Alma 5

(September 16, 2014)

                Alma advised the people in this chapter to prepare quickly, because the hour was close at hand.  Sometimes I think that we read language such as this and we naturally think of the grand winding up of the time in mortality, but I doubt that is it.  After all, the world is still trucking along several millennia after Alma gave this sermon.  No, Alma is not talking about some hour for all of us but rather some hour for each of us.  And it doesn’t necessarily have to be the hour of our death.

                There comes a point – a point of divergence in our lives.  If we choose one path we go one way, and if we choose another path we go another way.  Often the end result of these minor choices are massive.  This is the hour at hand, and the choices that we make are informed by our preparation to that point.  Do we hold to the Church when we are exposed to some fact from Church history that is suspect or appears bad?  That largely depends on how prepared we are before the hour when we are presented that fact.  Do we give in to temptation when we are presented with it in a moment of weakness?  That largely depends on how prepared we are before the hour when our temptation is before us.

                The hour truly is close at hand – the hour is now.  And next hour, and the next.  And, as the hymn states, we need Him every hour.