Where This People Are, There is Good Society

Joseph and Hyrum Smith Leaving Nauvoo

Even though I don't have any classes, this seems like it has been one of the longest semesters of my life, but all of the sudden I am getting ready to receive student finals on Saturday and begin grading.  All of the sudden, it is 90 degrees outside and the car is uncomfortably hot when I get into it after it has been in the sun for a few hours.  All of the sudden, I am realizing that I will be home in Utah within a little more than two weeks.

With some of these thoughts on my mind, I've experienced an interesting mixture of emotions and memories today.  Almost three years ago when I came to Texas, it was the most difficult move I had ever been asked to make.  When I first visited TCU in January 2011, I knew that it was where I was supposed to be.  I felt comfortable with the professor who was to become my advisor and I felt comfortable with the city.  Still as the time to move to Texas that August drew near, I became more and more aware of the fact that I was being asked to step out into the unknown and move to a place where I knew only a few people and had no family.  My Dad kindly drove down with me (a drive he and I have made together several other times since) and helped me to get situated.  A few days later I had to drop him off at the airport and I was on my own.  I must confess that many times between that day and now, I have felt quite lonely and I have wondered if my time in Texas would ever come to an end--despite spending summers and the Christmas holiday at home.  Knowing how challenging it was for me to be geographically isolated from my family, my Mom often told me that the time would come when it would be time to leave and it would feel as though I was leaving home.

I generally doubted my mom's prophecy, yet today as I thought about all these things, I found that my Mom had been right.  As I bore my testimony in my ward today (we have stake conference next week), I realized how many wonderful people I had met here and how important this time in Texas has been to my life.  And I recalled a couple of quotes from the Prophet Joseph Smith which seemed to describe what I have experienced.  Less than a year before his death, Joseph spoke to the Saints and said, "Where this people are, there is good society.  What do we care where we are, if the society be good? . . . Friendship is one of the grand fundamental principles of Mormonism; it is designed to revolutionize and civilize the world. . . . Let us pour forth love" (TPJS, 316).  Then, as he was leaving Nauvoo for the final time, Joseph stopped at the Temple, admiring it and then gazing back towards Nauvoo, and said, "'This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens'" (TPJS, 379).  I couldn't help but feel that way about the members of the Colleyville YSA Ward, the Fossil Ridge Ward, and the Highland Station Ward who took me in and loved me as a brother in the gospel.  I wasn't always fellowshipped perfectly, but I didn't always open myself up to fellowship and certainly didn't fellowship others perfectly.

Among the many principles that I have learned during my sojourn in Texas is the truth that where people strive to live the gospel of Jesus Christ--falteringly and failingly as we do--there will be friendship, love, and good society.  Of course there are failings among the Saints and even in the Church.  People are not always what we wish they would be and this is true of ourselves.  But such imperfections allow us to learn the principles of repentance, forgiveness, love, and mercy, taking turns as both the sinner and the sinned against.  At the end of the day, and often to our surprise, God will open our eyes and our hearts to the goodness of our fellow Saints.  He will show us that even among strangers in new ward, we can find "good society."  He will make for us a home where it had seemed we were alone.

For all these blessings, and for good society among the Saints, I am indeed grateful.

Brett

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

Triumphal Entries

Happy Easter Week!  This is the closest that Easter has ever (and unless I'm mistaken, can ever) been to my birthday!  This was a great week.  I went over to SMU on Friday and looked through an account book for Brigham Young's family.  For the most part a list of individual purchases by various people wasn't tremendously interesting (they bought a lot of fabric and sewing supplies), but there were a few things that I think will be of value to the historian I work for.  After that I went to this fantastic French restaurant in Dallas and enjoyed a delicious chocolate souffle which I had been wanting to try for some time.  It was fun even being their on my own.

For the Christian world, today is known as Palm Sunday, the day commemorating the Savior's triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of the week that would culminate in His suffering in Gethsemane, His trials, scouring, and crucifixion, and finally with His triumphal resurrection.  It was the week of weeks!  Eight days that defined eternity and made the Gospel efficacious for all mankind!

Speaking of the Triumphal Entry, Luke tells us, "And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest" (Luke 19:37-38)  The scene was so striking that "some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples" (Luke 19:39), but the Savior responded, "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:40).  There was a time and a place for subdued witnesses, but this was not one of them.  In this moment, all Jerusalem was to know Him and know that He was the King and the Son of David.

I love the image of this event.  In understanding it, it is helpful to consider the geography.  It began near the top of the Mount of Olives, a Mount where the Savior will one day save and finally be recognized by His people (see Zechariah 12:10; D&C 45:51-53).  From there, on the back of a donkey, the Savior descended down the mountain, passing by Gethsemane and through the Kidron Valley, and then he finally ascended up into Jerusalem, culminating His journey at the Temple.

That short journey prefigured the plan of Salvation and His Atoning mission.  Called by His Father, the Savior had descended from His exalted sphere to the earth.  In the short space of 34 years, this King came to earth, spending time amongst men, and experiencing all of the struggles of mortality.  He descended below all things, a descent that took Him through Gethsemane.  In addition to Gethsemane, the Kidron Valley contained places where people were buried and also places where waste and garbage was disposed of.  Although the path into Jerusalem did not go through these waste places, travelers were hardly unaware of their presence.  While this route bypassed such refuse, the Savior's journey through mortality and particularly his time in Gethsemane and upon the Cross took Him directly through this world's most troubling places of waste and refuse.  Of necessity, He had to descend below all things in order to ascend above all things.  And ascend He did.  Just as his path took him back up out of the Kidron Valley into Jerusalem, the holy city and a mountain of its own, capped with a Temple at its pinnacle, so the Savior's path through this life's deepest valleys took Him back up into the presence of His Father and His Father's Kingdom.  Christ in essence prefigured His own triumphal entry into heaven.

But because Christ made this journey, including both His descent and His ascent, so can each of us.  Each of us has left the same high and holy station and the presence of our Father.  In one way or another, we descend and pass through the trials and struggles and waste places of life.  But because of the Savior, we need not remain there.  Each of us, through His power, has the capacity to ascend up into the Holy City, unto the presence of our Eternal Father and His Divine Son.  Because of Christ's triumphal entry, each of us can likewise enjoy our own triumphal entry into Heaven.  And surely this is a message worthy of rejoicing and praise!

Brett

A Prophet in Israel

President Thomas S. Monson

This has been a wonderful General Conference and one of the most direct and pointed ones that I can remember.  Last night as I walked away from the Priesthood Session, I felt a renewed and strengthened assurance that we are led by Prophets of God and that my duty is to learn to serve the Lord and His children with greater devotion.  This April, perhaps more than ever, I have gained a witness of just how much we need these bi-annual meetings.  Indeed, sometimes six months seems too long between them. But we absolutely need the peace and direction that comes from on high in these wonderful conferences.

As I thought about conference this morning, I was reminded of an event that happened in 1974.  President Lee had died just a few months earlier.  He had been young and vigorous, a prophet in his 70s and the Church was expecting him to lead for at least a decade (imagine if Elder Holland or President Uchtdorf were the President right now).  And then he was gone.  Elder Nelson described his feelings as being "shocked and struck with grief" as he "mourned for the loss of this giant in the kingdom."  Even five years later and having been filled with a deep conviction that President Kimball as to be the President of the Church, the sudden loss of President Lee seems to have troubled Elder Nelson until it was given to him to understand that "his sudden death in December 1973 was brought about as an act of love and mercy" from the Lord (Russell M. Nelson, From Heart to Heart: The Autobiography of Russell M. Nelson, 159-60).

Into President Lee's place stepped President Spencer W. Kimball, who by that point had already endured serious battles with throat cancer and heart disease.  Some members accordingly expected that he would not be around for long and they would need to wait for another, more vigorous and healthy President to move the Lord's Church forward.  But God does not work that way.  His Kingdom depends more upon willing hearts and faith than upon vigorous and youthful bodies, and President Kimball had the faith and willingness to move mountains.

On April 4, 1974, at a meeting of the Regional Representatives (the precursors to the Area Authority Seventies), President Kimball began urging the Church to lengthen its stride and push the work of the Lord forward in dynamic and faith-filled ways.  He called for the expansion of our missionary efforts and for greater levels of worthiness, promising that miracles would attend the Lord's kingdom as we made these efforts.  He asked the members of the Church, "Are we prepared to lengthen our stride?  To enlarge our vision?"  He then said, "Remember, our ally is our God.  He is our commander.  He made the plans.  He gave the commandment" (Spencer W. Kimball, "When the World Will Be Converted," Ensign, October 1974, 4-5).

This was clearly a landmark address.  Following his talk, President Ezra Taft Benson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve, arose and said, "President Kimball, our hearts rejoice in this masterful address.  I think I can say very safely that no greater address has been given before any seminar--nothing more timely. . . . I am sure we all join in saying God bless you and thank you.  Surely there is no doubt, my brethren, after this message this morning that there is in very deed a prophet in Israel" (quoted in Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, December 1985, 10).

In the midst of questions and worries and doubts, the Lord reminded his people that there was a Prophet in Israel.  Any who were filled with doubts and worries quickly saw that the Lord was at the helm and that He was directing His Kingdom through His servants.  In one way or another, this story has played out a hundred different times in the history of the Church.  Again this weekend as I heard President Monson bear testimony of the Savior and of our call to love God and to love one another, I had that renewed witness that "Surely there is no doubt . . . that there is in very deed a prophet in Israel," for which I thank the Lord.

Brett