Who or What Weaves Our Fate?

Can we choose our destiny, or is it already chosen for us?

FATEIs It Selected For Us?

• To what level?• Do we make up is as we go

along• Do we have to?• Or can we plan ahead?• To what extent?

Do We Control It?• Do we have any say?• Can we fight it?• Who chooses it? Is it God,

our family, our friends, our leaders?

Is it selected for us?

Does someone or something greater choose our destiny?

Justinian I, Emperor of Byzantium,

He thought that…• The fate we live out on

earth was chosen for us by an almighty power

• fate is a path, and to stray from that path earned you eternal damnation

• Fate must be accepted, for it is indestructible and unalterable

John Calvin

Saw fate as• everyone and everything was well

thought out and planned by God– "There is not one little blade of grass,

there is no color in this world that is not intended to make men rejoice.” – John Calvin

• God "freely and unchangeably ordaining whatsoever comes to pass.”

• God's foreknowledge of the way in which they will either freely reject Christ or freely accept him, and if it came to reject, he made their fate one of eternal damnation

Pope Benedict XVI

He believes…• That God

If our fate is preordained…

Can we fight it, can we change our fates?

Examples…

• Quotes• People• Berlin wall• Guy in china in front of tank, fought fate, died.

His fate was to live there, and he fought it and it killed him

• Slaves running away

Do we make our own fate?

Do we create it as we go along, or do the decisions we make now generate

our fate for the later years?

Come the End

So, here we are. We are born, and we will die. But we have all of our lives to draw our own lines in the sand, and to take the path untrodden.

A Tree of FateWe spend our lifeDealing with strife

While climbing up a treeA tree unique to meThe trunk is the base

A fact we must come to faceIt may not be carved in stone

But it is unalterable, and we must walk it aloneBut then we come to a place where the trunk will split

And one branch may be litOr you may not know which to choose

And all you can think about is what you have to loseHowever the choice may not always be quick

The route you will take, is solely your pickSometimes the branch may break

Sometimes the branch may be fakeSometimes the branch isn’t really a branch after all

Sometimes the branch is so frail, you’re forced to crawlYou’ve been mislead

And that could wind you up deadFor the branch may be weak

So we must think, before we speakThe branch may be small

But we have to take a leap of faith, and pray we don’t fallFor each branch

Is a chance