Free Agency and the New Year

I was recently given the opportunity to speak in church. The topic assigned was free agency, a very important principle in the LDS faith. I thought I'd edit it a bit for a blogpost. The talk went over very well and it's a perfect topic for the new year. Yes, it is religious and talks about religious topics so be warned. But, you can also apply this idea to your life, even if you don't believe in "sin" per se. Anyay, here you go:

In this time of the New Year, it is a time of reflection on the past and planning for the future. We have the opportunity to renew our goals and our efforts to become better people. My topic today is free agency and I think it's a perfect topic for this time of year.

Free agency is an amazing gift from God. It's the privilege we have to choose for ourselves to be accountable for our choices. It is a central part of God's plan for us in our lives.

It's only through this gift that we are able to progress, learning from our choices and our mistakes. We could not learn if our choices were made for us. Without it, there really is no purpose to life because we were sent here to learn and be tested by the decisions we make. To help us make the right choices, God has given us other gifts such as the light of Christ or our conscience, which is everyone's ability to know right from wrong, good from evil. And of course He has given us the greatest gift - the atonement of Jesus Christ which allows for redemption from our sins - our bad decisions - if we repent.

I love how the plan works. There is a law we must follow. We can choose whether or not to follow that law. We reap the consequences of our choices - it's that simple. For example one of the ten commandments is "Thou shalt not steal". If we disobey that law, the consequences are arrest and jail, or at least, a life of deception, hiding and guilt. But, if we obey that law, the consequences are that we are free to continue our lives and make other choices. Galatians 6:7 says: Be not adeceived; God is not bmocked: for whatsoever a mancsoweth, that shall he also dreap". We are free to choose our actions but, we are not free to choose the consequences. To quote the Simpsons "You choose fruit, you live with fruit".

Another important aspect of free agency is opposition. This is another important LDS teaching: there exists good and evil, right and wrong. This principle was taught by Lehi, in the Book of Mormon. As he was dying, he said this to his son:

"For it must needs be, that there is an aopposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. " (2 Nephi 2: 11 ).

Lehi said that even in the garden of Eden there was opposition: "even the dforbiddenefruit in fopposition to the gtree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. " (2 Nephi 2: 15)

He taught that there needed to be opposition specifically SO THAT people could act for themselves: "Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should aact for himself. Wherefore, man could not bact for himself save it should be that he was centiced by the one or the other." (2 Nephi 2: 16)

So, there has to be something to entice us in opposite directions or else there's really no choice to make and thus we lose free agency. Opposition allows for our choices to be meaningful. So, if you ever wonder why there is evil in the world - this is why. There has to be evil to properly test our ability to choose.

The ironic part of free agency is that when we choose to follow God's commandments, we actually have more freedom. Many will think that the LDS church is too restrictive with all the rules we have to follow. But the opposite is really true. 2 Nephi 2:27 says "And they are free to echoose fliberty and eternal glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be hmiserable like unto himself." Our Gospel Principles manual has a great example of this. Imagine we're on a beach and there is a warning sign, telling you to stay out of the water because of a dangerous whirlpool. We then have two choices - to follow the sign or ignore it. If we obey and stay out of the water, we still have many choices. We can walk along the beach, search for seashells, sunbathe or build a sandcastle. But, if we disobey the sign, go into the water and get caught in the whirlpool, we have very few choices. We can hope that we're strong enough to pull ourselves out of the whirlpool or that someone will come along and save us. Otherwise, our only other choice is to drown and that's really not a choice at all. See my point? This example is true for any of God's laws. So, of course making good choices to begin with is the best way to go.

But what if we are already trapped by previous wrong choices? It could be by an addiction to substances, bad habits that we can't kick or anything we feel like we can't stop in our lives and are destructive.

Sometimes things seem impossible to overcome. But, I believe that we still have our agency and can make a choice to change and do something different.

Elder Robert D Hales, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the LDS church, spoke in the October 2010 General Conference and described this like this, "Whenever we disobey, we spiritually paint ourselves into a corner and are captive to our choices. Though we are spiritually stuck, there is always a way back. Like repentance, turning around and walking across a newly varnished floor means more work—a lot of resanding and refinishing! Returning to the Lord isn’t easy, but it is worth it."

Think about something in your life that is keeping you from being closer to God, or your family, or your goals in life. What choices can you make to escape that thing? You can choose whether or not to take that next drink. Or exactly how you will react to someone who has frustrated you. Or whether or not to eat that next sweet. Or whether or not to think sexual thoughts about that attractive person or look at that inappropriate website. Or whether or not to say yes to someone when you are already over booked and haven't spent enough time with your family. Or whether or not to forgive someone who has wronged you. We can choose to overcome something destructive in our lives, no matter how difficult or insurmountable it seems.

Sometimes you need help - get it! Don't wait and don't let the stigmas of the world dissuade you. Don't believe that crap that it means you're weak or it's somehow shameful. Seeking help when you need it is the most noble and great thing you can do. You can meet with your Bishop/Priest/Pastor or other religious leader. You can join an addiction recovery group like AA, seek help from a friend or family member or find a counselor who can help you. If you're in over your head, just find help somewhere. Heck, even posting your weight loss goals and victories is a great way to keep on track. Whatever it is - just do it.

Also, stop rationalizing or making excuses for mistakes. People do this all the time to deny or delay making the change. King Saul did this after conquering the Amalekites. God told him to "utterly destroy all that they had". But instead, he let people keep some oxen and sheep for sacrifice, rationalizing that he was doing a good thing. But Samuel reminded him that "to obey is better than sacrifice". (1 Samuel 15:122)

Elder Quentin L Cook, a member of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in a BYU–Idaho devotional in 2006. "Rationalization for bad choices will not be effective, but repentance will. Those who repent will be particularly blessed by the Atonement. Without the Atonement, the eternal principle of justice would require punishment (see Alma 42:14). Because of the Atonement, mercy can prevail for those who have repented and allow them to return to the presence of God"

Which brings us to the most amazing gift that we have: Christ's atonement. The LDS church believes that once we learn how to use the Atonement in our lives, through true repentance, it can be a great tool to help us overcome these negative things in our lives. Doctrine and Covenants 19: 16 says, " For behold, I, God, have asuffered these things for all, that they might not bsuffer if they would crepent."

Repentance means different things to different people or religions but my take on it is that it's a process whereby we recognize and regret an action, we confess it to God or a church leader, if necessary, we sincerely apologize and make amends where at all possible and then, most importantly, we never do that thing again. This last part is the hard part and some things may take us a life time to truly give up. But don't give up! True repentance and change will bring forgiveness from God, freedom from our bad choices and real peace and joy in our lives.

This new year time is perfect for this kind of reflection and resolving to make better choices in the coming year. God has given us each the power to overcome these things in our lives, using our free agency and the Atonement and He is there to help us. I hope that we can all take full advantage of this turning of the year to use our free agency to choose those things that will bring true joy and peace to our lives, leaving behind the negative choices that only serve to hold us captive. I believe God has put us on this Earth to do this and to become the people He knows we can become. God bless everyone and Happy New Year!