Life has more than one meaning. In most cases, we think of human life as breathing and a heartbeat. Christ often talked about a different kind of life--a spiritual life. Those who lack this type of life are not necessarily dead or dying physically, but they lack contentment, lack a sense of fulfillment, of purpose, of power, of destiny, of virtue. When we continually seek after and completely give ourselves over to Christ, we live in a state of continual joy, peace, love, and fulfillment. Christ came that we might have such life, and that we might have it more abundantly. I interpret this to mean, deeper joy, love, and fulfillment as we increasingly live as He did. If we prove that we are willing to do all things He asks us, we will be awarded with life that is so deep in its richness, it can be referred to as eternal life.
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God chooses not to force moral behavior. He sometimes allows His children to ignore one another, hurt each other, hate each other, torture and kill one another. He extends punishment to those who commit atrocities, but does not prevent people from committing the atrocities in the first place.
Why? Because individual freedom of choice is worth the cost. If God prevented evil from happening, there would be no evil. But the absence of evil would come at a price: no freedom, and therefore no real good. People would act in an acceptable manner only because they were forced to. Because evil would never happen, no one would comprehend the value of good. God has said that man's purpose of existence is "that they might have joy," and joy only comes from willfully living right. Character is built when a person can selfishly choose evil but persistently chooses good instead. Where there is no freedom, there can be no character. Why not prevent at least the worst tragedies? Because God has given each person the potential to become great, each person also can use that same potential to become terrible. The only way to remove the worst is to remove our potential to become greatest. What could possibly be worth this much suffering and death? Everlasting world peace. Indescribable, persistent, absolute love. Eternal joy. Forever faithful family and friends, whose character will never diminish. Power to improve the lives of others beyond what we can imagine. Permanent absence of fear, guilt, hate, jealousy, and corruption, and permanent presence of love, kindness, caring, and selflessness. And all of this achieved not by force, but by the willful choices of those who have built such character through persistently choosing the good while here in this training school we call earth. Because of Christ, we will all be resurrected one day, and our physical bodies will never again be subject to death. Because of Christ, we can choose to rectify our mistakes and learn from our errors during our lifetime, refining our characters into that worthy of the ultimate utopian destination we call the kingdom of heaven. God won't force us to become like he is so that we can live in perfect joy forever. But he has given us the freedom to choose good or evil so that we can build a God-like character if we desire it. God loves us too much to stop all tragedies from occurring. What I do is a choice, even if I was "born that way." I have many natural tendencies that have been a struggle for me to overcome--in some cases a lifelong struggle.
If we were not born with tendencies toward improper behavior, we'd be perfect right from the womb! Part of the purpose of life is to learn self-mastery, and that includes changing our behavior, our character, our personality, our desires, our very self-definition. We must become new creatures, pushing away our natural selves in favor of becoming like Christ. No matter how impossible the road may seem, with God it can be done. Happiness is the ultimate motivation for everything a person does. But real happiness can only be achieved through salvation and eternal progression. These constitute the only method of lasting joy.
We can pursue many other avenues, such as business ventures, sports, political power, academic prestige, accumulation of wealth, or worldly fame. All these seem to bring the promise of happiness, but in truth, the pleasure they bring are only temporary. Since happiness can only be achieved in one way, the commandments given by our Father in Heaven are not designed to be oppressive or controlling. Rather, they are inspired by pure charity. Divine commandments are really guidelines to happiness--the only guidelines to full, lasting, eternal joy. Faith is the driver of our actions. Beliefs that a particular outcome will result from our actions motivate us to action. There are many outcomes we seek, but all of them ultimately boil down to our desire for happiness. We may seek for happiness in money, thrill, service, or making others miserable. We may think happiness comes from self-pity, self-serving actions, or power. Though we may believe happiness will come from these various sources, it often does not, and even resulting pleasure is fleeting, leaving us unsatisfied.
God created this world, provided a Savior for us, gives us commandments and guides, even allows us to experience hardships for the express purpose of helping us find happiness. The entire Gospel is a blueprint for obtaining lasting happiness. Our desire for happiness ultimately drives all our actions. There are many who, in spite of failing to find happiness is wealth, power, and prestige, continue to believe that a little bit more of those things will bring the happiness they seek. But the road to true happiness is strait and narrow--if we believe strongly enough to follow that path, true, lasting, continual joy will be our reward. Such joy cannot be obtained in any other way. Even when we accept that God allows trials in our lives, it can be difficult to understand why He allows the premature death of our loved ones. They've done nothing worthy of death, and yet God allows it to happen. It seems that their future has been needlessly thrown away and ours permanently scarred as a result.
If this life were the beginning and the end of our existence, it would be difficult to see how God could be merciful and yet allow such catastrophes to happen. However, this life is not the end. In fact, it isn't even the beginning. We lived with God before we chose to come to earth. We knew what trials and heartache we would have to endure, but we so wanted to become like our Father that we trusted His explanation that this schooling would be necessary if we were to reach that goal. Some exit the school of life seemingly early. But these, like all of us, simply move on to further education. The great Teacher knows who is ready to move on, who is needed in the next life, and who would ultimately benefit from enduring the trial of the death of a loved one. Death is not the catastrophe we make it out to be, because death is temporary. Extremely difficult, yes. Heartbreaking, true. But the disconsolation can pass. We will have opportunity to lived with our loved ones again, this time for eternity if we've done well in school--if we've become what we came here to learn to become. Though we don't necessarily think of it explicitly, we sometimes tend to regard faith in an either "on" or "off" paradigm. Like many principles of the gospel, faith is better compared to a scale than a switch. A switch implies full power resulting from a single action, but the power resulting from faith is not in full force from the minute we choose to believe.
Peter had great faith in the Lord, but it grew over time. His confidence in God and his resolve to stay true increased with experience and diligence. Some of Christ's disciples found that their faith, though "on," was insufficient to cast out a devil. Christ taught them that further action was needed if they were to increase their faith to the necessary level. Though their faith was strong enough to leave everything they had behind to follow their Lord, Christ's truest disciples asked Him how they could increase their faith. Faith can start out smaller than tiny seed, and yet have great power even at that level. However, a seed is relatively fragile. To realize the greatest power of faith such as that seen in the great Apostles and prophets of the past and in our day, we must be true to the faith that we have. We must build our faith over time through diligent, unwavering obedience. Those deceived by the light switch paradigm see greater value in "temporary" disobedience. It seems not as risky to simply turn the switch off for a short burst of carnal satisfaction, since the switch can be turned back on at any time. Though a child of God always has the right to choose to believe, simply making the choice to believe is only the first step, rather than the end goal. Those who are awarded eternal life will be known by the Lord for the strength of their faith. Christ will present them before the Father at the last day as having proven their commitment to the truth, come what may. If the Lord cannot be sure that we will be true to Him, why would we feel worthy to live in His Kingdom? Even if we believe in Him, our belief and our confidence in that belief may not be strong enough to endure the most difficult trials of our faith. This strength of faith requires work, humility, patience, and grace to achieve. The purpose of life, then, involves the training and testing our faith, refining us (if we choose to allow it) into one who has a perfect faith, strong enough to guide our actions even in the face of the greatest opposition that can be combined against us. This life is a school, a testing ground, a refiner's fire. Bad things have to happen to good people, temptations must come, trials must be endured. If there were none of these, how would our faith grow? Faith means putting our trust in God. But to what end are we trusting in Him? Some who have trusted in God have been delivered from harm, while others have suffered in cruel ways. What does God guarantee if we trust in Him? We lived with God before we were born. We loved Him and wanted to become like He is--full of love, wisdom, and power for good. Our Father offered us all that He has, if we would learn to become like He is. We chose to come to earth to help us in this process. Here we can learn and grow. Away from the direct presence of our Father, our choices become more independent. |
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