"It Can't Get Worse"

That's what Keith in my office just said. He and another guy were talking about the road conditions in their rural areas this morning.

I used to work with a guy whose philosophy was, "Tomorrow will be different. It might be worse, but it will be different." Yeah. I get that.

Last night I was talking with my husband about free will and determinism. (Yes, we really do have discussions about things like that.) He believes that everything happens for a reason (a kind of hybrid of those two philosophies). I believe that things just happen and that God gives you the ability to get through them. If you pay attention, you can probably learn something useful from the experience. So, rather than going through it with a "poor me" attitude (which, by the way, buys into the whole, helpless determinism philosophy), you can just get through it with an attitude of learning.

I also don't believe that God has a plan for my life. I think God has some basic ideas about why He created life, but after that it's up to us to use it well and to keep learning. See, the first gift that God gave to Adam and Eve (well, after the gift of life and a gift of a fun place to live) was freedom to choose. If God really didn't want them to eat from the tree of knowledge, then God would have put up a huge fence around it with razor wire and armed guards and whatnot. God allows us to choose. We don't always choose wisely, but we can always learn to made better choices.

Yes, it can get worse. But we'll get through it, no matter what it is.