Cloud of darkness

So I was reading a book that Makay had recommended to me. It's "the Light in the Wilderness". It provided a reference that I'd been wishing for. That's in D&C 84:54, and says "your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received".

I had been fumbling around that concept in some of the other posts I've done recently, but there is the scripture that confirms that a gift extended, but not received (and I'm going to add exercised /properly invested) is something of a curse. The Lord hands us a gift, and we don't accept/use/make the most of it, it just results in our minds being darkened. This is what I have been fumbling around earlier. At least this scripture verbalizes what I was trying to get to.

I saw a facebook post this morning from a guy I know. He used to be a member and more recently has given up. He posted a quote from one of my favorite old songs from the 70's - Jungle Love - and I responded with the next few words. I doubt there will be too many others that know that song. In any case, he found heartache of some sort while a member, and threw his membership away. Now he lives a hard life. I felt bad for him this morning when I saw that post, because I know that he's lost. I suspect that he knows his way to the light, but he's committed to not walking that direction. In this way, his mind and his life are darkened.

So this morning I was reading in Helaman 5. The scenario is that Nephi and Lehi are in a prison, where they've been for a few days for without food. People come to finish these two off. Why, they might think, did the Lord allow this? I come down here, do what I'm supposed to do, only to be thrown in prison? Where is the Lord in all this? And now I'm here in prison for three days. Why doesn't the Lord send me a raven, or even some condensation on the walls to drink? And for what? To just be killed after I'm ready to die from starvation?

Nephi and Lehi could have gone down this road.  Instead, the mob comes to get them and there is a voice, earthquakes, and a pillar of fire around Nephi and Lehi. If they had given up and resorted to being pissy and angry, the Lord could not have done this for them - or for the lamanites around them. Their remaining faithful not only saved their lives, but it accomplished the purpose and goal of their mission - to save the souls of the lamanites and nephite dissenters that had come to kill them. And this event triggered not only the lamanites giving the nephites their original land, but triggered peace among both people, and converted enough lamanites that they as a whole became a better people than the Nephites.

And it all started with Nephi and Lehi keeping the faith when times were bad.

I'm thinking they might have felt bad for themselves that this prison/starvation/execution were their lot. Why me? Why do I have to get this horrible scenario for my life? Yet only a short time after, they became the center of a biblical scene, with success that can only be imagined for the rest of us.

Anyway, I digress. So here's Nephi and Lehi with this pillar of fire around them. The nephites around them who had dissented were asked how to get the dark cloud away. It seems that the scene was dark cloud / earthquakes / voice / Nephi & Lehi circled by flames. Not comfortable for the lamanites. So how do we remove the dark cloud? Faith.

"You must repent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ...", "...and when ye shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you". Helaman 5:41

This is how the cloud of darkness gets eliminated from all of us. Complaining about our conditions or circumstances doesn't get us there. Only faith. It may or may not result in the prison around us being removed, but the cloud of darkness we place around ourselves? Gone.