Perhaps it is just the fact that I am now at the dissertation stage, but I just don't feel like I have much to write about right now. It has been one of those weeks where in evaluating my progress, I just don't seem to feel like I have much to say that is new and worthwhile. This has left me wondering what is the best way to move past our own mental blocks, the things inside that keep us from progressing and cause us to believe falsehoods about ourselves? What is it that allowed Shakespeare to turn beautiful phrase after beautiful phrase? What allowed Beethoven to consistently create beautiful and elevating music? How is it that Michelangelo's sculptures and frescos each cause us to turn our hearts toward the heavens and contemplate the Divine? Yes, each of these men was a prodigy in their own respective sphere and the world has created few such men. Yet I believe that there is within each of us the capacity for genuine and consistent greatness.
Right now I'm not sure that I have the answers as to how we unlock the greatness within us. Of of a few things, however, I am certain. I am certain that we are the sons and daughters of a Perfect Being. He authored the plan of life and salvation, and He details that plan to us in words of beauty and eloquence spoken through His Prophets. His abilities as an artist created the grandeur of the mountains, the unrelenting beauty of the seas, and the serene vista of a brilliant sunset. He composed the songs of the birds and the other animals of the forest, whose voices combine with the wind through the trees to create a veritable symphony of nature that even the most talented of musicians is unable to fully replicate. And we are all His children.
I am certain that He has created us for greatness. To each of His children, He extends the offer of salvation and the promise of exaltation and fullness to all the faithful. There is not one of his children that has lived upon this earth or who will yet live upon it who is incapable of receiving "all that the Father hath" through the power of His Son's atonement and through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.
I am certain that God believes in our abilities to succeed and rise to this greatness. While He asks us to believe in Him, surely He believes in us. No matter how many days we may feel as though we are simply not enough, He believes in us and calls out to us to come "unto a perfect man" and to rise "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).
I am certain that "man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend" (Mosiah 4:9). Honestly, there are a lot of days when I am baffled by the thought that God believes in me and believes in my abilities to become as He is. But here we must trust that He knows more and understands us more deeply than we know and understand ourselves. There are things we cannot see and principles which we do not yet comprehend that, if combined with the atonement of Christ through faith and repentance, can lift us to greatness and help us to achieve our eternal aims. But in order to achieve such ends, we must learn to believe.
On days like today, I am grateful for these certainties and I am grateful for the hope of eternal greatness in and through the mercy of our perfect Savior and our Eternal Father.
Brett
What an inspiring post, Brett! I love the idea that even though we might not know exactly what we're destined for, we can be assured that God has a plan for us and it will be, to borrow a phrase, a "great and marvelous work." As the hymn says, "it may not be on the mountain high, or over the stormy sea," or in other worldly places of greatness, but we each have a divine purpose that no one else can accomplish. This reminds me of one of President Uchtdorf's talks where he tells listeners that it doesn't matter whether we work in "marble halls or stable stalls." As long as we are doing our best to serve and love the Lord and his children, that's what matters.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking a lot lately about what sort of legacy I will leave behind me and who will be there to care about it. It gets a little heavy and sad at times, but this post helps to remind me that my gifts, my contributions to this life are indeed necessary. Maybe I should focus more on developing the spiritual gifts the Lord has given me -- and discovering those I haven't found yet -- instead of worrying about the rest of it, eh?
Have a great rest of your week and remember that Qatar is not a village and Russia is not in the Middle East. :) Love ya!
I think I meant a "marvelous work and a wonder," but you get my drift. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Steph! I think we all come to a point where we start wondering about the legacy we are leaving and who remember us. But the truth is that each of us influences others in ways that we don't fully understand. When we strive to serve the Lord, we make a difference. I don't know how many times I've watched you find a $5 bill in your purse for the homeless person who is hungry, or how often you've found time to visit a friend who just needs some company and happiness for a few minutes. Those things are seldom memorialized in history books, but I am confident that they are memorialized in the hearts and memories of those you served. At the last day I expect that such memorials will shine more brightly than accomplishments chiseled into granite monuments.
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