Good Principles -> Poor Outcomes

I'm reading The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham and really liked when he compared investment to playing bridge, even though I know almost nothing about bridge. He said, "When an individual case is to be judged, it is not the result of the play but its conformity with sound principles that marks the competent player. The results do count, of course, both in bridge and in investment--but they must be measured in the aggregate and over the years." The point he is making is that if you follow good principles like buying stocks at low prices and diversifying, then even with randomness in the market, your long-term results will be good.

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Similar to how there is randomness in the market, there is randomness in the spheres of law and spirituality.

Law
Occasionally, the sound principle of enforcing laws may lead to an unjust result. For example, there are heavy penalties for making terrorist threats. This makes sense because even when the threat is fake, a lot of resources are put into ensuring that there really is not anything bad that will happen. The federal government may do its reasonable best to inform people that terrorist threats lead to heavy penalties, yet some unfortunate 18-year-old doesn't get it and does a prank call with a terrorist threat. That subsequently leads to thousands of dollars of police labor being wasted in an effort to make sure there isn't a bomb. If that person is not held accountable, then it may be difficult to prevent other teenagers from doing similar pranks which are very costly, and it may inhibit the police's ability to prevent actual terrorism.

Another example is from a real court case, Halbman v. Lemke. In this case a minor signs a contract for a car, beats the car up, returns the car to the seller and demands his money be returned. In this case the court rules that the seller has to give the money back, because minors cannot contract. As unfair as this seems to that seller, it is an effort to uphold the principle that adults should not be allowed to contract with minors because minors are likely to be taken advantage of or make bad choices.

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Though there are occasional cases that seem unfortunate, by sticking to sound principles of law most people can predict the legal consequences of their actions.

Spirituality
I serve others because of a spiritual commitment that I have with God to do so. Sometimes I don't feel like serving, even after starting. And yet, when I look back at service experiences, like serving a mission in Guatemala, fulfilling church assignments, and participating in service organizations, I can see that "in the aggregate and over the years" service has been one of the most valuable activities I have done. Breathing has also been valuable over the years, but that is much less interesting because I rarely feel opposed to breathing.

Long-lasting friendships is one blessing that I have observed from long-term efforts to serve.

A similar principle applies to all spiritual endeavors, such as studying the scriptures, praying, paying tithing, going to church, and more generally, being faithful and repenting. Sometimes we don't get the exact result we want. There are a lot of factors to any activity that could make the experience not so great, but in the aggregate I think we will see we are blessed as we follow sound spiritual principles.