It is such a simple statement, but the implications of it are truly profound. E. Stanley Jones writes, “Our freedom is a problem to God.” (Abundant Living, page 18). The Eternal Creator did choose, when bringing to life human beings, to give us the freedom of telling the Almighty “No”... it is called Free Will. For some reason I’ve always seen free will as our problem not God’s.
In retrospect, Dr. Jones is correct. Just think about it from the perspective of being a parent. How many times have we, as parents, desired to step-in when we were witnessing our child making decisions that we just knew was going to produce painful results for them? When they are young it is much easier to take such action – after all we ARE the parent and “Because I say so” really does work – than when they are teenagers or even worse, young adults!
The desire is for our precious child to grow up to be a responsible adult making solid decisions. If we are wise we realize that freedom, total and complete, must be granted to our maturing prodigy if they are to achieve the statehood of an independent adult. Yet, as we sit-back, allowing the process to develop, there are times that we still want to insert ourselves into their lives, but their freedom is a problem to us. Does it hurt? Yes! Is it a problem? By all means! Free will is freedom at its best and at its worse.
On the same page Rev. Jones shares, “A little boy of five, after seeing a puppet show, expressed his reaction thus to the doctor: ‘I’m glad I’m not one of those pretending persons. They have to do what they are told.’” Neither do we have to do what we are told, but we really should listen to what our Eternal Parent desires for us and be wise enough to follow it!
Quote for today: “Blessed are the homesick, for they shall come home.” A German proverb shared by E. Stanley Jones
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As the parent of two little ones, I definitely sense my desire over and over and over again for the boys to make good choices... to do something because it's the right thing to do, and not because they are forced.
ReplyDeleteThis on-going reflection definitely tunes me into God's desire for our lives. The image of God as a Heavenly Parent becomes even more fitting!