Yesterday I caught a glimpse of an advertisement for a reality show entitled something like “The Trappers.” The short ad featured a bearded man who made the following statement: “God created me to be a trapper.” He had more to say, but this was the take-away for me.

This really set me to thinking. I came up with a whole list of things to ponder.

1. Is there a God who creates individuals to play certain roles in life?
2. If number 1 is true, what does God have against all the critters these trappers capture and kill?
3. Does this mean that every choice we make is directed by God?

When I was teaching in the Federal Prison, I met inmates who believed that it was God’s or Allah’s will that these individuals commit their various crimes and that they should go to prison for said crimes.

I totally rejected such thinking because there was no self-responsibility, no accounting for individual will, but I did listen to their logic, which went something like this: “If God/Allah is all-powerful, then He (The Divine Entity was very masculine in these encounters) controls everything. If it was not his will it could not have happened.”

There is some logic in that statement but I believe personal responsibility supersedes any type of divine intention. While I know there is a Unified Field in which we all move and have our being, I do not believe this Source ever interferes with our individual choices. So, in other words, I reject the idea that there is a power out there that created me or anyone else for a certain purpose. I believe this Power gives us the ability to become the best version of ourselves which we are capable of conceiving. I do not believe Mike the Mountain Man was created to kill animals for their furs, nor do I believe that Jeffrey Dahmer was created to eat his neighbors.

I know my beliefs are not popular. People find great comfort in their belief that God created them for a certain purpose. At least some do; others spend their entire lives attempting to uncover this divine calling, which for some never seems to appear.

I believe we all have free will. I am not sure this free will is manifest in human form or if it is decided by our soul, most of which resides in Source, but I believe we can make the choice, today, to pack our bags and move to Cancun, start a jet ski business, and drink Pina Coladas if we decide that is what we want to do. I think I could walk into a bank tomorrow with a note that demanded their money and probably find myself in prison fairly quickly. The point is this: It is not God’s will for my life that I try to learn to write well, it is mine. I choose not to rob banks simply because I choose to reject such a lifestyle, it has nothing to do with God or with God’s will for my life.

While I recognize the possibility, maybe even the probability, that I am wrong about the nature of man’s relationship with the Field which permeates all that Is, I simply cannot imagine a God that creates one man to kill another man, such as the “God created me to be a soldier” individual. Nor can I conceive of Love creating a human for the purpose of killing rabbits because their fur is in demand. It just all seems too contradictory to be a real possibility.

I understand people’s need for belief that the divine not only accepts their actions but was, in fact, the cause of such choices, but I do not believe it is a possibility. Any time we seek to assign attributes to God, we are creating the Divine in our own image, so it is completely logical that we would create a God who created us to be killers. Whatever helps you make it through the night, right?

As a quick disclaimer, I am not suggesting that it is wrong to kill animals, humans, or to rob banks. It is not anything that appeals to me, in any way, but the God I have created, in my mind, would never judge such actions. I would like to say that I, too, do not judge a shooter who would go into a school and kill innocent kids and teachers, but unfortunately I am not quite that evolved. It is my goal, to love as the God of my dreams Loves, but my first reaction is disbelief, followed my anger, and finally, followed by pain-filled sorrow, when such an event occurs.

Everything we are is God. If we really believe it is God’s will for us to trap beavers to make $ 60.00 for their pelt, then it is so. It’s no worse than praying that God is on our side on the battlefield or in the football game. We use our idea of the Divine to justify all sorts of actions. Why not? Clearly God created me to be a cynic, right?

I think we need to take responsibility for our actions and not place the burden for our actions on an idea of some God which we have created in our own image. If we do not have free will, there is no logical reason for our existence here. If there is a Divine Entity pulling all our strings, we are nothing but puppets in some silly dance that we will never understand. If I want to go out and kill people who don’t look like me, people who worship in a different way from me, I hope I would have the courage to claim responsibility for my actions and not say that it was because God created me to be a soldier. But then what do I know, perhaps God created me to question everything.

The only freedom we can ever find is through taking 100% responsibility for our lives. There is no joy to be found in blaming our lives, our choices, on some mythical God, out there somewhere. We are what we are because of the choices we make and have made, not because some creator decided that this is who and what we should be. I think our parents, teachers, peers, and relationships had more to do with forming and shaping us than the Unified Field did. We are and have always been free to choose the direction of our lives. It is no wiser to say that “God created me for this” than it is to say that “The Devil Made Me Do It.”

To be free, we must claim and own our freedom. Any other choice abandons and disregards Truth.