Unlimited Chances
General Conference earlier this month was amazing: a solemn assembly, new apostles, the demise of home/visiting teaching, ministering, and new temples in exotic places.
In addition, I had written some questions/challenges around which I wanted direction. And I got that direction, from several different addresses.
But the one talk that most closely addressed my perfectionistic side was by Elder Lynn G. Robbins, “Until Seventy Times Seven.” Here are some of my favorite parts:
Mistakes are a fact of life. Learning to skillfully play the piano is essentially impossible without making thousands of mistakes—maybe even a million. To learn a foreign language, one must face the embarrassment of making thousands of mistakes—maybe even a million. Even the world’s greatest athletes never stop making mistakes.
“Success,” it has been said, “isn’t the absence of failure, but going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.”
While we are grateful for second chances following mistakes, or failures of the mind, we stand all amazed at the Savior’s grace in giving us second chances in overcoming sin, or failures of the heart.
No one is more on our side than the Savior. He allows us to take and keep retaking His exams. To become like Him will require countless second chances in our day-to-day struggles with the natural man, such as controlling appetites, learning patience and forgiveness, overcoming slothfulness, and avoiding sins of omission, just to name a few. If to err is human nature, how many failures will it take us until our nature is no longer human but divine? Thousands? More likely a million.
Knowing that the strait and narrow path would be strewn with trials and that failures would be a daily occurrence for us, the Savior paid an infinite price to give us as many chances as it would take to successfully pass our mortal probation.
But just how many times will He forgive us? How long is His long-suffering? On one occasion Peter asked the Savior, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”
Presumably, Peter thought seven was a sufficiently high number to emphasize the folly of forgiving too many times and that benevolence should have its limits. In response, the Savior essentially told Peter to not even count—to not establish limits on forgiveness.
“Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”
Obviously, the Savior was not establishing an upper limit of 490. That would be analogous to saying that partaking of the sacrament has a limit of 490, and then on the 491st time, a heavenly auditor intercedes and says, “I’m so sorry, but your repentance card just expired—from this point forward, you’re on your own.”
The Lord used the math of seventy times seven as a metaphor of His infinite Atonement, His boundless love, and His limitless grace. “Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.”
I find this extremely hopeful. As someone who tends to think “I’ll never get it right,” this helps me understand that as many times as I miss the mark, I’ll still get another chance, and another, and another . . . The Lord’s love truly is unlimited!
To be continued . . . with Part 38
