To quote a famous playwright "to be or not to be..."

To be or not to be that is the question.  I don't know the rest of this quote but I do, at least, remember that part which is the important part to remember in this particular entry.  That seemed a bit long-winded don't you think.

Any way.  As I learned in college, there were a group (or should I say "there is a group) of Christians who follow the thoughts and teachings of John Calvin. I don't claim to have read his teachings but I was taught that one of the things he taught was "predestination".  Here's the definition I found online:

 

pre·des·ti·na·tion

prēˌdestəˈnāSH(ə)n/

noun

noun: predestination; noun: pre-destination

(as a doctrine in Christian theology) the divine foreordaining of all that will happen, especially with regard to the salvation of some and not others. It has been particularly associated with the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo and of Calvin

Which means, basically and probably over simplified, that God knows what choices we are going to make in our lives.  He knows who will take the gift of salvation and who will not.  The thought then becomes, well if He knows, then there is nothing left for me to do, the decision has been made fore me.  This takes out free will. Because God knows everything, then we have no choices in the matter.  No matter how hard we try, we cannot change our destiny and that has been written in stone for us.

It sounds good in a way, because it means we don't have to think about it.  We are going to do what we are going to do and the thinking and choosing involved is not necessary.

On the other hand others believe that we still have a choice to follow God or not.  But how does that work with a God that knows everything?

It's simple.  God gave us free will, yet still knows what we will do.  In the infinite choices we make over the course of our lives there are many universes where we make other choices. The Creator of all things also made multiple universes and knows every choice we will make and yet we are free to choose those things or actions we wish to choose.

Some times my mind gets to thinking that because He knows all, that there are no choices for me to make.  Yes I struggle with that at times, but I always come back to the realization that God didn't create just this one universe, but many.  It's because of free will that He made all the universes.  If we make a decision in this universe, perhaps our doppelganger in another universe makes a different decision.  I'm comfortable enough in my beliefs that we have free will and we can make whatever decisions we want and God knows them and the path we tread when we make the choice.  He does not hinder us, he simply sets the path in front of us.

I'm not a super spiritual or religious person, but sometimes I think God speaks to me and gives me insight to share.  I hope that what I wrote here and in other postings, in some way inspires you.

Love you all in God.