CHANCE, CHOICE, OR CHOSEN-NESS? How do you explain the random-ness of this life under the sun? Solomon had the same options any one of us has in explaining why things are the way they are. These choices could be called philosophies of life, and they go by many names, although I will suggest three generic terms for them: chance, choice, and chosen-ness. Which of them is the answer? I believe it is a combination of the last two. Life is chosen ﾖ not by fate or a nebulous higher power, but by God Himself. Yet in His chosen-ness, there is a personal choice. Suppose, for example, that winter is coming. I could choose, in the middle of winter, to put on a bathing suit and jump into an outdoor pool. That would certainly be a choice. Winter is predetermined, but I can choose how I respond to winter. Much about our lives has already been determined. Our gifts and abilities, our talents, the families into which we were born ﾖ these things were chosen for us by God. But within that chosen-ness, we have choices. We are not free moral agents, or, as R.C. Sproul has said, We are free subjects who serve a sovereign king. We live on the backside of lifes tapestry, trying to make sense of the weaving with one colored strand or another of philosophy. We see the threads of life, but not its grand design. When do we understand? Only when we view the tapestry from the upper side ﾖ above the sun. From that perspective, the pattern is nothing less than perfect: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to end. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 NIV) I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14 NIV)
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 12:33:55 +0000
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