Tender Mercies are Over those whom He hath Chosen

Did I Choose “wrong” or Right?

I just finished 1 Nephi 1:20 and thought about the contrast of, “they were angry with him” and “they also sought his life”. This isn’t the only example of this, as Alma was kicked out and the people he taught “reviled him, and spit upon him, and caused that he should be cast out of their city” (Alma 8:13-14).

In decision theory, there’s the concept of Outcome Bias (or Resulting Bias), which “is the tendency to evaluate a decision based on how it turned out rather than on the quality of the decision process, given the limited information available at the time.” There’s a powerful quote here:

When a bet pays off, we call it smart. When it fails, we call it foolish, even if the reasoning and evidence were identical. The fact is, many outcomes are driven by luck, noise, and hidden variables. (source)

In the Place Which the Lord Shall Choose

Deuteronomy was focused on a lot of laws, but in searching the word “choose” in the scriptures, I came across this phrase, “in the place which the Lord shall choose” (Deuteronomy 16:2,7,11,15).

By contrast, the Doctrine and Covenants has a lot of unique usages of “it mattereth not” in places where it seems pretty important:

Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss. Doctrine and Covenants 80:3

And

And it mattereth not unto me, after a little, if it so be that they fill their mission, whether they go by water or by land; let this be as it is made known unto them according to their judgments hereafter. Doctrine and Covenants 61:22

I would think that where you go to preach the gospel is quite important. “Am I in the right place?”. These two scriptures could over-generalize a point - there are many, many examples where the Lord gives specific instructions to folks. (But then there’s like this ¹.)

But when you think more closely, you learn to see that the Lord is more interested in building us, his people, than necessarily what results we get. He sent his apostles to be slain and stoned. It wasn’t about converting the world. It was about building converts one by one.

The One Result

I think the best framing to have is Ether 15:24,

“Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved in the kingdom of God. Amen”.

What if we could have that influence in our lives always? If we truly thought, “it mattereth not [what we go through] so long as the Lord allows me to cross the finish line”.

That is the one result that matters.

Mattereth Not

So did you make the right choice? Did you do it right?

If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; (Ether 12:27)

It doesn’t matter what the result is. Be faithful. Follow God.

Choose God

The refrain constantly in the Book of Mormon is this:

And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, (2 Nephi 2:27)

be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, (2 Nephi 2:28)

Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life. ([2 Nephi 10: 23](ref/scriptures/2-ne-10. 23.md))

In the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling (Alma 13:3)

He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; (Helaman 14:31)

And ultimately:

For thus saith the scripture: Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve. Alma 30:8

So choose good. Choose to preach the Gospel. Choose to follow God.

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. Mosiah 4:9

And if we do this, if we choose Him, the results will follow. Not outside. That’s not a given. Noah preached to no avail. Abraham tried saving a city only to leave with Lot (and not the pillar of salt). We can’t even change those closest to us. But we can control and choose for ourselves the way and the Life.

May we all choose God. May we choose to receive His life and light. May we choose to do His will, no matter how difficult, and no matter the cost. And the cost 99.999% of the time will be in the small and simple things (not in choosing to go into a city of people who want to stone us). The cost will be the sacrifice of our will vs. a Holy choice.

Conclusion

I’ve taken away a lot from this. I’ve been thinking a lot about my own agency lately, and what it means. Maybe I’m stuck in “should I buy a boat or make one?” when the Lord would rather I just get to the place I’m intended to be.

And that place is the place of being in the good standing of the Holy Ghost, where the tender mercies of the Lord are over me.

“But, verily, I will speak unto you concerning your journey unto the land from whence you came. Let there be a craft made, or bought, as seemeth you good, it mattereth not unto me, and take your journey speedily for the place which is called St. Louis. Doctrine and Covenants 60:5” Just like a totally wild, “Go build a boat (craft), or buy one, whatever you want”. Just get there as quickly as possible. I just love the open-endedness - the details don’t matter. Let’s get to the point. There’s a similar phrase in Doctrine and Covenants 62:5. ↩