The leaders of most countries make decisions based on what they think is best for their citizens. In other words, nations are inherently selfish. And those are the best countries! Many ruled by dictators simply make decisions on the basis of what is best for them personally. There is a better way, though. The prophet says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, says the Lord," and he urges his contemporaries to "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near." The way of selfishness is not the way of God on a national scale any more than it is on an individual scale. If one nation, especially a rich and powerful nation, would begin to operate on the basis of what's best for the world, not just what's best for its own citizens, what kind of a world would it be? The prophet tells us that as well: "See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you." I believe that God wants to raise up nations, big or small, that will live by the principle that what's best for the world is what's best for us, even if it means that the citizens of that nation suffer short-term loss. That's the vision that the prophet who spoke these words had. Now, 2500 years later, are we ready to deliver?
It was announced this week that both Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, found conclusive evidence that the planet once had an abundance of liquid water. Scientists were excited by the news, because most believe that life could not have arisen without the existence of water in its liquid state, but now that it has been found, expectations are high of finding evidence of life at some point in the history of Mars. Life requires water, and the psalmist says that his flesh faints for God as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Just as water sustains physical life, so encounters with God sustain spiritual life. The Lenten season is a good opportunity for all people of faith to reflect on their spiritual lives and to seek encounters with God. As you seek God in these days before Easter, where will you look? Maybe you'll encounter God in the quiet of your study. Maybe God will be revealed in the beauty of nature. Perhaps you'll find God while ministering to other people. Or maybe you'll have a fresh encounter with God while going about the daily routines of life. Keep your eyes and ears open for God, for you never know when you'll have an encounter, but if you seek God with all your heart, you will find God. Like a cool drink of water to a parched throat, we all need an encounter with God in our lives.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan opens on the bridge of the Enterprise, with Lt. Saavik, a young Vulcan officer in command. Faced with a no-win situation, she makes a decision, and everyone on board is killed. The camera then fades back, and it turns out that she has been in a simulation called the Kobiashi Maru, a scenario in which there is no way out. Captain Kirk, we find out, is the only person ever to have escaped "alive" from the simulation, and he did it by reprogramming the computer. "I don't believe in no-win situations," he says, and he proves it later by escaping an apparently hopeless situation once again by cunning and trickery. Mr. Spock, on the other hand, faces his own real-life Kobiashi Maru, and he makes the decision to sacrifice his own life to save the crew. Paul tells his readers that, as far as temptation is concerned, there is no such thing as a Kobiashi Maru scenario. No matter what the situation, God always provides a way out of temptation. Of course, avoiding temptation in the first place is usually easier than extricating oneself from it, but we don't always have both options. Unlike Kirk, we can't reprogram the computer of life, and we're stuck with the decisions we make, even the bad ones. When we're faced with situations that seem too hard to handle, it's good to know that we can trust God to deliver us. And when we do fail, it's a comfort to know that God is always willing to forgive.
In Thornton Wilder's book The Bridge of San Luis Rey, a bridge high in the Andes mountains collapsed while five people were on it, and they plummeted to their deaths. The lone witness to the event, Brother Juniper, a Franciscan monk, immediately sought to put a theological spin on the event. Why had these five died and not others? Brother Juniper put his theological training to work, and reasoned as follows. "If there were any plan in the universe at all, if there were any pattern in a human life, surely it could be discovered mysteriously latent in those lives so suddenly cut off. Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan." He undertook an investigation of their lives, and he arrived at reasons that God chose these five to die and not others. The problem was that Brother Juniper was wrong in his analysis of all five. None of the five was as wicked as Brother Juniper suspected, so God wasn't punishing them for their particularly heinous sins. Contrary to Brother Juniper's supposition, accidents do happen, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't have a plan for each of our lives. Brother Juniper's theological problem was that he thought that accidents ruled out God's sovereignty. Had he really known the secret lives of the people he piously condemned after his investigation, he would have known that God had no reason to punish them. He didn't understand that the sovereignty of God is so unfathomable to humans that accidents--real, tragic accidents like the one described in this novel--can happen, while at the same time God remains in control of the universe.