​"Lord, to whom shall we go?" Charting the Course of the Church from Here to the Second Coming: Part 5

Survival

What is the most important survival skill? 

Is it: 

   - Purifying water?
   - Skinning a dear?
   - Planting a garden?
   - Knowing all the celebrity guest appearances on the Simpsons?
   - None of the above?

Well, others have said (and I think they're right):

The Award for Most-Important-Survival-Skill goes to. . .

   ATTITUDE.

A Personal Lesson Learned

This past weekend I was feeling discouraged. 

I didn't realize it right away.  From time to time, I think, we all experience ennui or nihilistic thoughts.  We question whether anything we do really matters.  

   Or maybe it's just me?

So I began to wonder why I was feeling "off."  I traced the thread back to its origin: last Thursday, when I had a passing thought, "Why do I bother to write this blog?  Does it make any difference?  Is it worth my time?  Are there better things I should be doing?"

(You're probably thinking, "Yes Tim, give up now.  Before you make a bigger fool of yourself.  Pretty please.")

As I pondered these feelings of futility and their source, I had another thought.

The thought formed in my mind as the word unwearyingness.  And I began to think about what 'unwearyingness' means.  And bit by bit, I saw it in a new way.

I don't know how you recognize the Spirit when it is talking to you, but for me, the voice of the Spirit is usually a blend of (1) gentle reproof, mixed with (2) non-judgmental acceptance. 

Does that seem contradictory? 

​Is it strange to feel at once the need to improve something but also to be reassured that God loves us completely?

I have come to call this feeling, "Edification."

Edification

I feel edified when I sense God looking at me (through me), warts and all, as I stand before Him with his light highlighting all my shameful parts (like a blacklight shining on the coffee stains of my spirit) ― but the weird thing is I don't feel ashamed or defensive because I know what He sees in me is the raw, naked truth ― the real me ― and I don't get the feeling that God is disappointed in me or is judging me ― just that He loves me and knows I will be happier and healthier if I work on this thing, this character defect, and He wants to help me do it.  

    And that which doth not edify
    is not of God, and is darkness.

    That which is of God is light;
    and he that receiveth light,
    and continueth in God,
    receiveth more light;
    and that light groweth
    brighter and brighter
    until the perfect day.

(D&C 50:23-24)

Maybe "edification" is the hope we feel when coming unto Christ ― while we are not like Him now, we have faith He will not forsake or abandon us. 

I hope I am not crazy.  I hope this feeling that God understands us totally without any condemnation, and yet wants us to reach our divine potential by making positive improvements, is real for all of us. 

I wish I could express this better. 

Have you ever felt uplifted even as you viewed your own imperfection, like going to a doctor who says, "You've got this disease, but I am going to treat you and together we're going to beat this thing."

   Christ is our Physician.

Well, maybe the voice of the Spirit speaks to you in a different way.  But for me, it makes me chuckle whenever the Spirit gives me a good kick in the pants and tells me to stop being an idiot.

   It's gonna be okay.

"Unwearyingness"

Now here's the part where I learned a lesson.

I had always thought of "unwearyingness" as being about hard work, something related to our physical stamina as we served the Lord.

For example, the prophet Ether.  We are told:

   He could not be restrained
   because of the Spirit of the Lord
   which was in him. 

   For he did cry from the morning,
   even until the going down of the sun,
   exhorting the people to believe
   in God unto repentance
   lest they should be
   destroyed.

(Ether 12:2-3)

​Ether was a hard worker.  As a missionary, I used to feel exhausted but kept knocking on doors, thinking I couldn't take a break for fear I would miss someone who was ready to hear the good news of the gospel.  

So I used to think "unwearyingly" meant skipping lunch breaks and burning the midnight oil. 

Joseph Smith said that:

   We should waste and wear out our lives
   in bringing to light all the hidden things
   of darkness, wherein we know them.

(D&C 123:13)

But I want to focus on another connotation of unwearyingness, beyond that of diligence and hard work.

I want to talk about spiritual and mental unwearyingness. 

   Thou hast with unwearyingness
   declared the word,
   which I have given unto thee,
   unto this people.

(Helaman 10:4)

​I began to see a connection between "unwearyingness" and enduring to the end.

Remember what had caused my discouragement?  I had been thinking about whether this blog was doing any good, or if the world needed another maniac with a keyboard opining on gospel subjects online, or whether I should call it quits . . . 

Mental and spiritual fatigue is as real as physical exhaustion (especially when we see no fruits from our labor, or worse, face opposition). 

Maybe I was feeling just a taste of what Nephi felt on his garden tower, indulging in a little self-pity perhaps, as he saw the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment-seats — having usurped the power and authority of the land, laying aside the commandments of God:

"Oh, that I could have had my days in the days when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem, that I could have joyed with him in the promised land; then were his people easy to be entreated, firm to keep the commandments of God, and slow to be led to do iniquity; and they were quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord --

"Yea, if my days could have been in those days, then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren.

"But behold, I am consigned that these are my days, and that my soul shall be filled with sorrow because of this the wickedness of my brethren.

"O, how could you have forgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you?

"But behold, it is to get gain, to be praised of men, yea, and that ye might get gold and silver. And ye have set your hearts upon the riches and the vain things of this world."

(Helaman 7:7-9, 20-21)

   See?  We all have bad days.

Law of the Harvest

If you knew that you were dying tomorrow, how would you live differently today?

Would you max out your credit cards?  Would you skip work and tell the people you love goodbye?

Would a farmer plant his field, knowing he wouldn't live to see the harvest?

Would we continue to warn our neighbors against priestcraft and idolatry when they continue to ignore us?

Well, that is where "unwearyingness" comes into play. 

We continue laboring in the work God has called us to, even if we can't tell it is making any difference.

   I have planted,
   Apollos watered;
   but God gave the increase.

   So then neither is he that planteth
   any thing, neither he that watereth;
   but God that giveth the increase.

   Now he that planteth
   and he that watereth are one:
   and every man shall receive
   his own reward according
   to his own labour.

   For we are labourers
   together with God.

(1 Cor. 3:6-9)

As we careen closer to the coming calamity, we can relax. 

​God has a plan that stretches across eternal lives and countless worlds.

We can just keep doing what God has asked us to do, even if no else cares.  

   He does.

Father, Where Shall I Work Today?

   Father, where shall I work today?
   And my love flowed warm and free.
   Then He pointed me out a tiny spot,
   And said, “Tend that for me.”

   I answered quickly, “Oh, no, not that.
   Why, no one would ever see,
   No matter how well my work was done.
   Not that little place for me!”

   And the word He spoke, it was not stern,
   He answered me tenderly,
   “Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;
   Art thou working for them or me?

      Nazareth was a little place,
      And so was Galilee.”

("Father, Where Shall I Work Today?" Meade McGuire)

Shall We Press On in So Great a Cause?

Nephi said to  just keep pressing forward with a steadfastness (i.e. unwearyingness) in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and all men.   

   We love God.  
   We love all men.

So I am not giving up.  I am not going to stop declaring those things that God has placed in me like fire shut up in my bones. 

And so here we go . . . charting the course of the Church from here to the Second Coming.

(And believe me, there will be many opportunities for all of us to exhibit our unwearyingness between now and then.)​