versus the needs of the many
September 2, 2009 (Wednesday)
One of my favorite “Star Trek” episodes was the one about traveling back in time to the 1930’s in the U.S.A. The space ship crew was on a strange planet which had what looked like a giant T.V. screen in a huge boulder. It had color and sound, and announced that it could show the viewers any era of history. One of the crew members was sick and temporarily out of his mind and dived into the picture, vanishing from sight. When other crew members followed him to rescue him, the picture disappeared along with the big rock with its color and sound. Gone. Vanished. Obviously someone had traveled through the picture to the time being shown and had done something to change history.
Then the program switched to the time and place to which the time travelers had been sent. Most of the program was about how they tried to get back to their own time, but in the process, Captain Kirk fell in love with a woman in charge of a rescue mission. As they crossed a street one day, she walked in front of a car and he tried to save her life. One of his crewmates, however, restrained him because their little makeshift time machine showed him that the rescue would change history. America would lose World War II, and … well, you see what I mean.
I suspect that God faces decisions like that every day, deciding to work in all our lives in such a way to bring about the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In the process, not everyone gets exactly what they want. So when we pray, we are taught to say, “Not my will, but yours, be done.” What seems best for us at the time may not be the best for all. It’s the very decision that Jesus made in Gethsemane, when he prayed, “Not my will, but yours, be done.”