Opus 2012-7, Food Poisoning and Free Will

I have been following a discussion of free will vs foreknowledge by SLW over at Thundersounds.  If you are interested in those issues and haven’t run across his tomes you might stop over and see what he has to say.  A recent experience of mine brought some questions to my mind so I thought I would weigh in on the subject.

It all started with something I ate.  I had an attack of food poisoning.  It has happened before.  I know that I am not going to die.  I know how to deal with it:  Tough it out.  This too shall pass.  Eventually the body will purge itself of the poison and life will return to normal.  This time I had an attack of the Stupids and came close to catastrophe. 

I have not compared notes with others but when I have food poisoning there is a point where all I can do is hunker down by the toilet and wait.  I drift in and out of consciousness and just want to die but my core being knows what is going on and I endure.  Eventually I get rid of the poison and the recovery is almost miraculous.  That is the way it usually happens but this time I thought I would be clever.  During a semi-lucid moment I decided I would go spend the waiting period in my Lazy-boy chair in the living room.  On the way I grabbed a book and popped a soda.  I was going to deal with this in a civilized manner.  If I had done neither I might have made it to the chair but half way there my mind started to go zombie. 

At that point I should have settled down to the floor until the disorientation passed but Stupid stepped up and said, “Follow me.”  Stupid followed.  Instead of stopping I sped up.  As my awareness faded, I went faster.  I remember running into a chair.  I sped up.  Somewhere in there I went horizontal because my head ended up colliding with a table by my destination chair.  I remember the sound and the pain.  The next thing I was aware of was laying on the floor in agony.  The good news was the soda was still in my hand, right side up. 

After a while I was able to crawl to my chair and drag myself up into a sitting position.  A few hours later I was aware I had sliced my head open.  A few hours after that I was able to get to my bed and begin to sleep it off. 

Now we get to the theology.  Did God preordain this act of stupidity or was it because I insisted on making bad decisions?  In the midst of my foolishness, where were my guardian angels?  If God loves me why didn’t He have me fall into my chair instead of the table.  Why did I get blood all over my wife’s rug?

I see God’s hand all over this and I thank my guardian angels.  Since I believe God gives us free will I see Him doing the best He could in the midst of my stupidity.  I am sure He hopes I will learn so we don’t have to go through this again.  The slice in my head is about an inch above my eye and a few inches to the side of the weak part of the skull.  I think my angel did a good job of guiding this missile.  Sure I have a nice cut but I still have an eye.  A bit the other way and I may have never lived to tell about it.

Am I making much of nothing?  Maybe.  I chose to see the hand of God is all of life.  That is why I call this blog a Medley of Worship.

homo unius libri