Wrongs and rights

It's a continuation in Mosiah today. The first thing I noticed it that the verse following the one I wrote about last time also finishes that point nicely. It also applies to what I see today. It's talking about all of us, but most specifically those of us who would rather "live our own lives" than live in the light and love that God can provide.

Last verse of Mosiah 8: "Yea, they are as a wild flock which fleeth from the shepherd, and scattereth, and are driven, and are devoured by the beasts of the forest."

Why would someone flee from their own shepherd? Why would they choose against protection and choose to be eaten by wolves? Yet the vast majority of us are right there, looking for a hungry wolf to hang out with. It's both cool and politically correct to be seen as hanging comfortably with the wolves.

So I noticed that Mosiah 9 and 10 are written by Zeniff. This is interesting because I am not certain that he was a prophet. He was a man of God, and a leader of that group, but anyway he had a contribution to scripture. In any case, Mormon or Moroni chose to include his writings directly rather than summarize.

Here is a man who lives with his clan among the enemy. He understands their thoughts because he's right there living with them. He understands their mind set like nowhere else in the scriptures I've found. He says they were (Mosiah10:12)"...Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jersusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they were wronged in the wilderness...and that they were also wronged while crossing the sea; 13 and again, that they were wronged while in the land of their first inheritance.

It's easy for politicians to get people to be hateful when they can keep bringing up the wrongs of the past. Of course America's past has many wrongs, none of which can be changed generations later. The list is as long as the ingenuity and imagination of Satan's demons can make it. Sometimes the list is correct, sometimes perhaps not, but the accuracy is meaningless. Satan just needs the anger. That list is brought up on a daily basis to stir up hatred.

With hatred, Satan can cause his followers to do a whole bunch of what he would consider to be awesome stuff. The perceived victims can hate the perceived progeny of the perceived wrong-doers. Whether either party's ancestors were actually a part of the wrong doing is irrelevant - because for Satan, it's not about the wrongs of the past, it's about the hatred today.

With that hatred, perceived victims can now excuse themselves for causing further wrong doing. They can kill, injure or steal in the name of social justice. They can excuse themselves for doing little that is productive, because they place themselves in victim mode. They can seethe and destroy their own lives. They abandon their shepherd and choose to hang with wolves. Eventually, they become wolves. And in the end, their souls are devoured by the beast that they have become.

You might have hear the indian story about two wolves that live inside of us. I'll summarize it quickly. One is good, one is evil, and they're always doing battle. The son asks the father which one wins, and the father responds: "the one you feed".

May we all lift ourselves and choose which beast inside us to feed. May we choose the shepherd and not the pack. May we choose gifts, love and service over hate and anger. It's a much happier way to live - the Lord has made sure of that.