Choosing to Act

I heard an excellent presentation at church regarding the principle explained in 2 Nephi 2:14, 16, 26:

"...God...created all things...both things to act and things to be acted upon....Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other....And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil, to act for themselves and not to be acted upon..."

One important part of the plan of salvation is agency. We have been placed in a world in which there are real choices: real choices which include both the best that the Father offers and the worst that the human mind can imagine. (I believe that unless both possibilities exist there cannot be agency, but that is the subject for another post.) Having placed us here, the Father gives us the freedom to choose, real choices to make, and the atonement of Christ to redeem us from the consequences of our poor choices, if we choose to avail ourselves of that third gift.

That said, we are placed in the position to act. The importance of this can easily be missed. Particularly, I have noted that men who struggle with SSA are often paralyzed by indecision. This often occurs at the time the man is trying to decide what to do in the SSA struggle.

The following analogy may be useful. You are on a baseball team, and are a reasonably talented player. The team is playing an away game. In the 9th inning your team comes to bat, and you come to the plate with the bases loaded, your team down by 2 runs. The stands are full of less-than-friendly fans, who cheer every time you miss. The pitcher is an imposing, almost frightening resemblance of Randy Johnson. The catcher is whispering less-than-sweet encouragement to you. And you stand there, almost paralyzed by the pressure. What should you do? He might walk you, if you let him throw to you and wait. If you swing, you might strike out or fly out. And yet you know that the likelihood of a walk is low, especially if you stand and do nothing. Unless you choose to act, the end of this story will not be a happy one.

Many men I know seem to have spent much of their lives, particularly in the struggle with SSA, responding to outside influences, waiting to be acted upon, waiting for the pitcher to walk them. But in the passage cited above the message is clear that we are expected to act, and not to be acted upon. We can choose to act; we are free to act. If there have been prior mistakes, whose consequences bind and hold us captive, the atonement of Christ can free us from that bondage. We are free to act, and not to be acted upon. We have both the responsibility and the opportunity to choose and take charge.