Connor’s Conundrums

blog

Conversion

Posted by Connor on July 24th, 2004

“The intensity of our desire to share the gospel is a great indicator of the extent of our personal conversion.”
–Elder Dallin H. Oaks; Ensign, November 2001, page 7.

So you can probably guess what the topic of today’s Sunday School lesson was. Conversion. The gospel is interesting. No matter how many times you learn something, you’ll most likely forget it. Or at least forget that you knew it. Thus the importance of repetition in the gospel. Why do we take the sacrament every week? Why do we learn about faith and repentance and prayer over and over and over again? Aren’t these things basic enough that once we’ve “mastered” them we can move on to bigger and better of things? Well first off, it takes a looooooooong time to master them, and second, you don’t move on to bigger and better things–these are the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. They’re the crux of this religion. Repetition is necessary so that day by day, week by week, we remember our obligations, our covenants and promises, and who we are: children of God working to return to His presence.

So I’ve been on a mission, I’ve had a personal conversion (so to speak) that got me back on the right path. I’m fairly knowledgeable in the gospel and scriptures. Yet I sin. I’m not perfect. The temptations that so easily beset me seem to pull me down time and time again. This is why conversion isn’t a singular event; it is an ongoing process. And that is why the gospel of Christ isn’t something where you go to church on Sunday, and then put it on the shelf until next week. It is something that must burn within us. It is ongoing, alive, and active (well, it should be).

James 1:27 says “Pure relgion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliciton, and to keep himself unspotted from the world”. Edmund Burke has said “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” The gospel involves action. We must be an involved people, sympathetic to the needs of others and have the necessary personal conviction to futher God’s cause as did Captain Moroni with the Title of Liberty. This is why conversion is necessary. As Elder Oaks said (in the quote at the beginning), our level of action and desire to share God’s message with others is directly related to the intensity and depth of our own personal conversion.

So that’s why we hear of faith and prayer and reading your scriptures and repentance and all the “primary answers” people respond when asked in class “So what does God ask us to do?” or something along those lines. By drilling it into our minds and souls over and over and over again, we might just master it someday. As for me, I have a long ways to go, but the lesson today has helped me to understand the importance of constant renewal and reiteration in gospel matters.

Possibly related posts: