Article July 24, 1989 Issue

Divine authority over accidents

Safety precautions of themselves aren't enough. It's only through divine authority that we can reliably prevent accidents.

Maynard Sundt

With all the safety precautions used in homes, schools, industry, business, and sports, we would naturally hope that accidents would be eliminated. Yet they still threaten the harmony of people's lives.

The most common reason given for mishaps is chance—what one dictionary defines as "the assumed impersonal purposeless determiner of unaccountable happenings." You often hear people say, "I am lucky—no accidents." Or, when one does occur, "My luck ran out." Such comments indicate a general expectation that accidents will happen in spite of all the preventive steps taken.

Where can we turn for protection when the human precautions still seem to leave us vulnerable to chance and accident? The Bible contains many examples of individuals who proved that God is Life and that His omnipotent power sustained them whether they faced simple problems or life-threatening ones. The Psalmist, for example, wrote these assuring words of God's ever-present help in the ninety-first Psalm: "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."^{ Ps. 91:9–11.}

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Time to harvest—in the cities, too