I have remarked before, and I am sure you have too, about the coincidences (?) of themes that suddenly appear. You hear, for instance, a certain word or about a certain subject and suddenly it seems to appear again and again. I imagine that is because we have been alerted and now we see, but all the same it seems worth attending to the alert. Maybe something is being brought to our attention.
Today it was about choice. I started a new book of Mary Oliver's poetry called: Evidence. At the beginning before the poetry begins there is a quote from Soren Kierkegaard which says: We create ourselves by our choices. For whatever reason that kind of stopped me dead for a moment. We create ourselves by our choices. Is it true?
In the same reading session, still reading the book by Desmond and Mpho Tutu I found that I was beginning a chapter called, Free to Choose. Is that a coincidence? It hit me because I always used to find myself qualifying statements about the power of choice in our lives by asking 'how much freedom do we really have? Are we not to quite a strong extent limited by upbringing? by personality? by life circumstances? But I think what the Tutu's are saying about this is really really vital.
Choice is a freedom each person has. God invests each of us with the freedom to choose. ...We have the freedom to choose right. But that would be meaningless if there were not also the possibility that we could choose wrong.
The chapter then goes on to look at the parable of the Prodigal Son in which the younger son takes his father's money, the inheritance he would have received upon his father's death, and squanders it. When he spends it all he decides to return home not sure, of course, how he will be received, but his father seeing him a long way off, runs to greet him, embraces him, and celebrates his return. There is of course, much more to the story but part of the point the Tutus want to make is about the father's response.
The breadth of God's forgiveness, the depths of God's love, and the grace to wait - true wisdom for parenting - are all displayed in this simple story.
The powerful powerlessness of parenting is akin to the self-imposed impotence of God in the face of our choices. Like the father in the parable who just sits there day after day helpless - in a way - God is not willing to do anything to infringe upon our freedom...In the parable we see the father's longing. We can imagine him stepping out of his house each day to sit where he can watch the long road...then finally, one day, waaaay over theeereee in the distance he sees a figure approach...he runs...to meet his child.
But there is another and just as important aspect of this whole business of the freedom of choice and that is that we are not just left to our own devices to muddle through our choices on our own. The shepherd of Luke's Gospel parable lets us see that God honors our choices yet seeks us out.
It is the seeking out, the accompanying, the embracing that keep us from being crushed by our destructive choices. Kierkegaard says that all our choices make us who we are and God is saying, they don't have to destroy you, my love will create a thing of beauty in your heart and of your life. You can choose to let me.
1 comment:
What a beautiful coincidence. In Buddhism and other eastern religions, I think karma expresses the idea that we are shaped by our choices. That everything has a cause and an effect. Perhaps this might seem scary, but ultimately, I think having these choices gives us freedom.
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