Why Do You Care?

I believe in an immortal soul – and that things we do in this life shape us for eternity. And, if I feel like sinning (any sin…there are quite a lot of them), is separating us from where we’d really want to go if we understood how all the pieces fit together.

A girl in my ward today said, in discussing obedience, that if we don’t understand the law we’re given, we probably don’t understand the consequences of breaking that law – so God is protecting us from a really hard experience.

Lately, friends or friends-of-friends, who profess to have the same beliefs I do, have been saying things that I don’t agree with. Two friends, in particular, parrot the common “it doesn’t hurt you, so why do you care” argument – that can be hard to get people to see why I care. Let me see if I can explain…

Say someone was blindfolded and couldn’t see they were walking towards a cliff. Why would you care? It doesn’t hurt you. What if they like being blindfolded while walking in precarious areas? Who are you to tell them how to live their life? It’s a dumb example and I can hear criticism already. But at the same time, I kind of like it.

Let me try again. Everyone is blind and in a forest on the edge of a cliff – we know if we walk in a general direction, we will find a bridge that will take us to a great hospital so we can see again. But there is only one bridge, across the dangerous chasm. Well, a few people have made it to the bridge – were healed of blindness, and then tried to direct people the hospital. But why should the people who can’t see trust the ones that can? Especially when they’ve been led into rocks and trees, and had a lot of painful experiences because of well-intentioned people, it is incredibly hard to trust. Eventually, some people just make the best of their blindness (it’s definitely possible), and some live on the edge. It seems to me that there are infinite ways a person can fall off the cliff – and so naturally, those who know how to help, want to help people really reach their potential.  Why would we care? Because we value human life, potential for joy, and improvement.

So – all that is really left for us to do is to figure out if the people who are talking to us, offering to be guides, truly can see – truly care – and truly are called of God. And then, if we can find them, and we actually listen to them, we can help others stay away from cliffs – and sins – so they too can find a way to see more clearly. I don’t know if that makes sense. But that’s what I was thinking about today.

Once we can see that, we want to help others – even if all we know is there is a cliff around here somewhere, and another trusted person has told me what to stay away from, I’m going to do what I can to help you too.