Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: Act II

I think a lot of the questions raised in the play about whether everything is fate or whether it is choice is very similar to our Christian struggle to understand whether what we do is done completely according to predistination and foreordination or whether we make the choice to do what we do. After last week's spiritual emphasis week, there was much decussion and debate over this very issue. I can't say that I understand everything, but I do think that God has predestined us to be his followers and that he ordains the events that occur in this world and in our lives. That is not to say that we don't have any choice. God gives us choice too, which seems like a paradox, but somehow, that is how it is. However, I might say that we do not have completely free choice. Whatever we do, our choices cannot be free in the sense that they are completely uninfluenced decisions; they may be influenced by our peers, by social norms, by circumstances and necessities, but as humans, our choices are always influenced by our inherent sin nature.

Does that make us nobody, then, if our lives are predestined? As Guildenstern says, "If we...just happened to discover...that our spontaneity was part of their order, we'd know that we were lost" (60). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have scripted lives; they don't really exist apart from the script. Our lives are not like that becasue we still have choice although God does plan things out. For us as Christians, we have more meaning since God has done this than we would have if we planned our own way. The Bible says "In his heart a man plans his steps, but the Lord determines his course". The things we plan ourselves are not always the best, and as flawed and finite people, we can never know for sure what is best. However God knows.

It is true that our lives have no meaning if we live apart from God. If Rosencrantz and Guildenstern lived apart from the script, they would be meaningless. Whenever they are not in the actual play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have a pseudo-existence, trying to entertain themselves in a frivolous way and trying to answer questions but in the end finding that their logic has led them in circles. Only in God and His plan can we find meaning and become Somebody. Life is real in following God and questions have answers and there is logic.