Namaste. Self empowered, free spirited, open ended, life in me greets the same in you. When we meet in this space, we participate in an evolutionary process that is nothing less than Spirit in action, co-creation of an open future that bounds from one truth to the next. We don’t fully understand how we got here, with the complex interplay of cause and effect, nature and nurture, but we move on anyway, often launching with creaking knees and bruised egos from one choice to another. This is the play of life.

Do you know the director, producer, script writer and lead actor of this open ended play? It is you. You wrote this play to remind yourself who you are, where you came from and how powerful you are. You are the lead actor in a play that excludes no one and no thing. All is related in your play. All time collides in your play. Your play is entitled, simply “Choose Life”.

I want to offer a perspective on free will that reminds you that you create your own reality, while acknowledging the many events and people whose actions lead to your present moment.

There is a Sioux creation story that captures beautifully the essence of Deuteronomy’s call to choose life by claiming your power. (see text of Deuteronomy 30 below)

The Creator gathered all of Creation and said, "I want to hide something from humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they create their own reality."

The eagle said, "Give it to me, I will take it to the moon."

The Creator said, "No. One day they will go there and find it."

The salmon said, "I will bury it on the bottom of the ocean."

"No. They will go there too."

The buffalo said, "I will bury it on the Great Plains."

The Creator said, "They will cut into the skin of the Earth and find it even there."

Grandmother Mole, who lives in the breast of Mother Earth, and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes, said, "Put it inside of them."

And the Creator said, "It is done."           

Are you ready for this realization? Yes. Choose life. Start now. The only thing stopping you is feeling trapped in the self limiting beliefs of the past, including some self limiting religious beliefs.

Predestination

One of these self limiting beliefs is predestination. Maybe you were taught a form of predestination, where God has already decided before birth who will be chosen for heaven. Maybe you were taught the even more offensive doctrine called “double predestination”, that teaches that some are predestined for heaven, and others are predestined for eternal suffering in hell. Predestination seems to contradict the notion of free will.

This joke shows the confusion-

A man dies and gets to heaven's gate. He sees two lines, one labeled "Free Will" and the other labeled "Predestined." Being a good Calvinist, he gets in the "Predestined" line. When he gets to the front, an angel asks him why he's in the "Predestined" line. He replies, "I saw the two signs and chose the Predestined line because I'm a Calvinist." The angel replies, "Wrong line. You made a free will choice to pick a line, so you must get in the Free Will line." He finally gets to the front of the second line and an angel asks why he's in the Free Will line. He answers, "The other angel made me come here..."

So how have you resolved the balance between predestination and free will in your life and worldview?

Here’s a possibility to consider. Try this out next time there is a lull at a dinner party full of Calvinist family and friends. When people run dry of anything to say about Sarah Palin, drop this bomb into the conversation- predestination is never mentioned in the Bible. That’s right. There is no such word in the Bible. Predestination was an idea introduced by later theologians and read back into particular verses in the Bible.

Where did the idea of predestination come from?

So, here’s a new way to understand predestination. You are not the chosen people. You are the choosing people. But not just any choice. Choices that acknowledge the interrelatedness of all choices and seeks the highest good in a given circumstance.

There is another Greek word for choice. It is the word we know as “heresy”. Heretics are people of choice. For the first 3 centuries of Christianity, everyone was a heretic, thinking and believing as made sense to the individual. It was only in the third century that Christianity was dogmatized and heresy gained a negative connotation. You are a heretic because you are a person of choice, someone who chooses life over dogmatic correctness. Be a bold heretic.

Of course, this reformation theology is way too limiting for many. But think about the new possibilities they paved the way for. Remember that Jesus’ salvation showed no partiality according to class or social standing. None of the human markers of division stand up to the light of God’s kingdom. Markers such as gender and sexuality are important, but have no bearing on the right of a person to full participation in the church.

The chosen people are not those who fit into certain cultural stereotypes. The chosen people are all those who choose life, in whatever way life manifests through them.

The Choice to Come Out

Today is coming out day, and we take the opportunity to affirm the beautiful, life affirming choice for all to come out and express your sexuality openly and authentically.

Coming out is a choice. Sexuality is not generally considered a choice. Coming out is definitely a choice. There is ample scientific evidence to suggest that sexuality is a genetic orientation.
The results of a 2007 study show that straight men have asymmetric brains, with the right hemisphere slightly larger – and that gay women also have this asymmetry. Gay men, meanwhile, have symmetrical brains like those of straight women. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/16/neuroscience.psychology
A 2005 study suggested that gay men respond to smells the same way as straight women.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/may/10/nation/na-brain10
Keep in mind that even something that is biological is not necessarily fixed. There are lots of examples of people who have shifted their orientation throughout life. Also keep in mind that a shifting orientation does not necessarily indicate a choice.
The relationship between sexual orientation and biology is a complex issue. Suffice to say, it appears that a person does not choose their sexual orientation in much the same way that you didn’t choose your hair color or height. To discriminate against someone because of their sexual orientation is just as absurd and unfair as it is to discriminate against someone because of their hair color.
Coming out is most certainly a choice, and a powerful choice. It’s a beautiful example of “proorizein”. Your orientation is what it is. It is the culmination of evolutionary and biological forces. Now spirit beckons you to fulfill your true potential as a human being, to choose life and live in abundant truth and authenticity.
Maybe you don’t need to come out in your sexuality. So what are you being called to at this time in your life? Is it an expression of love, or a declaration of new beliefs, or taking a new job? What seed of promise are you being called to cultivate, to nurture and bring to new life?
Coming out has its risks. The fear of open sexuality remains with us on this day. As this country embraces a new openness to gender and ethnicity as a result of the current political race, the question remains- how would the nation respond to an openly gay or lesbian candidate for president?
Many people who have come out, have done so when they recognized that “the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” (Anais Nin)
Consider the coming out story of Corey Johnson. Corey was a typical teenage boy, except that he carried a large secret. He concealed his attraction to boys because he was captain of the football team and he didn’t care to discover what it would mean to come out. He became depressed with this double life. His grades plummeted; he began skipping school and football practice. Eventually he realized that the risk to remain tight was breaking his spirit. It was more painful than the risk to blossom. So he came out to his parents and was pleasantly surprised by their support. Eventually, he gathered together the football team. He nervously said to the team, “Im coming out as an openly gay student.”
His team mates’ mouths fell open. Corey said to them, “Don’t worry. I didn’t come on to you last year. And I wont this year. Besides, who says you guys are good enough for me anyway?’ They laughed, and with that laugh the tension was broken. It wasn’t all plain sailing for Corey. Someone wrote “football fag” on a school door. One of his opposing team members yelled out “Get the fag”. But that all died down eventually.
Corey had chosen life. He had decided that choosing life is about more than existing, or even celebrating life. He had chosen to be true to his deepest spirit. The effect on those around him was incredible. His friends and team mates now knew someone who was strong, someone they liked and admired, who was gay. Stereotypes were broken. Corey took a big risk in coming out. He had decided it was a bigger risk to remain tight.

People of Choice

The beauty of choosing to come out is that it opens you to the horizons of spirit. Think of the balance of destiny and free will as much like the phrase “it was meant to be.” When you fall in love with a person, or find your dream job, and say “this was meant to be”, we all know what that means. It doesn’t mean that it was written in some book of life before time. It doesn’t mean you were living outside of personal choice. It doesn’t say anything about what will happen in the future. It is a simple statement of vision, where your dreams and your reality collide and you know what your choice will be. You choose life, and your path unfolds before you in perfect order.

Deuteronomy 30; 11-20
11 Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 14No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.
15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Dan Millman, The Laws of Spirit. p. 20
Free will means that you can choose to abide by the laws that speak within your deepest intuition, or you can let your impulses, fears and habits run the show. If you sometimes resist or ignore higher wisdom in favor of immediate gratification, the consequences of your choices eventually guide you back towards alignment with the laws of Spirit; one choice leads to a sunlit path and another to hurdles and tests that instruct and strengthen you, so all things serve in their own way.