Free To Choose

During my mission i was really puzzled by the commandment to "humble yourself…." I was familiar with the process of being humbled by the Lord through his glory, or through affliction, or threats of afflictions. But the idea of choosing to be humble confused me. I didn't know how to choose that!

In the midst of my emotional turmoil the spirit took me to Alma 42:30. It's a gem of a scripture, and reading Alma 39-42 in order to get the full context of Corianton's spiritual state. It also happens to be the formula for humbling ourselves before God.

It reads, "O my son, I desire that ye should deny the justice of God no more. Do not endeavor to excuse yourself in the least point because of your sins, by denying the justice of God; but do you let the justice of God, and his mercy, and his long-suffering have full sway in your heart; and let it bring you down to the dust in humility."

Did you catch that? The justice of God + the mercy of God exercising their full range in the human heart will = humbling her/him to the dust. The scripture points to one other thing, and i'll get there in a moment. When i was on my mission, i only saw justice and mercy, because that's what i needed at the time.

I used to think of this as a pendulum! (again, we're ignoring that third part for a just moment)

It's perfect! If i bank too much on the mercy's of God, i will be denying Justice, and excuse myself in my sins. If i lean too much on God's justice, i'll never be able to accept the Atonement as ransom for my sins. Humility is in-between justice and mercy. Okay, here's the third part, (10 points if you can guess it) love. That is, the Love of God.

Eliza R. Snow penned it beautifully in her hymn How Great The Wisdom And The Love, "How great, how glorious, how complete redemptions grand design, where Justice, Love, and Mercy meet in harmony divine!" (Hymns, 195)

I like to think that these three have to come together, because in love we find a love for God, and for ourselves and our fellow men and women. But this change must come about because of a love for God, which only comes as a result of feeling God's love! (1 John 4:19)

This all sparked through my mind tonight because i was contemplating affirmations. I decided that I was going to wake-up early, pray, and then spend 10 minutes in total silence, letting go of everything, then spend 10 minutes putting in healthy food for my brain via affirmations. (This is actually part of a bigger plan, but that's a post for another day!)

I was looking at a blog post the other day from one of the blogs i follow and Kylie, the blogger, put up a bunch of affirmations (that i'm assuming came from a really awesome scripture study) that started with "I am free to choose…" and it'd list two things she can choose, where she can really only choose one of the two i.e. "I am free to choose liberty and eternal life, or captivity and death."

So, i guess i liked them because they reminded me that I am free to choose humility, or self justification, or self deprecation. And that's a really great feeling.