Accidents

Cars are great. They can get people around quickly and easily. They're very convenient, if expensive. But there's one main problem I have with cars: they're fragile. If any part of a car touches anything they're not supposed to touch, the car will get scratched, cracked, and/or potentially totalled. And cars, being expensive, are also expensive to fix. You'd think we'd have invented something that's less costly and more forgiving of mistakes. On the other hand, why should we think we could have done that? God didn't.

Mortality is a great experience, but it's also terribly dangerous. One wrong move and we can damage our fragile souls, leading to horrendously costly repairs. There are countless sins listed in the scriptures, and even more sins of omission, and any amount of sin is enough to keep us out of God's presence, unless it is repented of. But repentance comes at a terrible cost - one far higher than any of us could pay. Souls are highly valuable. Never in our lives will we accumulate the means to buy our own souls, or even to afford to have them "repaired" after we've damaged them.

Unless, of course, we have insurance. Jesus Christ has offered to pay the cost of repairing our damaged souls. In fact, He has already paid that cost. And the price that we must pay back to Him is much more manageable.

The main problem I have with cars is also the main problem I have with life. We are entrusted with something of great value, which we almost immediately, almost inevitably break. Thus, we have caused incalculable damage that we, by ourselves, have no means to repair, or even pay for. Thus, we are entirely dependent on those who know how to fix cars (or heal souls), and those who have the means and the disposition to pay for those repairs.

I don't like the idea of being indebted to anyone. In fact, modern day prophets have repeatedly warned us against going into debt. Yet, becoming indebted to Jesus Christ is all part of God's plan for us. He knew that we would make mistakes. He knew we would shatter our fragile, priceless souls. And He knew that, in order to heal our souls and return to live with Him again, we would have to incur a debt that we could not possibly hope to pay.

That is, by far, the biggest problem I have with God's plan. It is far too easy to cause far too much damage. Fortunately, God has a pretty good insurance policy. The monthly cost is pretty high, as He asks us to offer Him all our hearts, but in return, we have all our repairs completely paid for, and we have unlimited accident forgiveness. Which is fortunate, because anyone who lives long enough will eventually cause more accidents than they can count.

Even with insurance, it really stinks to get into an accident and incur costly damages, especially when oneself is at fault, but a good insurance policy can take most of the pain out of the experience. God has provided us insurance against spiritual damage by sending His Son to atone for our sins, but I'm still not totally happy with this arrangement. Even if the cost never fell on me to pay, I have a problem with the idea of expensive accidents being far too easy to cause. I wish it wasn't so easy to make such expensive mistakes. But that's the world we live in, and it's the only world we've got, so I guess we just have to live with the risk of causing an incredible amount of damage by accident and be grateful that we are almost never the ones who ultimately have to pay for it.