Maktub

The intersection of the foreknowledge of God and our choices

The concept of predestination has been something I have struggled to grasp for a long time. I have always been concerned that I may not have a say in what happens in my life, and I just have to accept whatever happens as planned, sealed and unchangeable. This has always been used to explain seemingly unexplainable, undesirable or confusing events, and more often than not, they are meant for comfort.

I have sought to understand this for a while, and I am still seeking more knowledge. But I am writing this to share a few things I have learnt about it.

Sometimes back, I was reading the ‘Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho - an amazing book that narrates the story of a shepherd boy, Santiago, who sold his sheep in pursuit of the treasure he had seen in his dream, which was later branded as his ‘personal legend’. The book pointed out that all of us have a personal legend, and it showcased others who gave up on theirs.

One fascinating word used in the book is Maktub - Arabic for ‘It is written’. It was first used by a crystal merchant trying to explain why he could not fulfil his personal legend.

A personal legend is basically one’s dream, goals or life pursuit. Or that one thing that defines fulfilment at the end of one’s life.

The crystal merchant has always wanted to visit Mecca to perform his pilgrimage as a devout muslim, but settled for watching others go. He believes that it is written that we wouldn’t all fulfil our personal legend, and I ask myself, “Is that true?”

These are my thoughts;

We do not know or cannot determine exactly what is ‘written’ until the event has already taken place, and these events, on the other hand, usually follow a series of choices we have made.

Which then is more powerful, predestination or our choices?

One of the scriptures that created the initial interest in the concept of predestination is Acts 13:48.

Now, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

It raised a lot of questions for me. For example, how would you know you are appointed? Why should the appointment overrule our choice? Does it matter whether you decided to embrace eternal life or not, because it is all about the appointment or predestination anyway?

One of my bible teachers explained this with an illustration, and it stuck ever since. Imagine a door with two labels on both sides. When facing it, the label reads “Whosoever”, but only those who decide to enter can see the other label, which reads “Appointed”.

The truth is, our choices only confirm predestination. You do not know you are predestined to be or do something until you decide so.

God does not overrule our choices, and at the same time, our choices cannot overrule His foreknowledge. He is the beginning, the end and everything in between, but one of the gifts God gave us is our WILL. What He does instead is to orchestrate events that allow us to exercise that will.

For the people of Antioch in the bible verse quoted earlier, what God did was to arrange for Paul and Barnabas to be at the right place at the right time for the sake of those who were ‘appointed’. And as I mentioned earlier, you only know you are appointed after making the choice.

Our choices are very important. Loving a person, pursuing a career, living out our personal legend. They are all choices we have to make, alongside a myriad of other smaller ones that ultimately create a significant shift in our lives.

It is reckless to use ‘Maktub’ as an indulgence and comfort for our poor choices. We must be intentional in our choices, even if we do not get the desired outcome, we will be confident in the fact that we tried our best, not that we threw in the towel at first instance. A higher way of living, however, is allowing God Himself to influence our choices. One of the expressions of our will is to depend on God. This is one of the failures of Adam.

Everything is written truly, but God has not used that to deny us participation in this journey of life.

Till later,

AB Adeoye.