Seeing Possibilities

Moses and the Messengers from Canaan, by Giovanni Lanfranco

Happy Easter!  I realized this year that this really ought to be my favorite holiday.  It is the celebration of celebrations; the joy of our deliverance from death and hell.  What a blessed opportunity this is to remember and be moved by the gift of our Redeemer!  And it comes at such a perfect season too.  It comes as the flowers, trees, grass, and every other pollen creating thing comes to life after the winter.  What better season to commemorate the gift of life and the beauty of our Savior's sacrifice!

Yesterday while reading President Eyring's recent biography, I Will Lead You Along and came across something that deeply impressed me.  In chapter 23 (I only have the E-book on hand), the authors wrote about one of President Eyring's final meetings with Elder Neal A. Maxwell.  The authors wrote the following:

"A few weeks before his passing, Elder Maxwell invited Hal to his home for a final interview.  Neal offered counsel for Hal's future service, delivering a message at once complimentary, gentle, and trenchant.  Neal said, 'Hal, you have a great mind and a gift for perceiving risks.  But if you're going to reach your full potential to contribute in the kingdom, you're going to have to become as good at seeing possibilities as you are at seeing pitfalls.  We need you to be a problem solver, not just a problem spotter.'"

This advice struck me as I was preparing my lesson on Numbers 11-14, 21, which includes the story of the 12 scouts/spies sent to survey the Promised Land in preparation for the journey of the Children of Israel.  They all came back with glowing reports of a land that "floweth with milk and honey" (Numbers 13:27), bringing some of the fruit as evidence of the land's bounty.  But ten of the twelve then began to point out the challenges, saying "Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great; and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. . . . We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we" (Numbers 13:28, 31).  In spite of all the miracles they had experienced, they had not yet learned that they could trust the Lord and His promises with implicit faith.

On far too many occasions, so it is with us.  We see the problems and the challenges and the pitfalls--all of which are real and which must be recognized--but rather than seeing new opportunities for God's hand to be revealed, we shrink in fear.  What a blessing it would be if we possessed the faith of Caleb and Joshua, who declared, "If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey" (Numbers 14:8).

May we learn to see life's possibilities as well as its problems!

Happy Easter!

Brett