World Almighty
"you can't mess with free will"
You know those people including ourselves that say, “if there’s a God then why doesn’t he answer prayers or stop bad things from happening?”
I will never forget the scene in Bruce Almighty as the main character, Bruce, gets his Juan Valdez Columbian coffee delivered at the open window, then sits to answer prayers on the computer with a program he invented, “Yahweh Insta-Prayer!”
I know some Christians were up in the air about this movie and many did not like it, but I can’t think of a better way to exhibit how we really don’t understand who God is, as a “good Father” in the world.
< btw, I have no opinions about the actors. This is strictly a lesson, using entertainment >
Bruce Nolan's career as a television reporter has been put on hold for a while, when he's passed over for a coveted anchorman position. He has a fit, complaining to God he’s being treated poorly. Soon after, God (Morgan Freeman) actually contacts Bruce and offers him all of his powers if he thinks he can do a better job. Bruce accepts and goes on a power spree, using his new-found abilities for self-advancement until “he realizes that the prayers of the world are going unanswered.” (quote from movie bio)
I laughed out loud revisiting the scene, (below), as Bruce turns wincingly manic, wild fingers firing up the keyboard, unable to keep up with the pace of prayer requests.
How do we keep up with the pace of literally everything? Period.
The problem with the outcome above, “prayers going unanswered,” is that no one wants to hear God answers every prayer. Often, the answer is a “no.” Further, if you know anything about parenthood, or spoiled kids can you imagine the ugly factor of saying yes all the time to your children? or your employees? or how about “no” all the time? Which reminds me of another Jim Carrey movie, Yes Man, in which he says “yes” to EVERYTHING, after saying no to everything. Zero middle ground. What he soon discovers is that extremes “are good's enemy,” and that not all opportunities should be taken, nor all turned down.
Nonsense and chaos follow overkill.
Instead, we’re cynical, mad, disinterested and disappointed in God until He magically answers YES. How did we get here?
We’ve always been here.
So how do we rectify our negative view of an all powerful, all Sovereign God?
First, in a world of free will, we have no choice but to accept the fact that we are free agents and only by choice do we hold ourselves accountable to a moral compass, to our life’s circumstances, both genetic and environmental.
For example, in a recent interview Alexander Semenyuk of Lighthouse did with Coleman, from “A Convict’s Perspective."
One of the questions that impacted me greatly was:
What advice can you give to those who are struggling with trauma and guilt?
Coleman’s answer was this:
“This will ruffle some feathers because it always does however they need to accept that everything is their fault.
EVERYTHING is your fault.
I don't care if it's accurate, it doesn't matter if you can prove otherwise. All you're advocating for is your right to victimhood and, as a result, life is just something that happens to you. You have no control, no influence, no way out. However, if you accept that it's your fault, that puts your mind in the set where “I got myself into this mess, that means I can get out”. Establishing control is the only way forward. The only way to do that is to be the cause of the problem.
However, that's just in relation to things that have befallen you. Applying this same logic to your own actions, admitting it's your fault without excuses or explanations, is the only way to hold yourself together. 100% of guilty men sleep the night they're arrested. Nothing is troubling us and keeping us awake. We understand, whether we admit it to others or not, that we're supposed to be in that cell and accept the situation we're in. Only victims lose sleep.
The quicker you admit it's your fault, the sooner those painful traumas and wracking guilt become little more than stories you can tell. There's no boogie men, just you and the life you made.”
Incredible.
Just take the blame.
We know Jesus did. Right?
Gulp.
What?
What about an abused child? or a traumatized person? a murder victim's family?
But. what if this and that happened? a friend, family member dumped me? I was lied to? left behind, cheated on and one million other things.
Obviously the world would agree that it was the absolute worst ..right? It was soooo wrong, so horrible, so not our fault. It was done to me, or I did it because…
The five steps of grief follow. A path toward freedom or the precipice of rusting chains.
Does our demise then become our fault?
“Free yourself” is an overrated statement, imagining freedom is a start... It’s a choice to live or… volunteer for a slow mental death.
I saw Coleman’s blatant statement deeper than the “what ifs.” I gleaned this as a springboard to a clean slate. What was done was done. I had unlocked my chains of burden, forgave myself, them and found Holy freedom. Joy over a lifetime of condemnation. Forgetting is different. It remains with the remnants, the ugly figurine on the shelf. It’s ours, but holds no power.
No matter your birth circumstances, environment, genetics, and the level of “worst” you deem the worst, “everything is your fault” kicks the unnecessary garbage to the curb.
How on earth do we wrap our heads around that?
Fault without excuses. Fault, for holding stagnant space. We are still here. There are good things we can accomplish in the name of bad things that happened. In the name of good things that happened too.
Within the framework of our heart and soul, we as individuals can catapult into a healthier, more outwardly loving understanding of what free will actually means.
The World Almighty and all its opinions, blame-games, guilt medicines, deceives it’s own free will. It listens to the devil on one shoulder, rather than the Love on the other.
…and you can’t mess with that. Right?
or can you?
Listen to the lyrics of this beautiful song above. He is the God of the hills and valleys and we’re not alone.
<for all these videos, if you double click and they open fullscreen, you can hit the esc key and it will play and be small again>
How do we do God’s job? we don’t.
How we feel when we hold all the power…. until.
What happens when you’re on overdrive, out-of-control, trying to keep up with “yes.” (I love this scene because of the “photo walk” with yes-man. So annoying and true!)
Gotta love an 80’s music video! I laughed my way through this, although I LOVE the song and Steve Perry’s God given voice. “Separate Ways/ Worlds Apart.”
“Troubled times, caught between confusion and pain.” When we are too much. Too combative. Too troubled. Too opinionated.
“Someday Love will find you, break those chains that bind you.”
Deep divisions, left, right, purple, striped, polka-dotted, too much yes, too much no, too much self, not enough confidence, too much power, not enough power, too much listening, not enough listening, too much criticism, too many gods/idols, too much hate, not enough Love.
“Always pray and don’t give up” - from Luke and the parable of the widow
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He causes me to stand on the heights - Psalm 18:33
Love how you tied it together, I agree with this philosophy and also what you said about prayer, took me a while to understand it in life, I truly understood after reading Silence.
Wow! Brilliant! Accepting responsibility is the key because it does give you the control back. It seems to me that when people think about accepting responsibility for the things that happened to them when they were too young to protect themselves means that what happened was their fault. We equate fault with blame and blame with being bad but that's not what accepting responsibility means. It means choosing to deal with and resolve the past from an adult perspective. As an adult, we have the free will to choose to forgive ourselves, and then, once we have done that, extend the forgiveness to others because we know what it feels like to be in their shoes. That, I believe is what Jesus meant when he told us to take the log out of our own eye first. Know thyself - right?