October 10, 2005 - Free Will:

Opening Question: What's the most important decision you've had to make to date?
Dating girls not boys, being a dad or a marine
Where to go to school *5
Being confirmed
Being nice to my sister
Staying at school for a sixth year
Staying in the US, not continuing with an engineering job
Going to college
Choosing to go on KiRos *2
Going to Atlanta, Starting Spirit and Truth
Giving a long shot a chance
Getting married
Joining debate
Getting a tattoo

Discussion:
There doesn't seem to be any really major decisions like the gentleman who had to cut his own arm off to save himself.

How many decisions did you have to make today? Lots of people just get into routines and don't make that many decisions. The decision not to do something is often easier that the decision to so something. You're doing things without thought as to why. The circumstances just push you one way or another.

Is everything you do a conscious decision to do it or are you just in a routine? The free will in habits is choosing not to do it.

How often do you consider God in the decisions that you make? What about the important decisions in you life?

You may see a lot of good come from the decision that you've made and that from God.

Book: "What does God want?" Overall message is to pray for all you decisions and then do what you heart tell you to do.

At the time of the decision it wasn't the most important decision you've had to make, but looking back on it and seeing the consequences of that decision, you realize how important it was.

So looking back on the decision maybe God was directing you which way to go? He provided the direction that would optimize your potential.

In Indiana Jones, a man asks him is he working for God's glory or for his own? Are they one and the same or are they different? By optimizing yourself isn't that God's plan for you?

"The glory of God is man fully alive." - St. Irenaeus

Man fully alive is becoming the best version of yourself that you can.

Mother Teresa was world famous but she didn't strive for that she only ever did what she felt was the right actions to take and didn't let others or being famous affect her decisions.

God calls us to a particular vocation using the gifts that God has given to us. Using your gifts while realizing that they are from God is fulfilling your life. Do this, do it well and praise him for it.

But if God has given you a specific set of gift and has a specific vocation set for you than the only real decision your making in whether or not to fight futilely with a plan that's already been laid out for you. It's like giving some one a square peg, they really only have one place to fit it in, the square hole.

God will work with the decisions that you make. You are always making a choice, there is a fit for you and sometime you may not be making the best choice. You have to be informed to make the best decisions possible.

God wanting you to do something does not limit your free will, just like parents wanting their children to do their homework does not necessarily mean it will get done.

You should try to include faith in all the decisions that you make though. You should choose to do something to glorify God.

When there is a conscious decision that you have to stop to think about it is easier to include God and what He might want.

WWJD, don't make decisions that would harm yourself either.

Maybe coming to school at CSM has set you up for a job and a position that later in life you can use for the greater glory of God. God works with your decisions to make something good some of it

So then does it really matter what decision you make if God is going to make something good out of it in the end?

God is a gentleman he will hold the door open for us, but he won't push you through.

God can inspire good to come of a decision but he won't make you do it.

Are the gifts that you have from God or from nature?

Body build in more a nature consequence, you parents and such than anything God did. But determination and tings like that can come from God. Everyone has these gifts but they may just be in different proportions

Or does God just give us the capacity to love? Is that the only universal gift? Are all te other gifts just a consequence of cause and effects?

Love is the total commitment to another no matter what.

What if it's not that were given specific gifts to accomplish something, but that we're challenged to use what we have in the best way possible.