The Great Giveaway

By Larry Doyle Crenshaw

MeditationsInLight.blogspot.com

As we approach this season of giving and thanksgiving, we pause to reflect on blessings and gifts both received and bestowed.  This season has the tendency to both measure our gratitude and to take the measure of our willingness to part with our substance.  It challenges us to take inventory of our commitments to God and our fellow men. 

In this week’s meditation we reflect that it is often easier to part with our worldly goods, than to give up, give away, or abandon unworthy parts of our character.  We recall the story of a king who hears a missionary’s gospel message of eternal life and salvation through Christ.  The king then says that he will give away all he has, even his kingdom to know God.  The missionary then speaks to him of the need to worship God, have faith, and to abandon a life of sin. 

Then, in a poignant and sincere prayer to Heavenly Father, the king says, “I will give away all my sins to know thee.”    In doing so, the king accurately sets the mark necessary to know Heavenly Father.  He also sets the example for how we can better come to know God.  To know Our Father in Heaven we must engage in the great giveaway of those parts of our mortal mask which are not consistent with the image of His son, Jesus Christ.  In other words, we must be about a process of constant change and refinement known as repentance.  As we enter the Thanksgiving and Christmas season may we consider giving away other things than those of tangible substance and worldly value?

This week’s meditative verse asks:

Am I ready to give away all my sins

And know Thee and Thy atonement

This place where my eternal life begins

Where God and I attain our at-one-ment

The Great Giveaway

And it came to pass that after Aaron had expounded these things unto him, the king said: What shall I do that I may have this eternal life of which thou hast spoken? Yea, what shall I do that I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day? Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy….But Aaron said unto him: If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest.  And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord, upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying:  O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead.

Book of Mormon  Alma 22:15, 16-18

“Who has the price to purchase my sin

Is there no one with treasure to pay

I’ll abandoned them now, or my life will end

O God, if there is a God, take my sin away”

Such are the pleadings of rulers and kings

Who would give away treasures, kingdoms and all

For the joy of redemption the atonement brings

Through repentance and heeding the Savior’s call

One day our sins will be weighed in the balance

And then our prayers will be loud and fervent

As we plead our case and our cause advance

Whether we be a sovereign, a peasant or servant

Am I ready to give away all my sins

And know Thee and Thy atonement

This place where my eternal life begins

Where God and I attain our at-one-ment

Larry Doyle Crenshaw