The Chains of Hell

 Wayyyy back when I was a new missionary, wide-eyed and bushy tailed, I received a startling question one evening from my trainer.
  First, to set the scene, he had heretofore been sitting quietly in his chair, pondering (as he was inclinded to do).  I believe I was doodling (as I am inclined to do), and he broke the peaceful silence with a question:
 "Elder Williams, scripture trivia!  What are 'The Chains of Hell'?"

  Perturbed, I stalled for time by repeating the question as my mind frantically scanned my (then scanty) mental scripture databank for any reference to this phrase.  Upon finding nothing but cobwebs and dust within the "Chains of Hell" drawer in my mental filing cabinet, I did what any self-respecting greenie does. 


Chains are no bueno!

  I winged it.

 "That's like...when we sin and stuff right?  And it's like chains around us?"

 I'm not sure if he was proud or disappointed (he was very hard to read), but he graciously allowed that to be a correct answer, and taught me the principle behind "The Chains of Hell".

  Chains are strong imagery.  In a positive light, they can be used to represent teamwork and power (unless you are the weakest link).  In a negative light, they portray bondage, weight, and oppression.  This because they are strong and binding, nearly impossible for anyone short of a superhuman to break through.
  "And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance."

 The scary thing about a chain isn't the single link.  One by itself is puny-- easily tossed aside into the nearest waste recepticle.  In that same way, we may think it's ok to sin just once. But it's never "just once".  Slowly, carefully, link by link, we bind ourselves down in sin. 
 "I don't have time to say my prayers tonight."
 "I'll read my scriptures tomorrow."
 "I'm too tired to go to church- I didn't get to bed until two last night!"
 "...You're probably right.  One drink can't be that bad, can it?"
 "I swear officer, I'm sotally tober!"
 "Hello, mom?  I swear it's not my fault, but can you come get me-..."

 There are all kinds of chains, of all shapes, shades, and sizes.  Satan uses every single one in his arsenal to keep us wound bound to the ground, dragging us slowly and painfully away from the light and down into the darkness.  Eventually, we can't even remember what the light was like.  We forget what it was like to be free of the chains that bind us, and we resign to wallow away in misery with the Father of All Lies.

 But don't worry!!  Light will always conquer the darkness, and Our Father sent the Light and the Life of the World to be the ultimate chainbreaker.  We call this the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
 Want to know how to break the "Chains of Hell"?  

 "The Atonement: All for All" ~Bruce C. Hafen

 "Tide Pen Repentance" ~Elder Jordan Sharples

 "The Miracle of the Atonement" ~C. Scott Grow (Grow Scott, Grow!)

"Lifting Burdens" ~Mormon Messages

The Parable of the Frozen Pond: Part 1

It's been a long day.  You stumble in the door, wearied by the stresses of the day.  You reflect on everything that happened as you stagger to the bathroom to wash your face.   It was just one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.  Nothing went right! Your thoughts simmer as you look into the mirror, seeing only a tired, disgruntled face looking back at you. You're tired of people. You're tired of work.  Your tired of responsibilities. You ask yourself out loud why life is so hard, a sharp edge of bitterness in your voice.  You make a personal goal to take tomorrow off, and not to talk to a single soul.  Yep, a good day of lounging on the couch, watching movies, maybe some ice cream... that will give you the boost you need to get back into the flow of things. 
 For now, you decide to collapse onto your bed, clothes and all.  Sleep takes you almost instantly.
~~~~~~

You open your eyes, squinting, until your eyes focus.  You rub them, shivering.  You are standing in a tranquil forest glen, but the branches are empty and the trunks cold and bare.  A thick layer of snow is covering the ground, and the sky above is a deep, roiling gray.  There are snowflakes glittering through the air, one lands squarely on your nose with an icy bite.  Where are you?  As you look around, you see a trail.  Since the alternative is glomping through the snow, you decide to follow it.
 You walk for what seems like a few minutes, but perhaps a few hours, and you come to a clearing in the trees. A pond slowly comes to view, and the trail ends right at the bank of it.
 Now, your natural instinct tells you this is the end of the trail.  But you feel something inside you, encouraging almost, to step onto the ice.  You stand there, hesitant.  You've been on thin ice before, and that was an experience you won't soon forget.  The feeling doesn't go away, and you again receive the strangely comforting prompting to step onto the pond.  You take a deep breath, and step forward.

 For a moment, you think you must be dying.  Your life is flashing before your eyes.  But these aren't the memories you expected... You see yourself, young, stealing your little sister's candy and pushing her to the ground.  The image flashes forward to another of you, furtively, slyly, stealing a snickers bar behind your mom's back at the grocery store.  More and more flit before your eyes; fights with your parents, lies you told to your friends... hurt feelings, bitter choices, angry words.  As the memories progress, they seem to gain speed.  You are in high school, now leaving to college, being fired from your job, leaving your old apartment for a cheaper one, the memories flood on.  Then, as suddenly as they started, they stop.  You hadn't noticed that you had fallen to your knees during the onslaught.

 You are in the middle of the pond now, but you realize you are quite safe.  This water is frozen; probably several inches, if not feet, thick.  Still on your knees, you realize your face is bitterly cold, wet with tears.  What was the purpose of all this?  Why did you just relive all the worse memories of your life? Wasn't your life at least fairly happy?  Why can you only remember the worst parts? Exhausted, forlorn, your shoulders slump and the tears continue to track down your freezing cheeks.

Suddenly a voice cuts the icy silence.
"Maybe you'd like to know what this all means?"

At-One-Ment

 To me, there are few things harder to teach than the Atonement.
It's not that it is necessarily very complicated to explain; it isn't.  It's not that it isn't important; it is.  It is the foundation of everything that we teach.  And I think, ironically, this is part of my dilemma. Everything we teach is built off of Christ's Atonement, insomuch that sometimes it gets buried under all the doctrines, commandments, and scriptures we are so eager to share with our investigators.  Sadly, the very thing that should be center stage in our lessons is left to wallow behind the curtain; enshadowed, obscure, nearly forgotten.
 Now, I'm not saying all missionaries are guilty of this!  I can only speak for myself.  So I want to make up for this, in however small a way I can, by sharing for you my testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

 Now, the Atonement does not begin in the garden of Gethsemane, as we tend to teach in passing.  No, Christ's voluntary sacrifice reverberates along time's spectrum in both directions: beginning with God's forming His plan of salvation for us in our pre-earth life, reaching across eons of time to our final judgement. It was, and is, truly infinite; without time or breadth.

 If you are like me, at this point you are already overwhelmed.  How can something be infinite? How could Christ suffer everything?  If you look at this with a purely scientific perspective, it will only result in confusion and a headache.  Trust me, I've tried.

 The fact of the matter is, Christ did suffer everything.  Remember that time you said "I hate you!" to your little sister because she broke your batman toy, and the bitter remorse that plagued you all the rest of the day, with the image of her sweet little face wet with tears burned into your memory?
 He felt that.
 Remember when your family dog finally got too old and sick to keep going, and you had to wave goodbye to her as she smiled at you from the back of the truck, knowing you'd never see her tail wag again?
 He felt that.
 Remember the literal pain in your heart as you walked away from a friend who had betrayed you; leaving nothing but dashed hopes, hurt feelings, and painful memories?
 He felt that.
 He suffered everything we could all suffer in the human experience. Whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual, it transcended all barriers, encompassing the entire realm of suffering and sorrow.

 Why?
 Why did He do this?  Why did He willingly and knowlingly volunteer to do this?  Why did He, perfect and wonderful as He was, choose to be subject to the full fury and temptation of the world, and the adversary?
  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
 It all happened because God loves us, and so does our Savior Jesus Christ.  They want us to make it home. He died so that it could be so.
 In the name of our Redeemer, Savior, and Brother, Jesus Christ,
Amen.

The road To, or Of, conversion?

 We had the wonderful opportunity and blessing of seeing a young man named Chris' baptism on Saturday; it was an amazing day for everyone involved.  As we watched him dress in his white jumpsuit and, eventually, go under the water, I pondered on the quiet beauty of these moments.  Before someone enters into the waters of baptism, some might feel that they need to "know" everything to be eligible.  People get too caught up in thinking that "conversion" is a destination; a point they will reach when they finally know everything.
 Wrong!
 If that were true, there would not be a single member of this church!  I certainly don't know everything about our God's plan for us, and all the minutia of the scriptures and commandments we are given.  I don't know everything about church history, repentance, or the Atonement.  I don't even know everything about programming VCR's. What I don't know could (and probably does) fill the library of congress.  What I do know is that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me and you very dearly, and we have a Savior who died so that we could return to Him.
 Conversion isn't about how much you know, it's about what you know, and acting on it.  I don't expect I'll ever attain the title of "fully converted" in my life, and neither will you.  Conversion is a road that we must all traverse, through night and day, sun and rain, until, finally, we meet our Savior waiting for us at the end. If we endure this road, believing and trusting that we will reach the end, we will find ourselves at the last day altogether with our Savior, and all our brothers and sisters who walked the road with us.
"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain."
-1 Corinthians 9: 24