"If God would have done this (or would not have allowed this), we won't be suffering right now." "If God would have let Adolf Hitler die in the womb, we won't have had World War 2". Setting aside the issue of whether God ordains things or just allows things or another position, we who believe in a powerful God must admit that we sometimes ask this question in the midst of our regrets or suffering or plain dissatisfaction with our lives.

     An episode of Star Trek Voyager made me think even deeply about this question. In this Episode, an alien from the future named Annorax, have found a way to travel back in time to right the wrongs of the present. Sort of like what advocates of reparations try to accomplish, without the extreme violence. Annorax's people were being oppressed by a people from another planet. Therefore, to correct the situation Annorax went back in time when the planet of their oppressors was just beginning. Annorax destroyed the planet, thereby eliminating the oppressors and changing history. Coming back to his present, Annorax discovered that his people were being decimated by a disease. He discovered that the oppressive race had introduced something in the genes of his people that prevented the bacteria that caused the disease from wreaking havoc in them. Therefore, the elimination of the oppressive race eliminated his people's defenses, causing his planet to be decimated. Annorax spent time trying to correct his reality. In the process, he caused untold destruction and suffering wherever he went. It eventually became necessary to destroy him.

      As I think about this episode, I thought about what would have happened if Adolf Hitler died in his childhood. I thought about the sadness that would have been inflicted on his parents, not to mention the hole in the lives of those who benefitted from his existence, and we must admit that he is still human and he must have brought happiness to some. Besides, who knows if another leader, who may even be worse, or who may have had a more successful plan to destroy the allies, would have arisen. We would have been living in a very different world, and who knows how that world would be like. This is not to minimize the suffering this man (monster?) cost, a suffering no amount of speculative thinking could minimize. Evil is evil and it should not be allowed to run its course.

     As we think about our lives, we sometimes think that the grass could have been greener and it robs us of our peace. We envision going back in time and changing our decisions, despite the fact that our dissatisfaction ultimately comes from inside us and could not be fixed by a change in our circumstances. Our job in the present is to do our best to make good out of a world that is permeated with good and "evil". This does not mean passivity before evil, but it does mean that we will not attempt to conform our world into the vision of the "perfection" we desire. If we have the chance to make our situation better, good, but if not, we need to make the best of our situations. The more we push for our "perfection", the more we cause suffering on others and on ourselves. It is not in our power to work all things together for good. It is in the power of a being whose vision of the good we must embrace.