WHAT WE DO MATTERS

 

Have you ever heard someone say, "It's my life, I'll do with it what I want"? I am pretty certain we are all familiar with this statement. A lot of us have heard it from our defiant children. People who have this mentality have the illusion that what they do has no or very little effect on others. There is a very powerful story in the BOM that proves this theory wrong.

I wrote a post recently about the Zoromites tribe in the Book of Mormon which had the tendency to swing between the Nephites and the Lamanites. In 74 BC, Alma organised a mission to the Zoramites to strenghten their alliance with the Nephites and be counted amongst the believers (Alma 31:1-6). Thus the Zoromite mission became a political move as well as a spiritual endeavour. The mission did yield some converts, who had to flee to Jershon to join the people of Ammon  but the mission overall was a failure (Alma 35:6). The majority of the Zoramites did not choose to repent and they joined the Lamanites and ignited the wars contained in the Book of Alma. Their initial aim was to reclaim and persecute the believers who had defected to Jershon (Alma 35:10,11).

And here is the startling part of the story: Zoramites' tipping point was Alma's son, Corianton who was part of the missionary force. Alma attributed the failure of the mission to Corianton because his misconduct caused the Zoramites to not believe in Alma's words (Alma 39:11). In his attempt to bring Corianton to repentance, Alma expounded on the seriousness of sexual sin which stands next to two unpardonable sins, that of murder and the denying of the Holy Ghost (Alma 39:5,6). Not only did Corianton abandon his mission in favour of iniquity but his behaviour was so sinful that he led many people into disbelief (Alma 39:3,4,11,12).

I am certain that Corinaton never knew that his choices would lead to wars as he made his way to the land of Siron in search of Isabel (Alma 39:3). Imagine heading a missionary expedition and preaching repentance to a group of people while your son is going against the very principles you are expounding in open defiance. I am also certain that Alma had no idea that his persecution of the Church and his riotous living would lead others into spiritual destruction he later deemed was as good as murder (Alma 36:14). This is something he deduced through many years of reflection, following his repentance. And this might be another thing he learnt: what pain you inflict on others, one day becomes your own. It is no coincidence that he had an erring son because once upon a time, he was one too. He too led away many believers and caused his father, who was the high priest of the whole land of Zarahemla, great embarrassment and sorrow (Mosiah 27:14). This lesson is reflected in his advice to Corinaton: “For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again….” (Alma 41:15), whether good or bad.

What we do matters. There is not one action we perform that does not affect another human being, directly or indirectly, for we are all connected. We lead each other into light or darkness. We are beacons of faith or destroyers of truth. Imagine if the light of this world was taken away and Satan reigned supreme. Imagine if there was no Christ to light the way, and because of it, we knew no love, compassion, faith, hope, joy. We do not want to cower in the shadows of darkness. As we journey on life's many roads, may we leave a trail behind us for others to follow into the light of His love where awaits eternal life.

I will spread the light

Your gift of salvation to honour

And satisfy man’s hidden hunger;

I will help them know

Your arms are their shelter,

Your heart is their home,

Their only hope

For protection from the storm.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: As I Have Loved You by B. Laura Wilson)

DIVINE HUMILITY

 

I can relate to the poverty stricken Zoromites who were cast out of their synagogues by the rich and well to do citizens of Antionum who deemed them as dross because of their poverty (Alma 32:2,3).

I was a single mother for 20 years without a home to call my own. All my single friends in my age bracket have a home of their own but I don’t. I used to cringe to meet Church friends I hadn’t seen for a long time because their first question was: “Where are you living now?” This has bothered me for many years than I care to admit. I haven’t been cast out of the Church or discriminated against in any way but I felt for many years that I was nothing and nobody because I basically had nothing. This also made me feel that I had nothing to show for my life despite the fact that I am educated, have worked most of my adult life, have served unceasingly in the Church for 40 years  and have brought up two children single handedly. At times I felt like I was mingling with the dust of the earth….

I have learnt three things because of the financial poverty  I have lived with throughout the years:

-        Like the poor Zoromites, my impoverishment brought me ‘to a lowliness of heart’ (v 12), to taste humility. I have many, many times reflected on this with gratitude.  Belonging to a lower socio-economic class detached me from the world and its materialistic mentality.  It has been a freedom I have appreciated greatly.

-        Being detached from the world and its materialism helped me realise over the years that I am my greatest asset because in the end, I will take myself with me. It made me reflect many times on what kind of quality of eternal life I will one day have and so my commitment to Christ and His gospel increased exponentially. This is another thing I greatly appreciate.

-        This is the greatest blessing of all – my needs and my trials turned me to God over and over and they kept me by His side. I am now convinced that this is the life I wanted long before I was born because being by God’s side is what matters to me the most.

Through my needs and trials God has revealed himself to me in miraculous ways. I have lived in some beautiful places and had everything given to me that I could not provide for myself including furniture, household goods, car….. Sometimes He has used other people but in such ways that I always understood that it could only have come from Him.  I will share here just one occasion out of many which might seem small but to me it is the most miraculous of all. When I was a new single working mother, I was struggling financially in a huge way. One week I didn’t have enough money to put gas in my car. Before I went to work one morning, I prayed for $20 for this purpose. I went to work and forgot all about it. At lunch time my co-worker came to me and put $20 on my desk. When I asked why, he told me he was returning to work from lunch and saw a $20 bill on the ground. He picked it up and didn’t know what to do with it because he thought he didn’t really need it. As soon as that thought entered his head, I came into his mind and he knew he had to give me that money. So, you see, it was like manna from heaven!

I couldn’t understand for many years why the difficulties of my life but now I can see how superbly crafted it has been. I have let go now of feeling inadequate because I am not like my friends. Looking back over my life, I would not trade the experiences I have had that led me to the closeness to God I feel today. Those poor Zoromites had no idea how lucky they were…they might have been ostracized by their rich counterparts who lost the plot but this merciless act paved the way to their salvation.

I failed to understand

Why such deep trials in my life,

I expected better in my arrogant pride.

How merciful You were Father

To help me see the purpose of the tide;

That through my bruised and aching heart

You kept me fervently by Your loving side.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Life After Death by B. Laura Wilson)

THE SWINGING ZOROMITES

 

The Book of Mormon always lists the seven Lehite tribes in this order: Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites (Jacob 1:13; 4 Nephi 1:37-38; Mormon 1:8-9). The Nephites, Jacobites and Josephites were the believers in Christ and were collectively called Nephites while Lamanites, Lemuelites and Ishmaelites were non-believers, referred to as Lamanites.  Zoramites are always listed in the middle of the tribes, because Zoramites were the swinging tribe. Sometimes they sided with the Nephites and sometimes with the Lamanites.

About 74 BC was a particularly tense period in the Book of Mormon history during which the Zoromites  separated themselves from the Nephites and made them fear they would 'enter into a correspondence with the Lamanites' and incite wars (Alma 31:2,3,4). To prevent this, Alma organised a mission to the Zoramites to strenghten their alliance with the Nephites and be counted amongst the believers. Thus the Zoromite mission became a political move as well as a spiritual endeavour (Alma 30:5).

Alma Chapter 31 lists ‘the great errors’ the Zoromites had fallen into, despite being dissenters from the Nephites and having had the word of God preached to them (v 8). In other words when they were associated with the Nephites they were good but not so much when they aligned themselves with the Lamanites. This is ‘swinging’ in opinion, dedication and commitment and this is what caused it:

-        They were not consistent with keeping the commandments of God (v 9)

-        They were not keeping up with the performances of the Church such as prayer that they might not enter into temptation (v 10)

-        They set their hearts on their possessions and the things of the world (v 24)

-        They became lifted up in pride (v 25)

The most important error they fell into is one we can recognize in our society today. This chapter alone mentions three times that the Zoromites discounted the standards of the Church, including belief in Christ, as ‘foolish traditions of the fathers’ (v 16, 17, 22). Have we not in our day discounted the Christian values we once lived by? I saw a ridiculing comment on social media recently in regards to this very thing that said ‘this is the 21^st century and we no longer accept such outdated rules and traditions’.

Chapter 31 of Alma contains the most emotive and heart wrenching description of Alma’s suffering for the sins of the people. It describes his anguish as a state of his ‘sickened and sorrowful and pained heart’ (v 1,2,30,31). His prayer to God for ‘comfort of his soul in Christ’ because of the sinful state of the Zoromite tribe leaves me breathless (v 26-35). Alma pleaded from the depths of his soul for success in bringing these sinners and ‘puffed up people’ back to Christ (v 34). He could not bear the thought of one soul being lost because ‘their souls were precious’ (v 35) and that they might ‘taste of the exceeding joy’ of salvation through Christ which he tasted at the time of his repentance (Alma 36:24).

May we be steadfast and immovable in living by the standard of truth found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we might be an ensign to the nations as we live in this world of Zoromite mentality. May we bring Christ to the world and soothe His aching heart as rejection of His salvation rises and becomes more and more an outdated tradition of yesterday for the day will come when ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue confess…..that he is God; then shall they confess, who live without God in the world, that the judgment of an everlasting punishment is just upon them….’ (Mosiah 27:31)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)