Alma 19

(March 31, 2014)
It is hard to get our minds around the idea that mortality is of limited importance.  It is all that we see, and as such we find it so all-consumingly significant.  But that really isn’t the way that the Lord views things (and it shouldn’t be the way that we view things).  Things in mortality are really very short – and death, whenever it comes, brings only relief and the opportunity to move on to the next stage in our eternal progress.

I thought of this when I read from this chapter about the Lord preserving the life of Ammon by striking dead the Lamanite who was trying to kill him.  Why was Ammon preserved?  It is not an easy question, as there are others just as righteous who were not spared.  Stephen was stoned.  Almost all of the original Apostles were martyred (and, as I think more about it, I recognize why that had to happen – we needed to know they were willing to die for what they believed in order to provide power to their testimonies).  Why save Ammon, and not everyone?  I think that the answer solely comes down to one thing and one thing only – the Lord still had work for Ammon to do.

We show up at the office, punch our timesheet (a.k.a., birth), and we set about doing what we were brought here to do.  Some of us have to learn on the job.  Some of us do fantastic work.  Some of us do little (or are even counterproductive).  And sometimes we go through all three phases.  But we love our job, we love the ‘money’ that it brings, and we love the company that we have.  But at some point, the Boss is going to say that He has no more need for our services today.  And we will be sent home.  Hopefully it will be because we have done everything He has sent us here to do (and not because we have become such a problem that He cannot continue to have us here without affecting the quality of everyone else’s work), but regardless the time will come and we will punch out.  The Lord won’t keep us here any longer than He needs us, because He knows His plan and if we can endure to the end (presumably easier the sooner our particular end happens to be), then we will receive a full salary for our work.

The Lord loved Ammon, and He saved him.  The Lord loved Abinidi, and He let Abinidi be martyred.  The Lord loves us – whether He saves us depends on what He has in store for us.  May we trust and praise the Lord always.