Spiritual Thought - Josh Nicholls

Here is a thought that I have been working with.Moroni 7:6 states, "For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good." I have pondered that verse ever since it first stood out to me, approximately four years ago. To me, the meaning of this verse is quite simple and brings me joy. For I now know that I am not surrounded by a world of evil people, but by a world of good people who occasionally do bad things. For as the scripture infers, a person is evil so long as they do not give a good gift. Therefore, if a person gives a good gift, they aren't evil.

I have always known that there is more to this verse, for that reason I have frequently pondered it. Last week, I was blessed with an opportunity to hear a lesson about service. The instructor pointed out the difference between the words "deserve" and "natural consequences". He said that far too often we see someone suffering and state that it is okay that they suffer for they are merely getting what he or she deserves. He then pointed out that this opinion was wrong.

Could you imagine standing before the judgment bar of God and hearing him declare, "You shall go to hell for that is what you deserve! You did bad things and therefore you deserve to have bad things happen to you!"

My understanding of our Heavenly Father is that he is compassionate and understanding. Should we stand unworthily before the judgment bar, I believe that he would take us lovingly in his arms and sadly tells us, that despite all that He could do, He could not save us from the natural consequences of our actions and that to his sorrow, we must be removed from his presence.

The "natural consequences" perspective varies greatly from the "deserve" perspective in that one occurs because of a causal type relationship and the other is accusatory. For example, it is not appropriate to see a "bum" in the streets and say, "Oh, I won't help him because he is getting what he deserves. If he got a job, then he wouldn't be without money."

We cannot forget that regardless of what people do in this life, they are still children of the Living God and we have an obligation to love them. There may be times when we must allow them to suffer due to the natural consequences of their actions, but it is never our place to say that a person deserves to suffer for we are all of divine origins.

The final step in this thought process ends with a class that I am currently taking. We have been discussing the rights of imprisoned criminals. The rights of people who have done horrible things to others. People who never once acknowledged the rights of others and yet are crying out when their rights are violated. I had to ask myself, do these people deserve to have their personal rights trampled because they ignored the rights of others? No. One of the elements of George Albert Smith's Creed reads, "I would be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor." Another one states, "I would not knowingly wound the feelings of any, not even one who may have wronged me, but would seek to do him good and make him my friend."

I ultimately concluded that despite all of the horrible things the criminals had done, their origins were still divine and it was not my place to say how they "deserved" to suffer. However, natural consequences must still run its course, but I want to be there by their side and help them. I honestly believe that Christ would embrace each of these criminals and weep with them over their crimes and then explain to them that, despite the love He feels for them, the natural consequences of their actions must hold true.

I testify to you that there is nothing in this world that can separate us from the love of God [Romans 8:35-36] and that we must aspire to loving our brothers and sisters in the same way that God loves them. We cannot allow the fact that people do bad things to desensitize us to their needs. People will continue to do bad things and we must mourn with them and allow the natural consequences of their actions follow. But most of all, we must continue to love them.