Moses 8

(January 9, 2014)
I have discovered, as I am attempting to change my life, just how corrupt my thinking has become.  I look at the language of this chapter about the imaginations of man – “every man was lifted up in the imagination of the thoughts of his heart, being only evil continually.”  Until I engaged in serious efforts to change my heart, I did not realize just how often that the imaginations of my heart were evil – almost evil continually.  I am finding that I must maintain constant vigilance in order to redirect my imagination away from evil and into neutral paths.  I still have not yet managed my mind well enough to direct my imaginations towards good (that is still the goal, however, that I am working towards).

I can understand why this is so important to the Lord.  There are things that we don’t do because we love the Lord, but there are other things that we don’t do because of social or other external constraints.  For example, when someone cuts us off in traffic we might be angry at them and desire to ram our car into them.  But we don’t do that because (a) we might get hurt in the process; and (b) doing so would subject us to civil or criminal penalties.

But in our imaginations, there are no external constraints.  In our imaginations, we don’t get hurt in the ensuing collision (we can even arrange it where we are capable of accomplishing our nefarious designs without so much as a scratch on our bumpers).  We don’t get caught, we don’t get sued, we just get our revenge and they get their comeuppance.  That is the power we wield within our imaginations.

You might even say that, within our imaginations, we have close to the power of God.  Does that worry anyone else as much as it worries me?  Because if our imaginations are evil continually, doesn’t that mean that if we had this power to act without consequences our actions would be evil continually?  How can we hope to qualify for Exaltation until and unless we demonstrate in the one area of our lives where we hold a similar amount of power that we will use that power for good and not evil?

I am convinced, as I attempt to change my life, that the most important battles that I am called upon to fight are the last moments before I sleep – when my mind wanders, looking for rest, and is inclined to drift through well-worn grooves I have allowed to be formed towards evil imaginations.  When I can purge myself of them – when I can starve this portion of my imagination and build that part of me that imagines good continually, then I will be on the path towards becoming the child of God I am meant to be.