Tag: <span>free will</span>

Jean Valjean, a vagabond in the classic “Les Miserables” was a just released prisoner in midlife. “Nineteen years in French prison have left him rough and fearless. He walked for four days in the Alpine chill of nineteenth century southeastern France, only to find that no inn will take him, no tavern will feed him.” Max Lucado tells the story in “Grace.” “Finally he knocks on the door of a bishop’s house. Monseigneur Myriel is seventy five years old. Like Valjean he has lost much. The revolution took all the valuables from his family, except some silverware, a soup ladle, and two candlesticks.” “Valjean expects the religious man to turn him away. “ “But the Bishop is kind. He asks the visitor to sit near a fire.” “He explains, ‘This is not my house, but the house of Jesus Christ.’””…  They dine on soup and bread, figs, and cheese with…

“Amor fati” fellow fanatics, “amor fati!” translated “The love of fate.” “It is foolishness to oppose a tendency which is obviously a law of history and to take countermeasures against a trend which is a natural law.” Nietzsche.   Really? Does history itself have a personality, does it have a mind? Is that raucous tide able to bend or yield? Where goes it? What are its ends? Can we change history? The fatalists emphatically say “no.” Apparently “history,” the person, is not like the redeemed saints who realize God’s image. The will of the lover of fate is already determined and cannot change. Therefore worshipers at this altar cannot stop the inevitable. They just “go with the flow.”– Whether death or life. What the historo-gods rule, they carry out through forced will.   The Christian perspective is in diametric opposition to these ideas. We say indeed, history, (His story), will take a certain…

500 ft.- Noah’s Ark replica-Ky. “The meek will He guide in judgment; the humble will hear and be glad. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live forever.” 22:26 Psalms. “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalm 37:11. We as mere men wish to change the things, events, or circumstances having be-chanced our life journey. We want to scramble them, soften the blow. We cannot. We cannot candy-coat, muddle, spin or water-down. These things have befallen us, period. Their collateral damage will not suddenly un-frag, huddle, or conglomerate, nor will its wound close up right now. Perhaps a miracle of heaven awaits, but not yet. Instead of gall, jealousy, or spite, the meek lights upon something other; acceptance. Acquiescence, reception, acknowledgment, agreement, belief; do you see where this is taking us? Yes, to…