Sometimes I am a slow learner. Sometimes? Maybe actually quite a lot of the time. There are times when I’m so sure of what the answer will be and know that it’s going to be really complicated to get to the correct end result. This week I had such an experience. And you know what? I was wrong!

My brother in law has been helping me lately with car repairs and how to fix things that go wrong and simple maintenance  sort of things such as changing the oil. All three of the brake lights on my car were out. So I assumed that since all three of them were out that the problem must be something really complicated because three bulbs don’t just all go at once.

I headed to the auto parts store to get a fuse. I replaced the fuse and still no lights. This is troubling, but not totally insurmountable. Still assuming that things are wrong and that all three are still not working it seems plausible that the switch on the brake pedal had gone bad.

So I bought a new one of those and my brother-in-law who is far more knowledgeable about cars than I installed it. That didn’t work. New switch, two new fuses, and still no brake lights. Now we get out the voltage meter and try to figure out where the lack of power is coming from. We tried several places where we could reach and stuck it into one place where it evidently shouldn’t  have gone and ended up frying the thing. Oops.

I had some time on my hands, so my brother in law sent me to the auto parts store to get some light bulbs. It’s probably not the light bulbs, but get some anyhow because at some point you’ll need them. When I got back, we put one of them in. Lo and behold, it worked! When all was said and done, and I had gone to a lot of expense we ended up essentially getting out the Bazooka to take care of a mosquito. It turned out the simplest answer was the last one I thought of and the one that was correct. If the lights don’t come on, check the light bulb.

In thinking about this experience tonight in light of some other things, I realized that I’ve got a lot of company in thinking that the easiest and simplest answer can’t possibly be right. Naman was afflicted with Leprosy. The prophet Elijah had instructed him to wash in the Jordan river seven times. He didn’t like that answer and he continued to suffer a while longer. The children of Israel were afflicted with many plagues but in one instance Moses raised a serpent on a staff and they were told to look upon the serpent and they would be healed. The simple answer, Look to God and Live.

How many times have I gone looking for an answer and done something so complicated that really didn’t need to be done. The Lord has said it is by small and simple means that great things are brought to pass. It’s been that way for quite a while. A stable and manger were very simple indeed and yet into such a circumstance was Our Lord born. A simple prayer uttered by a young boy opened the portals of Heaven and the restoration of the Gospel.  There is a story I heard once that an egg provided the initial idea to Brigham Young of what would become the home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

So in the long run when all is said and done, sometimes the simple answer is the right one. The light bulbs were the culprit. All that Naman had to do was obey the voice of the prophet and dip himself seven times in the Jordan. And the Israelites who were afflicted with plagues simply needed to gaze upon a serpent on a staff. Look to God and Live.

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