Alma 51

(October 26, 2016)

                It is vitally important that we, as Christians, understand that we are playing the long game.  There is a strong pull (I feel it myself in the political arena) to find certain battles as existential crises, but that truly isn’t the case.  If the Kingmen had prevailed, it would have been a tragedy, but we see from the Gadianton Robbers taking over later that it isn’t the end of everything.  We must always remember that Christ wins.  We know the ending.

                That doesn’t mean that we ignore the short-term, of course.  Moroni defended the freedom of the people, and we should consider the short-term political effects of our decisions today.  But we cannot either become depressed or disengaged because the world is trending in a manner opposed to our beliefs (really, is that a surprise?).  Likewise, we cannot make our decisions only based upon short-term considerations.  If we aren’t making personal and political decisions based upon how they will affect our eternity, then our thinking is short term.  If our decisions bring a 100 years of misery followed by an eternity of the fullness of joy (to engage in a little hyperbole – I don’t think such a decision situation faces us now), we should gratefully take such a deal.  To select a decade or a century of a positive result at the expense of a lost relationship with Christ is not a good trade to make.