Trusting My Belief

C.S Lewis said this:  ”You never know how much you really believe anything,” he confesses,  until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to [tie] a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? . . . Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. [Lewis, p. 25]

I read this quote and thought it was interesting, very thought provoking. I tried to imagine each of my beliefs in a way that it was a matter of life and death, and answer honestly in my heart if they were strong enough. I am not sure that I can really be successful with that, that I can put myself in an “as if” state of mind. One decision those thoughts left me with is that time spent strengthening my beliefs is not time wasted so that when the time comes, it will be strong enough. I think life is pretty much alternating between a time of strengthening and a time of testing.

The Book of Mormon has so many examples of people who were tested and it was a matter of life and death. Their example strengthens me. There are also examples when it didn’t feel like life or death at first, but by the end of the road it was life or death, even eternal life or death. I can see that even though I am not in a life or death situation, I need to live what I do believe “as if” because eventually it becomes life or death. Living what I believe will strengthen my beliefs.

Another thing I have been noticing as I read is the stark difference between obedience out of fear and obedience out of love. Where am I on that scale? Do I obey because I fear the consequences or out of pure love? The answer is probably both—I think that I obey different principles for different reasons. And hopefully always moving toward the best side of the scale.