Every Man in His Hour, and in His Time, and in His Season

I wish I had exciting things to report about my life each week, but these days, things are pretty much just made up of lecture preparation and teaching between BYU and UVU.  But I am having a wonderful time.  My class on the Doctrine and Covenants has been one of the most wonderful experiences I've ever had, as it has reacquainted me with sections of scripture that I had probably not visited in many years.  It is a wonderful blessing to be able to rediscover verses and chapters that I had forgotten.

One of these sections is D&C 88.  Granted, I have visited it more recently than several of the other sections because D&C is chalk full of inspiration--from a teacher's perspective, there is way to much there to be able to deal with in class.  But nestled in the middle of this revelation are some teachings about timing that are of infinite value.

In verses 51-61, the Lord gives the Saints a short parable about a man who sent twelve servants out into the fields to labor, promising each that he would come unto them and labor with them, each in their own appointed time and place.  True to his promise, he visited each of his servants, going "unto the first in the first hour, and tarried with him all that hour" until he "withdrew from the first that he might visit the second also, and the third, and the fourth, and so on unto the twelfth" (D&C 88:56-57).  And then comes this revelatory insight:  "And thus they all received the light of the countenance of their lord, every man in his hour, and in his time, and in his season . . . Every man in his own order, until his hour was finished, even according as his lord had commanded him, that his lord might be glorified in him, and he in his lord, that they all might be glorified" (D&C 88:58, 60).  Every single one of the Lord's servants was privileged with the incomparable blessing of His presence; each in his own time and season, until each one was glorified with the Lord.

There are few messages more difficult to accept than the message of God's timing.  When we look around us and see others receiving great blessings and sometimes being blessed more than once with blessings that we so deeply desire but presently lack, it is difficult to accept the fact that God does indeed love and care for us.  It is difficult to remember that perhaps during our own times and seasons of His rich blessings, those whom we so often envy may be called to pass through their own moments of waiting and heartache.  It is difficult to remember that God loves and desires to bless all of His children, and that a much-desired blessing bestowed upon another does not mean that God has forgotten or forsaken us.  If, for this blessing or that desire, we seem to find ourselves last in the pecking order, we can be comforted by the fact that if we are faithful, "the days will come that [we] shall see [God]; for he will unveil his face unto [us], and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will" (D&C 88:68).  Contemplating the magnitude of that blessing, perhaps we can be patient and accept that God's time, way, and will are higher and grander than our own timing, ways, and wills.  Yes, there are times when we are called to wait.  And during those times we will invariably see others whose blessings are coming at the very moment when we are waiting.  But God's grace and blessings are sufficient to glorify us all and are worth the wait.

Brett