My Mom sent me this talk from Elder Holland when I was on my mission, and I read it often as it provided strength to me. It was given at a BYU devotional in 1987.
http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6989
"As time goes by, we ought--as a matter of personal maturity and growth in the gospel--to spend more of our time with and devote more of our energy to the good things, the best things, the things that endure and bless and prevail. This is why, I believe, family and true friends become increasingly important the older we get, and so does knowledge and so do simple acts of kindness and concern for the circumstances of others. Peter lists a whole handful of these virtues and calls them "the divine nature," and he promises us "divine power" in possessing and sharing them (see 2 Peter 1:38). These gospel qualities and principles, as I understand them, are the most important as well as the most permanent of life's acquisitions. But there is a war going on over such personal possessions, and there will yet be a bazooka shell or two falling into your life that will prompt--indeed, will require--careful examination of what you say you believe, what you assume you hold dear, and what you trust is of permanent worth.When difficult times come upon us or when temptation seems all around, will we be--are we now?--prepared to stand our ground and outlast the intruder? Are we equipped for combat, to stay loyal for as long as it takes, to stay true for the duration of the war? Can we hold fast to the principles and the people who truly matter eternally to us? "
"You see, a disciple of Christ--which I testify to you Joseph was and is--always has to be a disciple; the judge does not give any time off for bad behavior. A Christian always stands on principle, even as old Holland is out there swinging a pitchfork and screaming an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth--forgetting, as dispensation after dispensation has forgotten, that this only leaves everyone blind and toothless.
No, the good people, the strong people, dig down deeper and find a better way. Like Christ, they know that when it is hardest to be so is precisely the time you have to be at your best. As another confession to you, I have always feared that I could not have said at Calvary's cross, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Not after the spitting, and the cursing, and the thorns, and the nails. Not if they don't care or understand that this horrible price in personal pain is being paid for them. But that's just the time when the fiercest kind of integrity and loyalty to high purpose must take over. That's just the time when it matters the very most and when everything else hangs in the balance--for surely it did that day. You and I won't ever find ourselves on that cross, but we repeatedly find ourselves at the foot of it. And how we act there will speak volumes about what we think of Christ's character and his call for us to be his disciples."
"The question then, for all of us milling around the Greyhound bus depot about to report for duty, is: When gospel principles get unpopular or unprofitable or very difficult to live, will we stand by them "for the duration"? That is the question our experiences in Latter-day Saint life seem most determined to answer. What do we really believe, and how true to that are we really willing to live? As university students--bright and blessed and eager and prosperous--do we yet know what faith--specifically, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ--really is, what it requires in human behavior, and what it may yet demand of us before our souls are finally saved?"
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
JOHN 9 - LORD, I BELIEVE
"And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this
world, that they which see not might see."
- John 9:39
John's account of Christ healing a blind man on the Sabbath is one of my favorite miracles in the New Testament. As do many of the miracles performed by Christ, it not only exemplifies the power of the Savior to heal, but also teaches important aspects of the Gospel that are easily overlooked.
The Book of John, or the Gospel According to St John, was written by John the Apostle. John was the brother of James, also a son of Zebedee, and before being called as an apostle, was a fisherman. John was present for the raising of Jarius's daughter, at the Transfiguration, in Gethsemane, and present for many other miracles and important teachings of the Savior. In the Gospel of John he refers to himself as, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." From Christ he received the named Boanerges, "a son of thunder." The Book of John deals primarily with the Judean ministry written with the purpose of testifying that Jesus is the Christ and that Jesus is the Son of God. (LDS Bible Dictionary) The writings of John, this specific account not being an exception, clearly fulfill this purpose.
Christ noticed individuals and looked after "the one." John writes that, "as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth." (John 9:1) Christ noticed this man as He was going about his father's business, He took time for someone that He found in need during the course of His traveling. His whole ministry was filled with meeting the needs of others, of uplifting the downtrodden, succoring the weak, and finding those in need. He paid attention to, "he that sat and begged." (vs. 8) If we are to be true followers of Christ - we ought to try to do the same.
Upon finding the blind man, the Savior's apostle's asked Him who had committed the sin to have caused such a disability, "this man or his parents?" (vs. 2) Christ responded that it was neither of them, "but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." (vs. 3) Here Christ not only declares this man free from serious sin, but also teaches why we are often given trials and burdens in life. Similar to what we are taught in the Book of Mormon, we are given trials, "that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." (Mosiah 24:14) Christ teaches that we are given weakness, that the glory of God may be made shown in the healing, in the struggling, in the becoming whole - not only to the individual being healed, but and also to others. What a great goal for all of us to strive for, being able to be declared free of sin by the Savior and for the works of God to be made manifest in our lives.
Metaphors of light and dark are repeated throughout The Gospel of John. They not only testify of Christ being The Light of the World and His illuminating transcendental power, but also show the individual path of discipleship that we each must take of traveling from darkness to the light. The blind man who knew nothing but darkness since his birth, was at last allowed to see the light. Only through the healing power of the Atonement are we each enabled to truly leave the darkness of sin and unbelief for the light of Gospel truth. Like the blind man, this requires each of us to be humble, have faith, and practice obedience to be able to truly see. C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” The Gospel truly gives us new eyes to see things as they really are.
Once the Savior had made clay and anointed the eyes of the blind man, He told him to go and wash in the pool. Cleansing by water is used throughout the scriptures as a symbol of the power of the Living Water to purify our lives. Washing was also part of the Law of Moses and strict cleanliness was imperative in all aspects of the ordinances and sacrifices of the temple and eating. Many of the great stories and miracles of Christ involve water. I find it interesting in this story that the blind man was required to wash to complete the healing. The power of the Atonement not only heals us, but washes us clean and makes us whole.
The Jews had such a problem with this miracle of Christ because He performed it on the Sabbath. According to the rules and traditions of the Pharisees, it was okay to prevent someone from dying on the Sabbath, but it was unlawful to heal. This tradition originated from the commandment not to perform work on the Sabbath. What the Pharisees didn't understand, is that this miracle does not show Christ breaking the Sabbath, but shows him fulfilling the commandment to do good on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:12) This story teaches us that we are not to focus on physical outward details, but instead on fulfilling the inward higher purpose of the law, "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39) We are taught to focus on serving others and allowing the Savior to heal us from our imperfections - what the Gospel is all about.
I love the end of chapter 9 when the blind man later encounters his healer, sometime after the miracle has taken place. The man had been cast out by the Jews, and Jesus went again, "and found him." (vs. 35) It is clear that this man did not at first recognize with whom he spoke and that he was his Savior. I find it fascinating that the man never saw Christ before the miracle with his own eyes - not until the miracle had taken place and after the further testing of his faith by the Jews. Then the man is able to see Christ with his own eyes and to worship that man who made him able to see.
So it is with us today, we are asked to believe in and trust in a Savior whom we have not seen, we are to do what He asks, we are to," go wash in the pool" (vs. 7) of living waters, to cleanse ourselves, to purify our hearts, and we are to keep the faith during times of testing and ridicule from those that do not believe. And then we are to wait, to endure for that day when we too will see the Master Healer of our own lives. Then, only then, may we proclaim, with the man who once was blind, "Lord, I believe!" (vs. 38) and worship Him also.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
MAN'S POTENTIAL - C.S. LEWIS
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously -- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."
-C. S. Lewis 1898-1963, The Weight of Glory
Monday, January 3, 2011
CONTINUITIES - WALT WHITMAN
Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,
No birth, identity, form—no object of the world.
Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;
Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
Ample are time and space—ample the fields of Nature.
The body, sluggish, aged, cold—the embers left from earlier fires,
The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again;
The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual;
To frozen clods ever the spring's invisible law returns,
With grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.
-Walt Whitman 1819-1892
No birth, identity, form—no object of the world.
Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;
Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
Ample are time and space—ample the fields of Nature.
The body, sluggish, aged, cold—the embers left from earlier fires,
The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again;
The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual;
To frozen clods ever the spring's invisible law returns,
With grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.
-Walt Whitman 1819-1892
Sunday, November 14, 2010
BROKEN AND BLESSED
Last night I found a piece of paper in one my notebooks with a couple paragraphs highlighted. I think it was part of someone's sacrament meeting talk that I asked if I could have a copy of this summer. I read them last night, this morning, and again in sacrament meeting. It made me think a lot about symbolism in the administration of the sacrament and also about the purpose of life. I wish I knew who had given these words to me so I could thank them for them. I believe them. The pathway of discipleship has always been one of first being broken and then being blessed and strengthened through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is about realizing our weaknesses, depending on the Savior, asking for and receiving His help, and then blessing the lives of those around us. As Christ gave his body for all mankind, we too must consecrate our lives in serving those around us. How blessed we are to be able to partake of the sacrament each week, renew our covenants, and partake of that power.
The purpose of the Fall of Adam and Eve, the purpose of our weakened mortal condition is to humble us, to cause us to recognize that there is something beyond our earthly capabilities that we must obtain, a power source we must access if we ever hope to be saved from our fallen condition. This power is the grace of God. This power is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This power however, does not flow seamlessly into us regardless of our personal accountability.
Throughout the scriptures, Christ always spoke by way of invitation, "Come follow me." In this, the dispensation of the fullness of times we have the privilege of coming and following Christ by covenant. Each week as we partake of the sacrament, we promise to take Christ's name upon us and in doing so, we gain access to the full power of His atoning sacrifice.
The sacrament, as instituted by Christ, was not only an example of his own life, but an illustration of the purpose of our lives as well. Just as he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it away, he was teaching his apostles what it mean to live a spiritual life.
Henri J.M. Nouwen, a Catholic priest, wrote, "At some point, a religious soul must find himself taken by God, he must feel that God has claimed him as his own. Then, he must be blessed and broken [or in the order of the Sacrament today - broken and blessed]. He must have his pride broken down, his appetites, his selfishness, everything that hampers spiritual growth. This can take some time. I think this is where the commandments come in. Fasting and chastity break down our natural desires. Tithing breaks down our attachment to money. Submission to authority breaks down our lust for power. And service breaks our quest for glory. The world must eventually be abandoned. Once we've been taken and broken - like the bread - we are blessed - blessed with new hearts. And then, like the bread, we are to be given away. We must go out and find others and bless their lives as well."
Broken and blessed, this is the whole sum of our life's purpose. To break down the natural man within us and then let humility drive us to service. As we do so we are blessed, we are sanctified, we are born again.
"And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart our of your flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 11:19)
The purpose of the Fall of Adam and Eve, the purpose of our weakened mortal condition is to humble us, to cause us to recognize that there is something beyond our earthly capabilities that we must obtain, a power source we must access if we ever hope to be saved from our fallen condition. This power is the grace of God. This power is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This power however, does not flow seamlessly into us regardless of our personal accountability.
Throughout the scriptures, Christ always spoke by way of invitation, "Come follow me." In this, the dispensation of the fullness of times we have the privilege of coming and following Christ by covenant. Each week as we partake of the sacrament, we promise to take Christ's name upon us and in doing so, we gain access to the full power of His atoning sacrifice.
The sacrament, as instituted by Christ, was not only an example of his own life, but an illustration of the purpose of our lives as well. Just as he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it away, he was teaching his apostles what it mean to live a spiritual life.
Henri J.M. Nouwen, a Catholic priest, wrote, "At some point, a religious soul must find himself taken by God, he must feel that God has claimed him as his own. Then, he must be blessed and broken [or in the order of the Sacrament today - broken and blessed]. He must have his pride broken down, his appetites, his selfishness, everything that hampers spiritual growth. This can take some time. I think this is where the commandments come in. Fasting and chastity break down our natural desires. Tithing breaks down our attachment to money. Submission to authority breaks down our lust for power. And service breaks our quest for glory. The world must eventually be abandoned. Once we've been taken and broken - like the bread - we are blessed - blessed with new hearts. And then, like the bread, we are to be given away. We must go out and find others and bless their lives as well."
Broken and blessed, this is the whole sum of our life's purpose. To break down the natural man within us and then let humility drive us to service. As we do so we are blessed, we are sanctified, we are born again.
"And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart our of your flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 11:19)
Sunday, November 7, 2010
QUESTIONS OF THE SOUL
Lately I have been very grateful for the Book of Mormon. As I've been stressed about school work or thinking about the future and how I want my life to go, I've turned to the Book of Mormon to give me direction and understanding. More than explaining eternal truths and doctrine, the book also brings the Spirit into my life to lift my spirit, energize my soul, and give me courage to face another day. The Book of Mormon was written for our day - for us to read and apply to our lives. This past week I've made a list of questions of the soul that the Book of Mormon answers.
How can I come to know Christ? Mosiah 5:13
What will happen when I die? Alma 40
Why must I be born again? Mosiah 27:24-29
Why am I given weaknesses? Jacob 4:7
Why do bad things happen? 2 Nephi 2:11
How do I make it through trials? Mosiah 7:33
How can I know if I have been forgiven? Alma 36:18-21
What can I do if I have faith in Christ? 1 Nephi 7:12
How is salvation possible? Mosiah 3:17
How do I overcome the natural man? Mosiah 3:19
How should I be baptized? 3 Nephi 11:21-26
How is it possible for me to be healed by Christ? 3 Nephi 17:7-9
How do I stand guiltless before God in the last day? 3 Nephi 27:16
What should I pray for? Alma 34:17-27
What is the purpose of my life? Alma 34:32
What is most desirable above all other things? 1 Nephi 11:22
What if there were no Christ? 1 Nephi 10:4-6
What happens when people put their hearts on riches? Helaman 6:17
How do the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together? Mormon 7:8-9
How can I know the truth? Moroni 10:5
What happens if I have true charity for my fellowmen? Moroni 7:45-48
Why do we have trials? Helaman 12:3
How can I come to know Christ? Mosiah 5:13
What will happen when I die? Alma 40
Why must I be born again? Mosiah 27:24-29
Why am I given weaknesses? Jacob 4:7
Why do bad things happen? 2 Nephi 2:11
How do I make it through trials? Mosiah 7:33
How can I know if I have been forgiven? Alma 36:18-21
What can I do if I have faith in Christ? 1 Nephi 7:12
How is salvation possible? Mosiah 3:17
How do I overcome the natural man? Mosiah 3:19
How should I be baptized? 3 Nephi 11:21-26
How is it possible for me to be healed by Christ? 3 Nephi 17:7-9
How do I stand guiltless before God in the last day? 3 Nephi 27:16
What should I pray for? Alma 34:17-27
What is the purpose of my life? Alma 34:32
What is most desirable above all other things? 1 Nephi 11:22
What if there were no Christ? 1 Nephi 10:4-6
What happens when people put their hearts on riches? Helaman 6:17
How do the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together? Mormon 7:8-9
How can I know the truth? Moroni 10:5
What happens if I have true charity for my fellowmen? Moroni 7:45-48
Why do we have trials? Helaman 12:3
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