Free Will

Why does the Lord give me free will? Sometimes I would rather not have a free will so that I would not choose against God, but most of the time I am very glad I have free will.

I have been recently reflecting on why God gave me free will, what it really means, and how I should respond to this generous gift. Why God would make creatures that could chose something other than Himself, I don't have a clue. Better yet, why would a creature of this marvelous creator want to choose something other than Him? Why would God create pride? In theory, before God created, He was. All was God and God was all. When God created, all was part of God and God was part of all. There was nothing outside God. So why would He make creatures that could conceive of something outside of Himself? In reality there is nothing outside of Himself (except for the lack of God, which is not anything existential).

Regardless of His reasons, He made it this way. From this choice of His, He created free will. We can choose God or lack of God. But it never seems like that is the choice before me. When I choose to eat fries instead of salad, how am I choosing God or lack of God? It seems more obvious with the commandments, but free will is more than the commandments or the beatitudes. ALL our choices are either for God or not for God in some small way.

Life is good when *my will* falls in line with God's will. When our wills diverge, I may think life is good, but it is dreadfully not. I usually don't figure that out for a while, but thankfully I usually figure it out eventually.

Now on to another dear topic. The free will of others. If God gives us ALL free will, that means that the person who leads the "not-so-ideal" lifestyle has free will AND GOD RESPECTS IT!!! Sooooo, should we respect it? (Yes) But how do we go about bringing the love of God to people who choose not God? Well... maybe we can't. At least not right now, or perhaps not directly. (This is why praying for the conversion of people is REALLY important). If we respect their free will and love them in ways that they can receive, perhaps they will slowly become open to the love of God in other more direct ways.

In Scriptures, love is described in a number of ways, one of them being patient. When it comes to the conversion of our loved ones (and all people for that fact), we must respect their free will and be patient and live in the Hope that God will touch their hearts and draw them near. God was patient with me and respected my free will, and I believe that I should follow his example.