My talk in Church today:
I’ve had some
interesting experiences this week at work. I found a $16,000 error. It was in
the wrong place and had overdrawn an account. After that was fixed, I asked for
help and we found a separate $2,000 error. That was fixed and we were able to
correct a different error I had made over the summer. I felt very good about
those “finds”. I got good feedback and felt a bit smug and perhaps even
arrogant. I am working at leaving everything clean and ready for the new
person, who ever that will be. I am also working on desk procedures. It is a
busy time.
A new girl
was hired and she is working for the Dean. Perhaps because of the previous
errors found, she was reviewing my accounts. The accounts I was trying to be so
careful about fixing and cleaning up. She found an error that had been there
for two months, that I had just overlooked. It was at the bottom of the page
and in a different category. I had simply failed to recognize it.
This discovered
mistake pointed out to me that I had been a bit too casual in that one area of
the report. Curiously, instead of being grateful, I was irritated. What was she
doing poking around in my report and my budget? Didn’t she think I could do my
job? I researched the charge and talked to the professor who made the charge.
Since I started back to work after summer break, I had been working with him
getting things straightened out. He had just run his field school and was
learning the accounting side of things. We had thought we had got it all
cleared up. When I asked him about this one last thing, he became frustrated
also.
We both
thought we had been careful. When the last thing still to do was pointed out to
us, we almost went away sorrowing – like the rich young man in the New
Testament. (Mark 10:17 – 22).
What is it
about being shown the last thing to do that almost breaks us?
As I’ve been
pondering this topic this week, I have seen things that I normally wouldn’t
have. Even when we think we are being careful, we might still need correction.
As that correction comes, we should be humble and grateful for the assistance,
because we all want the same thing.
Fortunately
for all involved, the professor and I overcame our frustration and pride and
worked to correct the mistake. We all hope it will be the last from the field
school and we will move on to correct other mistakes.
Yesterday as
I read Sister Craven’s talk, Careful vs. Casual, I recognized these new
lessons. I then thought of Alma chapter 5.
Alma had recently given up the Judgement Seat and had devoted himself to
the ministry. He started at home with the people of Zarahemla. This chapter is
one of the longest in the Book of Mormon. I have found it easy to read for what
I love in this chapter and gloss over the rest. Not a careful way to read. I am
in the process of becoming less casual in how I approach this chapter. I’m sure
we all love the famous verses such as verse 14, “And now behold, I ask of you,
my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye
received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change
in your hearts?” and then we skip to vs 26, “And now behold, I say unto you, my
brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing
the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” However, there
are lovely verses in between those two famous ones. Verses that deserve a
careful reading.
And later in
the same chapter, Alma gives us the key to finding truth. Not” our personal
truth”, but The Truth. The Truth that never changes. In verses 45-46 he says:
“And this is not all.
Do ye not suppose that I know of myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do
know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose
that I know of their surety?
Behold, I say unto you they are made know unto me by the Holy
Spirit of God. Behold I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know
these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the
Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the
spirit of revelation which is in me.”
This brings
me back to the Old Testament. In Numbers people in the Camp of Israel
were
prophesying, and they weren’t Moses. Some of the leadership asked Moses to
forbid them. He responded in vs 29, “. . . enviest thou for my sake? Would God
that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his
spirit upon them,”.
Alma has
already told us how to achieve that. We must have questions and then take those
questions to the Lord in fasting and prayer. It is a careful process. And even
when we have a testimony or our initial answers, it still takes “many days”. It
is an essential labor that we must perform to receive the promised blessing of
knowledge.
It goes
against our current culture to be so careful. To look for The Truth. To spend
many days in search of answers. To think and ponder rather than post and tweet.
Sometimes
even when we have been used to getting answers in a timely fashion, Heaven
decrees we must wait upon the Lord and accept his timing. Joseph Smith as a
young boy asked a question in prayer and received an immediate answer. An
answer that changed his life and the life of millions of people. That answer
has impacted my life and the life of my family for generations and hopefully
will continue to do so.
Nineteen
years after he asked his initial question and received his immediate response,
nineteen years of receiving answers to sincere questions, Joseph found himself
in a filthy pit, seemingly abandoned. His wife and children had to weather the
winter and the unrest without him. The infant Church had to function without
him. He languished in filth far away from those he loved. In those
circumstances he wrote some of the most beautiful verses of scripture, “O God,
where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covert thy hiding place?” (D&C
121:1)
When he felt rejected and cast off, wondering where God was, he wrote
about being chosen. (vs 34) When he was unjustly incarcerated, he wrote about
righteous leadership. (vs36 – 39). When he was surrounded by hatred and
bitterness, he wrote about “gentleness, . . . and love unfeigned” (vs 41).(See
Lesson from Liberty Jail, Sept 2009, Holland.)
Joseph Smith
showed us that there is no time to become casual, not even when he felt lost
and that Heaven was no longer listening to his prayers.
Sister
Craven listed some ways that we could evaluate ourselves on how carefully we
were living the gospel, not as many as Alma, but certainly with knowledgeable
insight to the current culture. How do we observe the Sabbath Day? Are we
studying the scriptures? Do we attend the temple and keep our covenants? How do
we dress? How do we minister? What do we watch and read? How do we speak? Are
we holding fast to the Iron Rod? Will our path take us to the tree, or merely
near to it?
May we ever
be careful as we walk this path of discipleship. May we be humble enough to
accept correction. May we seek for Light and Truth as we feel surrounded by
darkness. To quote President Monson, “may we ever choose the harder right,
instead of the easier wrong.”
