It's Far Better to Sail than Row...

I don't know much about sailing, but I imagine it is a lot easier when the wind is blowing. Even if its a bit strong, it certainly means that if you know what you are doing, it will get you where you want to go faster. On the other hand, I don't imagine sailing in no wind is very fun. I personally have tried my hand at rowing once in a small lake in Jackson Hole, I ended up beached several times. We needed rescuing. Rowing just isn't very fun if you have to do it for a long time.

I was thinking about life in this way. When the wind blows, or when we have trials, if we adjust our sails (submit our will to God) than we can go very far in life. Adversely, when we have calm times in our lives, if we choose to progress, the oars must come out. It is much harder to progress in calm. It takes a lot more work, effort, and awareness. And so, God, in His mercy, usually blows us "toward the promised land" (Ether 6:8), for is always better to sail than to row.

God, before he sent each of his children to earth,

gave each of them a very carefully selected package of problems.

These, he promises smiling, are yours and yours alone.

No one else may have the blessings these problems bring you.

And only you have the special talents and abilities that will be needed to make these problems your servants.

Now you go down, to your birth and to your forgetfulness … know that I love you beyond measure.

These problems I give you are a symbol of my love.

The monument that you make of your life …

with the help of your problems …

will be a symbol of your love for me.

Your Father

-poet unknown

Remember

Any friend of the Green family became family after this rite of passage: if they knew what to do if the smoke detector went off. Our smoke detectors are incredible sensitive so that even slightly burned toast sets them off. So of course, dinner always included setting the smoke detectors off and rather than causing any sort of panic we simply had a fool proof procedure:

1) Open the side door

2) Grab the broom

3) Use the broom to waft the smoke out the door while some one else moved the door back and forth for extra wind power.

Everyone knew their place and position so it was usually a very seamless operation. Needless to say, the smoke alarm going off was never a source of panic or fear in our household.

One Sunday morning we were all laying asleep and the smoke alarm went off. It was about 5 or so in the morning so all I remember thinking is "who in the world cooked toast this early?" and I rolled over and went back to bed. But the sound didn't stop. I waited a whole hour annoyed that no one was running through the well known "smoke alarm drill". Finally I hear my Dad calls us down and we groggily go downstairs to find an actual fire in our kitchen. We call the fire department right away and thankfully the fire was out quickly with little damage to our home. I sat in shock as I actually remembered what smoke alarms were for; to warn us of fire-not call us down because dinner was ready.

In life we often get so used to how something is that it loses its meaning and power. The scriptures constantly warn us to "remember". Remember our covenants, remember our fathers, remember our blessings, and most of all, remember our Savior and our Heavenly Father. Things within the gospel of Jesus Christ are generally repetitive  Often we can let repetition destroy the power and wisdom of God's words to us. We can allow spiritual experiences that happen to us frequently to lose their impact on us. We can let miracles become a matter of course. We let feeling the Lord's love for us to be commonplace. We allow all the beauty of all the works of God to become like a sensitive smoke detector and we begin to not give them a second thought, or, worse yet, we begin to forget what they are really supposed to do for us in our lives. I testify that just as dangerous as it was for us to ignore the fire in our house because we'd let the smoke alarm become so meaningless to us, I know that whenever we begin to let prayer, or church, or scripture study, or miracles, or blessings, or the love of those around us, and most of all our relationship with Christ and God to become meaningless than we are subject to any kind of spiritual disaster this world can have in store for us. And that is why we must always remember, that is why we must never "go through the motions", for God will always remember us, and God will forever treat us with His full attention and compassion no matter how often our "smoke alarm goes off" to Him.

Alma 36:27-29

1 Nephi 7:10-12

1 Nephi 18:21

1 Nephi 21:15

The Science of Faith Part 3

Chemical vs Physical Change

I was in the seventh grade when I was educated in the difference between a chemical and physical change. A physical change doesn't change what the object is-it just changes its appearance. If need be it could be brought back again to its normal state. Like tearing a paper in half or sand papering a block of wood physical changes have little to do with what the substance ends up becoming. On the other hand chemical changes occur when the object's make up is actually altered to the point where the object can no longer go back to what it was before. It would be like lighting a log on fire and having it turn into ash-it is a completely new substance that cannot be turned back into wood. Chemical change often alters the appearance, but most importantly-it changes what the object is forever.

My new companion Sister Streeter has a song that is called "That's What Faith Can Do". As I listen to it I can't help but add to the list of miracles, faith can accomplish the miracle of change. True faith in the Savior and in His Atonement means that we come out of the experience a "new creature", "born again", "having no more a disposition to do evil"; in essence we have a "mighty change of heart" (Mosiah 5:2)(Enos 1:4-8). On the other hand, insufficient faith in what the Savior can and will do to our lives if we let Him results only in a temporary change in demeanor or action-in other words our heart changes not at all. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has a purpose far greater than changing our actions or our outward appearance; it has the power to envelope us into a new way of thinking, feeling, acting and being. I was once told that if I had faith in the Atonement I would realize that there "was nothing its love couldn't heal, nothing its power cannot make right" and as I exercise faith I am beginning to see that is the case. I know with all my heart that His Gospel is a Gospel of change-powerful enough to make us entirely new people that can and never will go back to who we were before. If we truly wish to experience "a mighty change of heart" than we must undergo the spiritual "chemical change" available only to those that believe and act on their belief in Christ, for His reply to this change in us has and always will be the same,

"be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole." 

Luke 8:48

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland

(To read full talk click here, to watch click below)