Quick thoughts on Free Will

I have been thinking alot about free will lately. For most of my life I have believed that I am in charge of my choices and I have been endowed by my creator to do as I please and hope that it pleases Him as well. Lately I have begun to question whether I am free at all and maybe I am influenced by more than the "essential Justin" living inside my skull.

I can't escape that I am influenced by my family, especially my parents. My parents divorced when I was five and it has colored my life in both tragic and hopeful shades that I am just beginning to unravel. I would like to believe that my faith in Christ was a decision I made on my lonesome and I now "own" my faith but the rhetoric is failing. I owe my family and friends my faith more that myself.

I am influenced by world events that I can't control. If September 11th has not colored your view of the world then you have lived under a rock for the last 7 years. If you do live under a rock and you are somehow reading this then I guarantee that you live under a rock for reasons that are outside yourself. You made the choice but you were influenced more than either of us realise.

I can't escape my peers opinions. Most likely if I buy a shirt at the store and my wife thinks it is dorky I will not wear it. Or I will were it just to prove to her it is not dorky. Even my decision to buy the shirt is influenced by mass marketing and how cool the guy in the picture looks when he has it on.

How do I escape these influences? Should I? I think they are there for a reason. I am still trying to figure it out.