That Darn Free Agency

I have a love/hate relationship with that wonderful/awful thing we call free agency.  Why can't people use their free agency only for good?  I guess that plan was presented already, and not by someone with good intentions.  It's just that I get so frustrated and angry when I read in the news of all the terrible ways that people use their free agency.  From ethics violations to infidelity to murder, the news most days is brimming with stories of people making bad choices.  It can be very disheartening. 

In reality, though, would I really give up my free agency?  Absolutely not.  And since Heavenly Father is an unchangeable being, the rules cannot be any different for me than they are for someone else.  He cannot take away a murderer or terrorist's free agency while leaving mine intact.  I guess that's the simple answer for the not-so-simple question of why God "lets" bad things happen to good people.  He cannot intervene in a robbery or murder without taking away the offender's agency.  As maddening as it sometimes is, the news headlines are, in a way, evidence of God's love for us.

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.  If not so...righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad...

Without free agency, what would the world be like?  We would wander around with no purpose, no need to better ourselves, because we would already be "good".  We would sort of be like Stepford husbands and wives and children. 

Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation...

The purpose of our time on this earth is to become better people.  To be tested and tried.  Without our agency, that purpose could not be fulfilled.  Take my yard, for example.  I am not a fan of yard work, and it definitely shows.  My lawn is overgrown.  I have weed beds instead of flower beds, and my garden area could be used for quality testing by the makers of RoundUp.  But without my eyesore of a yard, the beauty of my neighbors' yards would not be as pronounced.  If all of our yards looked the same, what would be the definition of beautiful?  The same is true in every aspect of our lives.

And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin.  If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness.  And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness.  And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery.  And if these things are not there is no God.  And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.

We have had our agency from the very beginning of our existence.  We were given the choice between Satan's plan and the Savior's plan, and chose free agency.  Jesus Christ atoned for us that we may be "free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for [ourselves] and not be acted upon".

...And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

Because Jesus Christ paid the price for us, our salvation is free.  Free, but not guaranteed.  We must choose it.  We must choose liberty and eternal life, or we must choose captivity and death.  It is up to us.  Every choice we make will either bring us closer to Him or closer to Satan, who would make all men "miserable like unto himself".  But it IS our choice, and I am so grateful for that.

©Darrell Wyatt

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