3 Nephi 1

(November 18, 2014)

                Once again, we are reminded in this chapter that miracles do not convert.  The entire face of the land was blessed to see the long-prophesied day with a day and a night and a day without darkness.  This was in the 92^nd year, and by the 94^th year, the people were already fully apostatizing.

                This life, despite what we may fool ourselves into believing, is really just a matter of making moral choices.  This includes the moral choice to believe, and to follow those things we are told.  There is someone that I know who was given pretty specific instructions on what she should do, and is now firmly (all but irrevocably) devoted to doing the exact opposite of that.

                She admitted when her spiritual experience occurred that she knew it was a prompting from the Lord, and while she didn’t like the instruction that she received, she knew she had to follow it.  With no intervening events, she altered her approach in only two months to engaging in the behavior that she wanted to engage in rather than engaging in the behavior the Lord wanted her to engage in.  I have not spoken to her to find how she internally justified her shift, but any explanation would be superfluous anyhow.

                Sadly, her situation is not unique.  Each of us are given spiritual experiences – the decision we must make is whether to hold on to them and put the Lord first, or rationalize and excuse our deviation from them and put the Lord behind self-interest.  Our life is a test – it is ultimately only a test – to determine our answer to that question.