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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Price of Agency

Agency isn't free. In fact, nothing in life is free. If you spend too much, you've done just that; spent more than you had. You will be short somewhere else. You can't spend too much, then do something nice for someone and have it repay the money you over spent. In all areas of life you need to live within your means and be accountable for what you've done.

We've been given this life. This one beautiful, complicated, overwhelming, wonderful life. If we don't do with it what we should, we are accountable for that. It was not given to us to spend frivolously. There are lives to be touched, children to be taught, lessons to be learned. Would we want to squander it only to find out later that it was too late to do what was needed?

Far too often the reality of our actions hits us right in the face. Opportunities missed. Doors closed due to time passed. So many things that are left undone because of our human-ness, selfishness, blindness, laziness, etc. . .

After all that we can do, the only thing that is available is repentance through the atonement of Jesus Christ. We can't make up all the debts we incure. Our agency was given us as a God-given right. Agency is how we prove ourselves. How we show who we are through our actions. Agency isn't free, it has a price. Through our agency we make choices. The good ones are a benefit to all. The bad ones need to be paid for. Some we can make right through our work. Others could never be paid by ourselves. We must repent, but we alone, can't repay. We must rely on the Saviour and His Atonement to make things right.

We pay for our Agency through our good deeds and our repentance and devotion to the Lord's will. Then after all we can do, the Saviour pays the rest of our debts, as only He is able.