Free Will and the Hand of God

“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”

-       Nelson Mandela – Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

“Evil is the absence of love in our hearts as dark is the absence of light, cold is the absence of heat.”

 -  Albert Einstein – Nobel Prize Recipient

If God is love and omnipotent and his will prevails in the end, why does God permit evil?  This question is deeply debated by philosophers who ask why God permits evil such as genocide and murder that possess no redemptive value?  Redemptive value is when our suffering is healed through the presence of God, exemplified and witnessed to us by others who have also suffered and healed through the love of God.  By suffering and healing we grow closer to God and love more fully.

God permits the absence of love including non-redemptive acts of evil as a consequence of human free will.  Free will allows us to grow and create both as individuals and as a race.  Like a good parent, God wants us to choose to love him and make loving choices on Earth consistent with his purpose instilled in our soul. But God’s power is not bound by humanity’s finite existence. While in our human form we cannot fully see the result of our actions, but God’s will, which is love, always prevails whether on Earth or in Heaven.  That is the infinite view of God.  My professor of philosophy once asked me if even souls locked in hell could be saved?  My answer is God is omnipresent; our soul always has the choice to turn towards God, who is love, even a soul in hell mired in degradation.

As humans, with free will we choose how to respond to others even when others do not love.  We can choose to look for God’s will in our lives and exemplify and witness the presence of his love.  As Nelson Mandela stated we often have to suffer to be truly free and see the mountaintop, which is our souls’s desire rooted in God’s love.