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Lenten Observations, Feb. 26, 2026: Ephesians 1:5-6

 5he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved

My last post was a dig at evolution. Now we'll go in the opposite direction and talk about theological predestination!

So, did the Godhead choose us, a fortunate portion of the human race, to be redeemed and left out the majority of others, or do we get to choose to follow Jesus and the path for us is marked out: that we will be adopted and live to praise God's glorious grace?

Does it matter?

Apparently it does to a lot of people. I used to be in the first camp, and now I am not so sure. 

But from my own experience I have to say I had very, very little to do with "the choice." I was in the place to hear the gospel in a way that it made me realize I was a sinner and not such a good person as I thought. That moment in time is still very real to me, 54 or so years later. Personally, I think it's best not to get too secure in our human ability to "choose" Christ, despite what is clearly our human desire to experience or at least know about the transcendent or what is beyond this temporal existence. 

It took me years to understand the depths of my inability to choose God, anyway. I always looked okay on the outside, I'm pretty rotten and selfish inside, but I conform and "clean up" okay. Conformity is safe and means you might have more "friends." I'm really only conformist about not expressing my nonconformist views, of which there are many. 

In other words, I am a coward, one of my basest sins!

The choice we make is to be honest about ourselves. That is a Lenten observation. As much as we want to build positive self-esteem in children, honesty is the currency of adulthood. I struggle with how to phrase positive messages for my granddaughter. To say "good job" vs. "good girl", for example. One emphasizes performance, the other sends a message that doesn't really align with the gospel and that is my judgment. I do say, "big girl" to emphasize growth, although I don't want to lose her childhood. "Is" statements can all be fraught with misunderstandings.  

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