A wise king once said, “Are we not all beggars?” That begs the question: who are we begging from and what have we borrowed? I’ll answer that a little later. First, I’ve been hearing on the news about people worried about how to repay their student loans in addition to all the other debts they have. Credit cards, buy now pay later, car loans, and even mortgages are weighing heavily on people’s minds.

A vanishingly small number of people can claim to be debt-free. And even they are still indebted to someone. Borrowers are becoming hopeless, but I want to make it clear that there is a way out of this awful situation.

Why We Face Hard Times

When we are put into desperate circumstances, we discover things about ourselves that we could not have learned if we had remained comfortable our whole lives. For example, if we fail to study and prepare for a test, we will probably enter the testing room with a sense of dread. In our desperation for a way out of our predicament, we may resort to cheating. This will have disastrous consequences, whether or not we get caught. That is the mentality of a criminal.

Another response would be to resign ourselves to our fate and not try at all. That could lead to apathy and listlessness in our education and other aspects of life. Or we may pray and ask God to forgive our slothfulness with a promise to be better in the future. Then we can do our best on that test and, pass or fail, we will gain a valuable life lesson that will inspire us to succeed in the future.

I see that many people have made a terrible mistake by taking on student loans at excessively high interest rates. I, too, took out a student loan to finish my final semester of school when I ran out of money. That was my own fault. If I had applied myself in my senior year of college as hard as I had in my freshman year, I could have maintained a 4.0 GPA and held onto my academic scholarship. But since I had given into temptation and slipped in my grades slightly, I no longer warranted as high a scholarship as I had received before. As a result, I didn’t have enough to finish on my own steam.

This experience taught me never to take blessings for granted and that, no matter my talent, I must always keep my guard up against weaknesses that could destroy me. I haven’t been perfect since then, but I’m always able to repent when I make a mistake and get back on the right path. By the way, I paid off that student loan a year after graduating, and I’ve worked hard to avoid debt ever since.

The Mediator

To my fellow debt takers, I offer a message of hope. Many of you have made mistakes that seem insurmountable to overcome. You may claim ignorance as a defense, or you might even want to say you’re a victim in need of mercy. And yet, mercy cannot rob justice. A debt has been incurred, and so a price must be paid. But who will pay it?

Fear not. There is a way out of this dilemma. It’s not through some technicality that cancels the debt or some other dishonest means of tricking the system to get off the hook. The answer is humility and turning to Jesus Christ.

Let me share a short film called The Mediator, which had a great impact on me as a teenager. I have never forgotten its message as I’ve sought to make my way in life.

Debt Forgiveness vs. True Forgiveness

Debt is a dangerous thing. We’ve all incurred it by committing sins against God’s law. And it seems like we can never repay this kind of debt because we can’t change the past. Even if we committed sins ignorantly or we think a law is impossible to keep (e.g., thinking an angry or lustful thought puts us in danger of hellfire), we all stand condemned.

But this is where what I talked about at the start of this article comes into play. We are all indebted to someone, no matter our financial position. Since we are all imperfect, we needed a Friend who was perfect to pay the price for our sins and make it possible for us to take steps toward Him. Jesus Christ is the only one who could do this since He lived a sinless life.

To receive all the blessings of Christ’s Atonement, we must do certain things such as keeping His commandments to the best of our ability. When we fail, we must repent. Most of all, we must be humble. Pride and arrogance destroy faith and humility. We have nothing to offer Him but our own wills, which means we can’t barter but can only beg for his forgiveness. And He has compassion for our plight.

Rather than calling on the government for debt forgiveness, let us turn to the One who has the government upon his shoulder for true forgiveness. If we have pure hearts and are willing to submit to anything the Lord sees fit to inflict upon us, then we will feel our burdens lightened and even lifted off our shoulders. We will see miracles.

Forgiveness is a miracle. It’s a divine gift that is paid for with a terrible price. Christ’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on Golgotha made it possible for us to be forgiven. I hope we will take advantage of what He has done for us by quieting our anger and fear, putting our trust in Him, and telling Him we are willing to do anything He requires of us. Then we can borrow goodness from the infinite account of He who is mighty to save.

We all want to be forgiven for something, be it debt or sin. We’ve made plenty of mistakes that warrant punishment according to man’s law or God’s law. In our hour of desperation when we see no way out, let’s turn to Jesus Christ for help. He will help us out.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

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