“Meant to be” vs. “free will”–that was the topic of my last editorial. How does freedom of choice intersect with God’s sovereignty? It’s nice to theorize about. . . . But it’s not just about ideology: how we view this topic has heavy-weight, real-life implications.

And what might those be? There are several things I can think of right off-hand: hope vs. a sense of futility, our view of and interaction with God, how we deal with injustice and conflict, the approach we take to hurting people, and more.

• Hope vs. a sense of futility: if we believe in free will instead of pre-determined events, it frees us to believe, to have hope, that things can be better. We can put effort into changing the things we are capable of changing.

• Our view of, and interaction with, God: if we believe God put in place a system in which everything happens by design rather than by free choice, it can tend to make us view God as a dictator rather than as a loving Father who allows us to make our own choices. And that view totally affects how we relate to Him.

• How we deal with injustice and conflict: if we believe that everything is part of a divine master plan (not saying that God has no plans because that’s not true either), we won’t see the necessity of doing what we can as good soldiers of the cross to rectify evil and suffering.

• Approach to hurting people: when people experience loss and pain, if we view their sufferings as simply an outflow of what is pre-determined, our hearts cannot feel as deeply for their pain and it’s easy to minimize bad (even horrible) things. If, on the other hand, we realize that someone’s free choice caused another human being misery, we can enter into their pain as something God never intended.

The Great Controversy worldview dictates that we engage fully with the idea of a loving God who does not force us to do things His way. It frees us to enter into the pain of others through hopefulness and proactive effort toward positive change. 

In a world where everything is confusing and murky, let’s make sure we are crystal clear on this. It can make all the difference!