Everywhere I Go: Learning to See JesusSample

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 life's 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.