I volunteered at the Boston Book Festival, yesterday. As a volunteer, I had to wear a bright orange t-shirt with a huge question mark printed on the front, implying that festival goers could come to me with their questions and that I would have the answers. That may have been a little misleading since all of my knowledge about anything outside the room I was assigned to was printed on the programs that everyone got.
At one point, the event in my room was filled to capacity, so many people were being turned away. A couple of girls were among that crowd and since they had a while to kill, now that they couldn’t do what they had been planning on doing, they thought they’d kill a few minutes chatting with me. They commented on the funny question mark and what it implied and we laughed as I joked that, indeed, I did have an answer to every question. The first question they asked, though, caught me off guard.
“What is the meaning of life?” they said.
“To…” I started. I didn’t have an answer ready for that question, which surprised me because I knew the answer. There is a scripture in the Pearl of Great Price that gives that answer very clearly. “For behold,” it reads, “this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). This is the only scripture that I have found that states why God created the world and us, His children, in the first place. He created us to teach us how to live the life He lives: eternal life.
I could have answered this question, but it would have required a full missionary-type lesson, which was out of the question. I gave them a true, but ultimately meaningless answer, and was left to contemplate the question for the rest of that day, and for a big chunk of this day.
I honestly haven’t heard anyone ask what the meaning of life is for a long time. It’s not a question that ever crosses my mind. I think that is because the question is answered, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t have to go around wondering what the bigger picture is because I already know what that is.
I don’t know how serious this inquiry was from these girls, but it made me appreciate all the more my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints along with my knowledge and testimony of its doctrines. So many people have not found a reliable answer to that most basic and fundamental question: “What is the meaning of life?” So many people go about their daily lives wondering if anything they do has any lasting meaning. I don’t know if I would be willing to struggle to find a good job, or strive to find someone I can marry, or even brush my teeth for that matter, if I didn’t believe that my life had greater meaning than what can be found in the present.
Fortunately, because of my faith, I do know that life has a greater meaning. So, I do struggle to find a job in which I can have an influence. I do strive to find that woman with whom I can start a family. I do brush my teeth. Because all of that has meaning. All of that doesn’t just disappear when I die. All of the memories and relationships and habits that I have gained throughout my life will rise with me. All of it, even the minutest detail, has meaning, because God created it that way.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Voice of the Spirit
I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting today, so I thought that posting that would cover my blog post for the week. Enjoy!
When I was sixteen, around Christmas, some friends from church and I decided to go around looking at Christmas lights. Since Megan Young was the queen bee of the Laurels, we were all to meet at her house at seven. I parked my truck across the street and knocked on her door precisely as the clock was turning from 6:59 to 7:00. I don’t know why I was surprised that I was the first one there and that Megan was still getting ready. In order to get out faster, Sister Young suggested that I go pick up the people that Megan was supposed to pick up and bring them back there. The only problem was that I only had a pickup truck. Not enough room for a carload of people. Sister Young had a solution for that, too. I could take their family van.
As I took their keys in my hand and walked out their front door, I mulled over in my head the route I should take to pick everyone up, how I could best avoid stop signs and traffic lights. I figured out a way that would take me in a loop that would end up right back at the Young’s house. But, as I turned the key in the ignition, I got a strong feeling that I should go the opposite way. “That’s dumb,” I thought. “If I go that way, I’ll have to turn left onto Fair Oaks Boulevard and that always takes forever.” I started backing up. Again, I got that strong feeling that I should go the opposite way. “But that makes no sense,” I thought again, shouting down that annoying feeling. I continued backing up. I was just about to put on the breaks and pull forward when I heard a crunch. I froze. I was almost too afraid to look. Finally, though, I did. I got out of the van to check the damage. I had backed into my own truck.
If I had listened to the voice of the Spirit that night, I could have avoided paying the twelve hundred dollars to repair the Young’s van. But as it was, it was an important lesson for me. I had a greater understanding for what the voice of the Spirit sounds like. Because even though I hadn’t heeded its warning, I had heard it. And I had a greater resolve to heed the next time.
Even so, I’m still learning how to recognize and heed the voice of the Spirit. It was a little easier when I was a missionary since all my thoughts were focused on spiritual things, but there were still moments during my mission that I wish I could do over, that I wish I could do exactly as the Spirit directed me. Since the mission, it’s been a real challenge. There are so many distractions and other concerns I have to worry about. As a missionary, all I wanted was to do God’s work in God’s way, and many times I got the specific guidance that I needed to do just that. Now, though, I’ve had to worry about so many other things. What should I major in? Where should I live? Which jobs should I apply for? Should I go to graduate school? My own wants and desires are so mashed up into all these questions that I wonder if a prompting is really divine guidance, or just my own stupid ideas. Sometimes, the hardest part about doing the will of the Lord is knowing what His will is. If He would just tell me, there’d be no problem.
When Moses was at the shores of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh and his armies behind him and the eyes of all the children of Israel fixed on him, “the Lord said unto Moses…lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (Exodus 14:15-16). Sometimes I read passages like these about the prophets hearing the voice of God and think that they had it easy. God tells them to part the Red Sea or build an arc or take their family to the Promised Land and they do it. Can’t He tell me what I should do with my own little life?
But then I read something in the Doctrine and Covenants that changed my perspective on these questions. In Section 8, the Lord tells this to Oliver Cowdery: “you shall receive a knowledge of whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that you shall receive…Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground” (D&C 8:1-3). So, Moses was prompted by the Spirit to part the Red Sea? It was just a feeling in his mind and heart? That’s what it seems to be saying. So maybe these other prophets--Noah, Lehi, and all the others--were not acting on direct audible commands from God, but on the whisperings of the Spirit. Of course, there have been a few times when God has spoken directly to His prophets--Moses talked to God face to face at times, the brother of Jared saw Jesus’ spiritual body long before He was born in Bethlehem, and Joseph Smith saw and talked with the Father and the Son in the Sacred Grove--but I think that these moments are rare, even for prophets. I think that when God speaks, he normally does so through the voice of the Spirit, because the voice of the Spirit is His voice.
We have a few descriptions in the scriptures of what that voice “sounds” like. Right before Christ arrived in the Americas, we read that the Nephites who were gathered around the temple in Bountiful “heard a voice as if it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes round about, for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that there was no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn” (3 Nephi 11:3). And in the Book of Helaman we read that the voice of the Spirit “was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul” (Helaman 5:30). And we all know how the voice of the Lord came to Elijah not in the strong wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). From all these descriptions, it seems clear that the voice of the Spirit connects more to our soul than it does to our ears. God doesn’t communicate with us through sound waves carried by the vibration of air molecules. He communicates with us through His Spirit.
In this past General Conference, Elder Richard G. Scott said, “I am convinced that there is no simple formula or technique that would immediately allow you to master the ability to be guided by the voice of the Spirit. Our Father expects you to learn how to obtain that divine help by exercising faith in Him and His Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Were you to receive inspired guidance just for the asking, you would become weak and ever more dependent on Them. They know that essential personal growth will come as you struggle to learn how to be led by the Spirit.” I have personally wondered if learning to hear and heed the voice of the Spirit is not one of the most important things we are meant to do during our lives.
Now, when I read stories in the scriptures about the great deeds of past prophets, I’m not only impressed with their obedience and dedication to the Lord, I am also impressed with their trust in the voice of the Spirit and their ability to hear it. When Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his only son, the son that God promised he would have and through whom God promised that Abraham’s posterity would number more than the sands of the sea, did he receive that command through an audible voice, or through the voice of the Spirit? I think that it was through the voice of the Spirit, the same voice that told me to go left when I wanted to go right. But unlike me, Abraham obeyed. He walked all the way to Mount Moriah, built an alter, tied his son’s hands, and raised the knife. He was ready to obey God’s command with exactness. He didn’t know as he held the knife that God would send an angel to stop him. He only knew what God commanded, and he trusted that command. As President Eyring has said, when we hear the voice of the Spirit, we are usually “given no assurance of the outcome, just a clear direction—go forward.”
One of the great differences that I have found between the prophets and myself is that trust. Trust in the still small whisperings of the Spirit. When the prophets hear them, they obey, when I hear them, I rationalize my own decision and back into my own car. But I’m learning to trust the Spirit. I have had some successes since that Christmas nine years ago. But sometimes those whisperings are crazy, like telling me to talk to a stranger about religion or something like that. I’m sure that being told to kill his son sounded crazy to Abraham to. One thing to remember is that we “receive no witness until after the trial of [our] faith” (Ether 12:6). I want to use the Apostle Peter as an example of someone who passed a trial of his faith.
“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?” If Jesus had been going around telling everyone that He was the Messiah they’d all been waiting for, these would have been pretty foolish questions. If they listened to Him at all, they would know who He was. But Jesus didn’t go around saying that. In fact, He frequently told his disciples to keep His identity, His true identity as the Son of God, a secret, at least until He ascended into Heaven. At this point, though, no one, not even his Apostles, had made any indication that they knew His true identity. “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-17). Peter hadn’t heard that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah through sound waves carried by the vibrations of air molecules to his ears. He had heard it through the voice of the Spirit.
Peter trusted that divine communication enough to be the first to say it out loud. And he trusted it enough to step out of his boat onto the water when Jesus told him to. And he trusted it enough take a sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant to defend Jesus, even when that high priest’s servant was backed by “a great multitude with swords and staves” (Matthew 26:47). Even though Peter trusted the voice of the Spirit that told him that Jesus was the Messiah, it seems from the record that he and the other Apostles didn’t quite understand what exactly the Messiah’s mission would be. They knew that He was meant to free them from bondage, but they thought that would be from the bondage of the Roman’s who had conquered them. They knew that He was meant to be a king, but they didn’t know that His kingdom “is not of this world” (John 18:36).
What must have been going through Peter’s mind as he watched his Messiah bleed and die on the cross? The man he had trusted in had not freed the children of Israel from Roman bondage. He hadn’t been crowned a king. Did any doubts creep into Peter’s thoughts during those three long days when Jesus lay in the tomb? Did he ever wonder if what he’d thought had come from God was really just some crazy idea of his own? We don’t know for sure, but I think that might have happened. Those were a dark three days. They were the trial of Peter’s faith.
And then Sunday morning came. Mary Magdalene came with news that the tomb was empty. Peter went running to see it for himself. Then Jesus of Nazareth, the man Peter believed in as the Son of God, the Messiah, stood before Peter alive, resurrected. Peter felt the wounds in His hands and in His feet. He was able to confess his love for Him three times. And he went on to lead Christ’s church and preach the good news of Christ’s Atonement to the world. He received his witness, but it was only after he had trusted in the voice of the Spirit.
Most of us have heard that same voice. We’ve asked God to know that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Jesus is the Christ. And most of us, if not all of us, have received an answer. Yet, if we were going to write about that experience, would we write that we had a good feeling about these things, or that we heard the voice of the Lord and He said, “These things are true”? That’s how Moses wrote about his experience on the shores of the Red Sea. As he looked at the armies of pharaoh, and the multitudinous children of the Israel, and the vast sea that stretch out to the horizon, he could have thought, , “I’m going to look really foolish if I raise my staff and command the sea and nothing happens.” But he didn’t. He raised his staff. He commanded the sea. And the waters parted.
My prayer is that we can all develop that trust in the voice of the Spirit. That when we hear it we will heed it. I know that as we do we will be doing the Lord’s will, and even if that seems crazy right now, it will always work out for the best in the end.
When I was sixteen, around Christmas, some friends from church and I decided to go around looking at Christmas lights. Since Megan Young was the queen bee of the Laurels, we were all to meet at her house at seven. I parked my truck across the street and knocked on her door precisely as the clock was turning from 6:59 to 7:00. I don’t know why I was surprised that I was the first one there and that Megan was still getting ready. In order to get out faster, Sister Young suggested that I go pick up the people that Megan was supposed to pick up and bring them back there. The only problem was that I only had a pickup truck. Not enough room for a carload of people. Sister Young had a solution for that, too. I could take their family van.
As I took their keys in my hand and walked out their front door, I mulled over in my head the route I should take to pick everyone up, how I could best avoid stop signs and traffic lights. I figured out a way that would take me in a loop that would end up right back at the Young’s house. But, as I turned the key in the ignition, I got a strong feeling that I should go the opposite way. “That’s dumb,” I thought. “If I go that way, I’ll have to turn left onto Fair Oaks Boulevard and that always takes forever.” I started backing up. Again, I got that strong feeling that I should go the opposite way. “But that makes no sense,” I thought again, shouting down that annoying feeling. I continued backing up. I was just about to put on the breaks and pull forward when I heard a crunch. I froze. I was almost too afraid to look. Finally, though, I did. I got out of the van to check the damage. I had backed into my own truck.
If I had listened to the voice of the Spirit that night, I could have avoided paying the twelve hundred dollars to repair the Young’s van. But as it was, it was an important lesson for me. I had a greater understanding for what the voice of the Spirit sounds like. Because even though I hadn’t heeded its warning, I had heard it. And I had a greater resolve to heed the next time.
Even so, I’m still learning how to recognize and heed the voice of the Spirit. It was a little easier when I was a missionary since all my thoughts were focused on spiritual things, but there were still moments during my mission that I wish I could do over, that I wish I could do exactly as the Spirit directed me. Since the mission, it’s been a real challenge. There are so many distractions and other concerns I have to worry about. As a missionary, all I wanted was to do God’s work in God’s way, and many times I got the specific guidance that I needed to do just that. Now, though, I’ve had to worry about so many other things. What should I major in? Where should I live? Which jobs should I apply for? Should I go to graduate school? My own wants and desires are so mashed up into all these questions that I wonder if a prompting is really divine guidance, or just my own stupid ideas. Sometimes, the hardest part about doing the will of the Lord is knowing what His will is. If He would just tell me, there’d be no problem.
When Moses was at the shores of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh and his armies behind him and the eyes of all the children of Israel fixed on him, “the Lord said unto Moses…lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (Exodus 14:15-16). Sometimes I read passages like these about the prophets hearing the voice of God and think that they had it easy. God tells them to part the Red Sea or build an arc or take their family to the Promised Land and they do it. Can’t He tell me what I should do with my own little life?
But then I read something in the Doctrine and Covenants that changed my perspective on these questions. In Section 8, the Lord tells this to Oliver Cowdery: “you shall receive a knowledge of whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that you shall receive…Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground” (D&C 8:1-3). So, Moses was prompted by the Spirit to part the Red Sea? It was just a feeling in his mind and heart? That’s what it seems to be saying. So maybe these other prophets--Noah, Lehi, and all the others--were not acting on direct audible commands from God, but on the whisperings of the Spirit. Of course, there have been a few times when God has spoken directly to His prophets--Moses talked to God face to face at times, the brother of Jared saw Jesus’ spiritual body long before He was born in Bethlehem, and Joseph Smith saw and talked with the Father and the Son in the Sacred Grove--but I think that these moments are rare, even for prophets. I think that when God speaks, he normally does so through the voice of the Spirit, because the voice of the Spirit is His voice.
We have a few descriptions in the scriptures of what that voice “sounds” like. Right before Christ arrived in the Americas, we read that the Nephites who were gathered around the temple in Bountiful “heard a voice as if it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes round about, for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that there was no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn” (3 Nephi 11:3). And in the Book of Helaman we read that the voice of the Spirit “was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul” (Helaman 5:30). And we all know how the voice of the Lord came to Elijah not in the strong wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). From all these descriptions, it seems clear that the voice of the Spirit connects more to our soul than it does to our ears. God doesn’t communicate with us through sound waves carried by the vibration of air molecules. He communicates with us through His Spirit.
In this past General Conference, Elder Richard G. Scott said, “I am convinced that there is no simple formula or technique that would immediately allow you to master the ability to be guided by the voice of the Spirit. Our Father expects you to learn how to obtain that divine help by exercising faith in Him and His Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Were you to receive inspired guidance just for the asking, you would become weak and ever more dependent on Them. They know that essential personal growth will come as you struggle to learn how to be led by the Spirit.” I have personally wondered if learning to hear and heed the voice of the Spirit is not one of the most important things we are meant to do during our lives.
Now, when I read stories in the scriptures about the great deeds of past prophets, I’m not only impressed with their obedience and dedication to the Lord, I am also impressed with their trust in the voice of the Spirit and their ability to hear it. When Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his only son, the son that God promised he would have and through whom God promised that Abraham’s posterity would number more than the sands of the sea, did he receive that command through an audible voice, or through the voice of the Spirit? I think that it was through the voice of the Spirit, the same voice that told me to go left when I wanted to go right. But unlike me, Abraham obeyed. He walked all the way to Mount Moriah, built an alter, tied his son’s hands, and raised the knife. He was ready to obey God’s command with exactness. He didn’t know as he held the knife that God would send an angel to stop him. He only knew what God commanded, and he trusted that command. As President Eyring has said, when we hear the voice of the Spirit, we are usually “given no assurance of the outcome, just a clear direction—go forward.”
One of the great differences that I have found between the prophets and myself is that trust. Trust in the still small whisperings of the Spirit. When the prophets hear them, they obey, when I hear them, I rationalize my own decision and back into my own car. But I’m learning to trust the Spirit. I have had some successes since that Christmas nine years ago. But sometimes those whisperings are crazy, like telling me to talk to a stranger about religion or something like that. I’m sure that being told to kill his son sounded crazy to Abraham to. One thing to remember is that we “receive no witness until after the trial of [our] faith” (Ether 12:6). I want to use the Apostle Peter as an example of someone who passed a trial of his faith.
“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?” If Jesus had been going around telling everyone that He was the Messiah they’d all been waiting for, these would have been pretty foolish questions. If they listened to Him at all, they would know who He was. But Jesus didn’t go around saying that. In fact, He frequently told his disciples to keep His identity, His true identity as the Son of God, a secret, at least until He ascended into Heaven. At this point, though, no one, not even his Apostles, had made any indication that they knew His true identity. “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-17). Peter hadn’t heard that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah through sound waves carried by the vibrations of air molecules to his ears. He had heard it through the voice of the Spirit.
Peter trusted that divine communication enough to be the first to say it out loud. And he trusted it enough to step out of his boat onto the water when Jesus told him to. And he trusted it enough take a sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant to defend Jesus, even when that high priest’s servant was backed by “a great multitude with swords and staves” (Matthew 26:47). Even though Peter trusted the voice of the Spirit that told him that Jesus was the Messiah, it seems from the record that he and the other Apostles didn’t quite understand what exactly the Messiah’s mission would be. They knew that He was meant to free them from bondage, but they thought that would be from the bondage of the Roman’s who had conquered them. They knew that He was meant to be a king, but they didn’t know that His kingdom “is not of this world” (John 18:36).
What must have been going through Peter’s mind as he watched his Messiah bleed and die on the cross? The man he had trusted in had not freed the children of Israel from Roman bondage. He hadn’t been crowned a king. Did any doubts creep into Peter’s thoughts during those three long days when Jesus lay in the tomb? Did he ever wonder if what he’d thought had come from God was really just some crazy idea of his own? We don’t know for sure, but I think that might have happened. Those were a dark three days. They were the trial of Peter’s faith.
And then Sunday morning came. Mary Magdalene came with news that the tomb was empty. Peter went running to see it for himself. Then Jesus of Nazareth, the man Peter believed in as the Son of God, the Messiah, stood before Peter alive, resurrected. Peter felt the wounds in His hands and in His feet. He was able to confess his love for Him three times. And he went on to lead Christ’s church and preach the good news of Christ’s Atonement to the world. He received his witness, but it was only after he had trusted in the voice of the Spirit.
Most of us have heard that same voice. We’ve asked God to know that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Jesus is the Christ. And most of us, if not all of us, have received an answer. Yet, if we were going to write about that experience, would we write that we had a good feeling about these things, or that we heard the voice of the Lord and He said, “These things are true”? That’s how Moses wrote about his experience on the shores of the Red Sea. As he looked at the armies of pharaoh, and the multitudinous children of the Israel, and the vast sea that stretch out to the horizon, he could have thought, , “I’m going to look really foolish if I raise my staff and command the sea and nothing happens.” But he didn’t. He raised his staff. He commanded the sea. And the waters parted.
My prayer is that we can all develop that trust in the voice of the Spirit. That when we hear it we will heed it. I know that as we do we will be doing the Lord’s will, and even if that seems crazy right now, it will always work out for the best in the end.
Monday, October 5, 2009
To and Fro
This past weekend we enjoyed another Church General Conference. General Conference happens twice a year, the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October, and consists of the leaders of the church, the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other church leaders, speak to the church worldwide. The conference takes place in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and is broadcast over television, radio, and other communication methods. This year, I watched most of it in my room over the internet. The conference is translated into about ninety languages.
To give you an idea of what General Conference means to me, let me tell you a story. I was a Spanish speaking missionary in the New Jersey Cherry Hill Mission. During one Conference weekend, I was serving in Long Branch. On Saturday morning (conference consists of five two-hour sessions, three on Saturday and two on Sunday) my companion and I arrived at the church to make sure that everything was set up properly for the Spanish speaking members in the area. Everything was working properly. The video was being projected onto a large screen and the audio was hooked up perfectly. All we had to do was wait. So we waited. And waited. And waited. As the hour for conference to begin neared, we started to realize that no one else was coming. We would be watching General Conference alone in a room that could fit over one hundred people.
I don’t want you to get the impression that the Spanish members in the area were neglecting their duty. Many of them were able to watch the session in their homes and almost all of them came to at least one session. The Sunday sessions were especially crowded in that room.
But sitting there, with just my companion in a sea of seats, while the prophets of God were addressing the entire world, I couldn’t help but think about the throngs of people outside. I saw them in my mind’s eye milling about, going about their normal Saturday business--getting the car fixed, going to the mall, having lunch with friends. At that point, I thought of the explanation that Paul gave to the Ephesians as to why Christ called Apostles and Prophets. “That we henceforth be no more children,” he wrote, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14).
With so many voices screaming for our attention, it’s hard to know who to trust. Who is right and who is wrong? Should I do this or should I do that? We can feel like ships tossed to a fro on a stormy sea. The guidance of God’s called Prophets and Apostles is like an anchor for me. It gives me stability in a volatile world. I have faith, tempered by study, prayer and many experiences, that these men are God’s mouthpieces on the Earth. That they are sources of truth in our day, just as Moses, Isaiah, Peter and Paul were in theirs. After I listen to the ten hours of conference, and yes, it does sometimes take some effort to stay attentive the whole time, I have a better sense of what course my life should take, of how I can do what God would have me do and become what He would have me become. It’s a feeling of stability. Of not being tossed to and fro.
To give you an idea of what General Conference means to me, let me tell you a story. I was a Spanish speaking missionary in the New Jersey Cherry Hill Mission. During one Conference weekend, I was serving in Long Branch. On Saturday morning (conference consists of five two-hour sessions, three on Saturday and two on Sunday) my companion and I arrived at the church to make sure that everything was set up properly for the Spanish speaking members in the area. Everything was working properly. The video was being projected onto a large screen and the audio was hooked up perfectly. All we had to do was wait. So we waited. And waited. And waited. As the hour for conference to begin neared, we started to realize that no one else was coming. We would be watching General Conference alone in a room that could fit over one hundred people.
I don’t want you to get the impression that the Spanish members in the area were neglecting their duty. Many of them were able to watch the session in their homes and almost all of them came to at least one session. The Sunday sessions were especially crowded in that room.
But sitting there, with just my companion in a sea of seats, while the prophets of God were addressing the entire world, I couldn’t help but think about the throngs of people outside. I saw them in my mind’s eye milling about, going about their normal Saturday business--getting the car fixed, going to the mall, having lunch with friends. At that point, I thought of the explanation that Paul gave to the Ephesians as to why Christ called Apostles and Prophets. “That we henceforth be no more children,” he wrote, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14).
With so many voices screaming for our attention, it’s hard to know who to trust. Who is right and who is wrong? Should I do this or should I do that? We can feel like ships tossed to a fro on a stormy sea. The guidance of God’s called Prophets and Apostles is like an anchor for me. It gives me stability in a volatile world. I have faith, tempered by study, prayer and many experiences, that these men are God’s mouthpieces on the Earth. That they are sources of truth in our day, just as Moses, Isaiah, Peter and Paul were in theirs. After I listen to the ten hours of conference, and yes, it does sometimes take some effort to stay attentive the whole time, I have a better sense of what course my life should take, of how I can do what God would have me do and become what He would have me become. It’s a feeling of stability. Of not being tossed to and fro.
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Love Thy Neighbor...
I gave a talk in church a few months ago and I'm finally getting around to posting it to the blog. Enjoy! Judging by what we see, hear, ...
