Life: a matter of chance or choice?

Is life a matter of choice or chance? Is it a decision or destiny? All at once, we know just what to answer. And we are too good at justifying things. We give our reasons but which reasons are sometimes not reasonable enough. Or maybe sometimes, we give reasons which “reasons” itself does not know. We answer hypothetically, mathematically, theoretically, biblically and sometimes even ridiculously! We know, deep in our hearts the real answer to this question. However we allow ourselves to be influenced by our thoughts, our experiences, our beliefs and our ideals!
Observe how one of my students, a mechanical engineering student named Harold Rotor, answered this question in an essay i asked them to submit in my reading class. He wrote and I quote:

“Life is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice. It is the effect of what we did in the past. Destiny maybe compared to the algebraic equation Y=CX. Destiny is not constant (C). It is the Y or the independent variable. Y depends on the X, where X is the input. When X is small, the Y will also give a small value and when the X is big then Y will also give a big value.
The value of Y may also be positive or negative. When x is negative the Y will also turn out to be negative and when the X is positive the Y will also turn out to be positive. The principle is the same with destiny. The result maybe big or less, good or bad depending on our input. It may always necessarily be instant but surely it will happen as it should be.
Life on the other hand is a condition or course of living. Our existence in this world is life itself. A person is said to have a life when he/she still has the capacity to breathe.”

Mr. Rotor asserts that life and destiny are interrelated. Destiny is how we live our life. His life and destiny lies entirely on him. He believes that there is a God who has the authority in every individual, as well as believes that God gave us the freewill. He gave us the mind to decide on our own. God’s authority is like the traffic enforcer. He gives us the right way and the right timing but it depends on us whether we follow directions or not. But most often than not, human as we are, we tend to disobey traffic rules and so as disobey God. But then again HE is still there to watch over us. HE may sometimes use methods that we think are incomprehensible to human thoughts but surely God does not do anything that would totally harm us. HE always has the purpose for everything. We just have to follow the right direction, that is, wait for the right time and the right way to go.


Here's what I got from this site on what destiny is all about: http://www.akgupta.com/Thoughts/destiny.htm

"One of the greatest and everlasting debates of humanity has been about the role of destiny in the lives of human beings. There was a time when it was almost an accepted fact of life that each and every event was governed by destiny of human beings. Astrology was considered a science. Then with the advent of modern times the importance of role of destiny as a concept started losing weight. Today, belief in destiny is considered a superstition by majority of people. And rightly so, since there seems to be no evidence for the irrevocability of destiny.

There are three schools of thoughts about fate. The most prevalent these days seems to be the one which says that there is nothing called destiny or fate. This line of thinking says that human beings do possess free will. All our successes, failures and actions are governed by the decisions we take. If we take correct decisions and act accordingly, no one can prevent us from achieving what we want to. If we fail, it must be due to something wrong on our part. We have the option to take decisions using our free will. In this line of thinking, fate is considered a superstition at worst and at best one can regard it as a psychological defense system to cope with the failures in life. Whenever you fail in some endeavor or whenever something happens which is not in accordance of your wish, you use it as a convenient scapegoat. You say, it was your bad luck which caused you to fail. Otherwise, how could you fail? You are never ready to accept that it was you who was responsible for the failure. It may have been due to some bad planning, lack of efforts in the right direction or outright failure to correctly judge the realities of your goal. But since it hurts to accept that you were the one who committed the mistake, you take shelter behind the concept of fate and blame it on your karma. This relieves you of the terrible pain of knowing and accepting the defeat."

Well, what then is life to you? A choice? a chance? a destiny? fate? Whatever your answer to that question is, let us reflect to the ultimate truth, the Bible, which provides a wonderful promise and assurance about God's beautiful purpose and plans for our life. His plans are great. He plans a good future ahead of us... He tells us that our existence has a purpose but it's all up to us how to make this purpose in us be realized. His Word says, (in GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)"I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD. "They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope."

Then, Let's choose to hope in HIM, for nothing compares to a future filled with hope. It is said that "Life with Christ is an endless hope, without HIM , a hopeless end..."(anonymous)