Facing One of Life's Greatest Spiritual Threats, Prosperity - Part 1

Can you spot me and my husband? Nairobi, Kenya, 2000

Prosperity, Although a Blessing, Can be a Slow Poison to Our Spirits (if left unchecked)
I know that most of us will scoff at the title of this post and feel like it may not apply to us since times are hard and people are losing incomes and homes. Or maybe we think we would have been the first to raise our hands to choose prosperity when they were handing out trials before we came to earth (Which I'm not saying that trials were handed out, honestly I have no idea how that works) But prosperity although it seems like a quaint and nice trial can be a slow poison to our spirits and that of our children.



I think we have all experienced a trial that yanked us from our current lives, tossed us on our backs and left us crawling and trying to pick up the pieces after the trial. I don't know about anyone else but as I have faced some of these experiences I found myself falling out of my bed in the morning to my knees asking for help to make it through the day. I find that as times like this come I dive into the scriptures and my spiritual eyes are opened. Although my heart is broken I am being shaped into something greater.

On the flip side when I am well off physically and life is good I tend to go into a type of spiritual stasis. And if I don't consciously make an effort in doing the small and simple things of the gospel then I stop growing and stop prospering spiritually.

A lesson on the Worlds Wealth
When I was teaching 7th grade we had a day on world health. I tried to be the kind of teacher that I would have loved. All my lessons were very interactive and I thrived on the idea that my kids would come to class each day sitting on the edge of their chairs wondering what I would do next.

That day of class as they entered the classroom I gave them each a colored dot. As we started class I asked them to close their eyes. These kids were from good homes in Logan, Utah. I told them they were being reborn. I explained that they had been lucky the first time and had been born in the US but they faced the chance of birth once again. I had 25 students and I used that number to imagine how the world would be if there was only 25 people and what the ratio of wealth would be. I had coordinated the dots with different countries in order to demonstrate the great gulf of disparity between the rich and poor of the world.

It was Easter time and I had brought some chocolate eggs to represent the worlds wealth. A couple of dots that were given to the students represented the US and these students got several chocolate eggs each. The students with dots representing other countries were given one chocolate egg and were expected to share this 1 egg among 7-12 of students. Seventh graders love treats and you can imagine how they all wanted the eggs.

In one class when I handed an egg to the group for them to split it I said "Here is your egg, split it among you" One of the students grabbed it quickly and said "And it is all mine!" and popped it in his mouth. The rest of the students and I with my hand still stretched out, stood there stunned. At that moment I had images of Africa flash through my mind. My husband and I lived there after we got married. I was doing HIV/AIDS research as it applied to Maternal Medicine. I remembered driving through various shanty towns were people had nothing but jagged, rusty tin roofs over their heads and they lived together without safety and without basic shelter and then a few miles down the road would be enormous white homes with large estates and iron fences. The divide between the rich and poor there was so great. After this boy popped that egg into his mouth I shared with the class about how in Africa there are few very, very rich but the majority are poor.

Let's Kill all the Rich and Give to the Poor!
At the end of the lesson and after I showed them some of the videos that I had of my time in Kenya we sat and talked about how so many go without clean water, proper sanitation and life saving, yet simple drugs. I asked them what we were going to do about it. One boy blurted out "Let's kill all the rich and give it to the poor." The class burst with laughter. I am not often inspired but at that moment I was. I waited for the laughter to die down and when it was quiet again I said. "You are the rich." The silence was deafening. I saw for just a moment the recognition on their faces. We are the rich. We may not have the nice car that our neighbor has, we may not have a fancy home or the latest fashions but we still are very much "the rich of the world".

My eyes were opened living in Africa. To see people without shoes, sleeping in garbage, dying of boils on their bodies that are too gruesome and heart wrenching to describe I learned of my own wealth. Am I still a spoiled, "rich" girl? Absolutely. Do I still slip back into my ethnocentric way of thinking? Although I try not too, I do. But sometimes I still have dreams of wandering the red dirt roads in Nairobi trying to help and trying to save street kids or the blind old woman who asked me to help, and I didn't because we were told we weren't supposed to give handouts. I still regret that.

Among those people I saw gentle souls who were in such desolation themselves but they still gave to their brothers and sisters around them in ways that would take a novel to explain. I saw such amazing acts of service and kindness that would humble even the most selfish of souls. We are the "rich" but these are the kings and queens of the world.

Aaron (The Oldest Son of Mosiah)
As we don't have to worry about shelter and death daily we can count ourselves as blessed and prosperous so how do we keep ourselves in check? How do we not fall into a type of spiritual stasis when we are rich spiritually, physically and rich with the gospel?

2 Nephi 31:19-20 gives some insight one what we can do "Press forward with steadfastness in Christ." It says "press" not float, not step forward, not even glide forward. But "press" when we press we push against something. Making spiritual goals which are slightly out of our comfort zone and we strive to achieve them. Nothing too grand or outrageous. The small and simple things of the gospel can save us even from the great threat of prosperity. Daily scripture study, prayer, the temple, tithing, church attendance. All the things that make the path to eternal life strait and narrow.

When searching in the scriptures for someone who lived in a prosperous circumstance but over came this trial I found Aaron one of the sons of Mosiah. Here is a great man. I hate to admit it but I used to look down on him a little in the Book of Mormon because he chastised Ammon when Ammon was rejoicing about their missionary success. And Aaron told Ammon not to boast. When I used to judge him I didn't realize that not boasting was probably a day to day temptation that Aaron himself had to keep in check. He has turned out to be one of the greatest examples of someone in prosperity, the eldest son of a king, next in line for the throne, who turned it all down in order to reach higher.

He was similar to the Young Rich Man in the New Testament that Christ invited to sell all his belongings and give to the poor and follow him. But unlike this young rich man in Christ's era who couldn't do it and went away sorrowing Aaron actually did it. He did give away all of his riches, even the title of the kingdom in order to follow the Savior. In fact, he traded his throne for a prison where he was left naked and without food while trying to be a missionary. It says that Ammon cried upon seeing Aaron and the others when Ammon finally came to their aid to get them released.

So in thinking about this topic I hope I can be similar to Aaron. Giving what is required of my time and focus in order to reach a little higher and do a little better. To not fall into the spiritual stasis that I am so often guilty of. To "press" forward even when prosperity would beckon me to relax and enjoy my wealth. When we serve and do the simple things of the gospel day to day we can overcome this great trial that so many before us have unfortunately failed.

This post is already too long but I can't wait to dive into this topic more!