Weighing the Bet of Repentance

There's another point I want to take from Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk The Divine Gift of Repentance. The point can be summed up in two quotes from his talk: "Any pain entailed in repentance will always be far less than the suffering required to satisfy justice for unresolved transgression," and "whatever the cost of repentance, it is swallowed up in the joy of forgiveness."

Make no mistake - Repentance is often a painfully difficult process. Repentance means changing our behavior, thoughts, and even our very hearts. It means striving and struggling to break old habits and form new ones. It means trying and failing again and again. And as a person who hates failing, that process sounds very painful to me.

But, despite the pain involved in repentance, completing the process is well worth the struggle, because the results of repentance A) allow us to avoid the even more painful suffering for our sins, and B) afford us an abundance of joy in the form of repentance. That's a huge net gain in the Peace Vs Pain scale, yet, we are so often reluctant to take advantage of the extremely generous offer of repentance because it requires enduring an amount of pain and struggling up front, before the blessings are manifest.

So much of life is like that, though. Say, you want to try a new candy bar that just came out, but you're not sure how it'll taste. You have to pay for the candy bar before you can try it, and even if you kept the receipt, you can't return the candy once you've opened the wrapper. Whether the candy is worth what you paid for it or not, the price must be paid and can't be refunded. So, do you take the risk, hoping that the candy is worth the cost, or do you leave the candy bar on the shelf and save your money for something that looks more promising?

Relating that to repentance, of course we've been told that those who sin will suffer unless they repent, and that there is eternal joy waiting for those who do repent. But all companies advertise their candy as being delicious. We're the ones who have to weigh our options and take our chances. Do we buy into the offer of repentance, hoping that the promises are true, or do we try to cut our losses and avoid such painful struggles?

One thing religion offers is peace, yet in order to follow the tenants of most religions, we need to battle against our carnal natures on a daily basis. On the other hand, on closer examination, the world's idea of happiness and how to get it isn't all it's cracked up to be. Those who seem to have everything they need to be happy, aren't. And many who follow their religious convictions, despite the daily struggles that path makes necessary, have more peace in their hearts than those who follow the world.

Either way, it seems that there's going to be a good deal of suffering, no matter what we do to try to avoid it. So, shall we continue to try to avoid the pain of repentance for as long as we can get away with it, or do we charge through the pain, like taking off a band-aid, and find out if the promises were true?

Here's what I'm thinking: We know there has to be pain, right? Logically, there's no way to completely avoid it. I say that as long as there needs to be pain, we might as well invest our suffering into something worth-while. As long as we have to struggle, we might as well struggle for something that's worth struggling for. And the promise, or even the hope, of personal peace and eternal happiness sounds like something worth fighting for. To me, repentance sounds like a pretty good bet.