Free will and the Tree of Life

As I was driving home today some thoughts that I have been turning over in my head finally came together.  The first thought that I have turned over in my head for a good number of years concerns free will and how God could know our beginning and end if we actually have free will.

A common question concerning free will and God is this, if we truly have free will, the right and ability to choose our own destiny by the decisions we make daily, then how does God know the beginning and the end of our lives?  If He knows the path our lives will take, then aren't our lives already planned from the beginning to the end and free will is an illusion?  This thought and question assumes that a path is a singularity, in essence, a path is like the single row of packed earth that cuts through a field where cattle and other animals have trampled.  We can all see such a path in the images of our mind, no diversion or cuts to the left or right, but a solid singular path.  But let me say, I think our lives are like trees (I'm going to change this to vines in a little bit, but a big old maple or oak tree is easier to envision right now) Our lives are trees, the trunk is the main path that springs up out of the ground with it foundation found in the roots of who we are, ancestrally and genetically.  It is the base that forms in the years before we begin to consciously make our own decisions.  The major branches are our first strong willed decisions that we made and clung to.  From there, each branch, major and minor, are the subsequent decisions in our lives that stir us toward our final destiny.  Now, from Gods perspective, He is the only one that can see the whole tree in all of its splendor, all branches stretched out to their finest tips.  With each decision we make, He knows where our life will end up.  Each decision eliminates countless other possibilities that will never become, and He can see not only the path that we decided to take, but the paths we will never take as well.  This is how we have free will, countless possibilities and decisions that we get to make.  And still He remains all knowing, He can still count the days and see your path.

Now to the vine, rather than a tree.  I just like the analogy of a vine dresser over a tree trimmer, even though both serve their purpose.

We have several grape vines that run along our back and side fences.  When we first moved in, these vines were everywhere.  They had not been tended to in several years and were an intertwined mess.  They were a mess because vines grow faster and sprout branches even worse than trees.  But unlike a tree, the branches go in all directions, up, down toward the ground, straight out, everywhere.  Without proper care and vine dressing, a vine can become a real mess.  Kind of like us.  When left with too many options, we tend to sprout out in all directions.  If we are vines, then each branch, just like the tree, can symbolize the myriad of choices we make each day (did you know that some vines can grow up to 12 feet over night?) Some are major decisions, some are not so critical.  Thus it is possible for the vintner to stand back and survey the vines before Him and asses the damage that can and will occur, branches growing toward the ground can become rotted and damaging to the entire vine if they are left to grow and touch the dirt.  He can see where you are and with each decision where you will end up and how many days you have left.  In watching your growth and the way you change, He can see where you will bare fruit, what has already born fruit and never will again, and where fruit will never grow.  But, we are not His vines.

He may have planted us and prepared the trellis for us to grow upon, but we are not His.  When He planted you he agreed to let you grow in whatever way you wanted.

The first year we were in our house the grapevines grew very leafy and lush.  Their canopy was thick and green.  Neighbors and friends marveled at what kind of fruit might come from these fine looking vines hanging from our fence lines.  Come that fall, we had plump heavy bushels of grapes.  They tasted ok, we made alot of grape jelly and some grape syrup from them.  The vines were a bit overwhelming though and really tangled.  So I cut them back a little bit in the late fall.

The next year was kind of the same.  We had big plump reds and small little greens.  Both were kind of tasty and the vines were a little less cumbersome.  I left the vines alone and didn't trim them back figuring the thick canopy made for a nice privacy curtain between us and our neighbors.

The third year one of our neighbors was disappointed that I hadn't trimmed back the vines the previous fall because his dogs were eating the grapes on his side of the fence, apparently not such a great thing for dogs to eat.  But the grapes still tasted ok, the reds got a little cob-webby and there weren't as many nice plump clusters.  The greens were tasty, but the branches started growing out into our neighbors yards in not so kindly fashion, so I trimmed them back...a lot.  My wife wondered if I was trying to kill the green vines they were so bare when I was done.

The following year, the green grapes had sweet tasting clusters up and down the fence. And they glowed a rich golden yellow in the afternoon sun.  They were irresistibly sweet.  I don't think any of them made it into jam or jelly, they got eaten before they could get juiced.  The reds still had a thick canopy that draped to the ground.  More jam, jelly, juice and syrup were made.  I trimmed the greens again, left the reds alone for another year (it takes quite a bit of work to really trim them back, so I left them alone)  I spent a little bit more time tying up and supporting the greens as well.  Then I picked up a book on making wine for some winter time reading.

In my reading I learned that thick green canopies actually limit the production and sweetening of the grapes.  Grapes like sun and the leaves take away from the growth of the clusters.  In fact, too many clusters will take away from the growth of other more fruitful clusters.  I began to notice that the vineyards around our area strip back their vines to practically nothing just before or after the winter season.  And they use the trimming period to direct the path and growth of the vine.  I also learned that fruitful branches will never produce fruit again, so it is best to clip them off as well.  Only new branches that didn't fruit in the season, and only branches growing up, not down, are left on the lines and trellis.  Yep, a vintner, the keeper of the vine, does a lot of cutting and trimming at the end of each season, and direct the path and growth of the vine to produce fruit.  Keep in mind, an overabundance of fruit is not the goal.  Too much fruit will spoil the clusters.  And plump juicy grapes are plump and juicy because they are fat with water.  Clusters are picked when they have expelled much of their growing water and the sweet tasting sugary juice remains.

So, the thick lushes looking untended canopy of reds looked great, but they were plump with water and had very little sweetness.  While the greens, well,  the greens made some fine tasting wine this last winter.  Because I trimmed back the green vines and directed their paths, I was able to get very sweet and thick tempting clusters.  Earlier this spring I took the sheers to the red grape vines.  They look very skinny with very few branches, practically none.  Their canopy will not be very thick this summer, and they probably won't get quite as plump and juicy....watery.  But I am looking forward to how much sweeter they should taste this fall.

Back to you and me.  We are wild growing untended and untamed vines, growing in every direction without guidance.  Why?  Because the vintner of life will only trim and tame you if you ask Him.  Only if we beckon Him to come and make our lives fruitful with sweeter fruit than the plump filled water bags we carry around with so much pride and so little substance.  But here's the crux of the invitation, He can see all of us, the entire vine from beginning to end.  He knows which branches will never bare fruit, He can see which ones are heading into the neighbors yard where we don't belong and He can see the branches heading toward the ground where dirt and rot are waiting for us to touch down.  And when we beckon Him to help us bare better fruit, and help us see the son, He doesn't sit back and see what will happen like I did in our first year.  He takes a step toward us as He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his gloves and trimming shears.  And that first year has to be painful, He trims us back to where we are nothing, bare and plain.  But it is at this point that He begins to direct our path, to bend and turn us in the direction in which we should be growing.  You may ask, where does free will fit in now?  Plain and simple, it doesn't!  We ask Him to come into our lives and make it His.  Our life is his now.  And so He looks at the myriad of pathways before Him that represent all the decision we will ever make and begins saying, "You don't get to make that decision anymore...snip!"  And what once was free will becomes a directed path.  As He finds rot and decay, He cuts it out.  A branch will only bare fruit for a season, when that season has past, it will bare fruit no more...snip!  You don't need that branch anymore.

So what about the sweet tasting clusters?  Aw, that is where He takes the fruit from your branches and crafts it into some sweet tasting wine, jam, jelly, syrup, or just eats them straight off the bunch.  Simple matter is, at that point its not ours to decide or wonder.  We just get to glory in knowing that He'll be back with the shears while directing our paths.

So, what's your canopy look like?  What's hiding underneath it that needs to be trimmed away and exposed to the son?  And have you beckoned to Him yet to be you vine dresser, or are you still growing wild and fruitless?

Taking Things Literal: A Lesson in Autism

I was amazed today with a comment a close colleague of mine made today on an observation.  I was relaying to him the story of a rather heated discussion I had with one of our executives.

Let me put in a side note, I have been feeling a bit of anxiety and contention lately.  So much so that this colleague, and others that know me, have begun coming to my desk when they need a good devil's advocate to practice presenting a proposal, or a better understanding of an issue that they are contending...in other words, right now at least, they know I will help them wrestle with their ideas, topic is not an issue.
 
Needless to say, my story about arguing with one of our executives did not surprise my colleague.

Here's the argument in a nutshell.  This executive had asked me how something could be done better, being an engineer, everything can always be done better.  But then this executive asked me to figure out how to fix a problem we are having by giving me instructions on a method he wanted me to investigate and figure out how to implement his method to fix the problem.   A month later (the request was made during a monthly meeting) I reported that there were fundamental obstacles in the way and I was not finding a way to implement his method.  I told him that I did not think implementing his method was possible.  His response was that I should return the following month with more action than having "just thought about it."  I snapped.  I told this executive that his instructions for me were to find a way to implement his method, HOW, not IF it could be implemented.  I was making it clear that he had specifically asked for me to find out HOW to implement his method, not IF it could be implemented.  I then made it clear that I was still struggling with the IF portion of the problem because I was not finding a clear answer to even IF his method was possible let alone, HOW.  Thus my results were incomplete because I was not there to report IF his method could be implemented, I was asked to show HOW his method could be implemented.  Since I had not found a clear resolution to IF it was even possible, I had not and was not prepared to answer HOW.  (I know this is repetitive, but I wanted it to be very clear that I was dissecting his request.)

As I relayed this story to my colleague he began to smile in amazement.  I have told this same colleague stories about the way our son is very literal and how we have to be careful about the way we word things because he will interpret them at face value.  (We once used the "Because I said so" parental phrase for the reason why he couldn't go outside.  He promptly said, "SO" and headed outside.  If saying the word "so" was the key to going out or staying in, then ...)  I have also told him about how we have to be very clear and make certain that our words, face, and body all express the same message or our son will be confused by the overall message conveyed.  My colleague shook his head and said, "Wow, I have listened to the way you argue over the last year.  And it just dawned on me.  You practice this every single day with your son, and you don't even know it.  What a blessing.  You have trained yourselves to dissect a statement in order to make sure that it is very clear and concise, you have trained yourselves to make sure the entire message is clear in your posture, words, tone, facial expression...everything.  You practice this every single day.  What a blessing you have."

This observation opened my eyes to why I may be feeling a bit more contentious lately than I have in the past.  My wife observed that I am by nature, the way God designed me, contentious.  I agree, I like to argue.  I am an engineer and a wrestler, a very contentious combination.  I actually felt it a compliment when my colleague and friend once commented that he appreciated the fact that I would help him argue through issues.  My willingness to argue the opposite side of an issue helps him get a better handle on where the cracks are in his thoughts an proposals, which helps him make a better argument when it really counts.  Anyhow, my son is nearly 11 years old, he is fighting for a little more independence, just as any typical child of his age does.  But my son is not typical, he is autistic.  Which means that I am having to contend with him in his literal world of "what happens if I...?" even more than normal.  Which happens to sharpen that edge even more than a typical parent.  Unfortunately for the executive above and some of my other co-workers, it also means that I am quick to dissect and contend with them as well. 

I found it interesting that my colleague would find this to be a blessing.  In essence, he envies that I can argue a point so clearly and concisely.  But I sense that I am growing weary of it, and yet I have so many more teen years to go of sharpening the edge to such fineness.  Anyone else out there ever experience the same thing?

Health Reform Bill

I don't like it.  Have a tough time accepting it.  And fear the precedence it and the process by which it was created and passed has set for what is to come.  President Obama and his party have just proved that nothing can stand in their way of passing any kind of legislation they want to pass.  Republicans should simply go home, for the party of "We won, you lost, get over it" has just proven that any debate is no debate.  Anything passed by the majority party in the next few months has the legs to last for at least the next three years.  It is a good wager to guess that such a majority will not be held by another party come November, without such a majority legislation not found in favor of Obama and his party is doomed to die by veto, regardless of its merits.  By the end of three years we as a nation will become addicted to whatever scraps the legislature chooses to hand to us and eliminating country killing legislation will not be possible.  This nation has realized that its vote can be purchased by the candidate that offers them the most government handouts.  But what happens when there are more people living on handouts than there are people that can afford to provide the means by which the government affords the handouts?

What really gets me on health care reform?  The writing is on the wall.  The legislation does not have to directly take control of health care in order to eventually do so.  Insurance companies must comply to the national standard established under this legislation.  If they do not or cannot comply to the national standard then they cannot offer an insurance product.  If you are carrying a health insurance policy that gets eliminated because your carrier cannot afford the burden of the national standard, then you need to find a new carrier.  Since carriers cannot deny you coverage, the burden will become heavier on the firms that survive, until the Federal Government changes the standard.  Once all carriers are overwhelmed by the national standard it will be obvious that only the Federal Government itself is able to meet the national standard, especially since it rights the rules.  The burden of this legislation will have us begging for what was so heavily debated and left out of this legislation, nationalized health care.  Until then, one of the requirements of the national standard right now is that carriers must provide coverage for immunizations.  This is a misguided step that will soon prove itself out, it assumes that parents are avoiding immunizations because of the cost.  Once this is proven untrue, then the national standard can be changed to make carriers more proactive at strongly encouraging their clients to immunize or else.  Or else can result in a rightful and just dropping of coverage.  At which point, if you do not acquire new insurance coverage, then you can be fined when you file your taxes for failing to prove that you have health insurance.  Once again, enter stage left, the national option.  But you must comply to the national standard to qualify for the national option coverage.  No compliance, then you cannot prove you are covered and must pay a fine each year when you file your taxes.

Now, I use immunizations as an example because I am familiar with this issue, but what is to stop this legislation from affecting any area of choice?