When things don't work out...

Its extremely frustrating when things dont work out in a way you had planned for them to. You start to question your own abilities and wonder whether there was anything else that you could have done...

But then thinking about it from another perspective, it becomes abundantly clear that we have no charge over the way anything goes, let alone what happens in our own lives. We're frail and human... So just how far can we take self-will and where does free will fit in???

Just yesterday i was having a discussion with a colleague about what necessarily entails free will. God did allow us a free will and we have the freedom to make the choices that lead our lives towards Him or away from Him; to live our lives how we choose to live them or submit ourselves back to what He would want us to do. But what about the situations and circumstances that we have control over? What happens to our freedom there? The answer lies in understanding the fact that our freedom doesn't mean freedom from causality (the relationship between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is a direct consequence of the first) or materialism; rather it means freedom from compulsion and restraint. For example, the laws of gravity put certain restraints failing which a person cannot fly, but it doesn't prevent the person from flying. Similarly when faced with failure, we can choose to be optimistic and make it a learning experience our choose to be negative and downcast (why so downcast oh my soul....)

No matter what the situation or the circumstance thrown at us, we can choose to respond in different ways. In this we have free will. We are able to make the choices that determine whether we do what we know is right in our heart (our conscience) or do purposefully do wrong. We therefore are free to make choices that determine the course of our life towards God or away from Him.We can exercise our self will to the extent of making the choices that will bring us closer to Him and make the best out of our situation, circumstance or material standing. But beyond this, we have no choice but to realise that we are frail and human (created).

And the best part is God has proven to us time and again that we can trust Him for His plans are to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us a bright hope and a future... (Jer 29:11). Also that everything happens for the good of those who love the Lord... (Rom 8:28) and He is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love... (Heb 6:10). Even if all seems lost, we need to remind ourselves that the context in which God promises His people that His plans are to prosper them and give them a bright hope and a future; is when Jeremiah is prophesying over the land of Israel that they will be conquered. The people have no hope of coming back from there and have no certainty of what their future will be as a conquered nation. It is here that God gives them this promise. Nothing is lost in Him and with Him; if we have done our best, leave to God the rest... and be still and know that He is God (Psa. 46: 10)

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God. 
(Psa. 42: 5, 6)

FOR

He gives and takes away, but my heart will choose to say Lord blessed be Your name (Job 1: 21)