one step ahead of us so that we never stray quite too far.
That is just my personal opinion though. I like the idea that God is always in the right place and time to catch me when I fall. And how could He do that if he didn't aready know where I was or what I was doing?
As far as the car accident thing, I do believe that God was giving you a sign. Maybe it wasn't about lying though. Maybe, God knew that if you went to your boyfriend's house something worse could have happened to you. Any thing from getting in trouble with your parents to getting hit and killed by a drunk driver on your way home. Things like that happen to me all the time. Things that seem terribly inconvenient at the time end up protecting me from being on the road during a huge storm or something like that. You can call it fate, or karma, or luck, or whatever you like but I always attribute it to God.
Boo, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth and I apologize for interpreting what you were saying wrong. From your story, I understand your point a lot much better. My bad...
no harm done bombilla :)
this blog is meant to let us all express our own opinions in a safe environment. i admire how strongly you stand behind your beliefs.
as for me, i'm sorry if i sounded too defensive.
This is so fun! I love getting different perspectives on this, because I think the ideas of freewill and God's will are very...broad, for lack of a better word.
I like the idea of a flow chart, but I think I am going to stick to my original thought, that God has a set plan for us. (is that dipping into pre-destination? whatev) anyway, I think it's just that when this plan seems minute or even mean, we don't like it.
For instance, maybe tomorrow I get in a car accident that paralyzes me. Am I happy about it? Do I want to believe that my perfect God put me in that state? No, but maybe he did it for a specific reason.
Maybe I grow in faith because of it and inspire someone else to keep going despite their disabilities. And even if that person never writes to me and thanks me, even if I never know how God used me, it was still part of the plan. We don't need to be let in on it to make it right.
As someone perfect and just, God doesn't owe us explanations especially for things that our human-earthly bound minds can't comprehend.
I don't know! I'm off on a tagent now. Anyway, I loved everyone's input, especially Plato's because I think looking at things in a secular way is important for basis for faith.
and B-rad, I always, always love the way you challenge my mind, in and out of this blog.
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