Fear

Mosiah Chapter 4 today, I took a little side route into the Doctrine and Covenants yesterday. It struck me as a weird sort of funny as I go back and forth - the Book of Mormon reads like a novel, where the D&C reads more like a law manual. Both are very precise in their wording - the Lord didn't relax with the Book of Mormon in the preciseness of the wording, but I have to say the BoM is so much easier to read for me.

And the irony is that whether you're the guy who believes it or the guy who says it's all fake, you still believe the same person/entity wrote both books. If you're a believer, God is the principle author of both. If you're not, Joe wrote em both. Man - he had a couple of very different writing styles.

So - speaking of precision and the meaning of a word, I have a couple of examples today. First off in verse 1, "...and behold they had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them".

Fear. An interesting word. It has always been interesting to me that the scriptural use of the word fear gets applied to the Lord. It's used throughout all the scriptures - every one of them - but I find the word fear interesting. My body knows that judgment day may be fearful or stressful, but another part of me goes "meet the Lord? Return to him? Live in His love? Stay there for an hour - or for centuries? Absolutely!"

I would prefer to say I don't fear the Lord. I love Him. I know that with him near I'll feel nothing but love. A part of me says that's like fearing your mom - someone who has loved you longer than you remember.

But I guess for many of us, there may be a reason for fear. The question is some very complicated equation about our acts and our words and our thoughts, and the atonement. I couldn't begin to try to explain such a thing, or pretend that I understand. I don't. I just understand that our works and justice and mercy all are factors in the equation. And one more thing - I understand that we'll agree with God's decision.

So - fear. To me, if I fear the Lord, to me that means I've got work to do. The more I get to know him, and the more I make of myself, the less fear I expect I'll have. I think if I'm ready, I'll look forward to that day of judgment with nothing but excitement and love. And gratitude.