….We Seek After These Things!

Sometimes things work out perfectly. That’s what happened in the Gospel Doctrine lesson I taught yesterday. Oddly enough, it was due to an amazingly charged football game from the day before.

From the Salt Lake Tribune: “To complete a pass that will become as legendary in BYU lore as ‘The Catch’ is for the San Francisco 49ers, BYU quarterback John Beck relied on the instincts honed in games played so long ago it didn’t matter who won.

“…

“That someone else was Jonny Harline, whom the Utes lost in the traffic of the end zone after the final seconds ticked away. Harline started out on the right side, cut across the middle to the left corner and turned around, and from his knees, hauled in the game-winning pass.”

With less than seconds to spare. Living in Utah, we found this to be quite the story.

The next day in Sunday School, I stood up to teach and asked the class how they felt about “that game last night.” Wow. You could feel the energy in the room increase. BYU fans and Ute fans alike began all talking at once, people were moving in their seats, telling about their views on the game.

So I asked how many of them cheered and shouted for joy at any point during the game. They all answered at once. Regardless of who won, the BYU fans and the Ute fans were each remembering important parts of the game where they cheered and shouted.

Then I asked if there were any part of the gospel where we cheer and shout. They realized I was not asking about the game just to be sociable … quieted considerably, many still with smiles, some nodding at my question. We recounted stories of joy with reverence, experiences of times when we were full of joy. Then someone mentioned, as I had hoped, the dedications of temples. Here we shout for joy.

“The Hosanna Shout is whole-souled, given to the full limit of one’s strength. The congregation stands and in unison shouts the words ‘Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to God and the Lamb. Amen, Amen, and Amen,’ repeating them three times. This is usually accompanied by the rhythmic waving of white handkerchiefs with uplifted hands. The epithet ‘Lamb’ relates to the condescension and atonement of Jesus Christ” (in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols. [1992], 2:659).

The energy in the room remained, but it was more reverent as everyone turned their thoughts toward the temple. I had two people share experiences of taking their sons to the temple recently, preparing to enter the mission field. It was wonderful.

Then I stood again and pointed out that no matter how exciting yesterday’s game was, if I asked the same questions next week or in a month, the energy in the room would not quite be as high as it was today. But if I ask about the temple next week or in a month, the joy will be the same, that energy will remain high. The temple is a wonderful source of joy, a wonderful source of healing, a wonderful source of purity. The eternal truth and the lasting nature of this joy did not escape any of us.

Sometimes things work out perfectly.

- Kim

A friend emailed me and asked “Just wondering where you get your strength from?” I have been pondering how to answer him for a few days now …

The term “my strength” is ineresting to me. Indeed, I feel strengthened, but it isn’t my strength at all. When I consider doing this alone, or truly in my own strength, I know I couldn’t be making the good choices and finding the peace in that. Strength from the Lord is really interesting that way. It’s for us, but it’s not ours.

My first response to where my strength comes from is obedience. But it’s not just obedience, because I know many who obey but are miserable and stay that way for years. I think it’s obedience coupled with the proper attitude, prayer, and seeking the spirit.

By obedience with proper attitude, I mean obedience because it’s the right thing to do, as opposed to obedience to gain reward. I think there is always an aspect of being obedient to feel the spirit, to feel joy in righteousness, but obedience to please others, for example, is misplaced. Sometimes when obedience can’t be just because it’s right, praying for that motivation until it’s in place is key.

Prayer itself is key. Praying to understanding, praying to have our heart changed, praying to feel the spirit … Non-stop if need be. Pray to understand until we understand. Pray to have our heart changed until it’s changed. Pray to feel the spirit until we are feeling it. Pray to want to pray.

Seeking the spirit has been a joy for me in my struggles and has given me great strength. There’s a young man in the ward who was preparing to go on a mission and the bishop asked him if he had any spiritual experiences he could recount. When he said he did not, the bishop told him he’d be ready to serve a mission when he had some. He was told to start looking for spiritual experiences. The young man reported a few weeks ago that he has spiritual experiences all the time now, and they were always there. He just didn’t notice them before. Through this change in perception, and choice to notice, he became spiritually minded, and thus ready to serve. Becoming spiritually minded is a strength to me.

After these last few days of pondering this, I think it comes down to a few things, but at the same time, so much more. To start, though, strength for me comes from obedience, humble attitude, fervent constant prayer, seeking and feeling the spirit many times during my day, and thus becoming spiritually minded.

And always acknowledging that the strength is the Lord’s.

- Kim

T F Stern’s Rantings: Being Green

I have been visiting this blog frequently the past few weeks. The particular post I found of value to highlight on this blog. It is about being green, not environmentally, but green as in new, young, and bendable to God’s will as he teaches us to grow and learn. It has a great example of how we need to grow and how God shapes us to expand our abilities in this life. We all need to step out of our comfort zone from time to time.
It is a great post very worthy of highlight on We Seek after These Things.