BEING WEAK PART 1

 

Ether 12:27 must be the most important scripture in the book of Ether. It is widely known and widely quoted. It deals with weakness.

I don't know of anyone who sees weakness as a positive thing. None of us want to be weak. We don't want to be seen as weak and we don't want to feel that we are weak.

The world tells us we need to be super achievers and excel in all we do and that it is up to us to make ourselves successful.  For this reason we persist in making goals and sometimes tackling that which is beyond our capacity to overcome, relying solely on our motivation and willpower. 

Both motivation and willpower are incredibly difficult to maintain and so we beat ourselves up when we fall short. And in the process we allow our weaknesses to define us.

Consider alcoholism. The weakness of drinking has now become the weakness of disease. I do not agree with Alcoholics Anonymous who define people as 'alcoholics'. What's worse, they tell people they are alcoholics for life.

I get it, they want people to be vigilant but what happens when you label yourself? You act and behave according to that label. If you think you are an alcoholic, you will always struggle with the temptation to drink. Even some who abstain from drink for years fall off the wagon because in the end what does an alcoholic do? An alcoholic drinks.

The danger comes in saying 'I am'. I AM is highly declarative. Once declared, it becomes a reality you live by. Obviously, the importance lies in recognising that what we do is not who we are. It is better to say, "I have a weakness for drink" than to say "I am an alcoholic". This gives one hope that he or she can become free from drinking through the help of the higher power. One thing Alcoholics Anonymous got right.

The Saviour’s explanation of weakness in Ether 12 would have us know that our weaknesses need not define us. According to the Bible Dictionary, weakness is the primary condition of mortality and a state of being in this fallen world. It is unavoidable because mortality means weakness. Weakness means being human.

The weakness of mortality is manifest in individual weaknesses and frailties that each person has.  In Ether 12:27, Christ told Moroni: "If men come unto me I will show unto them their 'weakness."  Notice the word of 'weakness' is singular here. This is the condition of being weak.

What the Saviour is referring to here is the weakness of mortality, not our individual weaknesses, of which He speaks in the latter part of the scripture when He says: "...for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them". The weak things He speaks of are in reference to individual 'weaknesses'.

So being weak is not our fault. Being weak means being human and a condition of living in a fallen world. This does not, however, mean that we are to remain in this condition. Christ’s main purpose is to lift us out of the fallen world and restore us to the Father through His Atonement.

There is so much more to this scripture in Ether which I am eager to expound on in more posts. This is but an introduction to this important subject. In the meantime, remember there is hope:

The Saviour 'descended below all things' so that He might comprehend all things (D&C 88:6), meaning all our sins and our weaknesses. In the words of Elder Tad Callister: "....you cannot sink farther than the light and sweeping intelligence of Jesus Christ can reach.....as long as there is one spark of the will to repent and to reach, He is there....." (The Atonement of Jesus Christ, April 2019).

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Sanctify Them by Chris Brazelton)