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Foreordained

by Autumn Dickson

As we begin the chapters for this week, we find Alma preaching to the people regarding a variety of topics. One of these topics is how high priests are foreordained and sent to the earth to fulfill special callings.

Alma 13:3-4

3 And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.

4 And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren.

According to these verses, people are foreordained according to their faith and good works before they came here. Men and women were chosen and prepared to do specific things in their lives as dictated by their actions in the premortal existence. I think of all the men and women who are leading the church and building the kingdom in significant ways.

And I also thought about the fact that there are many of us who aren’t chosen as general church leaders. I think about those of us who have quieter callings. What does that say about us? I used to think it meant that I simply wasn’t good enough, that I hadn’t been strong enough to choose or that I didn’t have it within me to be one of these foreordained.

Interestingly enough, the second verse teaches us exactly what keeps someone from having the same great privileges as their brethren, namely a hard heart and blind mind. Let’s talk about those two things in the context of being foreordained.

A blind mind

What does a blind mind look like in the context of foreordination? When I think of blind, I obviously think of someone who can’t see. So we’re talking about not seeing this concept of foreordination clearly. I’m sure there are a million ways this can manifest, but there is one that I’m thinking of specifically and would like to talk about.

My husband, Conner, is the one who helped me see in relation to foreordination. I don’t think he ever meant to. I don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation about the doctrine of foreordination. However, observing him has brought about a dramatic shift in how I view callings in life.

Conner is not what I thought I would marry. I knew that I wanted to marry someone spiritual, but my view on what it meant to be “spiritual” was very narrow. I was naive, and I thought that being spiritual included long patterns of praying, reading scriptures, and pondering. Interestingly enough, these are all things I’m relatively good at. My sometimes-neurotic personality means that my family reads the scriptures, prays, and goes to church very regularly. Conner and I go to the temple. We have family home evening with all the prayers and songs, and all of the lists get checked off. In my young and limited world view, I believed that this list checking signaled spirituality, and I believed that these were habits that could be easy to anyone who simply chose to prioritize them.

Then I got to know Conner. He was chaotic and impulsive. If he’s holding still during a church meeting, it’s because I’m tickling his back or hand. He hardly remembers to eat, let alone daily worshiping tasks.

But the more I got to know Conner, the more I heard the Spirit whispering to me that there was something more to him that I couldn’t quite grasp. The Spirit would give me these moments where I could see him as the Lord saw him. I couldn’t describe it but I could feel that Lord was molding Conner into something specific, something very different than what I had pictured. And though I couldn’t reconcile it with my view of what spirituality was supposed to look like, I continued the relationship.

Now please don’t get me wrong. I obviously whole-heartedly believe in regular worshiping activities. I do believe we need to do everything to prioritize them because the Lord asked us to. But I also know now that all of these daily tasks don’t always completely equate with goodness and spirituality, and I know there are far more measures of spirituality to take into consideration. I also know that just because these tasks come easily to my personality, they aren’t easy for everyone. I have also learned that the Lord needed different personalities with different strengths and weaknesses in order to build His kingdom to the fullest extent.

And that is precisely what I mean by blindness of mind. For so long, I would read those verses and picture somber people who fit into this very specific archetype, and this extremely narrow view (this blindness of mind, if you will) limited me.

There are people who were foreordained to be temple presidents and general authorities, but the Lord didn’t just want temple presidents and general authorities. Can you imagine how limited our world would be if we only had temple presidents and general authorities? We need so much more. God is an extremely multidimensional Being, and all of us reflect something of Him.

I used to think I needed to try to tame the chaos that is my husband, but I have since learned that his chaos and all of the unique things about Conner were given specifically to Conner so Conner could fulfill his specific mission in life. There are things that Conner can accomplish that I will never be able to do, and I have a testimony that he can do those things because he is built differently than a temple president.

When it comes to foreordination, sometimes blindness of mind means that we have this idea in our heads of what foreordination is supposed to look like and only some people qualify for it. Only some people fit into the mold, and all of a sudden, we’re leaving out remarkable people who had specific jobs too. Yes, men were foreordained to be high priests, but there were so many more callings to give out.

It’s easy to see how my work (my blog, Youtube channel, and podcast) require revelation from the Lord. It requires me to regularly seek Him out, but I have learned that Conner is just as inspired and attuned to revelation in his work. I have watched him sink into these trance-like states as he ponders specific engineering problems, and I have watched him come out on the other end after he has been inspired with solutions. I am convinced that he receives revelation as regularly as I do; it just looks different than what I receive.

We need to broaden our perspective on what foreordination can look like. You were foreordained to build the kingdom, but there are a million ways to build that kingdom. What principles did the Lord use to create the world? Physics, engineering, biology. These are spiritual principles to Him. Your calling to build the kingdom may very well look like something that is traditionally viewed as secular. But we have to expand that view. We have to cast away that blindness and realize that the Lord wants to utilize each individual in beautiful, specific ways.

There are so many kinds of work, and just about every single one of them can be turned into spiritual work if we’re simply willing to include the Lord. And when we broaden our view of foreordination and realize that our “secular” work can include the Lord, He vastly expands our capacities and influence for good.

Believing that our work is lesser because it isn’t “spiritual” keeps us from stepping into that foreordination we were given and doing all the good we’re capable of doing.

A hard heart

And this is where the “hard heart” principle comes in. Are our hearts soft enough to believe that He can work with us? Have we softened towards Him enough to believe that He loves us, made us as we are, and gave us specific gifts to fulfill specific roles that look different than the roles of others? Can we allow ourselves to believe that He can utilize us to influence the world in powerful ways?

Can we trust Him to take us where we can make a difference? Can we trust Him to help us understand what “powerful influence” means? When we think of changing the world, we often think of people with microphones and stadiums, but Jesus Christ worked with individuals, small groups, and His voice could only carry as loud as He could speak.

Let go of your own predilections for what you’re supposed to look like and what it looks like to influence the world for good. Soften your heart, and let the Lord mold you and give you specific experiences so He can utilize you in all of the best ways, the ways that may not make sense to the world but make perfect sense in the context of everything He knows.

I testify that no one is special. That would imply that the Lord holds favorites, but the Lord is absolutely willing to work with anyone who wants to be worked with. We are unique, and there are unique callings but there are no secret, special ingredients you have to innately possess in order to qualify as “foreordained.” The only thing holding someone back from their “great privilege” is their own unwillingness to see themselves as the Lord sees them or a hardness of heart that disables them from connecting with the Lord to become all they were meant to become. If you’re worried that you weren’t good enough in the pre-existence, it’s never to start turning to the Lord and allowing Him to work with you.

The Lord is willing and capable to turn you into so much more than you have in mind for yourself.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.

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