“Reliable once in awhile,” Ensign, Oct. 1971, 9

Reliable once in awhile

There is a thought from Confucious that touches upon the point of many personal and public problems. “A man who lacks reliability is utterly useless,” he said. In this there is much of what is wrong with the relationships of man to man—not being reliable, not being able to count on people to perform their part, to do what they say they will do when it needs to be done. And so disappointments and disillusionment occur from day to day. Someone says he’ll have something ready at a certain time, and it just isn’t ready. Someone borrows and says he’ll pay back or bring it back at a certain time, and it just isn’t paid back or brought back. Someone signs a contract and agrees to perform certain services, and just doesn’t do it. The list could be endlessly lengthened. Often there are unavoidable reasons, but sometimes it is lack of reliability—and in some situations this could become not only frustrating but frightening. All this could perhaps be compared to a parachute that opens only part of the time, or to brakes on a car that can’t be counted on consistently. It isn’t enough to be reliable once in awhile. Irreplaceable things can be destroyed, thefts committed, irreparable damage done to property, to people, to reputations, to some of the most precious things in life, if a person can’t be counted on. So many examples could be given of this lack of reliability—the uncertainty of not knowing what or who can or cannot be counted on—like a faulty net beneath a trapeze performer. Suppose we couldn’t count on the promises of God. Suppose the astronauts in orbit couldn’t count on the calculations that others have made, or couldn’t count on the universe being run reliably. Suppose we couldn’t count on the tides, or the sun, or the seasons. It isn’t the hit-and-miss performance that makes life possible, but the degree of reliability, dependability, honesty, consistency that can be counted on. “A man who lacks reliability is utterly useless.”