"Give Heed to This Compass": Part 12

A Life-Changing Moment

Once upon a time, when I was youthful and idealistic, when I still had a full head of hair and a head full of dreams of what the future might bring, as a college student standing at the crossroads of adulthood, I experienced something that changed my life.


This was after my mission when I was still an undergraduate at Brigham Young University ― and like most students, I was a Gordian knot of hormones and hopes, dreams and desires, fears and yearning.
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Looking back, it amazes me how brightly we burn in our 20s, like sparklers on the 4th of July that fizzle all-too-soon.

(It reminds of something Voltaire said: What most men call chastity is, after the age of 40, simply a lack of energy.)

Anyway, it was during this time that I experienced my "James 1:5 Moment."  

What is that?  Remember when Joseph Smith was "laboring under extreme difficulties" and read in his scriptures the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse?  

Joseph recalled:

   Never did any passage of scripture
   come with more power to the heart of man
   than this did at this time to mine.
   It seemed to enter with great force
   into every feeling of my heart.
   I reflected on it again and again.

(Joseph Smith History 1:12)

I know what Joseph Smith was talking about because I had a similar experience. 

You probably have experienced it too: a moment of spiritual awakening when the Spirit sears into your soul the word of God as if it were a branding iron.

   It leaves a mark, believe me.

Well, this kind of experience reset the trajectory of Joseph's life, and it altered the course mine.

But the funny part is the words of life we receive this way are not all the same. 

It's like the Spirit knows what we personally need to springboard us into our life's mission, the thing that will propel us into our Sacred Groves where God can teach us what we need to know in order to complete our journeys here below.

For example, Joseph needed to hear about God giving wisdom and upbraiding not; he needed God to tell him that none of the Churches were worth their weight in eternal gold, and to join none of them.

Me?  I had just turned on the water in the shower one afternoon (yes I know, receiving inspiration in the shower is so cliché; if I were making this up I would have invented a more fabulous setting, like a mountain top or swimming with sharks in the ocean) and I was wrestling with some difficult questions about the people I loved in my life.

Almost as soon as a question popped in my head, another voice jumped in with a verse from the New Testament, and the words came . . .

   alive. 

I don't know how else to explain it.  They took on new meaning.  It was like tasting food for the first time, really tasting it, as though my tongue had been numb my whole life.  

The feelings persisted for days, months, and now years.  It thrust me on a quest of sorts, for the holy grail we call the fruit of the Tree of Life.

Although these are Joseph's words, I can speak them as if they were my own:

   Never did any passage of scripture
   come with more power to the heart of man
   than this did at this time to mine.
   It seemed to enter with great force
   into every feeling of my heart.
   I reflected on it again and again.
 
Here I am, over twenty years later, and I am still processing and pondering and unpackaging the light that burst upon me in that instant.

The Words of Life

What were the words I "heard" that day? 

I'll share them with you in a minute.  But this story is not about me; I want to make sure you understand that this is about the way the Lord plants His words in us, as a seed, knowing that one day it will grow and bear fruit.

That's the point of his word: to bear fruit.

   I desire that ye shall plant this word
   in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell
   even so nourish it by your faith.
   And behold, it will become a tree,
   springing up in you unto everlasting life.

(Alma 33:23)

Why does Jesus call himself the "Word?"  What makes Him the Word of God?

What fruit does Christ bear?  I know He's the vine, but He also bears fruit, doesn't he?

Am I exaggerating when I say everlasting life is the Word of God?  

Look at how Mormon phrased it:

   I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
   I have been called of him to declare his word
   among his people, that they might have
   everlasting life.

(3 Nephi 5:13)

The saddest thing in the world is how we tell people to read their scriptures without teaching them how to plant His word in their hearts. 

   It's like baptizing a bag of sand. 

But when His word lives in us, we are "born again into the kingdom of heaven" ― which Enoch said is to "enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come" (Moses 6:59).

What Are the "Words of Life?"

In case that last part was confusing, let me put it another way:

We are born into the kingdom of heaven through the womb of Christ's words.

Does that help?  The water, Spirit and blood of Christ's words result in rebirth.  We are born again through Him as if he were our mother.

Peter testified to Christ, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).

Even though the words are His, they can become yours and mine when we allow Him to plant them in us.

So, to sum up, when the living Word is found in us, we have life everlasting.  We see, then, that everlasting life is not a status we reach, but a condition of being for all of us who already are eternal creatures, without beginning or end.

   And I, Jesus Christ, your Lord and your God,
   have spoken it.

   These words are not of men nor of man,
   but of me; wherefore, you shall testify
   they are of me and not of man;

   For it is my voice which speaketh
   them unto you; for they are given
   by my Spirit unto you, and by my power
   you can read them one to another;
   and save it were by my power
   you could not have them;

   Wherefore, you can testify
   that you have heard my voice,
   and know my words.

(D&C 18:33-36)

My James 1:5

I told you I would share the scripture that exploded my mind, and here it is.

I won't expound on it here, but if you've read this blog at all, then you know that everything I have written comes back to this.

   There is no fear in love;
   but perfect love casteth out fear:
   because fear hath torment.
   He that feareth
   is not made perfect
   in love.

(1 John 4:18)