You Never Know

From what we see in the text, Abinadi died without knowing that he had any success in terms of others accepting his words.  He likely was burned thinking that his message had changed nobody and that there was no hope for the people of King Noah.  It’s instructive, then, to think just how much of an impact he had on future generations.  Because of his teachings, Alma’s heart was pricked and he subsequently brought hundreds unto the Lord.  This led to the establishment of the Church and the teaching of the gospel to many others, including Alma’s son Alma who became one of the greatest missionaries of all of the Book of Mormon.  That family line included Alma the Elder, Alma the Younger, Helaman (who led the stripling warriors), Shiblon, Corianton, Helaman II, Nephi who led the Church at the time of the Savior’s birth, and Nephi the son of Nephi who became one of the 12 disciples of the Savior.  What an impact for good that family had upon the Nephites!  About 475 years after Abinadi’s death, we see that his words were still known and applied in the lives of the remaining Nephites.  Mormon wrote: “And it came to pass that there were sorceries, and witchcrafts, and magics; and the power of the evil one was wrought upon all the face of the land, even unto the fulfilling of all the words of Abinadi, and also Samuel the Lamanite” (Mormon 1:19).  Abinadi’s teachings were still having their impact that many years later.  And of course, that’s not the end of the powerful effect of Abinadi’s labors.  His words and actions and martyrdom became immortalized when they became a part of the Book of Mormon thousands of years later, and here I am pondering the immense impact of this man who died thinking that no one had listened to him. 

                So one of the lessons from the story of Abinadi is that we may not always see the full effect of our service in the kingdom of God.  President Hinckley captured this idea in a talk in 2003.  He told this story: “I remember going to a stake conference in the East many years ago. On the plane coming home, I felt that I had been a total failure.  I felt I had not touched anyone for good. I was miserable with a sense of inadequacy.”  He continued by recounting how a few years later a man came up to him at another conference and told him how he had attended that first conference.  He told President Hinckley that his words had inspired him so much that he completely changed his life around and because of it was “happier than [he had] ever been at any time.”  President Hinckley then commented: “I said to myself, shaking my head: ‘You never know. You never know whether you do any good. You never know how much good you do.’”  I remember a story with a similar message told by Michel Paya—a former area authority seventy—when I was serving as a missionary.  I don’t remember all of the details, but the gist of the story was that a woman with young boys as children observed a couple of Elder missionaries from a distance.  They were simply doing what missionaries do, but she was deeply impressed as she watched them simply because of the way they were acting.  She didn’t know who they were, but she thought to herself, “I want my sons to be like that when they grow up.”  Later when two other missionaries knocked on her door, she remembered the first pair she had seen and ultimately joined the Church.  Her sons eventually served missions, and the impact of those unknown missionaries proved to be enormous—and yet they never even talked to the woman; they had simply acted like missionaries should act and let the light of Christ shine through them.  Indeed, we never know the good we might do—or that the Lord might do through us when we serve to the best of our ability.