A Scriptural Warning Against Navel Gazing and Hand Wringing

In our Sunday School class today, the parable of the nobleman and the olive trees in Doctrine and Covenants 101:43-62 was brought to our attention to help teach about following the prophets.  I hadn’t paid much attention to this story before, but it strongly underscores some things on my mind lately. 

This parable is meant, in the strictest context, to illustrate to the early Latter-day Saints the importance of helping to gather and establish Zion, as opposed to their general reluctance to do so previously.  The story has a nobleman with a field of olive trees, which he gives to the care of a staff of servants who are charged with building hedges and towers around it for security.  The servants promptly overanalyze their orders, debating its merits; after all, they say, this is a time of peace, and couldn’t the money be better spent on humanitarian projects (D&C 101:47-49)?  While they discoursed with each other, an enemy did come in and destroy the trees. 

Like all parables, this one would seem to have a broader application, as well.  If the Lord’s intention in telling this story was to impress upon us his “will concerning the redemption of Zion,” we could extend this to mean Zion in general, as in each of our families, wards, stakes, and the church’s spiritual condition overall.

A Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

 

I thank Thee for Thy mercy and patience with me,

for thy perfect grace, which I don’t deserve or fully understand.

 

Father, please forgive me for my selfish indulgences,

for my rebellions and ingratitude.

Please help me to repent and turn more fully to Thee.

Please help my heart to change.

 

I would be Thy man and live Thy way.

But I can’t do it on my own.

I’ve tried and failed.

I need Thee, Father.

I need Thee that I may see the glory of Thy plan and creation,

to do Thy work and serve Thee.

I need Thee just to be happy.

 

Father, I feel so full of regret,

of weakness and cold, hard hearted pride.

Please help me to be open to Thy Spirit,

and to see others as Thou sees them,

as my brothers and sisters,

to love them and be there for them,

and I need Thee to open my eyes to the joy

of purity and virtue.

Please help me to see potential and hope.

Please help me to seek after these things.

 

On Being Released From the Bishopric

Today at church our bishopric was released.  After 2 ½ years of being a counselor, I find myself with a huge drop in responsibility, a drastic rise in free time, and a bittersweet ache in my heart.  It’s sentimental and it’s melancholy.  Call it sentimentacholy. 

I didn’t see this coming.  My first reaction when I found out about this last night was profound sadness.  As I explained in church this morning, I deeply loved serving with everybody in my church and I’ll miss it terribly.  And of course, I feel that I left too much undone. 

Here’s what I’ll miss: doing temple recommend interviews, hanging around joint activities at Mutual, being the first person to bring a welcome spiritual message to the home of someone who hasn’t been to church for years, giving priesthood blessings to people with no other access to the priesthood, powerful monthly meetings with the stake presidency, taking the youth to the temple for baptisms, giving the bishopric message in Primary, giving treats to the youth for catching me without my scriptures and having their copies of For the Strength of Youth, trying to set a visible example of obedience to our leaders, sitting in on disciplinary councils (a surprisingly spiritual experience–always positive for everyone involved), being able to give useful information to auxiliary leaders about their work, and just getting to know the real lives of dozens of the best families anybody could ever meet–especially the overwhelming acts of service and sacrifice for each other that I never would have known about were I not in this position.

Here’s what I won’t miss:

The Problem With Sin

Besides the fact that it’s a rebellion against the will of God and contrary to covenants that disciples of Christ have made, the problem with sin is that it promotes selfishness.  In the way that it focuses our attention on our own desires and on gratifying them, magnifying their importance in our lives beyond a proper proportion, sin drives us to become that much more narcissistic.  Sin is self-involvement personified.  Sin and humility cannot coexist, nor can sin and charity. 

This is especially bad because we have all been called to develop precisely those virtues–humility and charity.  A large part of our existence is to be spent in serving others.  We can’t do that if we’re spending time on things that bring us temporary, physical satisfaction, instead of making sacrifices for the good of others.  We can’t think about filling our own increasing appetites at the same time that we’re thinking about the needs of widows and orphans. 

Which is another problem with sin: it’s a waste of time and a waste of energy.  Oh, yeah, and we can’t forget that God said not to do it–that’s still the big one.  So by my count, the score stands at: Righteousness 5, Sin 0.

April 2009 General Conference: 3 Month Review

We have a tendency to take a General Conference of the Church and discuss it, analyze it, work on applying it, and cherish it in every way we know how…for about three weeks.  Then we forget it until the next Conference six months later and by then, that last Conference might as well have never happened.  So instead of posting my notes on April’s meetings along with everyone else, I want to put mine up now, three months afterwards, halfway between that Conference and the next one. 

I hope that we might all be reminded of things we missed before, or have renewed motivation to live up to the teachings given.  Just this week at a home teaching meeting, a man in my ward mentioned that President Monson had taught in the priesthood meeting that every Melchizedek priesthood holder should be studying the scriptures every day.  I didn’t remember that; it wasn’t in my notes.   I looked up the talk and there it was.  The prophet did say that.  I was grateful to my friend.

When I take notes, immediately after each talk I write a title for that talk in the right margin of the page.  This is my way of summing up the most major point or topic.  My titles for each talk are given in parentheses after each speaker’s name.  It’s always fun to compare my titles to those later published online and in the Ensign.  Here are some highlights from my notes:

Saturday Morning

Elder Hales (“Overcome Debt & Addictions w/ Provident Living”)–The most impressive thing here was just the subject.  Along with Elder Perry’s “Let Him Do It With Simplicity,” this is the second consecutive Conference to begin with a talk about providing for ourselves better by scaling back our materialism.  That fact alone speaks volumes.  Perhaps the best things here were his admonition to “joyfully” live within our means, and the subtle chastisement that debt is money that we could have used to serve others.  Application: Have I reduced my longing for physical possessions through Elder Hales’s prescribed cure of service, obedience to the commandments, tithes, fast offerings, and a family budget?

Elder Christofferson(“Covenants”)–

Now That’s Charity

Elder Holland’s recent Conference talk about the intense depth of suffering experienced by the Savior for the Atonement–and the Church’s incredibly successful YouTube clip from it–have got me thinking about how this episode also teaches us perhaps history’s greatest lesson about charity. 

Sometimes I’m tempted to pull my head back into my shell and call it quits as far as the world is concerned.  I think we all feel that way sometimes.  Work is stressful–or lost, finances are tight, illness is soaking up strength, family problems are heartbreaking, addictions are threatening, or a combination of these or any of a thousand other adversities conspire to drag us down.  Often we may feel that the best option to preserve what little sanity we have left is to circle the wagons and just worry about yourself, and let the rest of the world go its way. 

When this temptation surfaces, it’s good to remember how the Savior conducted himself in the midst of the Atonement.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus Christ felt infinitely for “pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and…the pains and sicknesses of his people…their infirmities…[and] the sins of his people” (Alma 7:11-13)–truly, every negative experience every mortal has been, will be, or even could be called to pass through–a sacrifice so profound that the “suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit–and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” (D&C 19:18), He did not pull his head into his shell, or circle the wagons, or give Himself up to worry or self pity, letting the rest of the world fend for itself. 

First, he

Worshipping Through Prayer, Singing, and Fasting

One topic to which my eye was drawn during a study of the Book of Mormon was how exactly God wants to be worshipped.  As Latter-day Saints, we often say that lives of steady, regular devotion to righteousness and service constitute the ultimate worship, which is all fine and good–no problem there–but in light of the examples set by prophets in the scriptures, it seems incomplete.  Consider:

1 Nephi 1:14-15: Lehi exclaims to God how great God’s power and plan are

1 Nephi 18:16: Prolonged praise and suppression of desire to murmur (see also Ether 6:9)

2 Nephi 4:30-35: Proclaim trust in God while pleading (with firm faith) for help

2 Nephi 9: 8,9,13,17,19,20: Extol the virtues of God

Mosiah 2:3-4: Mosaic sacrifices and offerings explicitly linked with showing gratitude (see also verse 20)

Mosiah 18:30: Praises to be sung to God

Alma 26:8: Again, singing laudatory praises of gratitude

Alma 45:1: Fasting and prayer mentioned in conjunction with grateful worship

3 Nephi 4:31: Again, singing laudatory praises of gratitude (see also Mormon 7:7)

And those eleven citations are just a sampling of what the Book of Mormon shows in its narrative about the nature of worship.  This may be something that we could benefit to learn from our Evangelical friends: while the kind of demonstrative emotion shown in much of their public worship might strike us as overly ecstatic to the point of being irreverent, our own scriptures surely show that it does have a proper place.  I offer three suggestions–which I’ve practiced myself–to try integrating into our own worhsip, and see if they don’t invite the Spirit:

Disciples Of Jesus Christ Are Ministers

My last post reminded me of some notes I took once on an important lesson in the Book of Mormon; one of its primary themes, really.  Since my last post mentioned our obligation to “minister” to each other, I thought a more specific definition might be in order.  So, according to the Book of Mormon:

 

Disciples of Jesus Christ are ministers—3 Nephi 26:19

 

TO WHOM—“every people” and “every soul”–Alma 29:1-2

          “all men”–2 Nephi 26:27-28

 

WHERE and WHEN–”at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in”–Mosiah 18:9

 

WHY—responsibility—Jacob 1:19

          desire for the welfare of others—Jacob 2:3

          gratitude for salvation–Mosiah 27:29-33

          desire to share gifts with others—Alma 36:24

 

HOW—1 Nephi 15:25—exhort with energy to keep the commandments

          2 Nephi 33:3—pray for them daily

          Jarom 1:10-12—warn, teach, persuade, stir up to repent

          Mosiah 26:38-39—be obedient, teach, admonish each other

          Mosiah 27:33—console people, confirm faith

          Alma 4:19—stir up remembrance of duty, pull down pride, bear testimony

          Alma 48:19-20—serve, preach from scriptures, perform ordinances

          3 Nephi 6:20—teach and testify of the Atonement

          3 Nephi 18:16-21,25—pray for others; invite all to come in

          3 Nephi 23:14—teach doctrine from scriptures

          Moroni 6:4—fellowship, nourish, keep watchful

 

Jesus Christ Teaches Us How To Minister

One of the great overlooked gems in the Book of Mormon is 3 Nephi 18, in which the Savior both ministers to his disciples and teaches them directly how to minister to others.  It’s a treasure trove of wisdom for all who would follow the Lord’s example in serving others, and more practical and succinct than any other such manual there is.

In verse 16, the Savior declares, “Behold, I am the light; I have set an example for you.”  Especially considering his directive soon thereafter that “the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do” (3 Nephi 27:21), this is clearly an injunction for observant disciples to take notes and “go and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37).  So we need to pay attention both to what Jesus tells us to do and what he actually does himself, for both are to be guides for our own conduct. 

Verses 15 and 18 have the Savior telling us to pray always to escape the power of the devil.  Such admonitions are hardly rare in scripture.  We do ourselves a grave disservice if we don’t take seriously the warning that unless we inculcate a steady habit of fervent prayer in our lives, we risk straying into behaviors borne of temptations.  There is no hyperbole here: without prayer, we will lose the light within ourselves, and so cannot be in position to share it with others.

Verse 21 extends the primacy of prayer into the next realm: praying with our families.  Once we have prayer instilled as a wellspring of spirituality in our private devotions and in our family worship, we then pray with and for “any man…coming unto you” (3 Nephi 18:22), whom we’re commanded to welcome into our community as we “meet together oft.”  In verse 25 Jesus intensifies the counsel to allow all others into our meetings to pray with us by commanding that we go out and actively invite all in to “feel and see.” 

“Yes, you do.”

Perhaps the most powerful spiritual experience I’ve ever had–or at least the one which has had the most visibly permanent influence on me–was almost two years ago.

A member of the stake presidency had come over to my house to meet with my wife and I, to extend me a calling.  Now, this was a serious and reverent event, but I, being a goofy little dork by nature, decided to “break the tension” with a dumb remark.  I joked, “Wow, I feel like I need to start being better now or something!”

As my wife and I laughed nervously, President Petersen leaned forward and, with a mixture of Christlike firmness and warmth that I hope someday to achieve, simply looked me in the eyes and said, “Yes, you do.” 

That could certainly be taken as a humorous criticism, and when I tell this story, I usually play that line for another laugh.  However, there’s no denying that it’s true.  It’s true of me and of everybody.  Always.  And while it’s crucial to having any confident joy in life to be merciful in our expectations of ourselves, it’s also necessary to keep striving for improvement.  When he said that to me, I could see it was meant in a spirit of friendly concern and of authoritative counsel, and I can only say that I’ve tried to live up to it. 

Perhaps the first, most important thing to do with inspiring events like this is merely not to forget them.  In remembering, we nourish our souls and keep the hope alive that we’ll draw nearer to our holy goal.

Notes on Gordon B. Hinckley’s Standing For Something

In a little over a week, it will be a year since the passing of Gordon B. Hinkcley, 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  At that time, considering the growth of Church membership, he had been the only prophet that about a fourth of all living Mormons had ever known.  As I joined the Church in 1993 but wasn’t very active until 1996, that includes me. 

When he died, I finally pulled my copy of Standing For Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts And Homes off the shelf.  After I’d read the first twenty pages or so, I found myself wanting to keep track of all his many offhand references.  Even as I just kept a brief mental tally of his sources, I was impressed that he had such a broad store of resources available.  It’s not like he was writing a scholarly tract, but if he had been, this wouldn’t have been a bad start.  The book reads very comfortably, and is very friendly to the reader, some of it coming across as spontaneous, and some parts clearly taken from his own library of sermons.  I don’t think he must have done much research, then, but actually had most of this material in his mind (including, this English teacher hastens to add, references to four of Shakespeare’s plays).  Putting all of this in such a simple little book might make it harder to detect his achievement. 

By the time I’d finished the book, my notes were twleve pages long.  At the end, I summarized what I thought I could surmise about President Hinckley’s life just based on those notes, sort of as a guide for emulating him.  The best part is that I’m pretty sure I missed some things: some of his references must have escaped me.  Feel free to point out any I missed:

 

Standing for Something—Quotes, references, statistics, etc.

Poems

1.Henry Van Dyke, “America For Me”—introduction xii

2.Edwin Markham on love, “Outwitted”–ch 1, pg. 9

3.Longfellow on honesty, “The Ladder of St. Augustine”–ch 2, pg. 26

4.James Russell Lowell, “The Vision of Sir Launfal”–ch 4, pg 58

5.Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra”–ch 8, pg 94

6.Joaquin Miller, “Columbus”–ch 10, pg 111

7.Elizabeth Barrett Browning—Marriage, pg. 142

8.Emerson, “Voluntaries III”–Epilogue, pg 177

 

Historical References

9.Mayflower Compact (quote)—introduction xiv

10.Declaration of Independence (quote)—introduction xv

11.Preamble to the Constitution (quote)—introduction xvi

12.War hero statue in Trafalgar Square–ch. 1, pg. 8

13.Athenian oath of citizenship—ch 2, pg. 19

14.Anecdote about Lincoln’s honesty—ch 2, pg 26

15.“Heroes” list: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Lindbergh, Byrd, Hopkins—ch 3, pg 38-39

16.George Washington’s 110 “rules for civility”–ch 4, pg 53

17.1979 centennial of electric light—ch 5, pg 67

18.Lee’s surrender at Appomattox—ch 6, pg 76

19.Vikings—ch 7, pg 81

20.American West—ch 7, pg 81

21.Israel—ch 7, pg 81

22.American WWI cemetery in France—ch 8, pg 92

23.Korean War—ch 8, pg 92

24.Vietnam War—ch 8, pg 92

25.United Kingdom in WWII—ch 9, pg 102

26.Mikhail Gorbachev’s speeches—ch 9, pg 103

27.Letter of an 1872 Colonel who visited Utah—ch 10, pg 118

28.Story of the Roman Gracchi—Family, pg 152

 

Quotes and Allusions

29.William Gladstone on U.S. Constitution—introduction xvi

30.Margaret Thatcher on declining religiosity—introduction xvii

31.George Washington on public religiosity—introduction xix

32.Shakespeare on honesty (Othello)–ch 2, pg. 17

Book Review: A Disciple’s Life: The Biography Of Neal A. Maxwell

This is the third book I’ve read this year because I heard my stake president mention it favorably.  However, when I just pulled out my notes from a meeting earlier this year to compare what I got out of it with what he’d taught us from it, I found that he’d actually recommended Russel M. Nelson’s biography.  Whoops. 

That’s OK.  I enjoyed getting to know more about Elder Maxwell; in fact, over the summer I read a great line of his–”There is no democracy of facts”–which perfectly encapsulates my own philosophy, and which I’ve since used in my email signature.

But, unfortunately, A Disciple’s Life is only a mediocre biography of a truly great man.  Elder Maxwell deserved better.

Bruce C. Hafen of the First Quorum of Seventy wrote this book, at Elder Maxwell’s invitation.  Though he explains in a preface that he wanted to focus on the theme of discipleship in Neal Maxwell’s life, the result very unevenly pursues that goal.  The first third and last third of the book–which focus on his family and early life, and then on his ministry as a General Authority–are excellent reading; they’re inspiring, lucid, motivational, and informative about everything from modern church history to coping with demanding callings, but the middle third of the book is a dull clunker with very little value. 

(Great story from the beginning sections: during his mission in Canada, Elder Maxwell had to serve in a branch leadership position.  Subsequently, he baptized two people on his mission…and excommunicated four.  Afterwards, he always felt bad that his mission cost the Church a net loss of two people.)

On The Virtue Of A Soft Heart, Despite Discouragement

Pessimism is tempting.  In a world where we constantly face rejection, scorn, and, for the most part, the failure of our work to do much lasting good, it’s easy to give in to the reflex to put up walls around our emotions, to practice not caring about those who we might care for but who will end up letting us down and breaking our heart.  Sometimes it feels like the only way to handle the overwhelming sadness of the world’s willful self-destruction is to shake our heads and say, “Oh well.  Good riddance.”

The Book of Mormon strongly encourages the opposite.  In the midst of risking the most bracingly discouraging setbacks, we are still shown example after example of prophets who wear their hearts on their sleeves, and invest every ounce of their own deepest feelings in their work, despite the ongoing pain.  It’s hard, it’s noble, and it’s necessary.

[all italics added for emphasis]

LEHI

1 Nephi 1:5 “…my father, Lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people.”

1 Nephi 8:36 “…he exceedingly feared for Laman and Lemuel; yea, he feared lest they should be cast off from the presence of the Lord.”

NEPHI

1 Nephi 2:18 “and being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, I cried unto God for them.”

1 Nephi 10:4 “…I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts…”

1 Nephi 12:25 “…I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed…”

1 Nephi 17:9 “…I, Nephi, was exceedingly sorrowful because of the hardness of their hearts…”

1 Nephi 17:47 “Behold, my soul is rent with anguish because of you, and my heart is pained; I fear lest ye shall be cast off forever…”

2 Nephi 26:7 “O the pain, and the anguish of my soul for the loss of the slain of my people!  For I, Nephi, have seen it, and it well nigh consumeth me…”

Notes On The Ministry And Character Of Jesus Christ

This morning I finished a project I’ve been working on for a long time; in fact, it’s the product of the bulk of my personal scripture study in 2008.  Last year, my stake president advised all Latter-day Saints in our areas to read the New Testament so we could renew our devotion to the Savior. 

Inspired by that, I started taking notes on everything I could recognize that Jesus said or did, in the spirit of “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21) and “the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do” (3 Nephi 27:21).  My goal now is to practice imitating the items on this list, integrating them into my own character.

As I’ve worked on this, I realize there are two serious limitations.  The first is my own spiritual imperfection, which hinders the degree of light I can discern in the scriptures and obscures my perception of what I do understand.  The second is my intellectual immaturity, which leaves much truth in the text uncovered.  (I suppose factors such as being tired or in a hurry at times also contribute to failings in the notes.)  A better person surely would have made a much longer list, and worded them in a far more profound manner.

For my study of the gospels this year, I used Bruce R. McConkie’s Doctrinal New Testament Commentary Volume I: The Gospels, a harmonized text that I’ve studied before and with which I am very comfortable.  Because I used a gospel harmony, references in the notes to items that occur in one or more of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), are usually represented only with a citation in Matthew, hence that book’s disproportionate standing in the notes. 

I also elected to include a “gospel” from the Book of Mormon in my notes, 3 Nephi.  The personal ministry of Jesus Christ to the ancient inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere shortly after his ascension is a true record, and invaluable for its additional insights.  In the notes, I’ve italicized items that include Book of Mormon references, putting those that are exclusive to the 3 Nephi text at the end. 

This exercise provided its own lessons: the nature of the Savior’s work in the West was much more simple and positive than the dramatic epic of the Holy Land, but adds only a little major doctrine to that main ministry: truly, the Book of Mormon’s primary purpose is to testify of truths in the Bible.  3 Nephi strikes me now as a surprisingly prophetic and didactic document, in the best possible way. 

I consider this a first draft, to be revised over a lifetime:

 

Notes on the ministry and character of Jesus Christ

 

1. Be in the temple often. Luke 2:46, John 7:14, 8:2, 10:23, Mark 12:35, Luke 21:37-38

2. Both hear, and ask, “the doctors” questions. Luke 2:46

3. Achieve understanding. Luke 2:46 (2:40, 52)

4. “Wax strong in spirit” Luke 2:40

5. Be subject unto your parents. Luke 2:51

6. Be baptized. Matt. 3:13

7. Do everything that fulfills all righteousness. Matt. 3:15, Matt. 26:51-56, John 19:28

8. Be with God, alone, in wilderness and mountains. Matt. 4:1, Mark 1:35, Luke 6:12, Matt. 14:13, Matt. 14:23, John 8:1, Luke 22:39, Matt. 26:36, John 18:1-2, Matt. 28:16, 3 Nephi 19:19, 27, 31

“Let Us Labor Diligently”

The following short essay of mine appeared in the “Living By The Scriptures” column of the LDS Church News on August 28, 2004:

 

And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.  -Moroni 9:6, The Book of Mormon

The world is growing more wicked and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  The signs of the times are clear: the Second Coming is close.

These thoughts and some discouraging experiences had let me slacken my hand in reaching out and helping to improve the world.  If the world is not going to turn around, I wondered, why bother trying?  I saw my wife and many others anxiously engaged, striving to do even the smallest good.  But I felt that I was closing my heart even more.  I was doing less service and, in my mind, focusing on physical preparation for the Second Coming.  Soon, I had to admit that I was losing charity, often not giving others the chances they deserved, judging them instead.

One morning before going to the temple with my wife, at random I came upon Moroni 9:6 in the Book of Mormon.  Mormon knew that the Nephites were doomed; he had seen them falling apart over his whole lifetime.  Now, near the very end, he was counseling his son to keep working with them, no matter how much they might reject him.  Why?  What was the point?  According to Mormon, this struggle is not just for the good of those we serve, but is crucial to our own growth as well.

Pondering this reminded me that the Savior willingly suffered for the pains of all mankind, fully knowing that only a fraction of His family would be grateful enough to take advantage of it.  If we are to become like Christ, I realized, then we must follow Him in serving mankind, even if it seems to bear no fruit.  Our salvation depends on it.