talk on being a disciple of Christ

 

As our family studied the scriptures listed for Come Follow Me this week, it was clear that we were each drawn to Abraham’s powerful statement of his desires. He says, “And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and… [desired] also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a prince of peace, and [desired] to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God.” (Abraham 1:2)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained, “Desire denotes a real longing or craving.”[1] The magnetic power of Abraham’s statement comes from recognizing in him our own cravings after righteousness, and after the happiness, peace, and rest he knew would result from acting on those desires. However, like any desire, our passion for it can fade over time if we don’t commit to regularly rekindling its fire within us. Keeping this fire—lit by the infinite love and light of Jesus Christ—burning in our souls is what I’d like to speak on today.

It seems only fitting that on the day before Valentine’s Day, I share a little bit of my own relationship to the gospel. Like falling in love, our discovery of the real truth and power of the gospel can be exciting and intoxicating at first. I remember going to seminary as a young teen and learning about the parallelism and poetry in the creation story of Genesis in the first few weeks. I was surprised. All of that depth was in this story all along?! During my years of seminary and then in my religion classes at college, I loved re-learning the stories I’d known as a child as more than just stories. Now they were allegories filled with symbols, cultural commentary, and models of behavior. I filled binders full of notes (that are still filling up a plastic tub in my garage) with connections from one book or class to another. I had plenty of time to study and wonderful teachers willing to enrich my understanding and answer my questions. The scriptures had come alive for me and my desire to follow their teachings blossomed. I felt—like Abraham—greater happiness, peace and rest, when I did.

As he continues to speak about our desires, Neal A. Maxwell states, “righteous desires are much more than passive preferences or fleeting feelings. Of course, our genes, circumstances, and environments matter very much, and they shape us significantly.” As I left college, began working and started a family, I found I had less time to spend deep in the scriptures. I also now had to wrestle with the challenges of motherhood, moving frequently, a husband in graduate school and starting a career, and unexpected mental health challenges. Close friends and family began to pose questions about the gospel that I couldn’t answer satisfactorily for myself. My genes, circumstances, and environment, as Elder Maxwell noted, were indeed shaping my experience. And “yet,” he finishes, “there remains an inner zone in which we are sovereign, unless we abdicate. In this zone lies the essence of our individuality and our personal accountability….Therefore, what we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity.”[2]

I could talk a long time about my journey from that teenager of a couple decades ago to the person I am now, but that’s not the point of this talk. Let’s just say, the honeymoon is over. But in its place is deep, comforting, and unshakeable confidence and trust. Of more interest than the details of my own story, are the particulars of the process; not only how do we become, but how do we remain the kind of person who chooses Christ daily? The Lord mercifully tells us, “I will judge all men according to their works [and] according to the desire of their hearts” (D&C 137:9; see also Jer. 17:10). Despite the mistakes we will make along the way, a consistent desire to come unto Christ will make for a joyful judgement day.

            Thankfully, our lives are filled with endless opportunities to learn of Christ. The Lord says, “And behold, … all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.” (Moses 6:63) This verse implies that God has given us an invitation to find Him in everything we see in the world around us. We are to be always asking the question, “What does this tree, rock, dinosaur bone, rain, or volcano teach me about Christ?” I mean, what an interesting question! And the fruits of pondering this question can be surprising and sweet. Let me give you an example. A few years ago, I was praying about how to help my children feel more connected to Christ as they took the sacrament each week. The answer I received was to make bread together and then take it to church to be used in the sacrament that week.

As we made the bread, I was able to talk about each ingredient and how it relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about how just a tiny bit of yeast can make miracles happen and make the dough grow big and soft. We talked about how a little bit of sweetness feeds the yeast and goes a long way. We talked about being wheat instead of tares. We talked about being the salt of the earth—and laughed about the time I forgot to put salt in the pizza dough and how horrible it tasted! As the dough came together, we talked about how Jesus calls himself the Bread of Life. As we kneaded and stretched the dough, we remembered how His body was smitten, bruised, and torn for us. Then we put it in the oven to rise and when we took it out we remembered how He left the tomb and rose again for us, so that we too can be resurrected and live together forever. When we put it in the hot oven to bake, we talked about how going through trials can form us into something new and better and different. And as we tasted the sweet finished bread, we talked about how sweet it is to have Christ in our life and feast on His word every day.

It was such an unexpectedly powerful experience to have with my children and more and more thoughts and comparisons kept coming to my mind as I talked and worked with the kids. As we shared our offering with our congregation the next day, we were happy to be able to be a small part of such a sacred moment as we each in turn partook of the bread and remembered our Savior’s love and sacrifice for each of us.

Of course, our life is not a series of these blissful domestic moments. More often than not, it’s uneventful and a little taxing. But still, the Lord asks us to find Him in that. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan Friar and Christian mystic who talked about this idea. He noted that most of the Bible is “mundane, practical, specific, and frankly, unspiritual”[3] just like our life….Just like our life. And yet, the Bible is a sacred book just like our life is a sacred experience.

The best way that I’ve found to see the sacredness in my everyday life is to be mindful of the present moment. President Thomas S. Monson once gave a talk on laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven. The treasure map, he said, for finding our treasure in heaven was this: “Learn from the past, prepare for the future, live in the present.”[4]  For me, living in the present looks like noticing and being grateful for what’s around me. When I go on a walk, I like to notice the texture of the bark on the trees as I pass. Sometimes I’ll stop and watch a bird jump from branch to branch. Other times I’ll pick up a fallen leaf or twig of cypress and feel its texture in my hands. As I do this, my walk becomes not just a time for exercise, but an exercise in appreciation, wonder, and awe.

This kind of noticing is possible wherever you are. Is the sun streaming through a window and warming you as you work at your computer? Are your kids giggling upstairs? Are you feeling satisfied after a warm lunch? Did you witness a kind act? Each of these moments is an opportunity to see the grace of God in the world and to appreciate His goodness.

We can also practice consecrating our time and actions to the Lord. Consecrating your time at work means you recognize what you’re able to provide for your family, for the tithing you’ll pay from your earnings, and the graciousness you can show to your coworkers. The time you spend reading can be consecrated by enjoying the opportunity to explore new ideas or times or places and broadening your worldview. Making dinner or doing laundry can look like consecration when you recognize that you’re following Christ’s directive to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Every time we consecrate a moment to the Lord, we come closer to Christ and invite others to do the same. Elder Maxwell taught, “Each assertion of a righteous desire, each act of service, and each act of worship, however small and incremental, adds to our spiritual momentum. Like Newton’s Second Law, there is a transmitting of acceleration as well as a contagiousness associated with even the small acts of goodness.”[5]

Again, I’m not saying that this is easy, or comes naturally, or that your life has to be picture perfect to be able to find beauty and holiness within it. When things are just run-of-the-mill difficult, I like to remember something my dad used to say. It was “If it doesn’t matter in eternity, it doesn’t matter now.” I repeat this to myself when I feel like criticizing or griping and it helps to stop me from saying something I might regret—or to apologize after I’ve already said it. I also try to remember to look for the fruits of the spirit. Paul teaches us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, [and] temperance.” (Galatians 5: 22-23) Ask yourself, “Are there people supporting me through this trial with gentleness and goodness? Or is this experience requiring me to practice meekness and longsuffering?” If so, then God is with you, and letting you know your Heavenly Parents are with you through the feelings of the Holy Ghost.

And what about the harder trials? The years-long battles for health or the always-strained relationships or the unanswered petitions. President Russel M. Nelson addressed this by recalling a familiar story. “Do you remember the biblical story of the woman who suffered for 12 years with a debilitating problem?” he asked. “She exercised great faith in the Savior, exclaiming, ‘If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.’

This faithful, focused woman needed to stretch as far as she could to access His power. Her physical stretching was symbolic of her spiritual stretching.

Many of us have cried out from the depths of our hearts a variation of this woman’s words: ‘If I could spiritually stretch enough to draw the Savior’s power into my life, I would know how to handle my heart-wrenching situation. I would know what to do. And I would have the power to do it.’

When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.”[6]

Sometimes, the thing that keeps us from recognizing or drawing on God’s power is our own feeling of worthlessness. If this is the case, please listen to these words from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Perhaps, at times, we see ourselves as a little less than we are. Unworthy. Untalented. Nothing special. Lacking the heart, mind, resources, charisma, or stature to be of much use to God.

“You say you’re not perfect? You’re not good enough? Well, welcome to the club! You may be just the person God is looking for….

“The Lord chooses the humble and meek—partly because they are humble and meek. In this way, there is never a question regarding the reason for their success. These wonderful, ordinary people accomplish great things not because of who they are but because of who God is! For ‘what is impossible with man is possible with God.’”[7] (Luke 18:27, NIV)

 But what if you feel not only worthless, but also unworthy? If so, then listen to Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.

“I do not know who in this vast audience today may need to hear the message of forgiveness inherent in [the parable of the laborers], but however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines… His concern is for the faith at which you finally arrive, not the hour of the day in which you got there.”[8]

Still not convinced? How about this promise from the Apostle Paul, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35, 38-39)

As a young woman, I was taught that I had inherent, infinite, individual worth, and a divine nature. If this is true, it must also be true that no matter the circumstances of my life, no matter how deeply entrenched in sin or suffering, there is a piece of my soul that is whole and perfect and worthy of the infinite love of my Heavenly Mother and Father. If this is true for me, then it’s true for you, for everyone here, and for every single person on this earth.  If this is true, and I testify that it is, then we have the right to tap into that untouchable wholeness and with God’s help find our way to His light. As Elder Uchtdorf said, “Our Heavenly Father is the God of new beginnings. Every day, every hour, can be a fresh start—an opportunity to renew ourselves in the Holy Spirit and become better at walking as true and faithful disciples of the Savior. His gospel is the good news that we can begin again; we can become new creatures in Christ.”[9] (see 2 Corinthians 5:17)

I testify that I have felt the renewing and restoring power of my Savior, and that as I desire to come unto Him and recognize His light and love in my life every day, I am empowered to become His disciple and find happiness, peace, and rest. I share this in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

---

[1] Neal A. Maxwell, “According to the Desire of our Hearts”, Ensign, Nov 1996

[2] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Five Messages That All of God’s Children Need to Hear,” BYU Devotional, August 17, 2021

[3] Richard Rohr, “Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality,” 16-17, 19

[4] Thomas S. Monson, “In Search of Treasure,” Ensign, April 2003

[5] Neal A. Maxwell, “According to the Desire of our Hearts”, Ensign, Nov 1996

[6] Russell M. Nelson, “Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives,” Ensign, April 2017

[7] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Five Messages That All of God’s Children Need to Hear,” BYU Devotional, August 17, 2021

[8] Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Laborers in the Vineyard,” Ensign, April 2012

[9] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Five Messages That All of God’s Children Need to Hear,” BYU Devotional, August 17, 2021