You don't have to be Nephi.

Don't get me wrong. I like Nephi. I really do. He exhibits tremendous faith and unparalleled perseverance in the most dire circumstances. The thing is, I keep waiting for him to be human, to make a mistake, to doubt his faith, to do anything that isn't absolutely perfect. 

As a result, I find myself relating far better to Laman and Lemuel than I do Nephi. I can connect with them; they seem real. Cuz I make mistakes all the time. I doubt my faith. I lack the emotional strength to make hard decisions. I doubt some more. I am quick to take offense and slow to forgive. I am self-absorbed and insensitive to others' needs. I am judgmental. I gossip. The list goes on. Does Nephi share any of these struggles? We don't know.

Now to cut Nephi some slack, keep in mind that he is the one writing the story. I suppose if we were writing our own stories, we'd present ourselves in the most positive light. It makes sense. And if his purpose is to bear testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ and God's eternal plan for our happiness, he does a fabulous job! As I've prepped for "Come Follow Me" lessons in 1st and 2nd Nephi these past few weeks, I've been renewed with spiritual strength as I've pondered the love of the Savior and the lengths he'll go to in order to be exactly that. Nephi preaches Jesus eloquently, and I have feasted upon his words these last couple of months!

But fortunately, I don't have to be Nephi in order to receive Jesus' love or to be transformed by his grace as it pours freely over me and my life. And neither do you. You can be Thomas, the doubter. You can be Peter, the denier. You can be Paul, the persecutor. You can be Alma the Younger, the wicked doer. You can be the Woman at the Well, Laman and Lemuel, even David, the murderer and adulterer! Not that you should be, of course. Absolutely don't do those things! But the point is, God uses imperfect people to do great work, and Jesus loves us and saves us no matter what. Jesus doesn't love us because we're good; Jesus loves us because he is good. And he's already paid the price for our salvation. He reaches out with arms wide open and says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

I fear sometimes we forget this. Or we're misguided by an incomplete or inaccurate reading of specific scripture referencers taken out of context. For example, the second part of 2 Nephi 25:23: "...for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." This could lead us to feel like we have to work hard to earn our salvation, or (worse!) that Jesus will only help us after we've expended every last fraction of our time, effort, and energy trying to solve our problems ourselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. I mean seriously, what did Paul ever do before Jesus jumped in to rescue him on the Road to Damascus? Or the woman caught in adultery? Or the thief on the cross? Or countless others? Jesus wants to enter our stories in the middle of the messiness, in the utter chaos that is our lives, in the midst of doubt, fear, bad choices, and confusion. I think that's where He does His best work! 

So what about that scripture in Nephi? Some tell me that the word "after" actually means "in spite of." "...for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, [in spite of] all we can do." I like that a little better. The phrase "in spite of" suggests that we can never do enough, and that is certainly true. Humans could spend 100+ years striving to do all they can, failing miserably, and forever stressing over whether they've done enough, while the answer is right in front of them: knowing the "source to which they may look for a remission of their sins" (2 Nephi 27:26). 

A second way to look at 2 Nephi: 25:23 (and my favorite!) is to consider it in the context of its surrounding narrative. I just stopped writing this post and counted the number of times Nephi counsels his audience (us!) about what they need to do in order to inherit the Kingdom. He exhorts his readers to "believe in Christ" or "believe on His name" 10 times, just in the handful of verses surrounding verse 23. It seems pretty clear that "all we can do" is believe in Christ. He is the eternal enabler and the only One capable of healing the broken, redeeming the lost, and empowering the willing.

And that kinda leads to a final thought regarding the well-known verse in James 2: "...faith without works is dead." Indeed, we cannot earn grace. God's grace is fully undeserved and, in fact, already ours! What we are called to do is to live in response to grace. I witness this all the time, don't you? It's manifested in the goodness of fallen, imperfect people, in our church, in other churches, and in no church at all. John 1:9 teaches that Jesus "was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." When a child comes running full speed to pet my dog and delights in the joy of animals, I see it. When a young man takes his great-grandma's arm and helps her into her home, I see it. When citizens attend their precinct caucus meetings and actively participate in the process to shape government, I see it. When a sleep-deprived mother gets up for the 14th time in the night to comfort her infant, I see it. All these and countless others are examples of imperfect people responding to the light within them.

So back to Nephi. Dude, I look forward to meeting you one day. I want you to tell me the stories of your life, including your struggles, your mistakes and what they taught you. I wanna know you're human. And I want to thank you with all my heart for writing the record of your experiences and your steadfast testimony of the God I know: the God who saves, the God who weeps, the God who rescues, the God who enters our stories wherever we are, the God who offers radical grace, and the God who loves with might greater than we can possibly comprehend.