"The Day of This Life"

A few weeks before leaving to serve my mission in Mexico in May of 2011, I was asked which scripture I wanted to be placed on my missionary plaque. At the time I was experiencing an interesting sensation: I was numb. I wasn’t excited to leave, but I wasn’t nervous either. I was just waiting until the time came. Having been caught off guard, I quickly opened my scriptures and looked for the first verse that I recognized. This was it: “For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors” (Alma 34:32). At the time the scripture didn’t have much significance for me, but I have since treasured it and the message that it presents, and have since . In this essay we’ll dissect, verses 31-33, which talk about Repentance, Duty, and the Savior’s Invitations.

Alma 34:31- "Yea, I (Alma) would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you..."

Humility and openness to change bring about something special in our lives. We often think of repentance as only needed with big sins; the juicy ones- the ones you have to talk to your bishop about. In reality, they don't have to be big; in fact, they don't even have to be sins! Anything that prevents us from "coming forth" requires repentance. This may be a habit of being late, or being insensitive, or being impatient. We all have habits. We should ponder if they are preventing our progression, (Redemption means "the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil." Notice that it's not just sin.)

Something that stands out to me in this verse, which precedes the one that I have on my missionary plaque, is the promise made. This promise, made by a prophet of God, holds true for all of us no matter what: "If ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you." When does it say the plan of redemption will be brought about us? Tomorrow? Next week? Maybe next month? No, it says immediately. That great plan of redemption is one we kind of "buy into." Not that any type of financial payment qualifies us, in fact that's not possible. The only stipulation for entering in is to be willing to do what the Lord wants us to. If we repent with an open heart, not only will He forgive us, He will cleanse us from that sin (or habit). And when does that happen?

Immediately. An area seventy that spoke at a Stake Conference I attended (I'm not sure of his name--it may be Elder Monk) , about what a "righteous man" is, said,"The man at the bottom of the stairs looking up is better than the man at the top of the stairs looking down." It's all about which direction we're facing.

Alma 34:32-“For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors...”

This short verse gives us the purpose of this life--it's like the Tweeted cliff notes version. The main purpose of life is to prepare to meet God. How do we do that? By "performing our labors."

So...

Preparation to meet God=Purpose of Life
But also...Purpose of Life=Perform labors

So let's do some algebra (Disclaimer: I'm a Spanish major and last took a math class 5 years ago. This may or may not be the Transitive Property):

So if x is the purpose of life, then "Preparing to meet God" is y, and "Performing Labors" is z. If I learned anything from algebra it's this: if x=y and x also=z, then y=z. So what does all this mean?

The way that we prepare to meet our Heavenly Father is by performing our labors, meaning keeping His commandments and serving God, His Church, and His children. Not only that, but being obedient allows us to know Him now.

I put this as my mission scripture without really thinking about but now I think it was only fitting. My mission was the first time I served Him with pure motivation. I came to know Him. I came to know what He wants from me. I came to know what He wants us to become. Keeping the commandments helps us come to know Him, and prepare to live in His presence.

Alma 34:33- "And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed."

(Beseech means to ask someone urgently and fervently to do something; implore; entreat)

Alma urgently asks us to repent. Why? Because he knows that this is the time to do it. Right now. Right this very minute. In truth, repentance is part of the reason an earthly life is necessary. Our Heavenly Father desires us to be as He is, having perfect character and a perfect body. We could not receive a glorified body without receiving a mortal one with natural appetites and desires, thus, repentance should be viewed not as a means of laying aside sin (becoming less of a sinner) so much as a means of accepting godliness. We then see repentance more as a way of becoming more like Christ and less as just being less like our old selves. This can be a useful tool in allowing ourselves to forget those sins and forgive ourselves.

If you followed me to this point, you may be asking "So what? These scriptures are straight forward; I could have come up with that reading by myself." I'll close with what I most got out of this scripture, and I hope that it will help you to change your perspective about sin and repentance. In verses 31 and 33, Christ (through Alma) gives us 3 invitations:

1) Come forth
2) Harden not your hearts
3) Do not procrastinate your repentance

Now think about this question. What is our "natural man/woman" reaction to sin? Usually it's justification. We justify our sins in 3 main ways:

1) Separating from God (usually with the ceasing of prayer)
2) Denial of wickedness of the sin
3) Procrastination. We say "I'll change tomorrow" or "Just one more time."

You see how Alma's invitations can help us overcome those justifications? If you look at the two lists you see that they directly relate. They're perfect opposites. When we sin, if we would turn to Christ before we turn away completely away from Him, we avoid shame. We will have to endure guilt, but guilt and shame are not the same. Shame pulls us down; guilt points us up (see 2 Corinthians 7:10).

Secondly, if we will humble ourselves and open our hearts, we realize that our sins are preventing us from being happy. So instead of denying, we allow Christ to help us find that happiness through full repentance. Finally, avoiding procrastination allows us to enjoy that happiness now (See President Uchtdorf's talk "You Can Do it Now!") As Alma said, the time is now. Right now. Right this very second.

To really close, let's look at the 3 things Alma includes as the purpose of life:

1) To prepare to meet God
2) To perform our labors (keep the commandments)
3) To prepare for eternity (verse 33)

If you take a look at the other 2 lists, I think you'll see a connection. I'll let you do the pondering on that, but I'll just say that you should never feel ashamed because of your sins. Christ wants us to recognize how our sins drive us away from Him, but not to the point where we feel unworthy to change. Because we can't be. We tell ourselves that and Satan tells us that. But Christ has his hand out ready to catch us. All we have to do is say, "Lord, save me" as Peter did (see Matthew 14:24-33).

For more General Authority perspective, check out these two talks:

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: Point of Safe Return (from April 2007 Conference)
Elder Larry R. Lawrence: What Lack I Yet? (from October 2015 Conference)