Is Free Will Our Freedom To React To What's Happening?

Is God's Will What's Happening?

I believe in a higher Divine Order. I had a Metaphysics teacher years ago. He was a counterpart of Ernest Holmes, the founder of the Church of Religious Science. I remember one thought that he repeated, "There is only One Will." I always pondered over that idea, until my own life experience showed me that this could be true.

I have seen great suffering in my life. My sister Donna died of cancer at 33. My other sister Marjorie, lived a life with mental illness and eventually committed suicide. Then I had to watch my Mother also die from cancer. I had to watch all of them suffer and die.

When I had lost the three of them, I knew I had to do something different. I committed myself to the healing of my past. This brought me to a journey of self evaluation and also created a lot of emotional pain that I had buried.

My Father was the only one left of my birth family. Our relationship was strained to say the least. The three women in my family were all looking for his love. They all died trying to receive it. I had to change the pattern. I want to live a full and happy life.

He decided to kick my daughter and me out of my Mother's house, six years after she died. I was devastated. I guess I needed the bomb to let me see what I needed to do. I cried every day for six months while going through every piece of paper in my Mother's home. She had left me a condo in Florida. I kept saying "I am banished to Florida!" What a place to go! I left by myself without knowing one soul. My daughter stayed behind in Philly because of a relationship.

After awhile in Florida, I realized a great truth. Even though it was a very harsh decision on my Father's part, it became a total blessing for me. The higher Will of the Divine stepped in and allowed his decision. If I had stayed, I might have died like the other women in my family.

I remembered the passage from the Bible when Jesus was facing the court, "You would have no authority over me if it had not been given to you from above..." (St. John 19:11)
Even the mighty hand of God "allowed" the suffering of Jesus, ultimately for His miraculous ascension.

The Bible also states, "God creates the good and the evil. He creates the light and the darkness." (Ezekiel 32:8) Does God permit the "evil" that we experience for our highest good and learning?

Suffering does not happen haphazardly. It is not some cruel random act. We always learn from these experiences, or we are doomed to repeat them.

There is a higher Divine Order. It may be the "One Will" my teacher spoke about. Everything comes to us for a reason. We have heard many people declaring after some great tragedy that it was, "The best thing that ever happened to me."

Because of the suffering I have seen, I have come to the conclusion that free will is our freedom to react to what's happening in our own way. Do we fight it for one minute, one hour, a week, or one year? Do we battle it for fifty years or a lifetime? Or, can we accept all as coming from the hands of the Divine?

Going with the "flow" makes life a lot easier. We "jump in the river," only being halted for a time by the rocks and boulders in our path.

"If you want God to laugh, make plans."

As my Mother Margie often said, "And then there's God."nn©2009 Merry C. Battlesn