Things To Act.

We exist among a crumbling society.  Surely, this is not a new awareness.  With the continual emergence of corrupted ideologies, multiplying distractions which lead towards spiritual apathy, and a persistently growing civilization that seems to further itself from Christ at a more rapid pace, can supply trouble to a heart.  Perhaps, we are beginning to see the fulfillment of prophecies that have been preserved to warn us of the times in which we are entering.  We are truly noticing and feeling the strength that Satan’s power is gaining in our world today.  Among his most intensified weapons are his deceptions and the prevalence and depth of his trickery, for they seem to lurk around every corner.  Our test here in this mortal sphere is being heightened.  With deterioration occurring on every side, how do we sustain?  How do we fix our testimonies in such a way that we will not find ourselves numbered among those who become deceived?  The words Lehi spoke to his sons as he prepared to return home, have always given me great understanding of what I must do, and what immense potential I have, in receiving spiritual protection, no matter the circumstances I live among.  And he declared:

...I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.      (2 Nephi 2:14)

Remembering our celestial composition can help us identify which description we belong to within this verse.  Once we recognize which classification in which we fit, we can begin to comprehend our natural capabilities.  The Lord created His children uniquely and divinely.  Each one being endowed with special gifts and talents.  Within us lies the opportunity to one day become Gods and Goddesses, reigning with our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The Lord directed us to Earth with the ability to choose for ourselves, good or evil.  He did not place limitations or restrictions upon our free agency, but allowed us to be in control all the days of our mortal probation.  We are exceptional beings.  We are His children.  With this knowledge we can declare that we would never belong to a category of things to be acted upon.  If we did not, or could not, act until something or someone empowered us to, we would be existing in a world like unto the one Satan sought to create for us.  One without freedoms and one where every thought, every action was controlled based on the determination of another.  This is not Heavenly Father’s plan, and it is not the arrangement of our earthly life.  

Knowing our divinity and aptitudes, the definition of things to act can describe who and what we are.  With this clearly recognized, we can realize the power our individual choices and efforts have in building an immovable and anchored spiritual foundation.  This scripture taught me one of the most important truths in relation to the building of my spirituality, that it is up to me.  It is up to me how fortified my testimony becomes.  It is up to me how close my relationship with my Heavenly Father is.  It is up to me how well I know my Savior, and how much of my life He consumes.  It is up to me how I use my days of testing, whether in idle living or anxious engagement.  My salvation, with the coupling mercy and love from my Savior’s sacrifices for my sins, is up to me.   And all that is required is that I act. 

My most beloved teaching comes from the book the Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball.  If you haven’t ever read this book, read it.  The way he lovingly, yet powerfully, teaches of sin and its consequences is a needed realization we should all come to a knowledge of, especially since the world works so hard in warranting unrighteous living.  I found myself frequently saying while I read: This is how I envision my Heavenly Father speaking to me.  Directly, strongly, yet full of love and hope.  If there is only one book you read this year, allow it to be this one.  My most favored section is chapter seven, on the sins of omission.  Since reading it years ago, it has stood strongly as my most cherished lesson learned.  There are a few reasons to this.  One, I found distinct areas of my life that were in desperate need of improvement if I was to increase spiritually.  And two, it helped me discern some of the greatest fabrications that Satan utilizes in today’s world. 

A sin of omission is essentially failure to do what is right, emphasis being placed on failure to do.  Do we evaluate our righteousness by the lack of erroneous acts in our lives?  If this is how we calculate, we are neglecting the largest portion of our dedication to the Lord and the most substantial contributor in building our spiritual foundations.  Righteous actions are a requirement in demonstrating our commitment, in fulfilling our covenants, and in heightening our spiritual development.  Our virtuous deeds are what bring us into the Lord’s presence, allow us to gain knowledge, and keep us from being deceived by Satan’s worldly redefinitions.  Recalling that we are things to act, we can understand that we can never satisfy that portion of our formation unless we place our diligent efforts and enthusiastic energies into righteous actions.  As I have pondered on this topic I have come to perceive three areas that Satan focuses fiercely upon, seeking to grasp us by way of his craftiness, until he has a firm, merciless grip.  He sways through actions of passivity.  He encourages behaviors of slothfulness.  He whispers lies of justifiscation. 

Becoming passive is deadly to our spirits.  Our souls require constant nourishment and stimulation to develop.  Without restorative sustenance it weakens, and if neglected long enough, will shrivel away.  It acts, necessitates, and desires in the same manner as any other living part of our body.  Because our souls cannot be discernable to the eye, we may become unobservant in the way we provide for it.  The needs of our spirits are made known to us through feelings and internal sensations, meaning that we must have a connection that allows us to be conscious of our spiritual progression.  It is of critical importance that we know and have a deep bond with our souls, and that we seek to nurture them above all else.  The peril of a withered spirit is that we may not promptly recognize its departure, and may only realize the intensity of its absence while enduring the ramifications that come from its demise.  

We receive spiritual nutrition by engaging in the things of His work.  By flooding our time with searching and pondering His words, providing selfless time to serving and loving others, magnifying our callings, listening to music that uplifts our souls and centers our minds on His grace, and in taking quiet moments to pour our hearts out to our Heavenly Father who sits waiting for us.   Essentially being active in anything that brings us nearer to Him.   It is true that we can follow these actions in such a fashion that they become routine.  I am a lover of patterns, and believe they are healthy rituals.  However, I have found that if I am not attentive to them, I can lose emotional passion and engaged concentration in fulfilling my responsibilities.  When we do something without energy, it is simply a cold action born from habit, and not an gesture of the heart.  Doing anything for our Heavenly Father and Savior that doesn’t fully embody the love we carry for them is only ordinary, and our affections for Them completely overwhelm anything average.  Because of this intense devotion, we can never allow our expressions of love to be demonstrated in a mediocre manner.  We must display the depth of our commitment through our energetic efforts, by constantly engaging in acts that illustrate our loyalty.  In conjunction to manifesting our love, this offers our souls a path towards expansion.

We live in a world that is gradually glamorizing slothful behaviors.  Perhaps, not always by intention, but with modern advances, and accumulating distractions, we have to be continually alert in the observation of our efforts or we may find ourselves diverted into such conduct.  Wasting time or becoming preoccupied with worldly interests and enjoyments can take priority in our lives, and leave little time for spiritual enhancement.  This was one of my largest areas of improvement.  I would never categorize myself as a lazy person.  I am a doer.  I like to be busy and involved and normally have my hands in multiple projects.  Originally when I came onto the topic of slothfulness I immediately thought to myself: I am active and love to work!  I am not a slothful servant.  However, as I allowed myself to ponder upon the topic, I came to see how ignorant my awareness was.  It is true that I was far from being indolent.  However, I found that my focus and energies were being placed in worldly desires, and I was carving out small amounts of time for spiritual development.  I would simply run through the actions of prayer and scripture study, sometimes as quickly as I could, so I could enjoy my favorite television program, or finish the project I was engaged in.  Because I was continuously active, engaged in worldly, but good works, and found myself to be constantly busy, I had an inaccurate perspective that my time was being well spent.  Indeed, I wore my busyness as a badge of honor.  Although it was time well spent in the sense that I was bettering myself temporally, which temporal growth is also an important area of advancement, I identified that I was replacing it with the time needed for spiritual emphasis.  I found that my soul was ravenous for deeper knowledge and enlightenment, which can only come through time spent with the Savior.  I reorganized my life and was more careful with my time, and where I placed my attentions.  As I gave undivided focus to my Savior, not limiting the duration, nor racing through the motions of my actions, I began to receive the illumination I was so craving.  My time with Him is so enthralling and absolute, I would sacrifice all to acquire more.  Truly the time we give to Him will never be wasted, nor will we wish we had spent it elsewhere.  Our souls delight in His presence, and develop under His edification.  We live in a temporal world, and the Lord wants us to grow secularly as well as spiritually.  We also know that life is to be enjoyed and not just endured.  However, we must be cautious that we do not replace things that are best, with things that are good. 

Satan is the master of justifications, and he seeks that we follow after his example.  He murmurs defensive rationalizations to why we may choose to become passive, why we permit slothful behaviors to become a standard, or why worldly distractions take priority over spiritual needs.  These justifications possibly come more frequently by way of excuse than by anything else.  My favorite quote from Spencer W. Kimball regarding this is as follows:

Many and varied are the excuses for sins of omission, and they are all irrelevant.

Satan seeks to have us become expert justifiers like unto himself, because he knows that it is what will keep us from progressing.  The more tangled we become in creating and supplying justifications and excuses, the farther we will be from focusing on the things that will help us to evolve.  The unfortunate part of this cycle is that we find that we become fettered by Satan’s deceptions, and we begin to lose comparability with things to act, and become more familiar with things to be acted upon.  This occurs because we allow Satan to become our master.  When we authorize him to have existence in our lives, he seeks to fulfill the plan that he originally sought to bring to earth, the plan of forced obedience.  He is a miserable soul, and aches to tear us down along side him, dividing our happiness as we go. 

We are uniquely endowed children of God.  We each have distinctive and extraordinary spiritual gifts.  We have been sent to earth to magnify these blessings, and to acquire additional talents.  At times we may feel that our earthly existence is perpetual, but it is far from that.  In fact, the time we spend here will be so minimal in comparison to our eternal prospects, that it will stand no larger than a minuscule dot on our personal timelines.  However, this short probation will stand as the most pivotal moment of our existence.  This is because it is our opportunity to prove our worthiness to live within His sight, and in reach of His arms.  Truly, there is no time to be squandered.  We must seek to never strive for mediocre progression, but attempt for superiority, because our objective is perfection.  We need never fear, we can obtain our intentions, although it may take repeated attempts. This is possible because we have been endowed with power and greatness from our Father, and our Savior stands yoked to our sides, supplying us with strength beyond our own.  As we block our ears to Satan’s whisperings, and instead seek veracious counsel from our Omnipotent Heavenly Father and Savior, we will be saved from Satan’s snares, and will find immense joy in employing and diligently using our free agency. 

Our focus must be in staying occupied in the things of the Lord and His gospel, with zealous efforts and eager energies.  We should seek to find satisfaction and happiness in our work, utilizing our free agency by engaging in things of our own free will, not always having to be commanded or asked before we act.  We must not allow the world to define how we involve ourselves, nor permit it to encourage us to replace best practices with good traditions.  We must keep our minds aligned with the Lord’s expectations, so that justifications do not become commonplace in the words that leave our mouths.  Above all, we must remember that righteous definitions were never created by man, they were originated by our Heavenly Father.  No mortal can redefine, amend, or adjust them to fit worldly yearnings.  If we have faith in the scriptures, we can have a firm understanding that our society will only continue to crumble.  Satan will become stronger, as will his distractions and deceptions.  However, as we prioritize our lives by placing Him as the cornerstone and primary emphasis, as well as becoming agents to act, we will find that we are kept erect.  Not barely hanging on, but powerfully standing.  Indeed, our spiritual foundations will be immovable, and it will be as such, because they are established in Him.  May we personify and exemplify the definition of our creation.  May we truly be things to act.