There is a theory that acts of the will, occurrences in everyday life, or some odd happenings are unavoidable. That's another way of talking about predestination, which I don't accept. Now, I do believe that God has put me here and that I will one day stand before Him and He will judge my life. He has put a lot of options before me, but I am the one who must make the choice.

When I worked at the Goochland State Maximum Security Prison outside of Richmond, Va., at the request of my seminary, I met an inmate called Big Joe, the yard boss. He was there for blowing his friend's head off with a shotgun because the friend refused to get off the phone so Joe could make a call. I asked Joe one day if he had any regrets. Joe answered, "Well, I'm sorry he's dead, but he should've hung up the phone."

So many prisoners I interviewed had a similar attitude. "If that lady hadn't left her keys in the car, I wouldn't have swiped it." "If that guy would have left me alone, I might not have cut him." "If he hadn't shown all that money around, I wouldn't have taken it." "If life hadn't been so tough on me, I'd a been a better man."

It was bad luck, bad timing, an accident, his fault, her fault, bad cops, bad attorneys, bad judges and bad days. They were victims of bad parents, the environment or that mysterious God I don't believe in.

It's amazing how many have similar ideas about education. Teachers are unfair, too many things take away my study time, exams are written for the select, getting a job after graduation only applies to the lucky ones who most likely cheated on the tests. I was picked to be poor, taken advantage of and just plain on the wrong side of the street.

Is my life so determined that all I do, have done or will do is nothing more than a pre-planned agenda or a cosmic joke? If so, then old John Calvin, with his supralapsarianism, is right. That's a seminary word to mean double-predestination, which means some will go to heaven and some will go to hell, period. Calvin believed that everyone deserved hell, but if God chose about 10 percent to escape the fires, that's His business. That's a puzzle. I also believe that Calvin was a poor biblical scholar.

When I enlisted in the Navy, I knew I was predestined to be an officer and a commander of my own personal ship, pejoratively called a Tin Can or Destroyer. Since I couldn't see anything over five feet away without glasses – corrective eye surgery wasn't approved until 1997 – I memorized the eye chart to sneak by. All went well until I was standing in line ready to march to OCS. I forgot to take off my glasses and was pulled out of line and sent back to finish boot camp. 

Maybe I would have gotten my commission and sat in the captain's chair, and maybe I would have run that boat aground and ruined a good day at sea. Well, I served the Navy right well as a non-com, graduated from Marshall U. and met and married the girl I fell in love with.

I believe in Providence. By that, I mean I may not be a super athlete, great mathematician, good looking – I need to buy a better mirror – or have excessive charm. However, I am required to use what I have. Some doors are closed, but this wonderful God has given us so many other doors to open into worlds we can only imagine. 

We don't always make the best choices. We do have the choices and that is what makes life so wonderful, exciting, marvelous and challenging.

Okay! This door is closed for me, so I need to quit banging on it with a sledgehammer. Now, here are a couple of doors yet to be opened. I wonder what's on the other side?

Thanks, God, for giving me poor eyesight. What a blessing!