I believe it is man's nature to be and do good.
Sometimes that goodness has to be sought and nurtured for it to find its expression.
I just read a first-hand account written by one who, as a young man, served in the Air Force during the Vietnam and Cold War years. His post was in Japan at an understaffed air defense missile site and, as a lowly Specialist, he was also the senior enlisted person in the missile section.
Distressed by the troubled state of his world, he had begun reading the Bible and Science and Health, trying to make some sense out of his life in relation to these conflicts. A military chaplain and his wife befriended the young man, and he began to feel a quiet and gentle sense of love and support. He was finding meaning for his life and growing spiritually.
In his military assignment, he and his crew responded to many alerts each day, prepared to shoot down unauthorized aircraft. Usually the planes triggering these alerts were identified within a couple of minutes, and the alert was cancelled. However one day his crew was startled to have progressed to the final seconds of the final countdown. The aircraft had not identified itself as either “friend or foe.”
To add to the confusion, the command center that would give the final orders - was unexplainably silent. While his fellow crewmen were shouting at him to fire the missile, he prayed to God to know what to do, and it came to him very clearly to not fire. So he aborted the missile. In violation of all his orders, he went to find out what was going on in the command center about a mile away.
There he discovered the soldier managing the alert had physically collapsed, and no one knew he was not fulfilling his job. The plane in question was a troop carrier full of GIs who, had they known, would have been very grateful they had not been shot down. The young man was praised for his unusual actions that day which saved many lives.
So yes, each of us matters. Each of us has wonderful potential to make a difference for good - although perhaps not as dramatically as that airman. Even so we each have the ability to be and do good things in our lives that bless not only us, but those around us.
In his military assignment, he and his crew responded to many alerts each day, prepared to shoot down unauthorized aircraft. Usually the planes triggering these alerts were identified within a couple of minutes, and the alert was cancelled. However one day his crew was startled to have progressed to the final seconds of the final countdown. The aircraft had not identified itself as either “friend or foe.”
To add to the confusion, the command center that would give the final orders - was unexplainably silent. While his fellow crewmen were shouting at him to fire the missile, he prayed to God to know what to do, and it came to him very clearly to not fire. So he aborted the missile. In violation of all his orders, he went to find out what was going on in the command center about a mile away.
There he discovered the soldier managing the alert had physically collapsed, and no one knew he was not fulfilling his job. The plane in question was a troop carrier full of GIs who, had they known, would have been very grateful they had not been shot down. The young man was praised for his unusual actions that day which saved many lives.
So yes, each of us matters. Each of us has wonderful potential to make a difference for good - although perhaps not as dramatically as that airman. Even so we each have the ability to be and do good things in our lives that bless not only us, but those around us.
What counts most is an honest desire to do right. What shapes and moves that desire involves discovering something of our relationship to God, Father-Mother Mind, the creator of the universe who knows and loves each of us, trusting that relationship, and letting it move us forward.
____________________________
The account referred to can be found in a newly published book,
The Christian Science Military Ministry: 1917-2004,
by Kim M. Schuette, starting on page 127.
Brockton Publishing Company, Indianpolis, IN
1-317-487-6868
brocktonpublishing@sbcglobal.net
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