Please don't publish my email address. Thanks.

First and foremost, I am a creature. Created. I am a Christian--although I am somewhat reluctant to use that word because of the connotations it conjures, particularly to fundamentalism. I am not much for prosteltyzing (or spelling), I don't believe in apologetics--truth needs no defense and one should not defend a lie. However, I believe any earnest seeker of truth will eventually find themselves, in one fashion or another, at the foot of the cross.

The free will question is tricky and I would like to offer an analogy of my best understanding that others may find useful.

I am born and find myself standing on a board marked into little boxes. As I get my bearings, I try to move to left but I can't. I don't know why. I try to move to my right. I can't. I try to move ahead. I can, but then I'm pulled back to my original box. I look around and there are others of different shapes and sizes. And I see someone move. And I ask, "Why?" And someone explains that it's chess, and I'm a pawn. My moves are limited. All the other pieces all have predefined moves--they can choose to move, but only with the rules of their piece.

And so all the pieces move according to the rules of their particular piece. But everything's a mess and I'm always bumping up against other pieces and occasionally being pulled back to my square.

And again I wonder, "Why?" And someone says, Turn around (literally: repent). And I realize that Christ is the chest master in a grand tournament game and my insistence on exercising "free will" is messing up his game. And I submit to the master, and wait patiently on my spot, knowing that within predefined limits I can move, but choosing only to move when the Master's hand moves me. And when he wins, we all win. If I must be sacrificed for the sake of the game, so be it. I will be restored at the end of the game and honored for my submission and cooperation.

In short, there is free will and very real limits on free will. As the Apostle Paul so elegantly understood, to surrender whatever free will we have and be a slave to Christ--to truth--is the greatest thing in the world, even if it's counterintuitive to our mortal, creature mind.