Facing the Responsibilities

There’s an interesting story in Mosiah 26.  Alma was troubled because of the iniquity in the church and he didn’t know how to handle it.  So he did what all of us would do: tried to delegate the responsibility.  He went to King Mosiah and said, “Behold, here are many whom we have brought before thee, who are accused of their brethren; yea, and they have been taken in divers iniquities. And they do not repent of their iniquities; therefore we have brought them before thee, that thou mayest judge them according to their crimes.”  And King Mosiah responded just how we would: he told Alma that it was his responsibility.  “Behold, I judge them not; therefore I deliver them into thy hands to be judged” (Mosiah 26:11-12).  I think the lesson that the story is trying to teach us is that we have to face our responsibilities and fulfill them.  Some things we cannot delegate, and it takes faith to accept and perform the responsibilities that are ours.  

                The scriptures show us through various examples that the Lord expects us to confront and embrace the responsibilities that we are given.  When Jonah tried to run from his duty to preach the gospel to Ninevah, “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah” and sought to bring him back to the people he was supposed to preach to (Jonah 1:17).  When Laman and Lemuel were told they needed to go back to Jerusalem to get the plates, they complained, “It is a hard thing” which Lehi was commanding them (1 Nephi 3:5).  They struggled to accept the responsibility that the Lord had placed upon them.  In the parable of the talents the Savior showed the need for us to take responsibility for the tasks we’ve been given.  To the man who did nothing with the talent that was given him, the lord in the story said, “Thou wicked and slothful servant” and he was condemned for his inaction.  He had had a responsibility given to him and yet he had failed to fulfill it (Matt. 25:26).  To the five foolish virgins who had failed to prepare adequately.  Their responsibility was to have their lamps “trimmed and burning”, but some failed because they had not adequately internalized their actions.  The Savior Himself even struggled at first to accept the full weight of his responsibility before His Father.  As he felt the terrible price of the atonement, He said, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”  But of course he knew in whom He trusted, saying, “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” and He fulfilled His responsibility to the letter (Matthew 26:39). 

In our day the Savior said it this way: “Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence” (D&C 107:99).  That is the call of the Lord to us for whatever responsibilities, big or small, that we have in the gospel and in our lives in general.  Like Alma, we cannot delegate them to someone else—we must face and embrace them.