Potential

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lforrest

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Forgive me if this is a bit speculative. I am dissatisfied with the premise upon which our understanding of reality is built.

Potential is often viewed as an ethereal concept, possibilities that may be realized in the future. It is the fusion of chance and will over time.

Or is chance an illusion created by a complex intersection of conflicting wills? If we paint a picture of it, reality as we know it is as the observed result of overlapping fields of asserted will.

Applying this, we are as boats on a turbulent ocean heading in whatever direction we believe is best. Our parents may direct us one way, to be successful. We may decide we want to go another direction. The collective will of society for maintaining status quo will have its own imposed path. Malevolent forces push us another way.

But what about God? If we surrender to his will I am confident he will chart a course for our life that takes us where we need to be, interacting with others to also be of benefit to them. And in the end reality will be as he invisioned, despite all the opposing wills.
 

ScottA

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Forgive me if this is a bit speculative. I am dissatisfied with the premise upon which our understanding of reality is built.

Potential is often viewed as an ethereal concept, possibilities that may be realized in the future. It is the fusion of chance and will over time.

Or is chance an illusion created by a complex intersection of conflicting wills? If we paint a picture of it, reality as we know it is as the observed result of overlapping fields of asserted will.

Applying this, we are as boats on a turbulent ocean heading in whatever direction we believe is best. Our parents may direct us one way, to be successful. We may decide we want to go another direction. The collective will of society for maintaining status quo will have its own imposed path. Malevolent forces push us another way.

But what about God? If we surrender to his will I am confident he will chart a course for our life that takes us where we need to be, interacting with others to also be of benefit to them. And in the end reality will be as he invisioned, despite all the opposing wills.
This reminds me of the guy who refused rescue from a flood from a boat and then a helicopter while sitting on his roof waiting for God to rescue him, only to hear later from God that He was the one who sent the boat and then the helicopter he had refused. sml

I suppose that means our default should be to first turn to God, but that we should also understand that he does work through at least some of those other varied wills as well.

It also seems unlikely that God has placed us within this world of various wills--both good and evil--rather than placing us with only a choice of Him or evil...so that we learn to exercise our own ability to discern what is good when the choice are not so clear--which is to say: not so superficially obvious. Either way, He has indeed set before us all "life and death, blessing and cursing" from which to choose.
 
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lforrest

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This reminds me of the guy who refused rescue from a flood from a boat and then a helicopter while sitting on his roof waiting for God to rescue him, only to hear later from God that He was the one who sent the boat and then the helicopter he had refused. sml

I suppose that means our default should be to first turn to God, but that we should also understand that he does work through at least some of those other varied wills as well.

It also seems unlikely that God has placed us within this world of various wills--both good and evil--rather than placing us with only a choice of Him or evil...so that we learn to exercise our own ability to discern what is good when the choice are not so clear--which is to say: not so superficially obvious. Either way, He has indeed set before us all "life and death, blessing and cursing" from which to choose.

God can work through even conflicting and even evil wills. Like how he helped babalon to form an empire and set them against Israel in order to provide course correction.
 
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