When we serve, we serve people

One of the duties that the Lord tasks us with is to serve our fellow man. Like any duty He gives us, we quickly find that it is solely designed to improve us and make us more like Him.  We should understand that duty and do our best to fulfill it.  

One thing that I've noted about service is that when the Savior asks us to serve our fellow man, he's not telling us to come up with a theoretically perfect service project.  Often, He isn't going to give us perfect conditions, perfect weather, perfect timing, or serendipitous circumstances.  Sometimes His loving-kindnesses make these things possible, and greatly reduce our burdens, but in the end our duties are still required of us, not as an academic exercise but in our practical reality.  

We need to have charity, not in a vacuum or in a snow globe but in the lone and dreary world in which we now live.  We need to forgive, not as an mental exercise but here and now, even if we’ve been hurt and are still hurting.  We need to give other people our love and our time, even if it’s inconvenient and we think we have better things to do.

In the end, we're not serving God except when we serve our fellow man.  And when we serve our fellow man, we're bound to bump up against delays, imperfections, character flaws, and sins.  We're going to get impatient, bored, confused, frustrated, and even angry.

The end result, however, is worth it.  We live in the world as it is, so we're going to bump into the delays and imperfections anyway.  True service can truly mitigate the frustrations of mortality, blessing both them serving and them being served by shining a light into the divine potential in each of us.  By highlighting what is good and great in each of us, service turns us toward God and makes us better than if we were turned around gnawing on our little morsels.  It gives us a feast of godliness and holiness to consume, and makes us part of something greater than ourselves.

So in the end, when we devote our lives to serving God and our fellow man, we are not simply turned into ourselves, with our own base lusts and our own petty hurts; instead, we are sons and daughters of the Most High, animated with the greatest principles and blessed with the highest ordinances an almighty God has to offer.  Let us serve!

Life Rafts

Imagine yourself in a rubber inflatable life raft.  Tragedy has struck, and you are among a small group of survivors in a handful of these precarious craft bobbing in the middle of a vast ocean.  Resources are limited.

Now imagine that a huge luxury cruise liner pulls up beside you.  The Captain announces over the bullhorn that He is offering you free passage to a paradise destination, and all you must do is climb the ladder they are lowering to you.

However, some of the other survivors don't seem to understand the choice before them: they are consumed with making what they believe are life-and-death choices, such as which life rafts have fewer holes in them, which holes should be patched using the limited repair kits, and how to make extra fishing line.  When asked about the cruise liner, several people stated they couldn't understand what the Captain had said over the bullhorn.  One person stated that it was unreasonable to ask a survivor to climb such a distance.  Another said that since only one person could ascend up the ladder at a time, that the system was prejudiced and unjust.

Another survivor mocked the ship, saying that he couldn't see for certain that the people so far up were any better off.  Another cursed the liner for blocking the sun and making such a huge wake; this, he said, made it harder for the survivors on the water's surface to make their own decisions.

You decide to climb the ladder to the ship's deck above.  It's a tiring journey, and at first, it appears dangerous.  As you climb, however, you realize that the ladder is also being pulled up.  The people above are helping you climb.

It's still fatiguing, though, both physically and emotionally.  As you pass many portholes on your way up, you see beautiful people enjoying sumptuous meals and several types of engaging entertainment.  You wonder how you will fit in and whether you even want to associate with them,  You are, at once, jealous of their comfort, and angry that some of them don't see you.  Some do see you and shout encouragement.  This keeps up your motivation, and you start to approach the top.

This is the most difficult part of the climb.  The ladder doesn't appear to be moving anymore, you have blisters on your hands and your bare feet are cut up.  It would be easy to slip back down to the world you know rather than go on...so you have to make a choice.  Do you give up the life raft entirely?  Once you go over that railing, there's no turning back.  What do you do?

When we decide to follow Jesus Christ, we embark on a road that is both hard and easy.  As the Lord said, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden in light."  He tells us strait off the bat that there is a burden associated with following Him, but it is a light burden.  And why is it light?   Because it is only temporary.  Eventually we arrive at the deck above, and our souls are saved.  Eventually (though it seems like a long time) the exertion is done, our trial is over, and we are headed to paradise.

So let's stay on that strait and narrow road, even if some people on it don't quite meet our expectations.  Let's climb the ladder to be rescued, and in the end when we tumble over the railing, we'll find peace and healing beyond compare.  Let those who want to remain on the water--our home is far above.

Walking with Jesus

In the hymn above, the singer pleads to the Lord that Jesus walk with him through the many phases and facets of his life.  There are good sentiments in it, but I suggest that perhaps it's a bit wrong-footed.  Instead of praying that Jesus walk with us, we should be praying that we walk with Jesus.

I remember that when the Savior walked the earth, He did not batter down doors offering to heal the embittered souls who blamed God for their misfortune, nor did He allow those who were spiritually healed to sit on their laurels and do nothing but praise.  Instead, He called on men to forsake all to follow Him; He had a blind man wash mud out of his eyes, a centurion beg a Jew for a favor, and he had Jairus to go to the social trouble of putting out the professional mourners.  He constantly required people to stretch, to move, to change.

Does this mean that by following the commandments we're buying our salvation with good works, that somehow we are creating or deserving the grace of God?  Of course not.  But just like a baby being born is, in its own way, working to twist and turn and assist in birth, so we have to turn our souls toward God to fully accept the grace the He would freely give to us, if we would but let Him.