Alma 56

(May 1, 2015)

                Helaman’s confidence (God is with us, He will not suffer that we should fall) is comforting, but I have always had trouble reconciling it with the reality that many times the righteous do fall.  Sometimes the Lord allows the righteous to be destroyed (think of those burned before the eyes of Alma and Amulek) so that the wicked will be correctly judged.  Sometimes he allows the righteous to be destroyed to bring them more speedily to His Kingdom.  Whatever the reason, sometimes the righteous fall.

                I understand that this fall is only in a temporal sense – that even as the Stripling Warrior’s parents were cut down without defending themselves, they were victorious.  But in a temporal sense, we can clearly fall.  That is what frightens me from time to time.  I understand intellectually that the Plan is perfect and will work out to the benefit of all of His children, but this intellectual understanding often wilts in the face of seeing pain inflicted on myself and others that I love.

                I suppose it really just comes down to a lack of faith on my part.