Rich Mullins and Freedom

"I say I wanna give You glory, Lord, and I do
But everything that I could ever find to offer comes from You
But if my darkness can praise Your light
Give me breath and I'll give my life to sing Your praise

And I wanna thank You, Lord
More than all of my words can say
And I give my life to sing Your praise
And beyond this I would not beg
For anything except the grace
To give my life to sing Your praise"

-- Rich Mullins, Damascus Road (from Brother's Keeper)

[copyright 1995 edward grant/kid brothers of saint frank publishing]

Rich Mullins is a favorite songwriter of mine. I'm not here to debate his allegiance to compatibilism (I have a feeling he probably was). This song struck me this morning. It explains one aspect of why I believe and hope we have incompatibilist free will. Rich realizes that giving something to God that comes entirely from Him is not much of a gift. Everything in the world comes from God, except for ourselves. This is the only thing we can give to the Lord that has any worth whatsoever. The objective freedom we have is the only thing that is our own. God cannot control it; if He could, what kind of gift would that be? He'd be giving to himself, and it'd be no different than sacrificing manna.

There is no greater gift than laying down our freedom to conform to the will of God.