The Comet's Flame

My family and I watched an interesting episode of Star Trek Voyager last night.  It was called “False Prophets.”  In this episode, Kes receives a seemingly-fatal electric shock after unknowingly approaching a sacred shrine.  The monks of the shrine inform Voyager’s crew that Kes will die because she has angered the “spirits.”  Captain Janeway is told that the only way to save Kes is to complete a sacred ritual and ask the spirits to be merciful.

Janeway, being the rational starship captain that she is, does not believe in the whole “spirits” thing.  But she goes through the motions of the sacred ritual, hoping to gain some insight into the “reality” of the situation.  She soon realizes that the ritual was completely meaningless… the required actions had been tailored to meet her expectations.  She had expected the ritual to include physical challenges, so it did.

Finally she understands that none of her hard work is helping, and she decides to approach the spirits with faith that they will answer her request.

Isn’t that just like people here in the real world?  Oswald Chambers’ devotional for today talks about the tendency of people to want to work to gain God’s favor.  Many times we make the Christian life way too complicated by filling it will all sorts of “sacred rituals.”

But really, all that God wants is for us to “come unto Him” with simple faith.  I hope that I can start doing that.