Over the past decade, I have faced adversity that has changed the way I look at life, at people, and at my own purpose. I have experienced circumstances that have tested my resolve and left me questioning how much a person can endure and still find the strength to move forward. Even today, I have concerns about individuals and groups whom I believe want to see me fall, lose hope, or give up entirely.

People sometimes ask me if I am afraid. Afraid of being hurt, kidnapped, tortured, or killed. And I have spent a great deal of time thinking about that question. The truth is, none of us knows what tomorrow holds. We cannot control every person we encounter, every circumstance we face, or every turn our lives may take. We cannot guarantee how much time we have. But perhaps the more important question is not how long we will be here. It is what we choose to do with the time we have been given.

Somewhere along this journey, I came to understand that I have a responsibility that extends beyond my own struggles. I believe in God, and I believe He gave each of us something extraordinary: free will. The ability to think, to question, to make our own decisions, and to determine the kind of person we will become. We may not choose every hardship that enters our lives, but we still have a choice in what we stand for and how we respond.

That belief is the foundation of the Free Will Project.

I am not here to tell anyone what they must believe. I am here because I believe people deserve the freedom to seek the truth for themselves, to question what they are told, and to make decisions guided by their own conscience. Faith means something different when it is freely chosen rather than forced. And free will means very little if we surrender our choices to fear.

Perhaps that is why the thought of what I might face does not carry the same weight as the responsibility I feel to continue. It is not that I believe myself invulnerable, or that I know what the future holds. It is that I have found something I consider worth standing for. If I allowed the fear of what might happen to determine everything I do, then I would be giving away the very freedom I believe God gave me.

There is a phrase Mel Gibson used during his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience in January 2025: “Nobody dies for a lie.” To me, the deeper question behind those words is one of conviction. What is a person willing to stand for when standing up becomes difficult? What remains when comfort, certainty, and the promise of an easy life are no longer guaranteed?

I know that conviction alone does not settle every question, and I do not expect everyone to see the world as I do. But I know what my faith means to me, and I know why I have chosen to keep pursuing this mission.

We spend so much of our lives worrying about what might happen that we sometimes forget to ask ourselves what we are doing with the life we have right now. We wait for certainty before we act, for safety before we speak, and for permission before we become who we believe we are meant to be. Yet certainty may never come, and the perfect moment may never arrive.

Perhaps the freedom we possess is not the ability to control the whole course of our lives, but the ability to choose our direction even when the road ahead is uncertain.

I cannot rewrite the adversity I have experienced. I cannot recover every moment that has passed or know how many moments remain. But I can choose what those experiences mean to me. I can choose whether they leave me bitter or make me more determined to pursue what I believe is right. I can choose to keep speaking, keep questioning, and keep encouraging others to recognize the power of their own decisions.

And that is what I intend to do with the time I have been given.

Not because I know how my story will end, but because I believe the purpose of a life is found in how we choose to live it while we are here.

If God gave us free will, then perhaps our greatest responsibility is not to live without fear, but to make sure fear does not make our choices for us.

That is why I continue with the Free Will Project. That is why I believe in the importance of sharing this message. And that is why, regardless of the uncertainty that lies ahead, I choose to keep moving forward.

Because in the end, we may never get to decide how long our story will be. But we still have a say in what it stands for.

And that, to me, is the true meaning of free will.

Free Will