They Buried [Their] Weapons of War, for Peace (Alma 24:19)-Part 1
Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make restitution to all of them (even those we had harmed in what we might have considered righteous anger), desiring instead to be peacemakers and to do all that we could to come unto God by being first reconciled to others. (3 Nephi 12:9; 3 Nephi 12:24; 3 Nephi 12:44-45)
Principle Eight: The mighty change of heart brings a willingness to make amends for all past wrongs, to seek a spirit of peace and oneness with everyone, including those I have hurt or been hurt by.
First a few words about willingness. In the last discussion we emphasized the place of willing action in our recovery. In this discussion we acknowledge that our willingness usually precedes a change of action. First our belief and our will changes, then-sometimes quickly, sometimes gradually-our actions change.
Meanwhile, we have a tendency to demean and underestimate the power of simply being willing to do something. For example, take a morning in which our teenagers sleep in again. When we finally discover them amidst the bedclothes an hour after school has started and awaken them, they moan woefully, “I meant to get up. I really did.” We often reprimand them disbelievingly.
We have been taught to scorn the small, delicate, trembling honesty of such a lament and reply sternly, “Well, that’s fine that you wanted to get up, but where’s the action? Don’t forget that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Then, as if that isn’t enough of a put-down, we are sure to also remind them that “faith without works is dead.”
Thus we slam and slander the very beginnings of a soul’s potential change. Good intent, willingness-these are not always enough for us. But should they be? We would be wise to learn how God feels about intentions and willingness, even when they are still so small as to be only the embryo of change.
Speaking to those who wanted to give to others but were too poor at the time to do so, King Benjamin taught these words:
I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.
And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless. (Mosiah 4:24-25)
Those of us who discourage and dishearten others, as well as ourselves, by turning the scriptural statement “Faith without works is dead” into an instrument of shame need to be taught and never forget that as far as the Lord is concerned, works without faith are just as dead. In language too plain to mistake, Moroni conveyed God’s feelings about works that are done grudgingly:
For behold, God hath said a man being evil [in a state of not being genuinely willing to do God’s will] cannot do that which is good [he can go through the motions but in truth, his actions are empty]; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing. For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness. (Moroni 7:6-7)
It appears that God holds the willingness to do something in a lot higher regard than we do.
Often I have heard myself say to my children as they complain that they don’t want to do something, “I didn’t ask you to want to do it. I just asked you to do it.” I have thought myself so clever to come up with such a smart answer. (We would do well to always examine an answer that feels “smart.”) In this case, for instance, I was displaying an appalling lack of understanding of God’s ways. Truly, when the day comes that we can honestly say, “I’m willing,” the heavens rejoice over us, for they know we have finally come to the “winter solstice” of our life. From that hour our days will get warmer and brighter as the light of God’s Son increases daily. The heavens have known all along that the power of God was not waiting as much for us to become worthy, as for us to become willing.
The power in being willing cannot be stressed enough. Sincere willingness is the equivalent of the “mustard seed” beginning of faith in Christ’s own parable, and the flickering spark of desire that Alma claimed as the nearly invisible beginning of a mighty change. Let’s look at what they both had to say.
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. (Matthew 17:20; emphasis added)
But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. (Alma 32:27; emphasis added)
Ultimately, it is in the sacrament prayer that willingness is given its rightful place of preeminence:
…that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son. (Moroni 4:3; emphasis added)
Willingness to be Healed-To One Another
When the Lord walked upon the earth during His mortal ministry there was never a shortage of people willing to have Him heal them physically. They sought Him everywhere, even lowering their sick down through the roof of a building where He sought respite. They pressed Him on every side and dogged his every step, until the middle of the Sea of Galilee became His only sure refuge.
Meanwhile, Jesus tried with all His heart to play down the physical side of his healing powers, to emphasize that the physical was only symbolic of the far more significant healing of heart and mind. Few would listen to Him. Even many of His apostles thought that when He spoke of redeeming and restoring Israel, He meant that He would free them politically from the tyranny of Rome.
As typical mortals, we tend to see things the same way. We think that to be healed in body is sufficient for our needs. If everything is going well in our lives temporally, we have a tendency to be content and even complacent toward things of the spirit. As the old saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
Despite the people’s clamor and insistence on physical relief, Christ was sent to offer us a spiritual healing, a oneness and wholeness with God. Becoming reconciled to God and at peace and oneness with His mind and will is to become whole again on a scale we can hardly comprehend. It means not only to become one with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but also one with all those with whom they hold communion. It is to become one with the fellowship of Christ, a fellowship that includes every willing, obedient intelligence, from the smallest atomic particle to the most complex and greatest of all, even God. Once in this fellowship, once conscious of it, a person is never alone again and is always aware of God’s encircling presence and power.
Wouldn’t you think that people would flock to the chance to be so restored, to be reunited with such a degree of power and peace? What would stop them? What would stop us? If Christ held out to you the riches of eternity (and He does), what would stop you from coming to Him to claim His offer?
I propose that one of the major hurdles for many of us is this: Deep inside we all know our Father. We know that it is impossible to be healed to God without being healed to all other living souls. It is impossible to come into the arms of God’s love without finding all your enemies encircled about in His embrace also. God’s love encircles us all, everyone, without exception. To come unto Him and remain with Him, we must be willing to become like Him-holding no grudges, no resentments or feelings of estrangement toward anyone. All those “kinks” will eventually have to be worked out.
Therefore, if ye shall come unto me, or shall desire to come unto me, and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee-
Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you. (3 Nephi 12:23-24)
The second half of this chapter will be posted next week.
He Did Deliver Me from Bondage can be found at most LDS bookstores or purchased online at www.rosehavenpublishing.com