Is Your Fate In The Cards?
By

Jerry Depew

     Have you ever heard the following statements:  "Whatever is meant to be, will be."  "It's all in the cards."  "Everything is caused by fate and fate alone."  Many people believe these things as gospel.  Please consider with me several of many reasons why you should not believe the above statements.  Whether you want to believe it or not, you are the captain of your soul.

     First, God has given us "freewill."  Even when tragedies and trials come our way, we have important choices to make.  Our future is the outcome of today's choices.  For example, if you have sown to the hard work of obtaining a good education, you will reap the benefits of a good education.  If you sow watermelon seeds, do not expect flowers.  If you sow to the flesh, do not expect a harvest of spirituality.

     Look at it this way.  If you use your freewill to drive on the wrong side of the highway, then you get in an accident, don't say, "It was meant to be."  The only thing about that incident that is "meant to be" is this:  It is God's will that you have freewill.  This is the reason there is much evil in this world.   It is God's perfect will that you serve Him, but you must make the choice.  Jesus said, "Whosoever will, let him come unto me..."  It is God's will that all humans be saved, but many choose not to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ.

     Secondly, while it is true that genetics and environments do play a part in your life, you still have important choices to make.  Some teach that we have no choices, that it is all in the genes and the environment.  Well, Dr. Viktor E. Frankl, whose ideas are know as the Third School of Viennese Psychiatry--the school of logotherapy, lived and survived the horrors of the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau.  These were perhaps the worst environments ever devised by man.  We should listen to this highly respected psychiatrist.  In his excellent book, "Man's Search for Meaning," he says:

            Is that theory true which would have us believe that man is no more than a product of many conditional and environmental  factors--be they of a biological, psychological or sociological nature?  Is man but an accidental product of these?  Most importantly, do the prisoners' reactions to the singular world of the concentration camp prove that man cannot escape the influences of his surroundings?  Does man have no choice of action in the face of such circumstances?

            We can answer these questions from experience as well as on principle.  The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action.  There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed.  Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.

            We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.  They may have been few in number, but they  offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing:  the last of human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.¹

     So, my friend, we do have a choice.  When a trial comes your way, you have a choice.  You can give up.  Dr. Frankl saw this happen many times.  Once a prisoner gave up, he did not last long in the camp.  Most medical doctors will tell you that when a patient loses his "will to live," that patient will die.  It is important that we use our freewill to live.  While we live, let us choose to live an abundant life.  Jesus said that He came to give life and to give it more abundantly.  Jesus is abundant life.

     The author does not know what situation or trial that you may be facing in your life, but don't "give up."  Keep walking with Jesus.  Believe in faith, hope, and love.  These things still exist today.  Jesus, the King of Kings, is still on the throne of the universe today.  Talk to Him.  Trust in Him.  He will never leave or forsake you.

     Choose to walk with Jesus today.  Your future is not in the cards, but in your hands, in your choices.

Reprinted from Eagleflight                                                                                                                                                                                        BACK

copyright © 1996 Jerry Depew

footnotes

1  Victor E. Frankl, Man's Search For Meaning, 3rd ed. page 74  (Simon & Schuster, 1984.)