Michael Young taking a cut at an early season game in 2006 (Photo by Keith Allison via Flickr)

I’m old enough to remember when the only way to watch a baseball game was as it was being played.  Last night I recorded the Texas Rangers‘ game, then turned on the TV an hour or so after it started.  Before playing the recorded game, I checked on a sports website to catch the score and highlights, then fast-forwarded the recording to the plays I wanted to see.

If I had waited until the game ended (badly), I might have erased the entire thing.  As it was, I felt a sense of omniscience in knowing what was going to happen in the (recorded) game before it did.  But knowing what would happen did not make it happen.

People often struggle with God’s sovereignty and omniscience–if he knows everything you’ll do today, does that fact mean that he chooses what you’ll do?  How can you be free if he knows the results of your free choices before you make them?  It may help to consider the difference between observation and determination.  If I watched you read this blog, my observation would not determine your action.  God can see tomorrow better than we can see today, but his knowledge of the future does not necessarily determine it.

Your Father knows what you’ll do next, but the decision is yours.  Choose wisely.