Dark and Dreary Waste

I just had an interesting little insight from 1 Nephi 8. Nephi is reciting the words of his father, Lehi:

 5 And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me.
 6 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him.
 7 And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.

Lehi essentially beheld Christ in this dream (or someone representing Him), who bade Lehi to "follow him". This same invitation is extended to all of us. Christ says to all of us, "Come follow me."

It's interesting to note that when he began to follow Christ he found himself in a dark and dreary waste. When we choose to follow Jesus Christ we aren't choosing an easy life or a life free from sorry and trial. Quite the contrary-- if we are truly following Him then we must pass through trials and tribulations, for that is the way His life was. You can't follow somebody by taking a different road they took.

So why do we follow Christ at all? Why not take the easy road? It's because we know where He is taking us.

 8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
 9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.
 10 And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.

 Christ has told us of the great happiness and peace and joy that awaits us if we remain faithful. The tree of life symbolizes the love of God, with fruit that represents eternal life. This path that Christ leads us on, through the dark and dreary waste, is the only way to get there.

It's a difficult journey, but we aren't traveling it alone. Christ has walked our paths and borne our sorrows and sufferings. He knows how to guide us through our personal "dark and dreary waste". He knows how to get to the tree of life. He is offering to be our escorts! There may be times when the darkness is so thick that we can't see Him in front of us, there may be times when we are forsaken for a season, but all of these things are for the best. Christ knows what we need. He knows what trials we need to pass through. His promise is that He will help us bear these burdens and cross these roads.

God's entire work is to bring us to that tree of life and to share that fruit with us. That means a lot to me, personally. It helps me have hope when life gets difficult.

Got Worries?

Life is challenging. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. It was meant to be challenging. What do we do when we feel overwhelmed?

We should look to God. I love this talk from the last General Conference, given by Elder Carl B. Cook of the Seventy. Not only does he begin with a powerful object lesson, but he offers some wonderful counsel on how to get through life's challenges.

I love this passage in particular:

Experience has taught me that if we, like President Monson, exercise our faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens of life. We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or need to do. We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with peace and joy.

Here is the zinger:

We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance—and if it is, the Lord will help us. But we must have the faith to look up and the courage to follow His direction.

I've always tried to be a firm believer in 1 Nephi 3:7-- that if God asks us to do something, He will help us do it. I believe this applies to every aspect of our lives that involves some form of commandment from the Lord-- church callings, overcoming addictions, even raising families. If it's something that matters in the long run, God will help us with it. If it doesn't matter so much, why are we worrying so much?

That always seems to help me get through trials-- and it's helping me get through a particularly difficult one right now. I know that what I'm trying to do matters to God, so I know that He is helping me.

What a comforting thought!

Here's the full talk:

The Ultimate Operation

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Seventy gave an AMAZING talk this past Conference. He likened heart transplants to spiritual change, and noted that both require not just the initial procedure but consistent effort to maintain the operation. He said:

To endure to the end, we need to be eager to please God and worship Him with fervor and passion. This means that we maintain faith in Jesus Christ by praying, studying the scriptures, partaking of the sacrament each week, and having the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. We need to actively help and serve others and share the gospel with them. We need to be perfectly upright and honest in all things, never compromising our covenants with God or our commitments to men, regardless of circumstances. In our homes we need to talk of, rejoice in, and preach of Christ so that our children—and we ourselves—will desire to apply the Atonement in our lives.10 We must identify temptations that easily beset us and put them out of reach—way out of reach. Finally, we need to frequently biopsy our mightily changed hearts and reverse any signs of early rejection.

Please consider the state of your changed heart. Do you detect any rejection setting in as a result of the tendency of the natural man to become casual? If so, find a place where you too can kneel. Remember, more than mortal years on this earth are at stake. Do not risk forfeiting the fruits of the ultimate operation: eternal salvation and exaltation.

Patience and Diligence

This morning I read President Uchtdorf's talk in the Sunday morning session of this past April's Conference. It was simply awesome! I felt the Spirit so strongly, especially as I read the following:

A friend of mine recently wrote to me, confiding that he was having a difficult time keeping his testimony strong and vibrant. He asked for counsel.

I wrote back to him and lovingly suggested a few specific things he could do that would align his life more closely with the teachings of the restored gospel. To my surprise, I heard back from him only a week later. The essence of his letter was this: “I tried what you suggested. It didn’t work. What else have you got?”

Brothers and sisters, we have to stay with it. We don’t acquire eternal life in a sprint—this is a race of endurance. We have to apply and reapply the divine gospel principles. Day after day we need to make them part of our normal life.

Too often we approach the gospel like a farmer who places a seed in the ground in the morning and expects corn on the cob by the afternoon. When Alma compared the word of God to a seed, he explained that the seed grows into a fruit-bearing tree gradually, as a result of our “faith, and [our] diligence, and patience, and long-suffering.” It’s true that some blessings come right away: soon after we plant the seed in our hearts, it begins to swell and sprout and grow, and by this we know that the seed is good. From the very moment we set foot upon the pathway of discipleship, seen and unseen blessings from God begin to attend us.

But we cannot receive the fulness of those blessings if we “neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment.”

Knowing that the seed is good is not enough. We must “nourish it with great care, that it may get root.” Only then can we partake of the fruit that is “sweet above all that is sweet, and . . . pure above all that is pure” and “feast upon this fruit even until [we] are filled, that [we] hunger not, neither shall [we] thirst.”

Discipleship is a journey. We need the refining lessons of the journey to craft our character and purify our hearts. By patiently walking in the path of discipleship, we demonstrate to ourselves the measure of our faith and our willingness to accept God’s will rather than ours.

It is not enough merely to speak of Jesus Christ or proclaim that we are His disciples. It is not enough to surround ourselves with symbols of our religion. Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessings of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, “spectator discipleship” is a preferred if not a primary way of worshipping.

Ours is not a secondhand religion. We cannot receive the blessings of the gospel merely by observing the good that others do. We need to get off the sidelines and practice what we preach.

I love these truths. We should always be in the process of being born again, of becoming more Christlike-- if we think we're finished, then we've got a lot further to go than we think! We need to make the small, simple choices day after day that will fortify us and our families in the long run. Simply stated, we need to endure to the end.