A testimony about faith as a shock absorber

Earlier today I bore my testimony with A3 (because I like to drag at least one of the kids up on stage whenever I do so). A3 spoke about how we'd recently been burgled, and how someone had come into our home and stolen our keys and our car.

I then related a recent story about how Mick Schumacher, a German Formula 1 driver, was involved in a huge crash a few weeks ago whilst qualifying for a race in Saudi Arabia (YouTube). His initial impact with the wall was at 270 kph (160 mph), and the car ended up a considerable way down the track. Amazingly, he was uninjured.

A key reason for this is that contemporary F1 cars are built with multiple robust safety features, including deformable crumple zones and break points. These are designed to absorb the majority of the kinetic energy from an impact and to deflect it away from the shell containing the driver.

I spoke about how faith in Heavenly Father was like a spiritual crumple zone which was able to absorb and soften the impact of the incident. Through that faith, we were quickly able to come to terms with it and see the bright side - the family was fine, the police and community were supportive, and perhaps there was a reason for it happening, since the incident means we've been forewarned and can take suitable precautions in future. Perhaps we also didn't need a car as much as we thought - we were able to experience a different way of getting to church via public transport that the family enjoyed. Looking back at it through that prism has helped to lessen the initial sting.

Photo by Vinicius Marques on Unsplash.

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