FREE WILL

The other day, I was asked the question:  How could a loving God allow three children to die as they walked to the bus?  (This happened and devastated the community.)

Disclaimer:  I, for sure, do not have the theological background to answer this question.  But my heart breaks for this person because this question is standing between them and fully believing in God.

Free will:

• the ability to act at one's own discretion
• makes you automatically responsible for what is happening to you
• ethical choice implies free will; for how can we choose between right and wrong unless we are free to make that choice

God wants us to LOVE him, not because we have to but because we want to.  Without the ability to make choices, we would be like puppets, with God controlling our every move.  We would not feel emotion.  We would not know true love, only demanded love. 

Free will gives us the ability to think.  We have the ability to look around and realize there is a Creator.  We have the ability to seek and, when we find God, we have the ability to LOVE – a honest love, freely given – because we know all he has done for us.

But there is another side to free will and that is the side we question.

The driver did not set out to cause such loss but did freely get in the truck and head down the road.  For whatever reason, the children were not seen until it was too late.  And the voices ask God, “Why did you allow this to happen?”

A loved one dies and the voices ask God, “Why did you allow this to happen?”

A child is abducted and the voices ask God, “Why did you allow this to happen?”

A drink is taken and another and another – addiction begins – and the voices ask God, “Why did you allow this to happen?”

A hurricane, fire, or tornado wipes out a town and the voices ask God, “Why did you allow this to happen?”

“Why God?  Why?”  This is the question we all want answered.

Google why does God allow bad things to happen and you will have to search through 11,300,000 answers.  Bad things happen to teach us a lesson.  Bad things happen because of our actions.  Bad things happen because God is not a loving God.  11,300,000 answers to pick from.

This is a quote from an article, by Lee Strobel, found at https://www.equip.org/article/why-does-god-allow-suffering/

Human suffering came about because people abused their free will, not because God wanted to hurt us.  God decided to give free will to men and women because this is the only way we can enjoy the highest value in the universe, which is love.  Jesus said, “The first and greatest commandment” is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and the second is “Love your neighbor as yourself” (see Matt. 22:37–39). Without free will, we could never love, because in order to love we must have the choice not to love.

If God had forced us to love, this would be akin to programming a robot to say, “I love you.”  It could utter the words, but they would be meaningless because it has no choice but to say them.

I do know one thing about asking God why.  If you are going to ask, “Why did God allow this to happen?” you also need to ask the same question of your blessings.

“Why did God allow me to see?”

“Why did God allow me to hear?”

“Why did God allow me to blessed with children?”

“Why did God allow me to be cancer free?”

“Why did God forgive me?”

“Why did God allow me to ………?”

God decided to give free will to men and women because this is the only way we can enjoy the highest value in the universe, which is love.  

Why?  I have no idea.  BUT I believe in a God who loves me enough to give me options.  Sometimes the option I pick causes others pain.  Sometimes the option I pick causes joy.  And sometimes the option I pick leads me to eternal life.  It is that option God rejoices over.