“Who Makes Destiny?”

A serious argument arose between me and my friend on the issue of Predestination. She is a Philosopher, a student of the University of Nigeria Nsuka. I argued that though the God who created us knows everything about us even our future, but yet, I am the one who make my destiny. To back up my opinion, I continued that St. Augustine once said that ‘the God who created us cannot recreate us without our cooperation.’ More so I added, in the beginning God created us out of His own freewill and also gave us that freedom to act freely.

      In the Garden of Eden, our first parents were given an instruction to eat every other fruits in the garden except one, yet He concluded ‘the day you shall eat of this fruit you shall die; which means they have the absolute freedom to choose to eat it or not. Thus, I have the freedom to choose what I become in the future. One of the great Philosophers Socrates said, ‘I think therefore I am.’ This means I eventually become what I taught. So, if I think great, I become great and if think small, I become small as well. Yet, there is fate; a supernatural force that controls human experiences in life which are inevitable. That is to say, that my fate decides my future – my destiny. However, I argued that since fate is inevitable and it is controlled by a supernatural force that decides on our life experiences, hence, fate is a raw material which I use to make my future- my destiny. Therefore, I make my destiny with my fate.

     Then she responded me with a story, a true life story which she was an eye-witness. A certain young man, his name not disclosed for some reasons, finished secondary school and joined the catholic major seminary at the age of nineteen. He had spent seven years in the seminary before he was expelled in his second year in Theology. His entire life was shattered and it took him two years to recover from the trauma. Later, he started lecturing in one of the universities in Nigeria. After six years as a lecturer, he made up his mind to get married and establish his own family. But all his efforts to get married fail on a rocky soil. On two different occasions, the bride price which he paid for his marriage was refunded back to him and the marriage cancelled. This is not exaggerations, rather a reality. He tried several times to settle down with a wife of his own but all to no avail. He came to a breaking point when he could no longer bear it. Then he went to the Bishop of his Diocese and reported his case to him. He narrated in minutiae all he had passed through. After three weeks, the Bishop readmitted him back to the seminary and sent him to United States of America to study Theology. He completed his study after four years and was ordained a catholic priest. To crown it all, she quoted Romans 9:11-13; ‘even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, not by works but by His call). She was told – “the elder shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”

I was so overwhelmed by all these stories and I kept wondering; who makes destiny?