The Reason for Hope

January 28, 2011

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:"
(KJV 1 Peter 3:15)

Why am I happy, what makes me lighthearted, and what gives me peace? Ask me last year and I might have responded with an analogy: "Imagine that two kids are admitted to college. One goes because he hears college is a party, you don't have your parents breathing down your neck, and you're free. The other goes because he realizes that an education opens doors and improves your chances of getting a good job. Besides that, he has a passion for knowledge and knows it's a tool that can eventually help other people.

They both then face the trials of college life; high stress, expectations, and social challenges with the occasional Friday night alone at home and a D- on a final exam. Our first friend revels in the excitement of college life for awhile, but soon becomes disenchanted with the idea. The second, however, has a vision of why he came to college, has direction, and understands the meaning of the difficulties he faces.

Imagine two people are sent to earth. One finds joy in fleeting things, "spends money for that which is of no worth and [his] labor for that which cannot satisfy" (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:51). The other serves others, finds joy in things that don't have an end in this life-knowledge and family. He realizes that this life is temporary, a proving ground to show God that we will "stand as ^cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death", and all trials and difficulties are put in perspective (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 18:9)

That was my answer last year...all true, but missing something.

This year I'm reading "The Sacred and the Profane" by Mircea Eliade. It's a history of religious ritual, and the author notes that "religious man" often returns to the cosmogony, or the original creation. Religions have myths surrounding the creation, celebrate the beginning of all things, and revel in creation even if it's as simple as building a house or cooking a meal. Eliade argues that religious man doesn't "commemorate" the creation, but attempts to to re-live it, because by participating in the earth's "birth" we ourselves become new creatures.

What is the "reason of the hope that is in me"? Christ will "was wounded for [my] transgressions, bruised for my iniquities". He will "bear [my] griefs, and carry [my] sorrows", if I choose to follow Him (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 14:4,5,11 http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/14?lang=eng). I've been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which has the priesthood, the power of God on earth, and thanks to that I participate in a ritual each week called the sacrament, which symbolically "re-creates" the moment that Christ took my sins upon Him, bled and died for me.

The reason for my hope? According to Paul, I'm a "new creature" every time I choose to follow Christ. "...old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (KJV, 2 Corinthians 5:17). Contrary to what the world might believe, the gospel and the commandments of God are making me free (KJV John 8:32).

Imagine further that our physical bodies had no capacity to heal. Saturday's bruise from the soccer game is added to last night's headache and last month's slip on the ice. It would soon be unbearable. Now imagine it spiritually, our mistakes and sins forever compiling until the guilt and the pain would overcome us. With Christ our guilt is washed away and we are clean.

Eventually we will receive the ultimate renewal, the "re-creation" of our own lives and our own bodies after death, and we will live with Him forever. Something to think about every time we step outside and bright, morning sunrise replacing a dark, cold night...

(see also Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9 for more on Christ's role as our Savior http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/9?lang=eng)