Fate (Rom. 8:28-)

  I have this little game I play with the children in my life. Always at a family get together, while the kids are laughing and running wild in the house, I will call one of them over. When I was sure I had their attention, I would ask them, Where would you be if you weren't here? The reactions and the answers to such a silly question is as different as are the children. Other than my two grand daughters saying, Oh Poppi and giggling, no two reactions were the same. Whats the point of this little story of mine? There is no point really, except to use it as an example for fate. With fate, you might ask yourself, was it their destiny to take the steps across a busy room to be confronted with grandpa fate? Surely if everything is fate, then they would have had no choice in the matter, they would be like actors performing a role in Life's one act play. If fate, then they had no choice in the matter, and they couldn't have not come when I called them. Words like destiny and fate are powerful words, because much like legacy, they are a statement about a life.
  Paul addresses this very question in the book of Romans. Perception, keep this word in mind, because it is important that you know whose perspective Paul is talking about, yours or Gods. He uses words like predestined, preconceived and foreknew. These are the words used when speaking about time and how it works. Fate has a finality to it, as does destiny, but destiny can be a running account, where fate comes only at the end. It isn't a simple subject by any means, as to talk about such things, you must also start to understand the workings of time. The answer as to whether your life has already been prescribed, and therefore you have no choice in the matter, or whether you have free will, and your life goes only as you run it, is yes on both counts. Confused? I don't blame you. Remember Perspective? One from God's point of view and one from ours. With God, all our lives are seen as fate, because he has seen it all. Because God is outside of time, it is hard to get his point of view. Because you can't see time, imagine God's view of it was from space, where ours is from wherever we are? The best way I can explain it, how and what God sees when he looks at us. He sees our lives as linear lines of film, starting from our berth till our death, each moment a snapshot. Each of us has a length of film attached to us some longer than others, according to the length of our lives on this earth. From His perspective, he can see your whole life, past, present, as you take each breath, and future, all of it, from beginning to end. From God's perspective, you are fulfilling a destiny that will lead you to your fate. From your perspective, You are free to do whatever it is you do. Because you? Your not following any prescribed steps, your just stumbling around, one day at a time.