Is a powerful word for most of us. We like to have our options as wide open as possible. We like to have autonomy in making decisions, in directing our path, in setting our own goals. If there’s one thing we can’t abide, it’s someone else making all of our choices for us.
On one hand, choice is indeed a gift from God. Yet another way in which we humans are created in the image of God, the one whose choices no one can veto. Free will is a family trait of those in the lineage of the Creator who willed all things into being.
On the other hand, Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
Which is a way of saying, “That choice you thought you made? It was actually birthed from God’s desires rather than your own.”
Quite often, the spiritual journey feels like something being done to us rather than something we do. It is as if a will from the outside is imposing itself upon us, although not with a heavy hand, but with a soft heart. Being a spiritual person means life-long practice in yielding to the good choices of God. Sometimes—as I imagine was the case for the original twelve—what we thought was a path of our own choosing was actually chosen for us.
And for that we are grateful. Grateful to be planted in good soil that leads to lasting fruit and love.
