The Giant Sudoku

This is a short section from Chapter TWO of the book.

Because some stuff that comes before it is relevant but missing in this post, it might not be as useful to you as it could be.  

But I thought it was worth sharing with you anyway, as it is part of my explanation of how God's sovereignty and man's "freewill" can co-exist, and this is always a challenge for thinking Christians to get their minds around.  This co-existence I have called The Magic Combo earlier in the chapter.

Isabel loves solving Sudoku puzzles (and I'm known to enjoy them pretty frequently too).

It occurs to me that these are another example of the Magic Combo we have been discussing.

Each puzzle has a designer and players.

The designer creates the puzzle, determines its end result and sets the rules to be used in its solution.

As such, the designer builds the fence inside which the players must remain to enjoy and solve the puzzle he/she has created.

The rules are written in negative form (you must not have the same numeral in any one row, column or region) as were the rules for the behaviour for the management team in our corporate governance-management model above.

Although there is only one correct solution or end result for each puzzle, players can work towards that in any way they choose - as long as they keep to the rules.

Within these limits, they are free to make a wide range of decisions and use a variety of strategies.

They have “limited freewill.”  (There's that term again.)

They can guess, follow clues logically, backtrack, erase the work done so far, start again, or any combination of these.

They can even put it aside for a time and come back to it sometime later.

But the correct solution never changes, nor do the rules, no matter what the player does.

The designer is sovereign, and all players must submit to his/her sovereignty.

Within the puzzle itself there are clues to help fill in the blanks and reach the goal.

And there is usually a rescue plan in place for those who can't make it on their own.

If the puzzle is in a book, there might be hints or the final solution in the back.

If the puzzle is attempted online, hints and prompts are readily available with the click of a mouse button.

One way or another, it is possible for every player to achieve the end result, although they may take different routes and different amounts of time.

We happily accept there is only one solution; we happily accept there are rules that cannot be broken; we happily accept the challenge the designer has set before us.

That's just the way things are!

As is life.

God is sovereign, the Designer, who has decided on the end result and set the rules for getting there.

Mankind can make choices and decisions like a Sudoku player, but in the end, there is only one result and the same rules apply to all players.

And thankfully, there is a rescue plan in place for those who can't or won't get to that result during their lifetime on the planet.

Blessings, Barry