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| ©Darrell Wyatt |
I can't have the alarm clock on my side of the bed. We've tried putting it over there, but I simply do not hear it. Only when I feel my husband kicking me or actually climbing over me to turn it off, do I wake up. So, it stays on his side of the bed. I'm not exactly sure why I don't hear it, but I do have a couple of theories. Perhaps it's because I love my sleep, and I'm not quite ready to give it up yet. I know that it's not because I'm a heavy sleeper, because there are many times I wake up in the night because of noises much more quiet than the alarm clock. Perhaps it's because we've had this same alarm clock for the majority of our eighteen year marriage, and I've just become accustomed to the "BEEP BEEP BEEP" sound and learned to tune it out. I have a feeling it's probably a little of all the above.
In today's reading, I finished the account of the Jaredite people. They started as such a righteous and God-fearing people. The Brother of Jared, who led them to the promised land, was even so obedient and righteous that he was able to see the Lord's finger and then His entire spirit body. Christ walked and talked with the Jaredite people from within a cloud as they were making their long journey. He was always with them, until generations later, when they gradually became so wicked that He had to withdraw his Spirit from them.
But behold, the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and Satan had full power over the hearts of the people; for they were given up unto the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their minds that they might be destroyed;...(Ether 15:19)
Ether had warned them many times that if they did not repent, they would be destroyed. He sounded the alarm, and the Jaredite people did not hear it. Even when literally millions upon millions of their people had been killed, they did not hear it. The Lord simply asked them to repent and turn to Him. That's all they had to do. And they would not do it. Even when all were dead, except for 59 men - 32 on one side and 27 on the other - who were still warring with each other, they would not give up their wickedness.
And it came to pass that they ate and slept, and prepared for death on the morrow. And they were large and mighty men as to the strength of men. (Ether 15:26)
On the morrow, they did die, all of them. Except for Ether, the Jaredite nation was now extinct. The really, really sad part of this story is that extinction could have been avoided. The Lord sent prophet after prophet to declare repentance to the people. He sounded the alarm. And whether the people were just enjoying their actions and were not ready yet to give them up, or whether they had become used to the prophets preaching and tuned them out, they just didn't hear that alarm.
Because we have a living prophet today, we are constantly and consistently receiving revelation from the Lord that applies to us, in our day. Are we listening? Or have we become so accustomed to the sound of the prophets voice that we occasionally tune it out?
The gap between what is popular and what is righteous is widening...Revelations from the prophets of God are not like offerings at the cafeteria, some to be selected and others disregarded. (James E. Faust, Conference Report, Oct 2003)
The Lord has provided us with a living prophet. A kind of alarm that sounds to let us know that we need to wake up and get back on the path. Are we hitting the snooze button until eventually we just don't hear that alarm? Or are we jumping up the very first time we hear it? I pray that I will always be able to do the latter.
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