No room for fatalism

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the October 1990 Conference.

This post will publish on Election Day, and I have just the talk you need to read as an antidote to everything else you are probably reading and thinking about! It also goes perfectly with the chapters we've been studying in the Book of Mormon, describing the terrible fall of the Nephite civilization. I've been thinking so much about how Mormon must have felt as he watched his people destroy themselves, and wondering how he could still say "I loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them." I confess to occasionally feeling as hopeless as Mormon perhaps felt, about the state of the world in general and our recent times in particular.

But when I read this talk by Elder Glenn L. Pace, I felt called to repentance! I have felt the fatalism Elder Pace describes—and sometimes, unfortunately, the lack of compassion he talks about as well. But I can see that those attitudes are not the ones Jesus Christ would have me adopt. Here are a few excerpts that struck me particularly hard (but go read the whole thing!):

We know the prophecies of the future. We know the final outcome. We know the world collectively will not repent and consequently the last days will be filled with much pain and suffering. Therefore, we could throw up our hands and do nothing but pray for the end to come so the millennial reign could begin. To do so would forfeit our right to participate in the grand event we are all awaiting. We must all become players in the winding-up scene, not spectators. We must do all we can to prevent calamities, and then do everything possible to assist and comfort the victims of tragedies that do occur.

The great prophet Mormon set another example worthy of emulation. He lived at a time that was hopeless. Imagine this: “There were no gifts from the Lord, and the Holy Ghost did not come upon any, because of their wickedness and unbelief.”

In spite of this hopeless situation Mormon …had Christlike love for a fallen people. Can we be content with loving less? We must press forward with the pure love of Christ to spread the good news of the gospel. As we do so and fight the war of good against evil, light against darkness, and truth against falsehood, we must not neglect our responsibility of dressing the wounds of those who have fallen in battle. There is no room in the kingdom for fatalism.

And then this, which hit uncomfortably close to home:

Sometimes we tend to take joy in seeing the natural consequences of sin unfold. We might feel some vindication for being ignored by most of the world and persecuted and berated by others. When we see earthquakes, wars, famines, disease, poverty, and heartbreak, we may be tempted to say, “Well, we warned them. We told them a thousand times not to engage in those activities.”…

We know many wounds are self-inflicted and could have been avoided simply by obeying gospel principles. However, to shrug it off as “their problem” is not acceptable to the Lord. He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Although He does not condone sin, His arms are always open to the repentant sinner. In modern revelation the Lord has asked us to go one step further: “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.”

Our forgiveness must be manifest by reaching out to help mend wounds even when they are the result of transgression. To react in any other way would be akin to setting up a lung cancer clinic for nonsmokers only. Whether the pain has come to someone who is completely innocent or is something of his own making is irrelevant. When a person has been hit by a truck, we don’t withhold our help even when it is obvious he didn’t stay in the pedestrian lane.

I don't know what's going to happen this year and next year and the next. Sometimes I think things are really not so different than they have always been, and I think life will go on as usual for a good long time. Other times I really wonder if the whole world is falling apart. To be honest, I'm pretty withdrawn from a lot of the world right now, by choice. I am largely consumed with taking care of my little family in my own little home, and I like it that way, and I don't feel much need to emerge. :) But I do want to keep engaging in the work Jesus would do if He were here—ministering to and loving and meeting the needs of my neighbors, noticing the people around me and trying to be kind amidst our differences. And no matter how these next few years unfold, it seems like that goal is a good one to keep my focus on.