AGE AND BONDAGE

My beautiful wife and I have several friends who are in the noble years of adulthood, waiting for the time when they will pass on to a more peaceful existence.  We have loved these people for years and are saddened by the physical and mental struggles they must endure as their bodies and minds become more and more frail.  It is difficult to watch these wonderful souls fight and put up with all the challenges age offers up to them.

The question came up between us concerning WHY do we have to stay in mortality when our body begins to abandon us and bring us such misery.  When a person’s mental or physical capacities are so decimated that they don’t even know who they are or what they are doing, why can’t they just die and be on to the next part of their progression in the Plan of Salvation. 

Here are three reasons why I believe our Heavenly Father allows such things to happen.  You will notice some overlap between them.  If you have other reasons, please feel free to share.

1.   Mortal life in a defective body (whether from age or some other process) is still mortal life.  We shouted for joy (Job 38:4-7) when the opportunity to come to Earth was offered to us and we accepted all the challenges that mortality would present.  But if Heavenly Father set limits to how much each individual would/could suffer in this mortal sphere then the law of Agency would be violated by the very Being who created that law.  God knows that this life is temporary and the experiences we have here are to prepare us for a much more glorious life to come.  Our pains and weaknesses as mortal beings will help us to have compassion for those who follow us in the same experiences. 

2.  We have a good friend who is in a care-center because she has become too incapacitated to take care of herself.  She never married and has no family (at least none that are here) so her days are spent alone in a strange place.  Her life has had its various ups and downs but through it all she was a generous and loving friend and neighbor.  I believe that part of the reason she still hangs on is because God wants us to learn some of the skills she has shown in her life by helping her in her challenges.  We become more Christ-like as we give freely of ourselves to those in need.

3.  Lastly, the scriptures teach us something about our own desires to remain in mortality.  In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord said:

For as ye have looked upon the long absence of your spirits from your bodies to be a bondage… (D&C 45:17)

Notice what the Lord explains about the body.  Spirits without bodies are in a form of bondage because they are not complete.  Here’s another place where Joseph was taught the same doctrine:

For man is spirit.  The elements are eternal, and spirit and element inseparably connected, receive a fullness of joy; and when separated man cannot receive a fullness of joy.  (D&C 93:33-34)

And finally, President Joseph F. Smith, the nephew of Joseph Smith had a great vision of the Spirit World and was taught this, speaking of those who had died and were awaiting redemption:

For the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage. (D&C 138:50)

Our souls are complete when they have a physical body connected with an eternal spirit and we don’t want to lose that experience.  Fortunately, there will come a day when we will be reunited permanently with our bodies (the resurrection) but even with that knowledge, our desire is to not be separated and we will struggle mightily to remain alive.

It’s easy for me to ponder why aged people continue to pass through this life, even with the hardships they endure – I am not old enough to worry about such things. J  But I have great faith in God and His Plan for all of us.  He does not do anything haphazardly so I trust His timing and His wisdom.  My hope is that I will have the good sense to learn all I can from the experiences I have in this second estate.  May we all follow Jesus and His Father in all we do.