When bad stuff is awesome

So I'm reading in Alma 17 today - the story of Ammon cutting off a bunch of guys arms, then stacking them up like cord wood and bringing them in. I'm pretty sure it would appeal to some hollywooder who would want to make a movie of the book of Mormon. Yeah - that'll happen.

But I'm seeing stuff that makes me grin - plot twists and seeing opportunity in disaster. Seeing the hand of God when things are swirling dark. Choosing faith when others only see despair. This story reminds me that our situation is what it is, and whether it's something to be excited about or despair about can be our choice.

To backtrack a bit, it's like the Greeks back in the day. They believed that what happened to you is neither good nor bad - it just is. What is good or bad is how you react to it.

So the story in a nutshell: Ammon leaves his home to travel to the land of the enemy because he loves them. This alone puts his life at great risk, but the Lord tells his dad, the prophet, that he will protect them. Ammon shows up at the door of a king, gets offered his daughter, and rejects that. Maybe she was ugly. Who knows. Instead, he offers to be the servant.

So out with the sheep he goes. Other lamanites scatter the flocks so they can collect them. The act is completed successfully and now the shepherds are crying because this is a death sentence. So much for Ammon's mission - now he's a dead guy too- or that's what everybody thinks except Ammon.

Verse 29 "Now they wept because of the fear of being slain. Now when Ammon saw this his heart was swollen within him with joy; for said he, I will show forth my power..."

He must not have been much of a powerful looking person because in verse 35 "...for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to their pleasure, for they knew not that the Lord had promised Mosiah that he would deliver his sons out of their hands"

Ammon's power was not in his arm strength. It was in the Lord. Now I very much suspect that Ammon didn't just wake up that morning and say "I think I'll take insane chances and expect the Lord to protect me". Instead, he grew his capacity to bond with the Lord. He enlarged the diameter of the pipeline between himself and the Lord, and he knew when the Lord had prepared the right opportunity for him to show his stuff. I suspect also that he had meticulously perfected his sword skills, most notably the arm-off skill with his sword. With the sword skills, the faith, the pipeline to know when the prepared opportunity was provided, and the protection of the Lord, he knew that this moment of despair to everyone else was his gift from the Lord.

It was the culmination of everything he had asked and prepared for. It was the pinnacle for his life up to that moment. This might be compared to to David and Goliath - only there were a few dozen Goliaths on the other side. And it was just what Ammon had been asking the Lord to provide.

So he kills a few with a sling. Apparently he didn't just train with a sword. Then he de-arms "not a few" and kills their leader. Training meets opportunity, guided by faith and the hand of the Lord.

This makes him appear god-like to the king, and things go well for him after that. He is offered half the kingdom, and declines. He just wants his brothers freed from prison and to teach the king about the Lord.

So - how often do I and we get opportunities from the Lord that we don't see? Are they lost because we're unprepared, or because we haven't developed that pipeline with the Lord? How often do we see dark clouds and just believe God is punishing us? How many opportunities have we passed by because we don't listen, or are not ready? How often are we drowning, yet won't accept the rescuer in the boat because we're looking for a different way to be saved?

It happens to me. To all of us. May we try to improve our compliance with the Lord's commands, so we can increase that pipeline of communication with Him. May we increase our faith and recognize that that swirling whirlpool we sometimes find ourselves in may be an opportunity to lift ourselves.