God chose Jimmy and not Clark because He is God and God does what He wants to do. Psalm 115:3 "Our God is in heaven— he can do whatever he wants!" Romans 9:18-23 "Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory."
As you can easily see we are not permitted to question God's sovereign choices. God will take some people from a lump of clay and make a beautiful pitcher to hold drinking water and the rest of that exact same lump he makes into a thunder mug. (Google that if you don't know what that is.) He is God. We are not. My suggestion is Do not question His authority to do what He wants to do with His creation. To me those who question God about His sovereign choices are treading on very thin ice.
Now we know God hardens sinners, but we need to look at how and why? With Calvinist leanings, you would say men can not come to Jesus unless they are drawn. That it is His sovereign choice. Let’s look at:
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is certainly a choice that God makes, but look at what it is a choice between.
Joh 14:21-24 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.
The fact is God enlightens those who respond to His love, and the redemptive message He has given.
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
He hardens, i.e. does not reveal Himself, to the one who once seeing the light goes on in his sins.
Joh 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Joh 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.
As we see here it is man’s choice between, coming to the light or withdrawing from it.
Joh 3:16-21 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
The passage you quote where Paul states:
Rom 9:18-21 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Is not God saying, “shut up man, I am God”. It is a reply to those people who dishonor His word by not acting in love for Him and His words. The blinded could have an objection, but it is not valid objection. For they were given a chance. As we see from John above.
Joh 1:9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
It is not just the bible that presents this idea the Earliest Church Fathers maintain the free will of man in regard to salvation:
Irenaeus in his Against Heresies - Book 4 Ch 35-38 [A.D. 120-202]
5. And not merely in works, but also in faith, has God preserved the will of man free and under his own control, saying, “According to thy faith be it unto thee;” (Mat 9:29) thus showing that there is a faith specially belonging to man, since he has an opinion specially his own. And again, “All things are possible to him that believeth;” (Mat 9:23) and, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” (Mat 8:13) Now all such expressions demonstrate that man is in his own power with respect to faith. And for this reason, “he that believeth in Him has eternal life while he who believeth not the Son hath not eternal life, but the wrath of God shall remain upon him.” (Joh 3:36) In the same manner therefore the Lord, both showing His own goodness, and indicating that man is in his own free will and his own power, said to Jerusalem, “How often have I wished to gather thy children together, as a hen [gathereth] her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Wherefore your house shall be left unto you desolate.” (Mat 23:37, Mat 23:38)
Justin Martyr [A.D. 110-165.] - First Apology - Ch 56-50
Chap. XLIII — Responsibility Asserted.
But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble, we thus demonstrate. We see the same man making a transition to opposite things. Now, if it had been fated that he were to be either good or bad, he could never have been capable of both the opposites, nor of so many transitions. But not even would some be good and others bad, since we thus make fate the cause of evil, and exhibit her as acting in opposition to herself; or that which has been already stated would seem to be true, that neither virtue nor vice is anything, but that things are only reckoned good or evil by opinion; which, as the true word shows, is the greatest impiety and wickedness. But this we assert is inevitable fate, that they who choose the good have worthy rewards, and they who choose the opposite have their merited awards. For not like other things, as trees and quadrupeds, which cannot act by choice, did God make man: for neither would he be worthy of reward or praise did he not of himself choose the good, but were created for this end;52 nor, if he were evil, would he be worthy of punishment, not being evil of himself, but being able to be nothing else than what he was made.