“Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.” (2 Nephi 2:27). It is an inescapable fact of life that we must all experience a minimum amount of pain and sorrow and sickness and loss and heartbreak and grief. We are welcome to raise that minimum through our own foolish actions, but there’s no secret loophole that will exempt us forever from the bitter side of life. There will always be unforeseen calamities and catastrophes that are completely out of our control. But setting those aside, we do nevertheless have the freedom and the power to choose when we must swallow our next cup of bitterness. The Law of Sacrifice was given to us to help us preserve this freedom and this power. If we are prompted by the Holy Ghost to give away our favorite toy to one who is less fortunate than we are, we have the freedom and the power to swallow that bitter loss of our favorite toy now, but to have that bitterness mingled with the joyful sweetness that comes from knowing that our beloved toy is brightening up someone else’s life. Or, we can reject the prompting and cling to our favorite toy and try to suck every last moment of joy out of it, only for our toy to be lost or stolen or left behind as our house burns down. Now we no longer have the freedom or the power to willingly take upon ourselves the bitterness of giving up our favorite toy, but must suffer from having lost the toy nonetheless, and without the added bonus of knowing that the toy is still out there in the world bringing joy to someone else. Putting off the promptings of the spirit means we are relinquishing our freedom and our right to choose the time and the manner of our sacrifice, and must instead be compelled to be humble once the world has taken from us that which we loved against our will, and almost always in a more painful and damaging way than might have been the case had we of our own free will and choice offered it up as a sacrifice in the first place. Voluntarily sacrificing makes us stronger and firmer in our faith and enhances our freedom and our power. Trying to forestall necessary and undeniable pain through avoidance, denial, or hedonistic pursuits will only weaken and fracture us and leave us captive to our own distorted reality and twice as exposed to the pain that we had fought so hard and so futilely in the first place. Making the choice to enter the prison and wear the chains deprives the prison of its captivity. We are not powerless nor captive because we have chosen to be there. And on the other hand, cowering from reality can transform our palace into a prison more completely than if we had been thrust behind bars and manacled to the wall. If we will exercise our freedom to choose our fate and we offer up our sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit on the Lord’s terms, then we will not surrender our liberty so that the choice will no longer be available later when we are compelled to misery and humiliation.
