All In

Elder Holland began his most recent talk in general conference by relating the story of the rich young ruler who asked the Savior what he was lacking to inherit eternal life. “After reviewing a long list of commandments this fellow had faithfully kept, Jesus told the man to sell all his belongings, give the proceeds to the poor, take up his cross, and follow Him. The boldness of this directive caused the young ruler—in spite of his expensive sandals—to get cold feet, and he went away sorrowing because, the scripture says, ‘he had great possessions.’” Elder Holland continued by suggesting that the meaning of this story for us is more than a lesson on sharing our wealth with the poor; rather, “With or without riches, each of us is to come to Christ with the same uncompromised commitment to His gospel that was expected of this young man. In the vernacular of today’s youth, we are to declare ourselves ‘all in.’” He further taught, “All who speak in this general conference will all be saying, one way or another, what Christ said to this rich young man: ‘Come unto your Savior. Come completely and wholeheartedly. Take up your cross, however heavy it may be, and follow Him.’ They will say this knowing that in the kingdom of God, there can be no halfway measures, no starting and stopping, no turning back…. When difficult things are asked of us, even things contrary to the longings of our heart, remember that the loyalty we pledge to the cause of Christ is to be the supreme devotion of our lives.” When Christ was born a Babe in Bethlehem over two millennia ago, He showed us indeed that He was “all in” as He took upon Him mortality to bring us salvation. Even though He was of preeminent status in the premortal realm, He chose to become fully mortal, obtaining a physical body and enduring all of the suffering known to mankind in order to guide, teach, bless, and ultimately save us. And so He asks each of us to similarly give fully of ourselves to follow Him. Doing His will should be our preeminent priority.

                Many scriptures highlight the need for us to be “all in” in the gospel. Jesus put it this way to the lawyer who asked about the great commandment in the law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37). In the Book of Mormon, Nephi left this invitation to fully give ourselves to Christ: “And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out” (2 Nephi 25:29).  Elder Holland referred to these words of Amaleki: “And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved” (Omni 1:26). King Benjamin suggested that we should “serve him with all [our] whole souls,” even though we would still be then unprofitable servants (Mosiah 2:21). Alma the Younger learned this upon his repentance: “All mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; And thus they become new creatures” (Mosiah 27:25-26). And Moroni gave us this powerful invitation at the close of the book: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” (Moroni 10:32). These passages invite us to give our whole souls to the Lord, to serve Him with all that we have, to change our very natures to be like Him, to love God with all our might.

                In our dispensation the Lord gave this invitation to John Whitmer: “And your whole labor shall be in Zion, with all your soul, from henceforth; yea, you shall ever open your mouth in my cause, not fearing what man can do, for I am with you” (Doctrine and Covenants 30:11). That is I believe His request of each of us: we should labor for Zion—the building up of His kingdom—with all our soul. We should not fear man but worry above all else about what He wants us to do. Of course, as Elder Holland pointed out, we will fall short of this ideal, but each day we can repent of our worldliness and failings and strive harder to focus on being “all in” as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Then, as we seek to do that, He promises to be with us to the end and “seal [our hearts] for [His] courts above.”