The Abyss

I reach out to grasp it; it slips through my grip It trickles down my skin. I aim the lens to capture a shot And, oh for what, then? What I hold in my hand is but an image There, something does lack Life, I perceive, is farther off Beyond where my fingers crack To trace the stars t'would take a lifetime And, that is what we get Where stars radiate, we call "sky" But, in this name, such depth The net I possess; this construct of words Never quite contains Like salt of the sea or sand of the desert Something else remains And there you are, ancient mystery, Light on the waves, gleaming Beneath the surface you manifest The essence and the meaning

The term floats around through "secular" & "sacred" society as a choice weapon for debate.  As we understand it, "free will" is defined as a free choice.  But, a free choice of what?  To choose God; or not.  At this juncture, predestination and determinism enter the scene.  Common understanding of predestination is that God has already chosen who He is going to choose.  The question to this method is this:  wherein lies Grace and the Cross?  Determinism, as I understand, suggests that we have no free will because external causes impress upon us.  Herein lies the psychological nature versus nurture paradigm.  But, can Free Will be understood with a fresh lens? Before he can formulate a word, an infant takes cues off of the expressions of his caretaker's face.  As he ages, he learns to understand the dialect that is impressed upon him.  These are beautiful phenomenons.  He grows up learning the rules set down for him a...