“For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
The human will is one of the most powerful forces at our disposal. We can use our will for good — to create, to unite, to assist, to develop, to improve — or for evil — to destroy, to divide, to undermine. We can even use our will to destroy ourselves. The choice is ours, and that’s a heavy lift.
I have a tiny notebook found in my son’s belongings after he died. One on page he scribbled, “FREE WILL. God’s greatest gift.” And it really is. It’s also our greatest responsibility. Every superhero story we have includes a scene where the superhero, under extreme pressure, usually of an emotional sort, has to choose whether to use his or her immense powers for good or evil.
The superheroes are the ones who choose good. The super-villains are the ones who choose evil… think Darth Vader in Star Wars, or Two-Face in Batman. The difference isn’t what happened to them, it’s what they chose to do with it.
You could even describe the scene in the Gospels where Jesus is tempted in the desert as a test of His will. Fortunately for all of us, He passed that test.
By definition, the word “willful” means to be intentional or deliberate, which isn’t necessarily negative. You want your surgeon, for example, to be intentional and deliberate while performing surgery. We want our law enforcement to be intentional and deliberate, not sloppy and lackadaisical. We hope the people preparing our food are being intentional and deliberate so we don’t end up with food poisoning, etc.
Interestingly, the word “willful” is almost always used in the negative, frequently attached to defiant children and criminal behavior with additional descriptors like “disobedience” and “negligence” and “ignorance” and “blindness.”
We’re not going to be able to inform the willfully ignorant, open the eyes of the willfully blind, or change the character of the willfully destructive. It’s a hard lesson to learn: we don’t have control over other people. We do, however, have control over ourselves, and it’s important that we figure out how to use our will for good. We can choose to be willfully kind, willfully helpful, willfully engaged, informed, benevolent. The list goes on.
Be willful, it’s your God-given superpower, but by all means, be willful for good, not evil.
