Sacrificing heart

From the time of Adam to the time of Moses, and from Moses to Jesus Christ, the Lord's covenant people were commanded to sacrifice the first fruits of the field and the first-lings of the flock unto the Lord.  Upon the death, Atonement, and Resurrection of the Lord, sacrifice by the shedding of blood was ended, for no greater blood could be shed than that of the Lamb of God.

However, while we do not perform burnt or wave offerings, the law of Sacrifice is still in effect.  Instead of sacrificing livestock, we sacrifice money, time, talents, and anything with which the Lord has blessed us.

Most of all, we sacrifice a broken heart and a contrite spirit.  What are these things?  The ancients zealously and exactly adhered to the sacrificial ordinances they were given; how do we sacrifice as zealously and exactly?  In other words, what is the nature of a broken heart and a contrite spirit?

First, a broken heart recognizes the need for the Savior and His Atonement.  It is a feeling of remorse for the way we've messed up our lives, and a recognition that we need to be somewhere else.  A broken heart does not try to hold onto a little bit of sin, but is willing to put it all away, even when it is uncomfortable.

Second, a contrite spirit is the willingness and desire to start accepting the grace that the Lord would give to us, to accept the Lord's sovereignty over our lives and to start acting according to His commandments.  A contrite spirit makes and keeps sacred covenants with the Lord without trying to impose one's owns conditions, timelines, or exceptions to such covenants.

Together, a broken heart and a contrite spirit make us give up the things of the world.  Perhaps the most difficult sacrifice we are required to make is to sacrifice control over our own lives.  No longer are we able to walk our own paths; with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, we are forced to abandon our own strange paths and walk the strait and narrow path defined only by God.

Indeed, the greatest sacrifices, the most difficult, all entail a loss of control: Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, even though he wouldn't be able to control his legacy afterwords; Peter and his brethren sacrificed their fishing despite the financial uncertainty this created for their families, and so on.

The end result of these sacrifices is more and greater joy than we ever have here, but in the temporal blinders of the here and now, the eternal consequences sometimes seem distant and/or opaque.  So giving up control of our own lives and defining them based on the will of the Lord is difficult.  But it is worthwhile, even necessary.

Mercy for the Merciful

Of all the perfections the Lord exhibits, I think I like mercy the best.  Merriam-Webster defines mercy as "compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power," as well as "a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion."  Both definitions seems to be very applicable to my life: on the one hand, I need mercy because of the myriad ways I fail and fall short of God's glory.  I also need mercy just to get through the day.  God provides both types of mercies: the great mercy that forgives me at Judgement Day, and the small mercies that make this life the joy that it is.

In order to accept that mercy, though, we need to be merciful ourselves.  I'm not sure how it works, but I know it does.  It seems that we are able to receive just as much mercy as we're able to give.  If we can't forgive another person their debts, then God will not forgive us our own debts.  If we are willing to take a couple of extra minutes to bless someone's life or make their day go easier, God often does the same for us.  In other words, by reflecting the virtue we see in God, even imperfectly we come to know such virtue better and are better primed to receive it.  If we turn to the Lord, we will become more like Him; if we lose our life, it will be saved.

The Holy of the Lord

Isaiah 58:13-14: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Six days in the week we grind away--sometimes it's work, sometimes it's play, sometimes it's something in between, but for six days our attentions are focused on our day to day lives.

Yet we are eternal creatures having a mortal experience.  Our day to day lives, while they are important, are not the most important thing.  So we are given the blessing of the Sabbath, a day to concentrate our attentions on things that matter more, but which are less immediate.

One day a week, we stop our labors and do not add to the labors of others.  One day a week, we get the chance to change ourselves and have a holy day.

As a child, I thought of the Sabbath day mostly as a day with prohibitions.  I thought it was a difficult day, and if the only thing one concentrates on is the prohibitions then the Sabbath is onerous.  Nature abhors a vacuum, and if the only thing you concentrate on is what to remove you'll find you won't be able to.  Instead, focus on what to substitute.  Focus not on what daily tasks you should avoid, but what godly tasks you should do.  Concentrate not on the day to day concerns, but on the eternal problems, and then you will find that the Sabbath becomes a true joy.

This is because by concentrating on the things that matter most, our minds become prepared to receive all the blessings that rain down from heaven toward us.  By observing the Sabbath day (and by engaging in all the holy habits) we reorganize and re-prioritize so that we are capable of receiving more than we otherwise would.  And when the Sabbath day is a holy day instead of a holiday, when it is a delight, a day to do the work of the Lord, then we will be fed with "the heritage of Jacob [our] father."

 

Remembering

How do we remember?  When your spouse tells you to "remember to grab a gallon of milk," is she only telling you to think about grabbing a gallon of milk?  Or does remembrance require more than mere thought?

Remembering does require thought, but it also requires more.  It requires that we retain something in our minds, and that it changes who we are and what we do.  When we remember to do a chore, we do it.  When we remember our beloved departed, we experience joy, grief, fondness, and pain.

And when we remember the Lord our God, it changes who we are and what we do.  Rather than blithely walking along our own strange paths, when we remember the Lord we return to His paths, acknowledge His sovereignty, and accept the grace and healing that He would send us through His new and everlasting covenant.  In a sense, remembering, like faith, first requires thought, then leads to action, then culminates in result.  And when we remember the Lord, we inevitably become closer to Him, for we are drawn to him as sheep called by the Good Shepherd.  So let us remember Him.