Volume 33

Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will. You’ve heard it. You’ve lived it. But did you know it’s based on a true story?

In general terms, the concept has been around for centuries. As far back as 1786, Scottish poet Robbie Burns wrote, “The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft a-gley [are prone to go wrong].” But it was 1949 when Murphy’s Law, as we now know it, came into being.

That year, the U.S. Air Force was doing experiments to see how much force the human body could take in a plane crash. To gather data, it wanted to strap a volunteer into a rocket-powered sled, accelerate rapidly to 200 miles an hour, then slam on the brakes in less than a second. The volunteer was to wear a hi-tech harness equipped with 16 sensors that would measure the effect on various parts of the body.

That harness was invented by Captain Edward A. Murphy but the sensors were installed by someone else on the day of the big test, which went off almost as planned. When volunteer John Paul Stapp was in the sled — risking his life for science — it’s estimated the speed and rapid braking of the machine submitted his body to 40 Gs, or 40 times the force of gravity. He stumbled off the contraption, his eyes bloodshot and his nose bleeding.

But there was no hard data: none of the sensors worked. When Murphy checked the harness, he discovered his technician had installed each of the 16 sensors backwards. At a news conference a few days later, Murphy was quoted as saying, “If there are two or more ways of doing something, and one of those results in a catastrophethen someone will do it that way.” In no time, everybody in the aerospace industry was talking about Murphy’s Law.

But that’s only part of the story. The sensors in Murphy’s harness failed, not just because they were wired backwards, but because they could be wired backwards. So the captain redesigned the sensors so they could only be installed one way — the correct way — and that same principle also spread, to many different sectors. That’s why, for example, one prong on a two-prong electrical plug is always bigger — so they can only be plugged in the right way. Regrettably, Murphy is associated only with the negative expectation: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Such pessimism is rooted in our keen and continual experience with human error, our own and that of others. But there’s also a sense of fatalism — a belief that bad things are bound to happen; that some force, somewhere out there, takes glee in our downfall. That fatalistic foreboding often spills over into our perception of God.

The truth, of course, is that most of what goes wrong is founded, not in fatalism but free will. We, and the people around us, make bad choices with consequences that range from trivial to tragic. Even so, “The unfailing love of the Lord never ends!... Great is his faithfulness, his mercies begin afresh each day... The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him... For He does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.” (Lam. 3:22,23, 25, 33)

Not only does our Father love and protect us, he empowers us. He gives us a brain and expects us to use it, but he also blesses us with wisdom, guidance and discernment, when we’re willing to listen. His Word instructs. His Spirit inspires. Prayer changes things. And when it doesn’t change the circumstances or situations, it changes us.

But knowing we’ll never rise above our sin and self-interest, God sent Jesus to take our punishment on the cross, giving us access to the free gift of salvation. Once we accept that gift and respond with a life of love, commitment and service, we’re called to make progress. In other words, making mistakes may be inevitable, but we can learn from them. The key is to redesign our attitudes and behaviours, recognizing there’s only one proper way. Once our hearts are wired correctly, we’ll easily plug into Christ’s power.

By Rick Gamble. Published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications. To subscribe to this free weekly article, send a note to Rick at rgamble@bfree.on.ca