Scattering the Seed

In the book The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, one of the characters named Ippolit told a story to a friend named Bahmutov of a general who “spent his whole life visiting prisons and prisoners.” Ippolit recounted the impact this had on hardened criminals who remembered this kind general even twenty years later. Ippolit then contemplated the effect of good actions in general. He said, “How can you tell, Bahmutov, what significance such an association of one personality with another may have on the destiny of the associated? … You know it’s a matter of a whole lifetime, an infinite multitude of ramifications hidden from us. The most skillful chess-player, the cleverest of them, can only look a few moves ahead; a French player who could count out ten moves ahead was written about as a marvel. How many moves there are in this, and how much that is unknown to us! In scattering the seed, scattering your ‘charity,’ your kind deeds, you are giving away, in one form or another, part of your personality, and taking into yourself part of another; you are in mutual communion with another.… All your thoughts, all the seeds scattered by you, perhaps forgotten by you, will grow up and take form. He who has received them from you will hand them on to another. And how can you tell what part you may have in the future determination of the destinies of humanity? If this knowledge and a whole lifetime of this work should make you at last able to sow some mighty seed, to bequeath the world some mighty thought, then…” (part 3, chapter 6, pg 371). I really like this thought—we can never know the ramifications of the good deeds that we might do. All we can do is scatter them like seeds, and then when we have forgotten them, they may indeed “grow up and take form.” As a missionary I sometimes wondered what effect my efforts every day to share the gospel with others would have, and I knew that for the most part I probably would not find out. I remember in particular one evening walking through the quiet streets of the city, probably headed home in the dark, and we stopped to talk to someone. I shared my testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave it to the person who accepted to take it. As they walked away, I wondered what effect that it would have on them, convinced that I would never see them again. And, of course, I don’t know and likely never will in this life, but I can hope that at least some seeds I scattered as I served the Lord did “grow up” and make a difference.

                The scripture story that comes to mind in thinking about this passage from Dostoyevsky’s novel is that of Abinadi and Alma. Abinadi spent him time among King Noah’s people trying to “scatter seeds” of righteousness as he bore testimony of the Savior and the need for the people to repent. After he had finished talking to Noah and his priests, Mormon recorded, “But there was one among them whose name was Alma, he also being a descendant of Nephi. And he was a young man, and he believed the words which Abinadi had spoken, for he knew concerning the iniquity which Abinadi had testified against them; therefore he began to plead with the king that he would not be angry with Abinadi, but suffer that he might depart in peace. But the king was more wroth, and caused that Alma should be cast out from among them, and sent his servants after him that they might slay him.” The way I read the story, I think that this scene happened in front of Abinadi, because the account says right after this, “And it came to pass that the king caused that his guards should surround Abinadi and take him; and they bound him and cast him into prison” (Mosiah 17:2-5). So Abinadi had some indication that his words and sacrifice had an effect on a single person, but that’s all that he saw before he was burned and he gave his life. But oh what impact his life had! Alma went on the preach Abinadi’s words to the people, eventually baptizing them and leading hundreds to repentance. He eventually became the leader of the entire church back in Zarahemla and himself surely brought many more people to the Savior. The seed that Abinadi planted must have appeared to him to have had very little impact on the world as his life was ending, but it turned out to be a major force for good in the whole story of the Book of Mormon. And so, we too never know what impact our words or deeds may have on others and on the world. Like the chess player, we really can’t see that many moves ahead, but we should trust that as we sow righteousness, blessings in the long run will be reaped. As the Savior taught, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom” (Luke 6:38).