My Favorite Bible Verses

I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.

    -- Jeremiah 10:23

I’ve been enjoying the streaming availability of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Many of the episodes offer spiritual insights. 

In one episode, Odo, the Changeling, has discovered his home planet in the Gamma quadrant of the galaxy. As he interacts with the Changelings inhabiting the planet, Odo learns that he was sent out as a “newly formed changeling” to discover and learn of other worlds with the hope he would someday return and bring back knowledge to share with his fellow Changelings in the “Great Link.”

 For those non-Star Trek folks, the Changelings can transform into a gelatinous state that provides the ability to link with each other in mass assembly. Odo was discovered by a Bajoran Scientist and raised in a laboratory. Eventually, he left the confines of that life and became head of security on the Cardassian space station known as Terok Nor. When the Bajorans won their freedom from Cardassia, the space station reverted to the authority of Bajor. The Bajorans then requested help from the Federation to oversee its operation. Odo became Chief of Security for the space station now known as Deep Space Nine. With the discovery of the first stable wormhole, the Federation seeks to explore the Gamma quadrant, but they run into opposition from what the species call The Dominion.

The Changelings of Odo's home planet invite him to return to the “Great Link.” But there is much he wants to know before he comes to that decision. He considers the humanoid friends he has made on the station to be his personal “link.” He learns that the changelings are the mysterious  Dominion which controls most of the Gamma quadrant. 

 Odo asks the head Changeling, “Why do you control? Why should you need to control anything?”

Their answer is not one of benevolence. Instead, she says, “What you control can’t hurt you.” She claimed the need to control was because of the centuries of persecution the changelings received by humanoids. Their need to control resulted from hatred, fear, and self-service. Odo decides not to rejoin the link, preferring his humanoid link over that of his fellow Changelings.  

I thought how true this need to control is for humans, our purposes similar to that of the Changelings. We have the natural tendency to want to control our environments and the people around us because what we can control won’t harm us. Our need comes from fear, hatred, and self-service.

God, however, asks us to give up control, to be submissive to his direction as he determines our steps. His control, unlike the Changelings, is for our good.

Better to follow his steps than to determine our own.