Free Will and the Fruit

by Marianne Coyne

Six days before Christmas, a little story I once wrote, about an empty, little Christmas stocking, came to mind. It had a simple message - being empty of our overindulged desires for temporal things, makes room for God to fill us up with Himself. Then I thought about how hard that is for most people. After all, the usual retort to such concepts is about free will - being able to have it and express it. Being bound to the will of another, especially God's, seems to violate the whole concept of free will; at least that seems to be a popular mindset. But what I have come to understand through the years is that that particular mindset really isn't as much about holding on to free will as much as it is about holding on to immediate sense gratification. In time sense gratification will produce fruit which we and/or others will have to harvest and consume. And that brings us to the ultimate issue - the fruit we produce.

Most of us run our lives on sense gratification. Some of it is good, but one only needs to read a newspaper, watch the news, or look into the mirror to see that we have a problem with it. From sexual depravity, mutilation, and murder, to not being able to say "no" to that daily dose of chocolate mousse, we utilize our "free" wills everyday. But the question remains, "What kind of fruit did it produce?". Because, you see, at the end of the day, that's all that really matters.

Learning to look beyond our immediate gratification of flesh desires gives us a chance to see more clearly into the future of fruit production. The flower on the fruit tree is beautiful, but that isn't the end. The fruit is yet to be borne. Personally, I would rather eat and share fruit that is sweet, juicy, and nutritious than, bitter or rotten. I, for one, am grateful that I have a will free enough to choose to allow a higher Will to make It's home and plant It's Seeds in my heart. For I can't think of better fruit to bear than Kindness, Love, Mercy, Joy, Peace, Health, Hope, and all that God has to fill us with.

Everyday the choice is there to make. Little by little we can clear out the seeds of bitter fruit, and make room for the Seeds of Love. After all, we do have a free will.