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Embracing Forty: Faith, Fate and Free Will
Views: 477Added: Tue. Mar 16, 2010 10:38am
Posted in: Aging
There are three things in life that I've been pondering since I was old enough to think for myself. My beliefs about these ideas are in part what shapes the way I lead my life today. Although they are very different concepts to most people, I see them as three ideals that complement each other quite well in my life.
I was raised in the Jewish faith. I learned about God at a very young age when I attended religious school. I soon felt that I had developed a relationship with God which was greatly nurtured by my parents in my upbringing. Because of that, my faith in God has never wavered. I have always believed in the higher power and I have always been awed by his creations. However, I have never believed for a moment that he has been controlling my life or the decisions that I've made. For me, God has been "the great spiritual spectator". Whether I've been confronted with tough challenges or have been presented with easy decisions, I know that the choices I've made have more or less been observed and noted by him. Sometimes I have even felt that I've been tested by him as well. I've often asked myself when I reach one of those many forks in the long road of life, "How will this choice affect my future?" and furthermore, "How will he judge the decisions that I've made". Often I think that he's just as concerned with how my decisions affect my fellow man. In any case, my decisions are just that...mine. How I am judged for the decisions I've made will be something I'll have to get back to you on. But many times in life, I believe, decisions are meant to be made about something he presents to us.
With respect to fate, there are those that might think that the only thing we are "fated" to do is to die at the end of our lives. For me, I believe that this is not necessarily the case. Because I believe in God, then I believe there is a plan. I believe that we are put here to learn something about ourselves that we can influence through our own actions before the eyes of God. Fate is defined as something that unavoidably befalls a person or is something that is destined to be. I would suggest that even if this is the case, the way we get to that destination is still through the means of our own actions. Here is a perfect example. Prior to the point in life when I met my wife, there were three opportunities in which we could have met. The first was in college. She was there first and I soon followed. We had both gone through the same program and had the same classes that were taught by the same professors. However, because of our actions, or our inactions, we missed each other. A few years later, (as fate would have it), we were both in attendance at the same concert. (Because I'll get asked this later, I will oblige your curiosity now and tell you that it was an Aerosmith concert). It was the same show, in the same city and venue, on the same night. Once again, the opportunity was there...and then gone. The third opportunity was after we had both established ourselves in our careers. We were working at different television stations in the same market. In pursuing a new job, I ventured up the road to the competing television station where she happened to be working. But to fate's dismay, I didn't get the job. So after three missed opportunities, fate had decided to intervene one more time. In a bit of an ironic twist my wife pursued a new job for herself at the television station where I was working. Needless to say she got the job and that was when we met. So to say we were fated to meet is probably an understatement. To say that we were destined to be together might be going a bit too far. I believe that fate presented us with the choice, but it was of our own free will that brought us together.
Free will, on the other hand, is just that. It is nothing tricky nor any big mystery in life. We are all accountable for our own actions. In my opinion, we are defined by what we do...how we treat each other...and the choices we make and act upon. When we were young, it was very easy to blame a sibling and say, "He (or she) made me do it". As we get older, we know better. We try and make better decisions and hope that what we decide brings peace in our hearts and to those around us. Sometimes though, that's not always the case. But the ability to think for ourselves enables the ability to control ourselves. By the same standards, we also find that we can either benefit or be hurt by someone else's free will. It's kind of scary knowing that you can be influenced in some way by the free will of any one of the nearly 7 billion other people out there. That's a whole lot of free will. But let's not focus on all of them, let's just worry about those around us and ourselves. "Free" is a word we take for granted. Let's be grateful we have it and let's be responsible with what comes of it.
So what does any of this have to do with embracing forty? For the most part, it has been a thought process that has worked for me so far and one that I plan to continue into my next forty years. How will this shape my future? I would like to believe that my faith in God combined with faith in myself will lead me to make good decisions of my own free will about the situations that fate may present. If I can do that, it will ultimately lead me to a happier place in life.
