Heaven's Price

[Guest Mores]

I was recently pondering a recent thread about why calamities happen.  Reasoning behind the question was: Can we not achieve the same thing by many small tragedies rather than one overwhelming one?  While so pondering, I recalled the following quote.

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What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

  Thomas Paine; The American Crisis

If we were to replace the word "freedom" with "Liberty and Eternal Life", would this not explain everything, every hardship, every trial, every calamity, every sorrow, every pain that we endure in this life?  Heaven knows how to put a price on its goods.  And we cannot obtain it too cheap.  This inevitably gets into a debate about the Atonement of Christ.  I'm aware of it.  And that's another discussion.  But we must be personally involved in that price to be paid.

It's too easy an out for people to say,"It's too hard, therefore there must be no God."  Or easier still,"That doesn't make any sense. There must be no God."

I empathize with those who think it is hard.  It is hard.  No question about it.  How would we esteem such a celestial article as Eternal Life if we obtain it too cheaply? 

As for what makes sense.  There is, well, sense to that.  At the same time we're required to be humble enough to realize that we will not understand all that God understands.  We must make allowance for our own weakness in knowledge and comprehension of celestial ways.

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8 ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

  Isaiah 55

The examples of this have been legion in my life.  We think there is a way to do things.  And we're usually right.  But every once in a while I hear the Lord telling me to do something that doesn't make any sense.  After considering and praying to know that this isn't some random thought in my head, I proceed thinking "I know not, save the Lord commanded me."

And when I do, I see things happen.  And as I see them happen, I can then deduce what the reasoning was behind it.  Sometimes, I never see anything unusual.  The results are kept from me.  But I have faith in the fact I did as the Lord commanded me.

Other times I have to wonder why something wasn't done a different way.  I come up with things that would be more effective or more efficient.  But they were not the Lord's way.  His goals are not my goals.  His thoughts are not my thoughts.  And when I open my eyes to see what happens when things are done his way, I begin to understand what His thoughts actually are.  And I truly understand what Jesus meant when he said.

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If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

John 7:17

If it is so simple, why don't others do it?  Because they think through man's traditional lens  "I must know everything I'm getting into before I take a step forward."  And there is wisdom in that attitude.  It certainly keeps us from being taken in by charlatans.  But this is not what the Lord expects.

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... I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

 Ether 12:6

So, when do we go forward without knowing beforehand, and when do we gather every available piece of information first?  Actually this isn't an either or.  The key is "available".  While the world has knowledge about the world, and the devil has knowledge of his own, the Lord alone is the true source of knowledge about Him.  And such knowledge is given little by little.  And we are expected to act on the little we have.  Not all at once.  But it grows (Alma 32).

The way we obtain knowledge from the Lord is to act upon that which we know to be right.  Not based on man's wisdom, but on the Lord's wisdom.  In short, we have faith.  As we act accordingly, we will be given more knowledge -- line upon line, precept upon precept.

None of this begins without the first steps, the first sacrifice we are required to make to obtain the blessings of the Atonement: A broken heart and a contrite spirit.

[mikbone]

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December 23, 1776

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

 

Love me some Thomas Paine.

 

Don't be a summer soldier or sunshine patriot...   FREEDOM!

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by mikbone

[Traveler]

@Mores I agree with everything you have suggested in this thread - but I would add a thought or a principle that is not often considered - that is the principle of agency.  As we consider the diversity of opportunities in mortality I am of the mind that before we were born we committed to the trial we would face in mortality as part of our probational experience.  One item I have expertise in my work is in testing and validating complex automated systems.  I would say that 90% of my testing is at the fringes of operation where the greatest  possibility of failure would occur exist.  This is not to destroy a system but rather to strengthen and harden a system's operation and confidence in those relying on the system.  It is with the idea that fixes are made to prevent failures or that there is advoidences of operation where weaknesses are known.  (in the eternal scheme I am inclined that weaknesses become strengths rather than things that limit operation)

So I suggest that nothing experienced in this life is not happening except for our eternal benefit.

 

The Traveler