God Tends the Needs of the Few

“God doesn’t always give you what you want, but He will give you what you need.” -Peter, Captain of the Lady Alaska, The Deadliest Catch, Season 1, Episode 10: “The Final Run.” Of course, he is not the first person to say this, not by a long shot. I’ve heard it many times before, and, of course, it’s obviously crap.

What strikes me especially about Peter saying this is the fact that earlier in the season he lost his partner boat. Yes, the boat he was supposed to fish along side sank; his friend, the captain of the ship, died, and so did four of the crew of that boat, The Big Valley. There was one survivor.

Why, then, did Peter feel that God had given him what he needed? Because when he got his crab weighed, he made $36,000 more than he thought he would. Obviously, it was a miracle, and God had multiplied the crab in his boat. That’s really what he thought; I could not make this up. More likely, it was just a record keeping or counting error, especially since near the end of the season they didn’t appear to be counting crab very carefully as they rushed to get their last pots aboard.

What Peter really needed was for his friend to be alive, for his friend’s ship not to have sunk, but God did not give him that. God gave him $36,000 extra to split among himself and his crew. Mysterious ways, huh?

Why am I talking about a Deadliest Catch episode from 2005? For one thing, I just watched it today. But really, it’s because every time someone says something like this about their god it cheeses me off. I should not have to say why; it’s so obvious. God doesn’t give food to people who starve to death all over the world, and they need it even more than they want it. He is not there for so many people who do not get what they need. Yet, if He gives one person what he or she thinks s/he needs, let Him be praised.

I’m sure Peter would have been fine if he and his crew didn’t have that extra money to split. They would not have starved if they had the amount they originally thought they did; they did not need God to multiply their crab via small miracle, but those words crossed Peter’s lips anyway. The man doesn’t even know what he needs, but he knows what God does and why.

He seems like a nice guy, but I can’t stand by while people say things that are so entirely asinine. If I keep bottling it up, it might kill me, and that is certainly not what I need. I need people to make sense, for my sanity, for the sanity of the world. I hope it’s not too much to ask, but I fear that it is.