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Lessons I continue to learn from Ebeneezer Scrooge

I am a big fan of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Partly due to it’s overall message of redemption, It has become an important part of my Christmas over the years. Published 181 years ago (December 19 1843) it has been in the public domain for longer than I’ve been alive and as such has been reprinted innumerable times, and the subject of countless movies from classic to animated versions including a very famous one by the Muppets with Michael Caine, as well as millions of stage performances.

Many common terms in modern day English originated from the story and whether you’ve read the story or not, you probably know who Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s nephew, Ghost of Christmas Present, Mrs. Cratchit and Tiny Tim are.

For those of my friends who also love the story, do you remember the scene where this beautiful observation is noted? It’s contextual paragraph is: “It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

The person who exuded such contagious good humor is the one we know only as Scrooge’s nephew, who had stopped by with his traditional invitation to Christmas dinner, to which his uncle just as traditionally threw back in his face. Most of us – having received such a refusal would never issue another invitation – justifying to ourselves that we had done our duty. Not this good man. He believed that Christmas time was a time to be extra “kind, forgiving, charitable and pleasant”, a time to “open shut up hearts … and to think of” others. And he embodied that testimony. I love Scrooge’s nephew. Wouldn’t we all want to have such a one in our families? Wouldn’t we all want to BE that one in our family?

From the indomitable Christmas Spirit of Scrooge’s nephew, to the true nature of Ebeneezer Scrooge himself,

Charles Dickens paints for us a picture of a man almost past being capable of feeling anything akin to ‘good humour’. His world was small, and it revolved completely around himself. From that heavy gravitational pull he had almost lost the ability to lift his eyes to see those around him.

I love descriptive lines like these; they create an image that I can literally ‘see’. Dickens was known for being descriptive and for his ability to have empathy – to understand his characters and to share feelings with them. He lived with his characters. He knew them intimately. They became representative as he addressed societal issues he was passionate about. I’m sure at times the line between reality and the world he was in the midst of creating often became blurred. Such is the skill (and sometimes the burden) of one who uses his God-given talent to raise the cause of humanity, and to inspire us all to better works.

Scrooge’s only contemporary (the only one who came close to understanding him) was his former partner Jacob Marley.

Whether ‘friendship’ was possible between two such immensely selfish, self absorbed human beings is hard to say, but we know they were business partners, and as such – they were well suited to each other. Kindred spirits, in that they looked at life the same way. And so it was that it fell upon Jacob Marley to deliver a message to his protege – a message that may have been his only opportunity to interact with the world of the living, and thereby in some small way influence some good in it.

The setting is Scrooge’s bedroom.

The scene that comes to mind with this quote is a tender one that never ceases to make me weep when I read it. It is the one where Jacob Marley stands before Scrooge with all his chains “made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.” His explanation: “in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole” and now from the vantage point of the world of spirits, he added “No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse. . . .
Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness! Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!”

One can literally FEEL it. The pain and agony of Jacob Marley’s “incessant torture of remorse”. What about all those who like him, find themselves in similar conditions? Charles Dickens may have been a flawed man, but he had moments of sheer inspiration when he allowed the spirit of God to flow through his pen. And he did immense good for generations yet to come of those who continue to read his words and allow their message to soak into their hearts. Jacob Marley admitted “of my own free will I wore [this chain]”, and that sitting by Scrooge during some days, watching him forge his own chain was “no light part of my penance”.

To Scrooge’s attempt to pacify him with flattery, he cried aloud and wringing his hands responded “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’
It held up its chain at arm’s length, as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again.
‘At this time of the rolling year,’ he said, ‘I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me?’”

Truly there are many homes to which that light would conduct US in our individual lives. If we learn nothing else from Jacob Marley, it must be to look beyond ourselves and see what we can do for those around us – while we still can.

At leaving through the window Marley joined a mournful dirge – “coherent sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self accusatory”. Scrooge watched one such ghost cry piteously “at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.”

Such is the tragedy of regret.

the empowerment of the ‘present’

This quote is perhaps my favourite – because it is empowering. The PRESENT is what matters; it is the time to act. Wallowing in what SHOULD have been, and worrying or even the intentional planning for what COULD be will not change the Present. Doing something NOW is the only thing in our control and the only thing that can influence the course of future events.

The ghost of Christmas Present boldly states “You have never seen the like of ME before!” and truly we haven’t. Neither Ebeneezer or us.

I am reminded of a favourite hymn written by Will L. Thompson . . . .

Have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad? and made someone feel glad?
If not, I have failed indeed.
Has anyone’s burden been lighter today Because I was willing to share?
Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?
When they needed my help was I there?

Then wake up! and do something more – Than dream of your mansion above.
Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure,
A blessing of duty and love.

There are chances for work all around just now, Opportunities right in our way.
Do not let them pass by, saying, “Sometime I’ll try,” But go and do something today.
’Tis noble of man to work and to give; Love’s labour has merit alone.
Only he who does something helps others to live.
To God each good work will be known.

I heard someone say recently that decorating for Christmas has magic in it. Truly, a strange phenomenon happens when the lights go up, the nativities come out, Christmas music is playing on the radio and the house smells of gingerbread. People are kinder, more thoughtful and even charitable. Strangers lend a hand to strangers. Neighbours share things they don’t think to share at other times. People greet each other and take their leave with a “Merry Christmas” . We become aware of ways we can contribute to someone’s personal celebration. No other time of the year are these acts so concentrated as in the time we are preparing to celebrate Christmas – no matter what that looks like to you. It is one of the great Christmas Miracles!

the greatest miracle is a changed heart

And that is the wonderfulness of the Christmas Carol – that even such a one as Ebeneezer Scrooge, that “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone”, that “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner” himself – could change. He could change and he did change. And if him, than why not me?

Every time I close that book for another year, I recommit myself to being better. “This life” Amulek said, “is the time for men to prepare to meet God , , .” (Alma 34:32) I believe that, and Charles Dickens through Jacob Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Present and Ebeneezer himself witnessed the truthfulness of it. Because of the intervention of mercy, he was able to turn his life around, and through the atoning sacrifice of our Saviour, he was given a new life – the chance to right his wrongs and lift his eyes to new opportunities. He escaped the torment of endless remorse that Marley – who turned out to be the truest of friends – was condemned to.

Upon feeling the spirit of redemption (perhaps for the first time in his life), he joyfully proclaimed “I don’t know what to do! I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A Merry Christmas to EVERYBODY! A Happy New Year to all the world!”

He changed his future because he change his ‘present’. He effectually changed his legacy. He who was known to be frightful, the one who caused people to cross the street to avoid stepping in his shadow, the one who by his own words, “wished to be left alone”, . . . on Christmas Day, “went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk — that anything — could give him so much happiness.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the quotes I’ve chosen to share. What portions of the story were particularly meaningful to you? Tell me why.

Merry Christmas Friends.

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle

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Zeezrom is one of my Book of Mormon Heroes.

He’s not your typical prophet or military hero, he starts out as a bad guy.  An educated, prideful conniving lawyer in the cosmopolitan-apostate city of Ammonihah – wherein the scriptures tell us that, “Satan had gotten great hold upon the hearts of the people” (Alma 8:9).  He was described as “the most expert . . having much business to do among the people (Alma 10:31), and “expert in the devices of the devil, that he might destroy that which was good.” 

He’s the poster child for the corruption and dishonesty that is so often ascribed to political arenas.  His society of professional lawyers made it their full-time business to stir up contention among the people for the purpose of perfecting their craft at great expense.   Wealthy people wrestled to get gain and advantage over one another, within laws specially suited for this purpose, and the ultimate winners were those employed to take their cases to court.  Judges were corrupt, eager to accept bribes to rule in favour of the highest bidder.  Those without means wouldn’t hope to stand a chance in such a corrupt system.  And those with means, could lose it all in the games played for the purpose of cheating them. In order to appreciate where he ended, one must understand from whence he came.

The missionary Alma, and his newly converted companion Amulek, found themselves arrested and brought before this pandemonium of legal contradiction.   Amulek was himself a wealthy and well-known citizen of Ammonihah, so he was no doubt aware of the legal games played in this political coliseum.  The missionaries were fresh material, and because they had already raised the anger of the people, who they chastened for their wickedness, they were the perfect victims to be thrown into the arena to be ripped apart by Ammonihah’s champions, and Zeezrom was their foremost gladiator.

Zeezrom was a leader among his peers, skilled in his craft, well known among the people for his sophistry and cunning.  He had good reason to be self assured in court, and with those offended by the missionaries, he had an eager audience to play to.  One can only imagine the eagerness with which his team approached the case.  Court and jury prejudiced against the defendants already, it was a slam dunk.  The only thing left to the imagination was the script; one can almost visualize the scene.  His questions were formulated to entrap, to twist words and have the missionaries unwittingly condemn themselves – thereby adding to his reputation among peers and fans. 

But that is where Zeezrom’s prowness ended.  He was accustomed to verbal combat with mortals, in his own arena, where he was the champion.   He was not accustomed to dealing with the spirit of God.  I think it is important to try to visualize the depravity to which Zeezrom had stooped, to fully appreciate his conversion.  We’ve seen it before in scripture. The proud and haughty Prince of Egypt – turning his back to the world he was raised in, to take his place among the people of God.  The Pharisitical single mindedness of the Saul in his persecution of Christians, who turned 180 degrees and spent the rest of his life converting people to the same religion he reviled against.  More recently, Alma the Elder who left King Noah’s court at his own peril, to follow and preach the words of the dying prophet Abinadi.  And his son Alma the Younger, who sought to destroy the very church his father dedicated his life to, but then spent the rest of his life serving God. 

But Zeezrom was unique.  Like many others, he was a product of his culture, who rose in the societal ranks by his own cunning and ambition.  When he was matched by the missionarys’ ability to see through his tactics however, and called out on his shameful attempt to pay them off with a veritable fortune, he lost his footing.  They didn’t cower under his state sanctioned ability to control their destinies.   And when they began testifying of basic gospel principles, he recognized that there was something different going on.  He was matched with an opponent unlike his previous conquests.  Herein lies his difference.  So many other persecutors of righteousness did not respond to the spirit the way he did.  *Laban was given repeated opportunity to respond appropriately before the Lord finally instructed Nephi to slay him.  *Sherem persisted in his proud mocking of Jacob’s teaching before finally receiving the sign that he asked for.  Though he acknowledged his fault, he did so with his dying breath.  *King Noah almost caved before he was bolstered by his wicked priests and stayed his course to finally be destroyed.  

But the proud Zeezrom was not beyond feeling the spirit, and he was visibly shaken to the core in front of his peers as the missionaries rebuked him.  “Now when Alma had spoken these words, Zeezrom began to tremble more exceedingly, for he was convinced more and more of the power of God; and he was also convinced that Alma and Amulek had a knowledge of him, for he was convinced that they knew the thoughts and intents of his heart.”  (Alma 12:7)  People were astonished to see their mighty champion tremble.  Right before their eyes, a remarkable change began to take place.  Zeezrom not only felt the power of the spirit, but he began to genuinely seek truth from the missionaries – right in front of his audience.  He humbled himself, in a way that must have shocked even him.  He learned of another ‘courtroom’, where the “just and the unjust .. are brought to stand before God to be judged according to their works.” (Alma 12:8).  This was HIS language, and he understood it.  He learned from Amulek that those who have hardened their hearts against the word, will find themselves in an awful state – condemned by their own words, works and even thoughts, so much so that they should not even dare to look up to their God, and would “be glad if [they] could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon [them] to hide [them] from his presence.”  But it wouldn’t be possible to hide.  They’d have to stand before him in his glory and majesty and “acknowledge to [their] everlasting shame that all his judgements [were] just.”  (Alma 7:14,15)  He learned of a second death, which is a spiritual death, and for those who rejected the word, it would be “as though there had been no redemption made”. 

As one reads the account, remember it was Alma teaching, that same Alma whose former companion Ammon said “we (Alma included) went forth even in wrath, with mighty threatenings to destroy his Church”.  Alma knew of what he spoke.  He had been there. (Alma 26:19)  One can only imagine the tenderness with which Alma spoke, the spirit undoubtedly witnessing his message.  He was a living testimony of second chances, of repentance and of a life turned around.

And Zeezrom responded.  Zeezrom – Ammonihah’s intellectual Goliath – responded to the spirit testifying of the truth taught by Alma and Amulek.  Somewhere in him, had flickered a spark of the light of Christ – that even he might not have been aware of, and it was fanned in that courtroom, by the words of men of God, speaking under the direction of the Holy Ghost.   And all observed it and were surprised and probably more than a little perplexed at Zeezrom’s response.  The missionaries concluded their teachings with the tenderness of the words of God the Father “If ye will repent and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten son; Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins, and these shall enter into my rest.” (Alma 12:33,34)

Zeezrom witnessing the martyrdom of the believers

Zeezrom would never be the same, but though some others within hearing were similarly touched, the devil regained his previous footing and the wicked united into an angry mob. Zeezom recognized his accountability in being an instrument which caused the hearts of many to harden, and he pled for the lives of Alma and Amulek, “Behold, I am guilty, and these men are spotless before God” but Satan gnashed his teeth and unleashed his fury upon all those who believed the words of the missionaries.  And the wicked who took his cues reviled Zeezrom, and they spit upon him, and cast him and others who believed, out from among them. ((Alma 14:6-7)   Then they did the unthinkable.  They gathered together the wives and the children of the believers, and they cast them into a fire, forcing Alma and Amulek to witness the horrifying scene.   As horrible as this would have been for Alma, I am reminded that these were Amulek’s people.   His friends and neighbours, colleagues, kin, his own wife and children, and all those who had trusted him.  It is difficult to imagine the anguish and the heart wrenching agony of Amulek, who loved many of them.  “How can we witness this this awful scene?” he pled, but Alma said “The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand”.    

Ammonihah’s is not a happy story.  It didn’t start out happy, and it didn’t end happy.   But the rest of its story is for another time. It is Zeezrom that I am focused on for now. He had relocated with other believers to the nearby land of Sidom, laid low with a burning fever, convinced that he had caused the destruction of the missionaries.  He was brought to a recognition of his sins, and was acutely aware that his influence had caused many to harden their hearts against hearing the truth. 

Alma and Amulek, made their way to Sidom after being delivered from prison, and brought the sad news with them, of the martyrdom of the exiled believers’ families and loved ones.  The attendant sorrow that must have accompanied this report, is impossible to imagine.  The sounds of it almost ring in my ears.   Zeezrom sought forgiveness for the damage he’d caused, not only from the missionaries, but also from the Lord, and he sought healing.  Alma, the Lord’s servant “said unto him, taking him by the hand: Believest thou in the power of Christ unto salvation? And he answered and said: Yea, I believe all the words that thou has taught . . . And then Alma cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord our God, have mercy on this man, and heal him according to his faith which is in Christ.” (Alma 15:6,7,10)

Zeezrom was healed physically and spiritually, and the good news spread throughout the city.  His repentance and conversion dramatically altered the course of his life, and apparently resonated with the people, as many “did flock in from all the region round about Sidom, and were baptized.” (Alma 15:14).  Zeezrom had been well known for his former wealth and power, so his conversion was of note, and his healing would have affected many.

With renewed fervor, and a profoundly repentant spirit, Zeezrom became a faithful servant, dedicating his life and talents to helping others experience the same redemptive conversion he did.  Like King Lamoni’s father who gave away all his sins to know God, so did Zeezrom give away all his sins.  The scriptures mention his name later in connection with Alma and other notable missionaries like Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Amulek. (Alma 31:6)

Zeezrom is a heroic example of dramatic, courageous REVERSAL.  It is not easy to be dedicated to a course and then admit you were wrong.  It is not easy to walk away from everything you’ve worked your entire career to establish, including reputation and good standing among your peers.  It is not easy to acknowledge that your actions caused others harm, and then to work tirelessly the rest of your life trying to repair the damage.  In the story of Zeerom we see encouragement that one cannot stoop so low that the atonement of Jesus Christ cannot redeem.  In the story of Zeezrom, we see yet another testimony that we should never give up on another’s potential to be influenced by the spirit.   He was not the first.  He followed a path that others, like Alma had walked.  But he walked it.  And he lived it.   

Not everyone can be a Moses, or a Nephi, or an Alma.  Or even a Ghandi or a Martin Luther King.  But we can be “Aarons” or “Sams”, or “Amuleks”, or “Zeezroms”.  The Lord needs servants willing to serve in supportive roles.  And the world needs them too. 

Thank you Zeezrom for reserving a spot in your heart for that tiny flicker of light.  Thank you for not being unteachable, and therefore unreachable.  Thank you for being courageous enough to acknowledge the feelings that awakened in your heart, and then to act on them.  Thank you for staying the course, and being faithful to the end. 

And thank you Mormon, for including his story.

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle