Is There Such a Thing as Free Will?

This question was posed on Facebook. I didn’t answer it then because I had to think about it. And like most FB posts, it got buried and lost so I don’t know what other people said either.

The question isn’t “Is there Free Will?” The very idea that we get to make decisions about our lives proves that Free Will exists. The question should be “What does Free Will look like”

First of all, Free Will isn’t about the free will to choose whether we’ll wear lip gloss in Sheer Pink from MAC or Opal Glimmerkiss from Avon. Or whether we’ll have the cherry pie or the apple. The topic of Free Will almost always revolves around morality, God and consequences.

The Bible doesn’t actually use the phrase Free Will that I can find. But there are many times when someone including ourselves are told to “choose.” This option to choose is where we get the idea that we have Free Will. Adam and Eve were told not to eat the forbidden fruit but they weren’t stopped from doing so. They were allowed the option to choose therefore they had Free Will.

Having choices doesn’t necessarily give us free will.

Imagine having the choice of death by beheading or death by hanging. It’s a free will choice. But if I were in that situation, I think I’d want more choices. I certainly wouldn’t call it Free Will.

James 4:17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

I think the mistake we make is that we think that Free Will is the same for everybody. Like we all have the same choices from an uncountable array of choices. But we don’t. For example, a person going through a famine in Africa, a soldier that barely survived Viet Naam while the rest of his platoon were killed, and the spoiled daughter of a multi-millionaire, even if faced with the same choices, will respond differently.

Everything that makes us who we are changes how we respond to the same set of circumstances and skewers our notion of free will. My emotions on any given day can change. For women, there are hormones that change our mood and can effect everything about us. Premenstrual Syndrome, Post-Partum depression and menopause impact most of our lives. And men aren’t free of the effects of hormones either. Too much or too little testosterone turns them into a completely different person. Feeling furious, depressed or joyful changes how I think, respond and choose.

And when that “Free Will” is applied to whether believing in God or asking Jesus to be my Savior, every person reacts differently. A kid who grew up in home with loving Christian parents will respond to their faith more positively than a kid who grew up in a home where they went to church every Sunday but by the time they got home, mom and dad were screaming at each other and dad slaps them around. And someone raised in an atheist or Muslim home who has never heard of Christianity or Jesus – there is no free will to choose Jesus’ love and grace at all.

Someone once said, we are not in the same boat. We are in the same storm but not the same boat. Some are clinging to life rafts, some are paddling canoes as fast as we can and others are sipping cocktails on the deck of a cruise ship. This is the same for Free Will. We aren’t in the same boat, just the same storm.

The Free Will choice for the person clinging to the life raft is to hold on or let go. The one paddling the canoe can paddle, cling to the sides of the boat, steer towards the shore or grab lunch out of their backpack. The person on the cruise ship has endless possibilities. None of them life or death no matter how bad the storm. Yes, we are all in the same storm. Not the same boat. Not the same choices. Not the same life experiences. Not the same Free Will.

When I look out my window, I see a hummingbird feeder. When someone in the Arctic looks out their window, they see snow. We come from different backgrounds, we have had different experiences and we all have different views.

What do you think when you hear the word Prostitute? Probably negative. Did you know that beloved poet, Maya Angelou was a prostitute once? She wasn’t forced into it either. You’ll have to read her story to get the whole picture [and I highly recommend it. She wrote four books that cover the expanse of her life and that isn’t the only shocking thing in them.] She had free will to choose whether she sold herself or not but if you read her story, you’ll see that many things in her growing up years, distorted her ability to choose smartly.

So, does that mean I can do anything I want? Technically yes! That’s exactly what Free Will is. But I don’t get to choose my consequences. And consequences can be harsh. Back to Adam and Eve. They made one mistake. And the end result is death for everyone who will ever be born and a future Armageddon.

Personal choices that I have made in my life have caused my own “Armageddons.” If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done many of the things I did. Free Will doesn’t give us a glimpse into the future and what the consequences will be. I think that is why I question whether we have Free Will even though I know that we do. Free Will is colored by what I’ve been through, my biology, my past and the people and things that influence me.

So what does it mean for us? Be kind to each other. Give each other space and grace. A woman was thrown down on the ground, surrounded by a group of people ready to stone her. She had made the free will choice to commit adultery. One person extended grace. He said, “Let the person who is without sin throw the first stone.” They all walked away. Jesus helped her up and said, “Go and sin no more.”

Use our Free Will choices wisely and extend grace to all those who didn’t. We’ll need it ourselves someday.