P
Prometheum_x
Guest
If your free will can be changed against your will, it isn’t really all that free.
It seems to me that in your worrying about your will being changed, you are expressing the desire to be able to set your mind on something and never change it. However, it is your will, and you can change it whenever you like. (This is why it is so easy to fall into sin – all you have to do is choose to turn away from God, and you can do that whenever you want.)
It seems that there is a small fear somewhere inside of you that this guy could be right. Right now, you don’t want him to be right – and this is why it is so unsettling to think that you could change your mind in the future. What you are doing, though, is projecting both you and him into the future and imagining that things are substantially the same as they are now, only that you have gone mad or are under mind control and have an interest in him. While an understandable way of thinking about things – I do it all the time – it is an invalid method. (I am not at all addressing the situation in particular, only that line of thinking)
First of all, apart from a revelation from God, one simply cannot know what things will be like even in a week, much less a few years. We can make all the projections we want, but just bear in mind how good we are at making weather predictions. That’s just the weather, which isn’t remotely as complex as even a single person.
Second of all, when we decide that we do not want to change our will, even in the future, we are to some degree placing our will on par with God’s. We are saying that we know what’s good for us right now, and we aren’t open to changing our mind on that in the future. But how can we be so sure that we have it all correct right now?
Was it in Mary’s will to be a pregnant virgin, carrying the Son of God in her womb? I doubt it was before Gabriel came to her. But there in that moment, she said, “Let it be done to me according to your will be done” – your will be done. And she did not know that her son would be crucified, and surely she did not will it. But when the time came, she conformed her will to God’s and chose to watch her son suffer and die upon the cross.
Jesus himself prayed, “Not my will but yours be done.” And he taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
Mary’s example is quite instructive for us. She chose to conform to God’s will. God did not force her to – he invited her to. We should try to be like her, always ready to do God’s will when he reveals it to us.
But we don’t have to. We can always say no:
“I will not serve.”
It seems to me that in your worrying about your will being changed, you are expressing the desire to be able to set your mind on something and never change it. However, it is your will, and you can change it whenever you like. (This is why it is so easy to fall into sin – all you have to do is choose to turn away from God, and you can do that whenever you want.)
It seems that there is a small fear somewhere inside of you that this guy could be right. Right now, you don’t want him to be right – and this is why it is so unsettling to think that you could change your mind in the future. What you are doing, though, is projecting both you and him into the future and imagining that things are substantially the same as they are now, only that you have gone mad or are under mind control and have an interest in him. While an understandable way of thinking about things – I do it all the time – it is an invalid method. (I am not at all addressing the situation in particular, only that line of thinking)
First of all, apart from a revelation from God, one simply cannot know what things will be like even in a week, much less a few years. We can make all the projections we want, but just bear in mind how good we are at making weather predictions. That’s just the weather, which isn’t remotely as complex as even a single person.
Second of all, when we decide that we do not want to change our will, even in the future, we are to some degree placing our will on par with God’s. We are saying that we know what’s good for us right now, and we aren’t open to changing our mind on that in the future. But how can we be so sure that we have it all correct right now?
Was it in Mary’s will to be a pregnant virgin, carrying the Son of God in her womb? I doubt it was before Gabriel came to her. But there in that moment, she said, “Let it be done to me according to your will be done” – your will be done. And she did not know that her son would be crucified, and surely she did not will it. But when the time came, she conformed her will to God’s and chose to watch her son suffer and die upon the cross.
Jesus himself prayed, “Not my will but yours be done.” And he taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
Mary’s example is quite instructive for us. She chose to conform to God’s will. God did not force her to – he invited her to. We should try to be like her, always ready to do God’s will when he reveals it to us.
But we don’t have to. We can always say no:
“I will not serve.”
)
