"It doesn't make sense," she said, "that we supposedly have 'agency' and can choose whatever we want, but that God knows what we're going to pick anyway and it's all pretty much planned out for us. I mean, if it's already set what is going to happen in our lives, what is the point of even making choices?"
It was a good question. I mean, how does that all work? Do we choose? Do we just follow some pre-determined path? And if there is some pre-determined path, what is the point of life? Why did we have to come here to prove what is already more or less set in stone?
As I thought about this, I remembered asking my Mom the same question when I was younger. Her answer made sense to me--and still does. It gives me faith that my Father knows me perfectly, but also that it matters what I choose.
My brother Brett loved Life cereal as a kid. In fact, I am pretty sure we have some funny pictures connected with that...him asleep in a cupboard or getting into a cupboard or eating cereal in the dryer??? I don't know. I just know he really liked it. A lot.
Parents know their children--their likes and dislikes, their personalities, and the way they think--pretty well. My mom told me that she knew, absolutely knew, that if she sat my brother down at the table for breakfast and gave him all the choices of cereal, letting him pick whatever he wanted, he would pick Life. No matter how many choices there were. No matter what the other choices were. If you put Brett at a table full of cereal, he would pick Life.
It wasn't that anyone was "making him" pick Life. No one even suggested it. It was that there weren't other options or he couldn't pick something else. He could have whatever other cereal he wanted (Although honestly, seeing the cereal options the last few times I've been home, it's little wonder he picked the Life ever time....). My mom just knew her child. Knew him well enough to know what he would decide. Was it possible he would pick something else? Sure. Could he? Sure. But did he? No. Of course not.
It's not that God has picked what my whole life will be. He just knows me so perfectly that He knows what I will choose given a certain set of circumstances. To be honest, a lot of times He knows what I will pick when I myself don't even know. Isn't it crazy how sometimes parents know you better than you even know yourself?
I strongly believe that God, knowing us and our strengths and weaknesses, gives us opportunities to be in specific places at specific times with specific people so that the most people can be blessed and benefitted. He helps coordinate and arrange opportunities, know things we may not even know about ourselves, to ensure that we grow and are happy and that we get the desires of our hearts. Knowing who we are, He lets us choose--whatever we want.
We need it. We need to live our lives and makes choices so that we know that we chose, so that we get exactly what we picked in life, so that we figure out who we are and what we can become. But it doesn't mean that someone doesn't know us so well that He has a pretty good idea of what paths we will take.
While I am sure agency is much more complicated than a bowl of Life cereal, it is what makes sense today.
ahhh, I LOVE this analogy!!! I can't tell you how many times I've used it since you shared it with me in the MTC :) perfect! thanks
ReplyDelete