'God is greater than our heart and knows all things'. 1 John 3

I believe that one of the clearest indications of God's love for mankind is ‘ free will’. But often my friends say: ‘ hang on Nick you claim that God is omnipotent, fair enough, however, if that is a fact he already knows our future. The day we are born our entire life is already mapped out. Freedom is an illusion as everything is predestined furthermore if God knows a future of suffering awaits me, if he loves me, why let me be born in the first place?.’

My answer is this. God is omnipotent thus every possible eventuality is contained in his being. All things that could be and every possible outcome as a result of a decision I take is within him as everything that is possible to be is within him. I prefer to think of life as a sport a game of rugby. God owns the pitch, he is the referee and furnishes the game with rules. In spite of the fact that the players know that the game will run more smoothly if they play by the rules they can choose not to and accept the consequences. At various points during the game something may occur that forces the referee to blow the whistle. An indication that something really bad has happened and an opportunity for all the players to take stock both as individuals and as a team. But when the game begins again they are still free to choose the course of play within the laws of physics and nature. When the final whistle blows whether you walk off the pitch head held high, bowed with shame or thinking ‘I don’t give a damn about the ref’ is up to you.

Life is so similar accept I don’t know whether we are free to choose whether to walk onto the pitch in the first place? But one thing for sure once the game begins there is a real choice to our actions and the consequences thereof.