I put a comment in a friend's blog (http://blog.stevelowe.org) that God trusts us. He doesn't show up and give to-do lists, send emails, write on walls, etc. I guess some say they talk to God conversationally, which of course I cannot judge. But for the most part, I think collectively we can agree there is no direct memos from God.
Yet, some will say that God eiher doesn't exist or does control it all. If you choose either of these you do not believe you are free. You have to decide for yourself in order to be free. And even if God is absent or pulling strings, death camp survivors have taught us that you always have the choice of what you will do and believe. You can never claim to continually be someone's victim.
The fact is that God chooses to trust us, not control us. Even though we are bound to mess up, flounder along, waste time, resources and tons of energy being really busy. Yet he waits, in moments, trusting us to a fault, that we will realize that we want to choose to trust God.
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I'm not sure whether God trusts us or controls us summarizes all possible positions. I think God allows us in ways that are (obviously) not control, but that neither flow from His trust in us.
In a similar way, my son frequently points out that girls at his school want him to date, which we have expressly forbidden. Is he dating right now? I do not trust him, as he has lied to me a good deal. But neither can I ultimately control him; it would no longer represent a relationship I want for me to tail him everywhere he goes to enforce the law. So I allow him to live his life in this area, not trusting that he will do the right thing nor wanting to control him (i.e., turn him into an automaton).
I think God does similar things with us.
Consider this: We know God exists outside the constraints of time and space as we know them. This causes us difficulty in grasping the fact that God can both know the hour that we'll accept Him *and* expect us to make that choice. A theological paradox, in terms of human thinking.
Could that same reasoning apply on the trust/control scale? God gives us complete and utter freedom, yet intervenes when He needs to or to suit his purposes. A seeming paradox for human linear thinking, but normal for God, a being existing outside of the linearity of the human mind.
Both excellent comments, thanks guys!
One important point that Della made, was to clarify if I am talking about Trust, or Entrust. Certainly, God makes it clear that the heart is evil: marred by sin. I don't think he trusts us anymore than a 2 year old next to a pile of fresh cookies. From the human perspective, we will always choose what is self serving, even if it is dressed up as nobel. The kid is gonna take a cookie.
Yet my point was that choice and trust are linked. If we are going to be totally free to choose the 'narrow' or right path that is not self serving but does allow life and liveliness to flourish, and if that choice has to come 100% within us, then God has to be a spectator and *entrust* us with the freedom to make that choice. If he is in there pushing buttons, even a bit, we're not choosing. We are being controled. My question to Steve is 'does God interven in those moments of choice, at all, making it less than 100% of your choice?'.
I think this is too what Peter is saying. God has *entrused* us with the ability to choose. It is a critical step in a deeper releationship, to put ourselves in a dependant position to have to trust. Even though he knows it is so painful for us to make steps towards choosing the right thing, and pain is everwhere, it is critically important that we choose: and so he gives us total freedom to.
Is a fish that is swimming around in a pond, ocean, or fish bowl free? If we were to take that fish out of the water, then it would die very quickly.
God made us with limits. If we try to live outside those limits, then we will die as quickly as a fish out of water.
A life in Christ does limit us to certain choices, but those limits give us life. A true life beyond what this world can provide.
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