The Pride of the World vs. Living Water
In today's world, we commonly use the word 'pride' to reference good things: "I'm proud of you" or "I take pride in... (fill in the blank)". We also refer to pride as an emotion that keeps us from being honest with ourselves or others, or a feeling that keeps us from wanting to do what we know we should. In the Book of Mormon, pride is three things: thinking we're better than our fellow man, not wanting to be honest with ourselves - especially when it comes to things we've done wrong - and refusing to acknowledge our need for God and His living water in our lives.
A Great and Spacious Building
In recounting a dream they both had, the prophet Lehi and his son Nephi tell us about a great and spacious building erected on a foundation no more substantial than thin air:
"And I [Lehi] also cast my eyes round about, and beheld... a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth. " (1 Nephi 8:26)
"And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I [Nephi] beheld that they were in a large and spacious building... And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof... I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great." (1 Nephi 11:35-36)
"And the large and spacious building... is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men." (1 Nephi 12:18)
Throughout the history of mankind, the societies of the world have demonstrated a proclivity for defining their own morality, rather than living by what God has given us, and expecting their people to subscribe to and live by it. Ours has proven to be no different. We have forgotten that God is the keeper of morality. We have forgotten that His morality does not change - ever! We have forgotten that when when we deviate from the morality that God has given us through his prophets and apostles, some way, some how, it always leads to regret. People slip into sin, and then, instead of recognizing it for what it is and taking care of it, they cover it, try to legitimize it, and even decide that God no longer exists, therefore the sin is no longer wrong. Thus, the world changes and then expects the people of God to "get with the times". Eventually, there is enough suffering to bring about humility, and then, once again, the "times" get with the truth.
What's in the Bible? Morality in an Immoral World: A Turning of Things Upside Down
Even in the Church, nearly all of us let too much time go by, happily living out our lives on the Mormon Floor of the great and spacious building. It's the floor right above the lobby, nearest the exit, and it comes complete with green jello, ward basketball, noticeably cleaner dirty, worldly media, and lots of cool and important things to do on Sunday. The devil himself has made sure to deceive us into feeling like we can leave anytime we want. He has also sought to make it seem like a place we should never want to leave. But this is not the case. Eventually, being spiritually careless - or lukewarm - will lead us to do something that causes regret. When that time comes, however great or small the offense, we'll want to change, but find ourselves helpless to do so.
A Litmus Test for Pride
In the Book of Mormon, pride is thinking we don't need God, or that we know better than He does. Pride can even be as innocuous a thing as forgetting to seek the counsel of God or ask for His help when we should. The litmus test for knowing whether you have a pride problem or not is this:
When was the last time you...
The Danger of Justification
Perhaps the biggest symptom of Book-of-Mormon pride is justification.
Whenever there's a choice between right and wrong, the real choice we're making is whether we'll justify or sacrifice. The danger of justification - even of small sins - isn't that we'll borrow somebody's pencil without asking and lose our eternal salvation for it. The danger of justification is that we'll borrow without asking, and then maybe care a little bit less about the next personal boundary we cross. The danger of justification is that it can diminish our desire and willingness to sacrifice for our Heavenly Father; it will diminish our sensiitity to - and the importance we place on - the difference between right and wrong. The danger of justification is that it puts us on a slippery slope, sliding back in the direction of being spiritually lukewarm. (for more about what I mean by "lukewarm", see Revelation 3:15-16) Justification changes who we are. To make matters worse, justifying shows our Heavenly Father that we feel like He doesn't matter.
Stealing someone's pencil today won't make you apostate by Sunday. It just means that your small decision to justify has cost you a small measure of spiritual temperature. The seriousness of the act is the degree of the cost in temperature. One too many of those, and you can end up losing the passion and commitment that motivates sacrifice - and keeps the great joy of gospel living flowing in your life, not to mention losing much of the Lord's help in doing so. A "serious" sin, such as sexual misconduct or stealing, or violence, or, in some cases, violating the Word of Wisdom, can do that in one fell swoop. In that state, being spiritually asleep at the wheel, you drift until suddenly you awake again to find yourself doing something you really will regret! In the meantime, all you have to show for your lack-luster spiritual performance is an inexplicable, empty misery that seems to just constantly hang overhead.
Already Lost?
So often when we justify, we feel like we're doing something insignificant, like we have nothing to lose by it. Sacrificial obedience to the Lord's commandments safeguards - and even increases - spiritual "hot-or-cold-ness". So if you feel like you can justify something you want on the grounds that you "have nothing to lose", be careful it isn't because you've already lost that which obedience would have safeguarded.
The Savior said it this way:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the salt of the earth; but if the salt shall lose its savor wherewith shall the earth be salted? The salt shall be thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men." (3 Nephi 12:13, compare Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:49-50, Luke 14:34-35, D&C 101:39-40)
We cannot justify and be the salt of the earth, too.
The Lord has given us a string of very strict "thou-shalt-nots" to specifically guide us away from the bigger sins: thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not bear false witness, etc... (see my article on the Ten Commandments)
But He has also given us a commandment for dealing with the little, seemingly insignificant sins too:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength... " (D&C 59:5, compare Matthew 22:37)
If we look at history in the scriptures, we'll notice that this "salt" has been the preserving agent that kept a society from being destroyed, that societies who have met with destruction are the ones who've persecuted those who make up God's salt. The great and spacious building, whether personal or of the world, must eventually fall.
If by our justification, we allow ourselves to lose sight of a high level of commitment to our faith, we lose along with it one of the greatest joys available in this life: that of loving the Lord our God and readily feeling His love for us, of loving the gospel and giving our best, committed effort to living it with the help of our Savior. The loss of that great joy is the high cost of pride.
Riches in the Scriptures
The other major symptom of pride is dependence or fixation on what the scriptures call "riches".
Nephi taught:
"But wo unto the rich, who are rich as to the things of the world. For because they are rich they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek, and their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also." (2 Nephi 9:30)
Notice that he says, "wo unto the rich", but then he clarifies his meaning: those who are "rich as to the things of the world". Typically, when we hear the word "rich", we think of money. But money isn't the only "thing of the world".
Without God in their world, some people seem to really need "things". The world would have us believe you're just not cool enough unless you have the latest, newest car, the fastest computer, and the nicest brand-name clothes. Too many people seem to find happiness in "retail therapy". Not knowing a greater form of happiness, the world settles for the temporary, fleeting "things of the world".
My kids like to listen to a set of CDs called "The Scripture Scouts". One of the cute little songs they sing talks about a wealthy man who spends his life accumulating the things of the world - presents he wrapped and gave to himself, things he bought for himself just because he felt like it, and even the city zoo. "What's life without a hippo?" he says. Then he dies and goes to heaven, where he suffers the loss of all those things. He laments, "I wish someone had told me; life is more than things!"
But I think the scriptural meaning of the word "riches" goes even deeper than that. In giving us the parable of the sower, Jesus taught:
"And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. " (Mark 4:19)
I would posit that the term "riches", as used in the scriptures, refers to any or all of the things - or behaviors - we turn to, things that keep us from feeling the need for God in our lives, treasures that become our God without our even realizing it. Having this as the meaning of the word "riches" changes the meaning of the word "poor" too. The poor and the meek are those who have realized the things and the ways of this world will never be enough. The poor and the meek are those who sacrifice and do without the things of the world - because we have something infinitely better!
Let's take an addict of some kind as an extreme example - maybe an alcoholic. When life takes a dip, or the weekend comes and he's got nothing to do, he has something that "gets him by". Needing something to "get us by" is such a deeply compelling part of being human that all of us need something. We cannot escape having something. Human behavior seems to consistently show that, either we will diligently seek the grace of God, or we will end up trapped, addicted to something. Some people work all week long and then get drunk on the weekends as a way to "get by". They laugh or look down upon those they see as being dumb enough to do without. "Get a life!" they say, "It's your loss!". They don't know what it is we have access to. Some people use anger as a crutch for dealing with the bumps they encounter along their path in life.
"Addicts", as the world calls them, are people who've discovered something that fills some hole in their soul in grand, irresistible form, if only in a counterfeit, empty sort of way, if only for a fleeting moment. Having that hole filled in such a way comes at the high cost of losing our spiritual freedom, our humility, our determination to serve the Lord, our great joy in living the gospel!
Grace: The Best Coping Mechanism in the Universe!
I would correlate the word "riches" with another term I learned from a therapist by the name of June. She taught me that we often use what she called "coping mechanisms" to deal with the pain and negative emotions in our lives.
In one of our many visits, June explained to me the function of coping mechanisms. She told me a sort of parable about a man who has been crossing the desert for days, with nothing to drink. He comes to a well and is greatly relieved at the sight of water. But then he realizes the water is polluted. Maybe there are cow droppings in it. He's so thirsty, he drinks it anyway, knowing it will make him sick. June taught me that people have to have water, and we will knowingly settle for bad water if we believe that is all that's available to us. She taught me that a necessary part of making the right changes in our lives involves meeting our inescapable emotional need for something by finding access to better water - making use of better coping mechanisms.
Little did June know the kind of water I'd go on to find, or the meaning she had so unwittingly given it, in my mind.
About three years went by, and then, one day, as I was reading in the New Testament, I came across something that forever changed the way I view my relationship with my Savior. I felt the Spirit of the Lord remind me in a deeply powerful way of June's parable, and my jaw dropped and my heart stopped as I read.
To a woman at a well in Samaria, Jesus said:
"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water... Whosoever drinketh of this water (from the well) shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:10-14)
I quickly flipped to another verse I knew that said essentially the same thing. Speaking on behalf of the Lord, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah extended a similar invitation:
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. (Isaiah 55:1-2)
I once joked in Sunday School that the reason why we have such a hard time getting rid of our sins is "because they're so dog-gone useful." We have so many holes for them to fill! It seems as though Satan himself has designed every temptation he sends our way to capitalize on some very real, genuine, emotional need.
You don't have to be "an addict" to have a coping mechanism - an emotional hole - get between you and your Heavenly Father.
We get angry in order to control our children, or to control other circumstances that really are out of our control. We use foul language to express frustration. We watch too much TV because we get a tiny little "buzz" that never stops until we counteract human nature and turn off the tube. Your habit, or addiction, or whatever it is that's yanking your chain, has to be replaced by what the Savior offers us. We have to stop drinking the water of the world, the "riches" of the world, and learn to drink deeply of the living water He gives us instead.
The Savior said:
"Yea, blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (3 Nephi 12:3, see also Matthew 5:3)
The "poor in spirit" are people who have deprived themselves of the things of the world because they know that what they really need is something only the Savior can offer!
Alma the Younger taught the people in the Valley of Gideon that the Savior suffered and died to be able to help us in this way:
"And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers... And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people... and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities... the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance...Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins..." (Alma 7:10-15)
You see, not only does the Savior specialize in saving us from sin, but his favorite kind of salvation to give out is salvation from sin-ning. While there is certainly more to it - I'm not done writing yet - part of being saved from sin is getting to a point where we no longer need the sin. The need is being met a different way. We don't need to know if the grass is greener on the other side, because we already know the Good Shepherd feeds his flock the best grass, enough and to spare, right here and now, "within the bounds the Lord has set."
The apostle Paul taught:
"...let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)
Nothing helps us "hold fast our profession" like having the Lord himself fill our holes with living water! The Savior's invitation is unto all:
"Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (3 Nephi 14:7-8, compare Matthew 7:7-8, 2 Nephi 9:42)
Would you like to try some living water? Would you like to feel as Lehi did, "encircled about eternally in the arms of his love?" (2 Nephi 1:15) The Savior has provided this powerful spiritual resource, "without money, and without price". He wants us to use it!
All you have to do is ask Him, just like the woman at the well in Samaria.
Through your Savior, you have access to a source of spiritual power that can help you make whatever changes you may feel you need to make in your life. The trick is remembering to use it, and that can be harder than you might think.
King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon taught his people:
"And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith... even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not." (Mosiah 4:29-30)
I believe king Benjamin's concept of "perishing" is a spiritual one: losing that which obedience would have safeguarded, letting our salt lose its savor, even to the point of forgetting our God!
There is nary a more liberating feeling than having your holes filled the right way, and feeling that compelling pull of the need for something just disappear! Actually, there is one other, even more liberating feeling - one that breaks chains; it's called the remission of sins, but we'll talk about that in my post about building on the Rock of the Redeemer.
Not only does the Lord command us to do difficult things, he supplies us with the power to do it. Upon being asked to do something that any sensible person would have seen as impossible, Nephi responded:
"...I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7)
If the Lord can be so generous in taking care of the things I do need, surely, in keeping with His commandments, I can commit to remove from my life all the things I most definitely do not need, for I know that my Savior can and will happily provide the power to do so!
Alma and Amulek taught the Zoramites about how Moses raised up a brazen serpent in the wilderness as a symbol of Christ. They were being bitten by serpents, and he told them, if they would look unto this symbol of Christ, they would be healed and they would live. But many would not.
Alma then goes on to encourage the Zoramites to learn faith in the Savior:
"O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish? ...then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people..." (Alma 33:21-22)
My Own Great and Spacious Building
There was a time when I desperately wanted to overcome my struggles all by myself. I felt like I should do it by myself. I felt like I owed it to my Heavenly Father to do it by myself. After all, I was the one who had gotten myself into my mess; it was only right. In the end, I discovered I had no choice: the Lord had commanded me to come unto Him, and I needed to. There was no other way to change, no other salvation from sin under heaven save that which comes through Christ and Him alone, "relying alone upon the merits of Him who is might to save." (see Mosiah 3:17, 2 Nephi 31:19)
My own pride had been great, and great had been the fall thereof. I had felt the pain of which Nephi had warned:
"And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them." (2 Nephi 9:42)
I had to learn the hard way what the Lord meant when he said, "...whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." (see Matthew 23:12) I had to learn the hard way why it is that our loving Heavenly Father commanded us not to have any other gods - or "coping mechanisms", or other means of filling our holes - before Him.
Having awoken one day to find myself buried under the rubble heap of my own great and spacious building, I discovered the joy that comes of being willing to make the heart-rending journey into the depths of humility. I discovered the great power to change - to escape the chains that held me bound - that comes into the lives of those who truly humble themselves, who learn to need their God and His living water.
I found out the neat way that there is no better way to "get a life" - an eternal life - than to give up our "riches" and, instead, get down on our knees and prayerfully partake of the living water that only our Good Shepherd can give us! We have to learn to trust Him enough to let Him and his grace and his love for us take the place of our coping mechanisms, our holes - our false gods. I testify from personal experience in learning to identify my own holes and asking the Lord to fill them: His love, His power to save and to help us change are ever so much more than sufficient!
I'll end my tutorial on the importance of learning to use living water with this exhortation from the Apostle Paul to the saints at Rome:
"...now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." (Romans 13:11-12)
Moroni's Invitation
Moroni's closing words in the the Book of Mormon carry the lesson. I don't believe he could have possibly given this incredible "other testament" a more fitting and beautiful epilogue:
"And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing. And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled. Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10:30-33)
I read the word "perfected" here to mean "changed", and "perfect" to mean "having received a degree of change". I believe "ungodliness" is allowing ourselves to live our lives in a way that does not frequently require God's help. That's what the prophets of the Book of Mormon mean when they use the word 'pride'.
Also of Interest:
My Testimony of Jesus Christ
June Singletary at Capital Therapy
Scripture Scouts at Deseret Book
* I am not a paid advertiser for June Singletary, Capital Therapy, Deseret Book, or the producers of the Scripture Scouts
In today's world, we commonly use the word 'pride' to reference good things: "I'm proud of you" or "I take pride in... (fill in the blank)". We also refer to pride as an emotion that keeps us from being honest with ourselves or others, or a feeling that keeps us from wanting to do what we know we should. In the Book of Mormon, pride is three things: thinking we're better than our fellow man, not wanting to be honest with ourselves - especially when it comes to things we've done wrong - and refusing to acknowledge our need for God and His living water in our lives.
A Great and Spacious Building
In recounting a dream they both had, the prophet Lehi and his son Nephi tell us about a great and spacious building erected on a foundation no more substantial than thin air:
"And I [Lehi] also cast my eyes round about, and beheld... a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth. " (1 Nephi 8:26)
"And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I [Nephi] beheld that they were in a large and spacious building... And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof... I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great." (1 Nephi 11:35-36)
"And the large and spacious building... is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men." (1 Nephi 12:18)
Throughout the history of mankind, the societies of the world have demonstrated a proclivity for defining their own morality, rather than living by what God has given us, and expecting their people to subscribe to and live by it. Ours has proven to be no different. We have forgotten that God is the keeper of morality. We have forgotten that His morality does not change - ever! We have forgotten that when when we deviate from the morality that God has given us through his prophets and apostles, some way, some how, it always leads to regret. People slip into sin, and then, instead of recognizing it for what it is and taking care of it, they cover it, try to legitimize it, and even decide that God no longer exists, therefore the sin is no longer wrong. Thus, the world changes and then expects the people of God to "get with the times". Eventually, there is enough suffering to bring about humility, and then, once again, the "times" get with the truth.
What's in the Bible? Morality in an Immoral World: A Turning of Things Upside Down
Even in the Church, nearly all of us let too much time go by, happily living out our lives on the Mormon Floor of the great and spacious building. It's the floor right above the lobby, nearest the exit, and it comes complete with green jello, ward basketball, noticeably cleaner dirty, worldly media, and lots of cool and important things to do on Sunday. The devil himself has made sure to deceive us into feeling like we can leave anytime we want. He has also sought to make it seem like a place we should never want to leave. But this is not the case. Eventually, being spiritually careless - or lukewarm - will lead us to do something that causes regret. When that time comes, however great or small the offense, we'll want to change, but find ourselves helpless to do so.
A Litmus Test for Pride
In the Book of Mormon, pride is thinking we don't need God, or that we know better than He does. Pride can even be as innocuous a thing as forgetting to seek the counsel of God or ask for His help when we should. The litmus test for knowing whether you have a pride problem or not is this:
When was the last time you...
- sought opportunity to sacrifice to do the will of the Lord or refused to cut corners on your principles? (Ezekiel 11:19-21)
- asked Him what He thought you should do? (Alma 37:36-37, Proverbs 3:5-7)
- asked Him for power from on high while in the act of resisting a specific temptation? (3 Nephi 18:18-25, 3 Nephi 13:12, compare Matthew 6:13)
The Danger of Justification
Perhaps the biggest symptom of Book-of-Mormon pride is justification.
Whenever there's a choice between right and wrong, the real choice we're making is whether we'll justify or sacrifice. The danger of justification - even of small sins - isn't that we'll borrow somebody's pencil without asking and lose our eternal salvation for it. The danger of justification is that we'll borrow without asking, and then maybe care a little bit less about the next personal boundary we cross. The danger of justification is that it can diminish our desire and willingness to sacrifice for our Heavenly Father; it will diminish our sensiitity to - and the importance we place on - the difference between right and wrong. The danger of justification is that it puts us on a slippery slope, sliding back in the direction of being spiritually lukewarm. (for more about what I mean by "lukewarm", see Revelation 3:15-16) Justification changes who we are. To make matters worse, justifying shows our Heavenly Father that we feel like He doesn't matter.
Stealing someone's pencil today won't make you apostate by Sunday. It just means that your small decision to justify has cost you a small measure of spiritual temperature. The seriousness of the act is the degree of the cost in temperature. One too many of those, and you can end up losing the passion and commitment that motivates sacrifice - and keeps the great joy of gospel living flowing in your life, not to mention losing much of the Lord's help in doing so. A "serious" sin, such as sexual misconduct or stealing, or violence, or, in some cases, violating the Word of Wisdom, can do that in one fell swoop. In that state, being spiritually asleep at the wheel, you drift until suddenly you awake again to find yourself doing something you really will regret! In the meantime, all you have to show for your lack-luster spiritual performance is an inexplicable, empty misery that seems to just constantly hang overhead.
Already Lost?
So often when we justify, we feel like we're doing something insignificant, like we have nothing to lose by it. Sacrificial obedience to the Lord's commandments safeguards - and even increases - spiritual "hot-or-cold-ness". So if you feel like you can justify something you want on the grounds that you "have nothing to lose", be careful it isn't because you've already lost that which obedience would have safeguarded.
The Savior said it this way:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the salt of the earth; but if the salt shall lose its savor wherewith shall the earth be salted? The salt shall be thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men." (3 Nephi 12:13, compare Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:49-50, Luke 14:34-35, D&C 101:39-40)
We cannot justify and be the salt of the earth, too.
The Lord has given us a string of very strict "thou-shalt-nots" to specifically guide us away from the bigger sins: thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not bear false witness, etc... (see my article on the Ten Commandments)
But He has also given us a commandment for dealing with the little, seemingly insignificant sins too:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength... " (D&C 59:5, compare Matthew 22:37)
If we look at history in the scriptures, we'll notice that this "salt" has been the preserving agent that kept a society from being destroyed, that societies who have met with destruction are the ones who've persecuted those who make up God's salt. The great and spacious building, whether personal or of the world, must eventually fall.
If by our justification, we allow ourselves to lose sight of a high level of commitment to our faith, we lose along with it one of the greatest joys available in this life: that of loving the Lord our God and readily feeling His love for us, of loving the gospel and giving our best, committed effort to living it with the help of our Savior. The loss of that great joy is the high cost of pride.
Riches in the Scriptures
The other major symptom of pride is dependence or fixation on what the scriptures call "riches".
Nephi taught:
"But wo unto the rich, who are rich as to the things of the world. For because they are rich they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek, and their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also." (2 Nephi 9:30)
Notice that he says, "wo unto the rich", but then he clarifies his meaning: those who are "rich as to the things of the world". Typically, when we hear the word "rich", we think of money. But money isn't the only "thing of the world".
Without God in their world, some people seem to really need "things". The world would have us believe you're just not cool enough unless you have the latest, newest car, the fastest computer, and the nicest brand-name clothes. Too many people seem to find happiness in "retail therapy". Not knowing a greater form of happiness, the world settles for the temporary, fleeting "things of the world".
My kids like to listen to a set of CDs called "The Scripture Scouts". One of the cute little songs they sing talks about a wealthy man who spends his life accumulating the things of the world - presents he wrapped and gave to himself, things he bought for himself just because he felt like it, and even the city zoo. "What's life without a hippo?" he says. Then he dies and goes to heaven, where he suffers the loss of all those things. He laments, "I wish someone had told me; life is more than things!"
But I think the scriptural meaning of the word "riches" goes even deeper than that. In giving us the parable of the sower, Jesus taught:
"And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. " (Mark 4:19)
I would posit that the term "riches", as used in the scriptures, refers to any or all of the things - or behaviors - we turn to, things that keep us from feeling the need for God in our lives, treasures that become our God without our even realizing it. Having this as the meaning of the word "riches" changes the meaning of the word "poor" too. The poor and the meek are those who have realized the things and the ways of this world will never be enough. The poor and the meek are those who sacrifice and do without the things of the world - because we have something infinitely better!
Let's take an addict of some kind as an extreme example - maybe an alcoholic. When life takes a dip, or the weekend comes and he's got nothing to do, he has something that "gets him by". Needing something to "get us by" is such a deeply compelling part of being human that all of us need something. We cannot escape having something. Human behavior seems to consistently show that, either we will diligently seek the grace of God, or we will end up trapped, addicted to something. Some people work all week long and then get drunk on the weekends as a way to "get by". They laugh or look down upon those they see as being dumb enough to do without. "Get a life!" they say, "It's your loss!". They don't know what it is we have access to. Some people use anger as a crutch for dealing with the bumps they encounter along their path in life.
"Addicts", as the world calls them, are people who've discovered something that fills some hole in their soul in grand, irresistible form, if only in a counterfeit, empty sort of way, if only for a fleeting moment. Having that hole filled in such a way comes at the high cost of losing our spiritual freedom, our humility, our determination to serve the Lord, our great joy in living the gospel!
Grace: The Best Coping Mechanism in the Universe!
I would correlate the word "riches" with another term I learned from a therapist by the name of June. She taught me that we often use what she called "coping mechanisms" to deal with the pain and negative emotions in our lives.
In one of our many visits, June explained to me the function of coping mechanisms. She told me a sort of parable about a man who has been crossing the desert for days, with nothing to drink. He comes to a well and is greatly relieved at the sight of water. But then he realizes the water is polluted. Maybe there are cow droppings in it. He's so thirsty, he drinks it anyway, knowing it will make him sick. June taught me that people have to have water, and we will knowingly settle for bad water if we believe that is all that's available to us. She taught me that a necessary part of making the right changes in our lives involves meeting our inescapable emotional need for something by finding access to better water - making use of better coping mechanisms.
Little did June know the kind of water I'd go on to find, or the meaning she had so unwittingly given it, in my mind.
About three years went by, and then, one day, as I was reading in the New Testament, I came across something that forever changed the way I view my relationship with my Savior. I felt the Spirit of the Lord remind me in a deeply powerful way of June's parable, and my jaw dropped and my heart stopped as I read.
To a woman at a well in Samaria, Jesus said:
"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water... Whosoever drinketh of this water (from the well) shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:10-14)
I quickly flipped to another verse I knew that said essentially the same thing. Speaking on behalf of the Lord, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah extended a similar invitation:
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. (Isaiah 55:1-2)
I once joked in Sunday School that the reason why we have such a hard time getting rid of our sins is "because they're so dog-gone useful." We have so many holes for them to fill! It seems as though Satan himself has designed every temptation he sends our way to capitalize on some very real, genuine, emotional need.
You don't have to be "an addict" to have a coping mechanism - an emotional hole - get between you and your Heavenly Father.
We get angry in order to control our children, or to control other circumstances that really are out of our control. We use foul language to express frustration. We watch too much TV because we get a tiny little "buzz" that never stops until we counteract human nature and turn off the tube. Your habit, or addiction, or whatever it is that's yanking your chain, has to be replaced by what the Savior offers us. We have to stop drinking the water of the world, the "riches" of the world, and learn to drink deeply of the living water He gives us instead.
The Savior said:
"Yea, blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (3 Nephi 12:3, see also Matthew 5:3)
The "poor in spirit" are people who have deprived themselves of the things of the world because they know that what they really need is something only the Savior can offer!
Alma the Younger taught the people in the Valley of Gideon that the Savior suffered and died to be able to help us in this way:
"And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers... And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people... and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities... the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance...Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins..." (Alma 7:10-15)
You see, not only does the Savior specialize in saving us from sin, but his favorite kind of salvation to give out is salvation from sin-ning. While there is certainly more to it - I'm not done writing yet - part of being saved from sin is getting to a point where we no longer need the sin. The need is being met a different way. We don't need to know if the grass is greener on the other side, because we already know the Good Shepherd feeds his flock the best grass, enough and to spare, right here and now, "within the bounds the Lord has set."
The apostle Paul taught:
"...let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)
Nothing helps us "hold fast our profession" like having the Lord himself fill our holes with living water! The Savior's invitation is unto all:
"Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (3 Nephi 14:7-8, compare Matthew 7:7-8, 2 Nephi 9:42)
Would you like to try some living water? Would you like to feel as Lehi did, "encircled about eternally in the arms of his love?" (2 Nephi 1:15) The Savior has provided this powerful spiritual resource, "without money, and without price". He wants us to use it!
All you have to do is ask Him, just like the woman at the well in Samaria.
Through your Savior, you have access to a source of spiritual power that can help you make whatever changes you may feel you need to make in your life. The trick is remembering to use it, and that can be harder than you might think.
King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon taught his people:
"And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith... even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not." (Mosiah 4:29-30)
I believe king Benjamin's concept of "perishing" is a spiritual one: losing that which obedience would have safeguarded, letting our salt lose its savor, even to the point of forgetting our God!
There is nary a more liberating feeling than having your holes filled the right way, and feeling that compelling pull of the need for something just disappear! Actually, there is one other, even more liberating feeling - one that breaks chains; it's called the remission of sins, but we'll talk about that in my post about building on the Rock of the Redeemer.
Not only does the Lord command us to do difficult things, he supplies us with the power to do it. Upon being asked to do something that any sensible person would have seen as impossible, Nephi responded:
"...I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7)
If the Lord can be so generous in taking care of the things I do need, surely, in keeping with His commandments, I can commit to remove from my life all the things I most definitely do not need, for I know that my Savior can and will happily provide the power to do so!
Alma and Amulek taught the Zoramites about how Moses raised up a brazen serpent in the wilderness as a symbol of Christ. They were being bitten by serpents, and he told them, if they would look unto this symbol of Christ, they would be healed and they would live. But many would not.
Alma then goes on to encourage the Zoramites to learn faith in the Savior:
"O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish? ...then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people..." (Alma 33:21-22)
My Own Great and Spacious Building
There was a time when I desperately wanted to overcome my struggles all by myself. I felt like I should do it by myself. I felt like I owed it to my Heavenly Father to do it by myself. After all, I was the one who had gotten myself into my mess; it was only right. In the end, I discovered I had no choice: the Lord had commanded me to come unto Him, and I needed to. There was no other way to change, no other salvation from sin under heaven save that which comes through Christ and Him alone, "relying alone upon the merits of Him who is might to save." (see Mosiah 3:17, 2 Nephi 31:19)
My own pride had been great, and great had been the fall thereof. I had felt the pain of which Nephi had warned:
"And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them." (2 Nephi 9:42)
I had to learn the hard way what the Lord meant when he said, "...whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." (see Matthew 23:12) I had to learn the hard way why it is that our loving Heavenly Father commanded us not to have any other gods - or "coping mechanisms", or other means of filling our holes - before Him.
Having awoken one day to find myself buried under the rubble heap of my own great and spacious building, I discovered the joy that comes of being willing to make the heart-rending journey into the depths of humility. I discovered the great power to change - to escape the chains that held me bound - that comes into the lives of those who truly humble themselves, who learn to need their God and His living water.
I found out the neat way that there is no better way to "get a life" - an eternal life - than to give up our "riches" and, instead, get down on our knees and prayerfully partake of the living water that only our Good Shepherd can give us! We have to learn to trust Him enough to let Him and his grace and his love for us take the place of our coping mechanisms, our holes - our false gods. I testify from personal experience in learning to identify my own holes and asking the Lord to fill them: His love, His power to save and to help us change are ever so much more than sufficient!
I'll end my tutorial on the importance of learning to use living water with this exhortation from the Apostle Paul to the saints at Rome:
"...now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." (Romans 13:11-12)
Moroni's Invitation
Moroni's closing words in the the Book of Mormon carry the lesson. I don't believe he could have possibly given this incredible "other testament" a more fitting and beautiful epilogue:
"And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing. And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled. Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10:30-33)
I read the word "perfected" here to mean "changed", and "perfect" to mean "having received a degree of change". I believe "ungodliness" is allowing ourselves to live our lives in a way that does not frequently require God's help. That's what the prophets of the Book of Mormon mean when they use the word 'pride'.
Also of Interest:
My Testimony of Jesus Christ
June Singletary at Capital Therapy
Scripture Scouts at Deseret Book
* I am not a paid advertiser for June Singletary, Capital Therapy, Deseret Book, or the producers of the Scripture Scouts
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