The mission
I served in, back in the 80s, was very statistically oriented. It was drummed
into us missionaries that obedience would yield baptisms. We were expected to
baptise someone every month, to teach 15 discussions a week, place at least 1
Book of Mormon a day and make incredible sacrifices such as 100 hour weeks, not
open our mail until our preparation day, and even occasionally give up those free
days to prepare for the week, bring someone to Church every week and we were
not allowed to listen to any music whatsoever, not even Mormon Tabernacle
Choir. So high was the expectation placed on us that despite my nice tally of baptisms,
I went home feeling like a failure because I had not brought anyone to the
waters of baptism for the last seven months of my mission. I worried that all
my district leaders I had to report our statistics to, suspected that I was not
being obedient in all our missionary rituals and rules. My idealistic self
thought I had not done enough.
Abinadi went
to his death not knowing that he had 1 convert but knowing he had done
enough. He persisted against all odds until he had delivered the message God
sent him to deliver and which cost him his life. Through Abinadi’s one convert
came the next several generations of prophets who prepared the people for the
coming of Jesus Christ among them. Abinadi’s only convert was a man called Alma,
who believed all Abinadi testified against his people (Mosiah 17:2).
Alma wrote down
Abinadi’s extensive preaching and taught it to his followers in secret (Mosiah 17:4;
18:1). Severe persecution from King Noah necessitated this group of faithful
followers to flee to safer pastures (Mosiah 18:34). Following their departure,
God's prophecies to King Noah and his unrepentant people began to be fulfilled.
King Noah suffered death by fire and his people, under the new leadership of his son, Limhi, were taken into bondage by their enemies, the
Lamanites. Alma and his followers, through intricate circumstances, fell
into bondage also. The lesson lies in these two groups of people and their respective
conversions. The people of Alma repented of their sins when the call to
repentance came. As the result of their conversion they covenanted with God
through baptism to keep His commandments. The other group who were led by
Noah's son Limhi repented out of necessity. Just as Abinadi prophesied, they
were 'afflicted, smitten, driven to and fro and burdened according to the
desires of their enemies' (Mosiah 21:13). And so the humility came in realising
that only God could deliver them from their afflictions (Mosiah 21:4, 14).
Herein lies
a great lesson. We often think that repentance will be a smooth road and the
Lord will jump to rescue us the minute we ask. When Limhi's people could no
longer bear the afflictions of their bondage, they began to 'cry mightily to
God'....'all day long' begging to be delivered (Mosiah 21:5,14), but God was
'slow to hear their cry' (v 15). Why? Because the Lord can deliver but He cannot
erase the consequences of our choices. It is the experience of those
consequences that make us think twice about repeating the sin. What He did do
was soften the hearts of the Lamanites so that 'they began to ease
their burdens' (Mosiah 21:15). In other words, the Lord, because of His mercy,
'softened the blow'.
When in
bondage, the path to freedom is laced with mercy. The mercy that He extends,
however, will not be given at the cost of the lessons we need to learn first.
When I left my mission feeling like I failure, I did not realise that I, a
young convert to the Church, took home with me the best lesson I could possibly
learn, that of obedience.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: His Mighty Hand by Yongsung Kim)
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