Agency

Agency

When I was a little younger (a little), I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books.  Maybe you remember them.  I’m not sure if they’re still around—but, in a way, I suppose video games are similar.  You take on a character and, as that character, you have to make choices.  Some of these choices will bring you closer to your goal, be it the princess or bringing down a villain.  Some of these choices can lead you in the opposite direction.  (The frequency of “You have died” endings in Choose Your Own Adventure books is really rather funny.) These are all, at best, metaphors, though.  Most of us probably won’t be in a position to rule a country or find a fantastic treasure and, in the long run, even fantastic opportunities matter less than what we decide to do with them.  We can live wonderful and fulfilling lives as normal people, but we need to make the choices consistent with happiness.

Mormons believe that God has given us commandments for the purpose of our happiness.  He doesn’t give us commandments because He wants to control us, or because He wants us to be miserable (or bored).  He gives us commandments toward our salvation because He has the long view—He knows that treating other people well and living with faith and hope in Christ will make us happy.  Many sins are fun or feel good in the short-term, but the consequences make us feel wretched.  Guilt is part of it, but so is how people begin to react to us when we treat them badly, or when we do things which harm ourselves. 

Another part of the free will that God has given us is that although we can make any choice we choose to, we can’t decide what the effects of our choices will be.  We will not be protected from the negative consequences of sin.  We might not get caught, but with every sin that we make and refuse to repent of, happiness might be that much harder to obtain.

And we are completely responsible for what we do.  As, in Mormon doctrine, the spirit children of God, we are strong in heart and nature.  If our parents did not raise us correctly, we can overcome that.  If we have been hurt or insulted, we can overcome that.  We never lose our free will unless we decide to lose it, to addictions or drugs, and, even then, there are ways to make progressive choices out of such states.  No matter what our situation is, we can choose, and we can always choose in the way the Lord wants us to.

Why is free will so important?  In the beliefs of Mormonism, it’s one of the greatest gifts God has given us.  They believe that, before we came to earth, God presented a plan to us for our salvation.  We would go to earth and be separated from God and we would require a Savior to save us from our sins—but we needed the opportunity to sin.  We needed opposition.  We needed a reason to make wrong choices so that we would become stronger in making the right ones.  We could never be defined, strong people if every decision was easy.

What Lucifer wanted to do was to have us all go to earth, but save us all, making it impossible for us to sin.  This wouldn’t have made us better people, but would have kept is in the very same state we started in.  Free will is essential.  Without it, we are innocent, but have no strength of will or purpose.  Our worship of God is unchallenged and thus doesn’t mean much.