“Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.” (D&C 58:27). We actually have a lot of different uses for the word engage, and these different definitions can help shed some light on the many ways in which we can be engaged in a good cause. Engage can mean to offer one’s life or one’s word as backing to a cause or aim. If we aren’t dedicating our life to a good cause, then the only other option is that we have somehow committed our lives to a bad cause. It is much better for us to exercise our free will and dedicate our lives to something that is good and worthwhile and uplifting then to throw it away on anything else. To engage can mean to ensnare or entrap, or to cause mechanical parts to mesh together, as we might engage the clutch. To be engaged is to be locked in, with all of our moving parts meshing together to realize this one central goal. To engage means to bind oneself to do something, as we often use for couples that are engaged to be married. Good causes require a lot of time and dedication and hard work, not unlike a marriage. We can’t just flirt with or participate casually in a good cause. We have to go all in, just as we do with marriages. To engage means to involve or provide occupation for. Good causes can provide a foundational sense of meaning and accomplishment for us. We were not meant to drift idly through life but to be engaged and active and laboring for some great and marvelous work. In the Parable of the talents, the servants who were engaged in the good cause of multiplying what they had been given were rewarded, and the servant who had not involved himself in the occupation of growing his talent lost what he had been given and was cast out. To engage is to engross or hold the attention of. When we lose ourselves in the work, we don’t have time to think about ourselves or fixate on what is missing or lacking in our lives. To engage is to enter contest or battle with. Every significant decision we make engages us in the age-old battle between good and evil. Are we going to be engaged on the side of good or evil? And lastly, to engage is to deal with especially at length. Becoming engaged in a good cause is a lifelong pursuit. We will become disconnected and discouraged and disinterested and disillusioned at many points, but as long as we pick ourselves up and shake off the dust and jump in once more with everything that we have, then we will find ourselves engaged yet again.
