The two sections in this week’s Come, Follow Me lessons are a small encyclopedia of one liners that are each worth studying as gems of wisdom. I am cherry picking some of my favorite ideas from these sections.
The nature of tribulation
Tribulation is part of almost everything we do in mortality. We struggle to learn to master our body as we grow from a baby to a toddler, to a teen, to an adult. We struggle to figure out how the world works and what our place in it is as we become adults. And as soon as we start to get comfortable with how to be an adult our body starts to deteriorate and we begin the process of aging. By the time we leave mortality almost everything we learned to master as a toddler has been stripped from us. We are back into diapers and someone else is feeding us with a spoon. All we leave with in this world is what we came into it with, our character and personality. Everything else remains here in mortality.
I have compared this life to a sandbox where we all come to play for a time with the toys left for us by God. When we leave this sandbox we call life we leave behind all the toys and people we met during our playtime. We leave as we came, alone and empty handed. The Lord addresses this issue in this week’s sections (sections 58-59).
Here are four verses from Doctrine and Covenants 58. Let’s look at just some of the lessons we can learn from them.
2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.
We tend to obsess over when the Savior is going to return. Christ keeps telling us that we all need to prepare for his return, yet he doesn’t hide the fact that most of us will die before his second coming. We are left to answer the questions – If I won’t be living in mortality to see the day of the Savior’s return, what is it I am preparing myself for? Why should I put in the effort to be ready for Christ’s return when I almost surely won’t be here when he comes? The answer to these questions are found here in verse 1. We all have tribulation in this life, and anyone who is faithful in their times of tribulation and keep the commandments will be “greater in the kingdom of heaven.” The issue isn’t whether we will be alive in mortality when he returns, but whether we have been obedient in our preparation to be judged by him once our day of judgment arrives.
Being alive in mortality or being dead doesn’t matter to God, for we never really die, as in cease to exist. We are always alive somewhere, and all those somewheres are before God, for He sees them and is in control of them. We never actually leave His sight. We are always before His face, whether it is in the spirit world pre-mortally, in the flesh in mortality, or in the spirit again in the post mortal world. All of us are always within the gaze of our Father in Heaven and Christ.
3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.
Tribulation does things to us. The process of suffering causes us to change our point of view. It alters our perspectives. Our very desires change with the things which we suffer. There is much we need to change about ourselves in our preparations of becoming a Zion people. God needs us to learn those lessons that only periods of trial can teach. The glory God experiences is the result of His own sufferings. Why should we be any different if we want the same glory? He can see the end of the process that suffering begins. We cannot, so He sends us the lessons we need to learn in order to prepare for us the blessings of immortality we have professed we desire. Those blessings will come only after we have suffered and been faithful in the process.
4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.
5 Remember this, which I tell you before, that you may lay it to heart, and receive that which is to follow.
The Saints moving into Missouri had an expectation that Zion would already be set up and ready to receive them when they arrived. They didn’t yet understand that they needed to become the Zion they were seeking. There is much that needs to be honed and refined in us as a people before Zion will be ready to be established in physical reality. We must learn to live in peace, and for the welfare of each other first. The Saints have to bring Zion with them when they move to the city of Zion. Zion is the kind of people who live a Zion way of life. We are still all too selfish and short sighted to be able to live as a Zion people, hence the need for more trials. We are getting closer and closer with each passing generation. It is our responsibility to train our children to become better Saints than we are. All of us need to be actively seeking to be counted worthy to be among the people of Zion someday, whether in this life or the next.
The nature of our work with the Holy Ghost
There are times in life when we need to seek the direction of the Holy Ghost. This is when we are unable to know what to do for ourselves. We seek His guidance and direction in times of uncertain circumstances and in instances where there is no way for us to know what we should say and do. Giving priesthood blessings is such a for-instance. But what about in our everyday living?
Christ has been very clear about our need to take responsibility for the good we do in our own daily lives. Below are three sentences wherein God outlines our responsibility to be and do good in the world. We are talking about being and doing good of our own make and model, not by way of commandment. This means God wants us to be creative and wise in our ability to act like our Savior and do good wherever we see the opportunity to do so. Here is Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-29.
26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.
Think here of the servant who buried his talent in the parable. He did nothing to improve upon what was right in front of him.
27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;
28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.
These verses explain why the Brethren leading the church start certain programs only to change them later on. They are trying to do the good they deem needs to be done for the welfare of the members. When they see that what they originally tried isn’t working, or it seems to have fulfilled its purpose, that program either gets a retooling or is abandoned for something else that is needed. We don’t know, unless they tell us explicitly if what they are asking us to do is specifically commanded by God or if it is them exercising their own agency in their efforts to bless our lives. We all need to be more patient with each other.
This aspect of each of us independently seeking to bring about much good from our own efforts is a source of frustration in life. Is the Bishop calling me to this position because God actually told him to put me there, or is he just fulfilling his calling the best way he can and is calling me because in his mind this is a good fit? Sometimes we are told that God is in charge of that calling, but sometimes we are not given that information. We just need to fulfill our calling in the best way we can and wait for the Lord to bless us, because we are supporting the people He has called to lead us. The blessings are the same for us. For whether by the voice of the Lord or by that of His servants, in God’s eyes it is the same.
Verse 29 is important to remember. When the Lord says that a certain type of person will be damned, He is saying that that kind of person, one who must be commanded in all things, will not progress. Like water that is dammed is stopped in its progress, so too are we stopped when we don’t seek to become more wise and more able to do things that need to be done. God wants us to rule with Him someday. He certainly isn’t going to give that kind of responsibility to someone who can’t make a decision to do something unless ordered to do so. He wants us to be out there daily seeking to find ways to create and bring about goodness wherever we are and in the lives of all we see. This makes us worthy partners with God in bringing about much good. God wants us to find joy in goodness in any form.
When your back is against the wall and you don’t see a way forward then by all means, seek the direction of the Holy Spirit. But if you can see possibilities for moving forward and doing good, choose a course and go with it. Feel free to ask the Spirit for confirmation, but go to Him with a plan in place already. That way He can give you a quick answer for or against, or send you back to the drawing board to start over. This is how life is supposed to work.
Questions about repenting
Doctrine and Covenants 58:42-43 are often quoted then not commented on. Yet when you read these verses you can have many questions arise in your mind. For your convenience here are the verses.
42 Behold, he who has of his , the same is , and I, the Lord, remember them no more.
43 By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will them and them.
The way Jesus makes these statements the act of forgiveness sounds so instant and final. The statements in these verses makes repenting sound like something that is done in an hour and is over with forever. At least that is how is sounds to me. Many of us wonder things like this – If I repent, but slip up, how do I know if I am actually forgiven again after my repeat of the sin?
I don’t remember which Apostle said it, but one of them said that if you feel the influence of the Spirit after you have repeated a sin and tried to repent again, that is a sign to you that you have been forgiven, for the Spirit is not offended by your actions or He wouldn’t have touched your heart as He just did. I can’t tell you what this sentiment has done for me. When I am trying to be better at something and backslide a little, I apologize and seek forgiveness. I look to see if I have recently felt the influence of the Spirit in my life. That tells me that as of that moment I was square with the Lord enough to have the Spirit still communicating with me. The Holy Ghost is my strength and my guide back to God and Christ, so if I am good with Him then I am good with all three of the Godhead. This doesn’t mean I am perfect with the Godhead, but on the right track.
When we seek to recognize and acknowledge all the times we feel the influence of the Spirit in our life that means we are actively desiring to be closer to Him and to actively follow His promptings when they come. If you haven’t a clue when in your life you last felt the Spirit touch you over something, that is when you need to start worrying. Look for Him to be actively speaking to you, directing you, supporting your efforts to be and do good, and you will find that the Spirit is almost ever-present in your life. That is about as good as it can get in life.
Remember that just as we hope God will be patient in our efforts to repent, and we hope so deeply that His forgetfulness of our sins is real, so too are we in need of being forgetful of other’s sins against us. And we need to hope that the things we do to offend others will be as readily forgiven by them of us. Forgiveness all around please!
The key to verse 43 is in the confession of the sin. It is so, so important that we remember that a sin not openly recognized cannot be forgiven, for we haven’t yet admitted to the sin. When you look at a good 12 step program for recovering addicts, the first step is to acknowledge that you are an addict. We must acknowledge our sin in order be forgiven of it. If I find myself still trying to hide my sinfulness from others then I’m not yet ready to sincerely seek forgiveness. This is the nature of confession. The act opens the door to acknowledging the behavior and what needs to change.
Commandments are a blessing
I always refer to commandments as the laws of happiness. When God promises us commandments not a few, He is promising to give us more ways to receive blessings than what we currently have. We should be excited to have more commandments, for they open the door to more happiness and peace in our life. Too often in life we are left worrying that we don’t know how to behave to receive more of God’s blessings. If He gives us more commandments then we know better and better how we are supposed to be behaving in order to be approved in the eyes of God. Commandments are such a good thing!
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