Best Friend

Ecclesiastes 3:10-13 - The Message (MSG)

9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift.

Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 - New English Translation (NET Bible)

10 I have observed the burden that God has given to people to keep them occupied. 11 God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives.

I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the one who gave it all. I'll stand, my soul Lord to you surrendered, “All I am is yours.”

All I am is Yours, All we are is His. We have nothing, since He has it all.

If anyone holds your secret, you’ll definitely be a slave to them, just to make sure that they don’t blow it up. Whether it’s friends or not, you’ll do anything to protect your secret in them.

People will manipulate us, if they know that they hold the dark side of you, they will use us, just for their advantages.

God has all of our secrets, our shame, our pride, our life, and all of our thoughts, belong to Him. So I once imagined, if ever God has a machine for all of us, where He can control our anxiety level, our insecurity level, and our ignorance level. I believe that God will be laughing so hard up there. Knowing that we are under His control, whatever He wants to do in our life, just one spin away. We are a puppet, which thread is connected to His hands.

He’s left us in the dark, once. He’s placed us on a mountaintop, once. He turned our life upside down. From ear-to-ear laughs, to the deepest cries. He’s let us go away. He’s let us stay in His way. The most important, He gives us choice. Since life is about choosing the right path. He knows the art of life.

And our thread will not break. It extends in unimaginable length. It does not tangle. He will use His control whenever He thinks you are way too far out. He will press panic button in our machine, whenever He thinks we need to stop. And that’s how God uses control.

And since we are a part of God’s draft list, He has already set the end of our story. Not for us to see, but for us to foresee. His timing will never fail. And the choice now, whether you want to help God in His work for you, or you need God to press His panic button?

It’s not important what anyone does, if it is against His will. Once, He will drive us rejected, and directed to another path available. All we need to do is go ahead on everything we are into, and let God direct. That’s what best friend do.

Selflessness x Free Will x Freedom of Actions

Free Will

Ability to make choices without any prior prejudice, inclination, or disposition.(R.C Sproul – Chosen by God p.51)

“and specifically that these free will choices are not ultimately predestined by God”

Free Will menurut David Hume:

“power of acting or of not acting, according to the determination of the will: that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may.… This hypothetical liberty is universally allowed to belong to everyone who is not a prisoner and in chains.”

(kebebasan memilih sesuatu, pada saat tidak ada faktor eksternal yang mempengaruhi keputusannya)

Freedom of Actions x Free Will

Freedom of actions berhubungan erat dengan free will yang dimiliki seseorang. Seseorang dianggap melakukan free actions, pada saat ia mampu untuk memiliki free will.

Orang dapat memiliki free will, namun tidak mempunyai freedom of actions ketika ada faktor eksternal yang mempengaruhi keadaannya. Suatu keputusan yang diambil saat orang tidak mempunyai free will tidak bisa disebut free actions.

Free will bukan hanya berhubungan erat dengan freedom of actions, tapi juga dengan tingkat rasional, kreatifitas, dan martabat seseorang.

Manusia memiliki tingkat intelektualnya masing-masing, dan semuanya itu dapat dikategorikan sebagai will. The will, atau disebut juga dengan volitional faculty, adalah keinginan untuk mencapai yang terbaik dan bukan yang buruk, yang juga dapat menggerakkan semua indera  yang ada untuk mengambil keputusan yang terbaik.

Aquinas tentang Volitional Faculty:

“Only an agent endowed with an intellect can act with a judgment which is free, in so far as it apprehends the common note of goodness; from which it can judge this or the other thing to be good. Consequently, wherever there is intellect, there is free will” (Summa Theologiae, q. 59 a. 3). 

Secara hirarki, seseorang dapat memiliki beberapa tingkatan desires and volitions. Pada tingkatan pertama yang disebut “1st order desires” akan berlanjut pada “2nd order desires” apabila ia tidak menginginkan “1st order desires” untuk dilakukan, begitu selanjutnya apabila ia juga tidak menginginkan “2nd order desires”-nya .

Tidak semua desires dapat dijadikan actions. Apabila seseorang memiliki conflicting desires, maka akan tidak mungkin baginya to memenuhi semua desires-nya. Suatu desires yang menjadi actions, dapat kita sebut sebagai volitions. Volitions adalah sebuah desire yang dapat diolah menjadi suatu action. Menurut argumen ini, seseorang dianggap memiliki free will apabila seseorang dapat memiliki suatu will, yang ia inginkan dan dianggap memiliki free will apabila mampu mengubah 1st order desire yang dimilikinya menjadi 1st order volitions.

Free Will menurut Alkitab

(James 1:13-15 NET)

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. 15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. 

Manusia selalu membuat pilihan yang datangnya dari dalam daging, dan dosa selalu berhubungan dengan keinginan daging. Free will yang dimiliki manusia, dianggap sebagai dosa sebelum ia menerima Yesus sebagai Tuhan dan juruselamatnya.

The heart, until born again, is "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9). God saw in man that "every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:44).

Ketika seseorang telah menerima Tuhan sebagai juruselamatnya, itu bukan free will yang dimilikinya, tapi karena Tuhan telah secara supernatural memberikan kemampuan untuk manusia dapat percaya akan pekerjaanNya melalui Roh Kudus.

Selflessness x Free Will x Freedom of Actions

Seperti telah dijelaskan di atas, bahwa free will adalah kemampuan seseorang untuk mengolah desires yang dimilikinya menjadi actions. Intelektualitas yang dimiliki manusia akan bisa mendorongnya untuk membentuk volitional faculty, yaitu keinginan untuk berbuat yang terbaik. (Amsal 2:10 - Kau akan menjadi bijaksana, dan pengetahuanmu akan menyenangkan hatimu.) Kebijaksanaan akan timbul dalam intelektualitas kita apabila kita semakin mendekat kepada Tuhan.

Ketika bahasa kasih telah tertanam, intelektualitas akan terbentuk didasari oleh kasih tersebut, dan akan membentuk free will yang akan kita produksi menjadi real actions setiap hari. (Roma 12:10 - Hendaklah Saudara-saudara saling mengasihi satu sama lain dengan mesra seperti orang-orang yang bersaudara dalam satu keluarga, dan hendaknya kalian saling mendahului memberi hormat.)

“True freedom isn’t freedom to sin, but freedom from sin.”