At Ease

In the last general conference Elder Anderson quoted Neal A. Maxwell as saying, “If everything is going perfectly for you right now, just wait” (Thy Kingdom Come, April 2015).  In addition to providing opportunities for growth through trials, in scriptural terms the Lord doesn’t want things to go “perfectly” for us because he doesn’t want us to become “at ease.”  Amos said simply, “Wo unto them that are at ease in Zion,” and Nephi was likely quoting from Amos when he also said, “Wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!” (Amos 6:1, 2 Nephi 28:24)  So what is wrong with being “at ease”? 

After abridging the record of a time in Nephite history when the people quickly went from righteousness to wickedness because the Lord prospered them, Mormon wrote how the people did “forget the Lord their God… because of their ease.”  He then concluded from this that “except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him” (Helaman 12:2-3).  Brigham Young expressed I think the same idea about his concern for the Saints when he said, “The worst fear that I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and His people, wax fat and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell” (Liahona, This is the Place, July 1977).  So how do we keep ourselves from feeling at ease in our spirituality when things seem to be going well for us?  I think it is only human nature to seek God more earnestly when we have problems and we feel a pressing need for His help.  How do we maintain a sense of urgency to commune with God during times when we aren’t struggling with serious challenges?  Perhaps at least part of the key is that we must find ways to serve our fellow man.  This seems to be implied by the parable of the rich man given by the Savior.  Things were going so well for this man that his biggest problem was what to do with all of his harvest.  He said to himself, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:19).  Instead of serving others with what he had, he laid up “treasure for himself” and lost it all because he died.  His condemnation from the God was not for being rich but for “not being rich toward God” (Luke 12:19).  In other words, he had not served God or his fellow man and was at ease in his life.  We don’t have to have great trials to keep us close to God.  Actively searching for ways to serve others in the midst of our own prosperity will help us keep our treasure in heaven and not on earth.  Difficult challenges will surely come as Elder Maxwell promised, but perhaps if we seek more earnestly to help solve the problems of others when our life is going well, we can prevent ourselves from following the path that Brigham feared and so many Nephites traveled on.