I walked out of a tire shop recently and headed toward my truck. I used the key fob to open my truck, but it didn’t work. I tried it again and again and it still did not work. I quickly assumed that the battery of the key fob was dead, despite it being only two years old. This was my conclusion; it was not the correct conclusion. I was dead wrong in my assessment.

When I looked around the parking lot the lights in my head began to illuminate again. Across the parking lot I saw another truck that looked like mine. I walked toward the truck and this time when I hit the button, the truck chirped and the doors unlocked. My assumption of dead batteries was inaccurate. When I understand clearly where my truck was, the key fob worked as it was designed to work.

Agency is the same way. When we realize that agency has limits and boundaries, we can operate on accurate assumptions. When agency works properly and righteously, it is powerful. This agency is called moral agency.

Richard G. Scott reminded us, “You can choose what to do, but you cannot define what is right to do.”³