The Greatest Love Story in the Universe

Today is Valentine's Day. It's the season of love. We spoke yesterday in our sacrament meeting at the request of the bishopric. They asked us to address the topic of eternal marriage and eternal life. 

So that started me thinking about what the greatest love stories in the universe might be. Would we think about a famous couple in history like Cleopatra and Mark Antony? Or Robin Hood and Maid Marian? Or maybe the fictional characters of Romeo and Juliet? Or Joseph and Emma Smith? Or how about John and Abigail Adams? What about Abraham and Sarah? Or even Dave and Patsy?

Then I looked a little deeper into the ramifications of love. It has to be more than platitudes in cards and candy shaped like hearts, or boxes of chocolates and dozens of roses. The greatest love of all involves a willingness to sacrifice all for the ones we love. If you're me, it could mean making a bed with way too many throw pillows on it. It means forsaking all others and focusing our affections on those for whom we have such natural affinity that we will willingly give all for them regardless of the cost.

Given those simple thoughts, I have to conclude that the greatest love story in the universe involves the love our Father in Heaven exhibits for each of His children in offering to them exaltation through the intervention and atonement of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Over the span of a lifetime it has settled on my heart that the magnitude of that gift is truly incalculable. Through Him we overcome spiritual and physical death. Would any of us like the role of being the Father and standing by as He watches His Son brutally tortured and nailed on a crude wooden cross and hung to die while bystanders ridiculed and tormented Him? Or would any of us volunteer to take the Savior’s place as the One crucified for all the sins of all the children of God? The cost seems too enormous to pay, either as the Father or the Son. But each paid that cost for us.

When we are born into mortality we come as William Wordsworth expressed it:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,

          Hath had elsewhere its setting

               And cometh from afar;

          Not in entire forgetfulness,

          And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

               From God, who is our home:

We lived as premortal spirits with our Father in Heaven. We knew Him. We spoke with Him. We were tutored by Him. Pure and innocent we were, but we yearned for a mortal experience where we could take upon ourselves a physical body and learn to distinguish for ourselves between good and evil. We knew there were risks, and we knew there would be hardships to endure, but none of that deterred us. We knew since the fall of Adam and Eve that a Savior and Redeemer would be provided to allow us to repent and do better day by day if our faith in Jesus Christ were in evidence. We knew we would be free to choose. We were among the seraphic hosts of heaven who shouted for joy when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden into the lone and dreary world. As we grow and develop, experiencing all the challenges, trials and temptations of mortality, we can be forgiven if we wonder now what everyone in heaven was shouting for joy about.

We progress to the day of baptism, when we pass through a “gate” and enter into the covenant path that stretches out before us as far as the eye can see ahead. We hear it referred to as “the strait (or straight) and narrow path” and we are anxious to walk in light and truth. (See 2 Nephi 31:15-21).We are given the promise of a spiritual guide, even the Holy Ghost, the third member of the Godhead, as our constant companion to help us discern between truth and error. We stumble along the path in spite of our gift of the Holy Ghost, and we are surprised at how weak we are in our mortal bodies, but we get back up and continue walking in faith.

As we fail at this or that endeavor in life, we are reminded of the blessed assurance that we are redeemed in this world as soon as we repent. But the atonement is not reserved alone for sinners. We can find comfort in the days of our fears, our anxiety and our disappointments of all sorts. We are promised divinity lies ahead of us in spite of ourselves or the unkindness of others. So we struggle on, at times feeling all alone, in the hope deliverance can be obtained.

We wonder how we, so feeble and pathetic, can possibly be worthy of such heavenly intervention, but we grow and develop until we meet our eternal companion and we go to the temple of the Lord together. We are amazed at how marvelously delicious this other person is, as though he or she was the part we had been missing that now makes us complete. Truly, this is love, we think. There can be nothing better than this, we assert.

We marry in God’s temple. We are promised eternal life, or the life which God our Father lives. Indeed, “Eternal” is one of His names. We can live “Eternal’s life” if we are faithful to the gospel covenants we make. We begin this step in our progress by taking upon ourselves the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. We are “sealed” to one another. I love that word “sealed”. There is something so permanent in the word. We are sealed for time and for all eternity with power to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, clothed in glory, immortality and eternal lives. 

We are also admonished to “cleave” unto one another in marriage and to become “one flesh.” We are commanded, “Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else.” (D&C 42:22). Jacob also promises, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you." (Jacob 6:5). “Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation.” (D&C 49:16). We are told if we are faithful we “shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths.” (D&C 132:19). 

But the sealing is conditional, conditioned upon being sealed by the holy spirit of promise. (D&C 132:19). None of us can deceive the Holy Ghost. When he places his seal of approval on our sealing, then it is binding. The promises in the sealing ceremony are big ideas. There is nothing small about it. There are no half-measures. What more is there beyond what God promises - that we will become in time joint-heirs with Christ possessing ALL that the Father hath.

Back in December, Patsy and I were on Temple Square. We looked down into the gaping chasm surrounding the Salt Lake Temple as it is thoroughly being renovated. The banner on the fence proclaims, "Thinking Big." I looked at the scope of the current project and I thought, "Yes, President Nelson is indeed thinking big here." Then just as quickly I had the thought that President Brigham Young must have also been thinking big back in his day. What in the world would have possessed him to consider such an enormous task of building that temple in the middle of nowhere? But Brigham had a vision. He saw that magnificent structure standing where he designated with his cane that it should stand, and they set to work. For forty years those early pioneers toiled at the task without any readily available materials, tools or engineering expertise. Brigham was thinking big, indeed!

Brigham described his vision of the Salt Lake Temple:

This I do know - there should be a Temple built here. I do know it is the duty of this people to commence to build a Temple. Now, some will want to know what kind of a building it will be. Wait patiently, brethren, until it is done, and put forth your hands willingly to finish it. I know what it will be. I am not a visionary man, neither am I given much to prophesying. When I want any of that done I call on brother Heber - he is my Prophet, he loves to prophesy, and I love to hear him. I scarcely ever say much about revelations, or visions, but suffice it to say, five years ago last July I was here, and saw in the Spirit the Temple not ten feet from where we have laid the Chief Corner Stone. I have not inquired what kind of a Temple we should build. Why? Because it was represented before me. I have never looked upon that ground, but the vision of it was there. I see it as plainly as if it was in reality before me. Wait until it is done. (Brigham Young, April 6, 1853 General Conference, Journal of Discourses, Vol.1, pp.132 - 133).

Then I recalled how details of the creation are given in each endowment session in the temples. It's not merely His prophets who are big thinkers, the God of Heaven, Jehovah and Michael were also big thinkers. There is nothing small about their plans for us. We are promised that all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are ours if we follow the covenant path leading to exaltation and eternal life. These are all big ideas, much bigger than we are capable of obtaining on our own. The Abrahamic Covenant is summarized in the Pearl of Great Price, (Abraham 2:8-13). How many stars in the heavens, and how many sands on the shores? Big ideas if you're numbering your posterity in eternity.

And then the children begin arriving in our home. They bring joy unsullied and uncompromised. They grow and eventually they leave us behind to take up their life journeys. We are sad to see them go, but we are also exhilarated to see them take their place in the world without us. Sometimes we see them stumble and sometimes they are saddled with health challenges and they suffer often for years without relief. We see our families sometimes bruised, broken, fractured, and we wonder how any of these promises can possibly be ours to claim. And then we remember that we worship our Redeemer. He mends broken things. We must trust in Him.

And we can pray for them, and we can enlist the faith of those faithful saints who attend the temples and offer prayers for their well-being. We can extend our love and affection. We often wish we could ease those burdens and erase that suffering. In short, we become more and more like our Father in Heaven as we pursue parenthood in mortality, preparing the physical bodies for the spirits created by God and Jesus Christ. (See Moses 1:39). We participate as partners in the creative process by creating the mortal bodies for the eternal spirits of our Father in Heaven to possess: “For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” There can be no immortality or eternal life without first obtaining a physical body from our earthly parents.

Truly, there is nothing greater as a demonstration of a Father’s love for His children, than holding out for us an inheritance that spans beyond this life. We can take nothing of this earth’s treasures with us when we die, but in the dying we step forward into the eternal realms ahead and a vast realization of blessings beyond imagination. The magnitude of our blessings is on a scale as unimaginable as staring down into the excavation around the Salt Lake Temple and wondering how any of it can ever be put back together again. Brigham Young had the vision of that building, and so does President Russell M. Nelson. 

How can there be any greater love story than this?

Open Letter to My Family

Dear Family -

In the years ahead you will no doubt be telling stories about lessons learned during this COVID-19 laced year of 2020. What will you be telling each other twenty or thirty years from now? Will you recall how the world seemingly shut down over night because of that little virus cell that turned deadly? Will you recall how the pandemic seemed to split families apart or drove them closer together? Will you be saying that it was all over-hyped and that it was a government controlled hoax in an election year? Or will you be recounting the many advantages that you gleaned for closer family togetherness?

Whatever you envision happening to you in the future years as you tell your stories, I would hope that you found some pearls along the COVID-19-strewn pathway. Pandemics are nothing new. We have witnessed them before, and we have overcome them too. Those who have lost loved ones during this pandemic will not soon easily forget the memories. I read a story about a young daughter whose mother is now in the ICU on a ventilator barely clinging to life this week. The mother was a beloved school teacher who welcomed her students back, eager to re-engage with them, only to be struck down by the virus. When interviewed, the daughter admitted that neither she nor her mother had taken all the warnings very seriously about the deadly virus. Now the daughter is pleading for prayers and faith in a miracle that her mother's life might be saved.

I've had friends who contracted the virus and were hospitalized, only to die a few days later. I never thought I would be the one who needed brain surgery until it was me who needed brain surgery, and all that happened during the pandemic. I will forever remember 2020, not as a throw-away year, but as a year full of lessons to increase my faith and to return me to wellness. I will forever remember it as a year when I drew closer to my Savior and His healing power. I will remember the love and the solicitude of my family who fasted and prayed for my welfare, when hope for a full recovery seemed more like a Pollyanna wish than anything else. I will remember how valued our technology was so that we could remotely and virtually enjoy baptisms, baby blessings and welcome home missionaries. 

I will also remember a living loving Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson who has been uniquely qualified because of his medical background to lead the Church during this time. He has said of himself that he is a man of science, but he is foremost a man of faith. 

I will remember how precious the temple became to me as I recited the words of the temple ordinances I had memorized while I was serving as an ordinance worker. I heard those precious words replaying in my mind as I was recovering from surgery, and I was reminded how precious you all are to me. I will always remember how important each of you is to me, and I will forever cherish my relationship with each one of you.

As the Church has begun leading the way carefully back to more normalized worship services each week and gradually reopening the temples, and as governments continue to grapple with the best practices in health care advisories, I have also begun re-thinking what our approach should be as a family as we enter the fall and winter season of family traditions we hold so dear. 

I might have scared you all away with setting some boundaries over travelling to Woodland to be with us. I was responding to an abundance of caution suggested by the medical team who treated me. I have been growing stronger each day, and now feel it is time to consider easing restrictions for us too. Merilee hasn't seen us for a year. It's time to re-evaluate, perhaps, how we might follow the guidance of our living Prophet and still remain safe while interacting with one another.

I hope we may all continue to learn valuable lessons from this year that we can share in some future day with our children and grandchildren. Even in the most extreme circumstances we can exercise our faith in the Savior, have hope in a glorious future, make memories together, and develop the love of Christ in our hearts for all those around us. 

At the very least, let us love one another as never before. Sometimes that's even a virtual long-distance kiss over face time on your smart phone.

Love and blessings to all of you,

Mom and Dad

Mortality - Keep Building in Faith

I have lived long enough to know something about the ironies of life. We recently celebrated my father's 93rd birthday with a quiet homemade dinner of Dad's favorites. Then he engaged with us in a light-hearted banter about what he should say to people when they ask, "How are you doing?" Does he give them a blow by blow account of all his ailments? Or is it best to answer with the usual, "Fine," which in his case is a bald-faced lie. It's a dilemma for an old man who hesitates to buy green bananas these days because he may not live long enough to enjoy them. I hasten to assure my readers there is no imminent threat to him that we know about, but at age 93 anything can happen as he searches for the exit door to mortality.

Four generations removed from old age is our newest addition to our family, little Vivienne, who was admitted today to Primary Children's Hospital for closer observation. She was born prematurely at the U of U Medical Center last week at 26 weeks, and is now valiantly clinging to life in her fragile little frame and fighting an intestinal infection. We are united in our fasting and prayers on her behalf again today as a family. In her case, unlike Dad's, we pray she may stay with us on this side of the veil and not be shown the exit door quite yet. We long for a miraculous outcome, that she may rid her body of this infection and prosper so she may grow to adulthood. We believe in miracles.

Whatever the outcome in either Dad's or Vivienne's case, mortality comes in long and short versions. I have been pondering today just how imperative the constancy and consistency of our faith in God must become regardless of the details of our individual lives. We really have very little control over the outcomes in mortality. Just when it appears we have taken control of our lives and things are rolling along smoothly, it seems conditions change abruptly and sometimes unexpectedly for the worse, and our dependency on God becomes paramount. In those times when we say to ourselves, "I've got this one, God," we are brought up short and our faith in Him is put to a test not of man's devising that buckles our knees under the weight of the burden. It is all part of our mortal existence.

For some reason this morning, I was drawn to the historical record of the early pioneers who settled the Salt Lake Valley for an example of perseverance and diligence in the face of almost insurmountable opposition and long odds for a successful and happy outcome. Despite all their hardships, stout pioneers were able to sing in unison, "All is well, all is well."

President Brigham Young

On July 28, 1847, four days after his arrival in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, President Brigham Young stood upon the exact spot now occupied by the iconic Salt Lake Temple and boldly declared to his companions who had barely managed to survive the long prairie and steep mountain trek, "Here [we will build] the Temple of our God!" (James H. Anderson, "The Salt Lake Temple," Contributor 6 [April 1893]: 243).

The southeast corner of the temple grounds in Salt Lake City forms the baseline and meridian on the original plats as designed by Brigham Young. All addresses radiate outward from that point in all four directions, and Temple Square as it later came to be known covers an eighth of a square mile. At the time the pioneers were destitute, but the first thing Brigham Young said they would do is build a temple that would stand through the Millennium and beyond into eternity. There was no thought about the money they didn't have, the timbers that hadn't been located, or where the granite would come from. No thought was given just yet to how they would house themselves during the upcoming winter. They had no way of knowing crickets would descend and devour their first crops. Nor could they have known the United States Army would be dispatched to assure their destruction. Instead, they broke ground, unaware that the vision of Brigham Young would take 40 years to materialize.

So it is with us. Dad's life today stands as a testament to moving ahead in faith without knowing the end result. The ravages of World War II disrupted many millions of lives. Uncertainty about the future was rampant. Predictions of the Second Coming being imminent were pervasive. Things haven't changed much, it seems, as Vivienne's uncertain future in 2015 also hangs in the balance today. I wonder, will we shrink in fear of the unknown, or will we persist in faith and triumph over mortality's demands despite the opposition?

The work on the Salt Lake Temple seems so analogous to the work we put into our own lives. The excavation for the basement required hand digging trenches that were twenty feet wide and sixteen feet deep. The rock beneath the desert hard pan soil seemed immovable. It is estimated the digging for the foundation required nine thousand man days of labor. When they saw the magnitude of what Brother Brigham was envisioning, some must have faltered wondering why it had to be so big and if his vision of futurity were somehow faulty and over-reaching.

Salt Lake Temple

But Brigham Young had a vision. He expressed it to our rugged pioneer ancestors in these words: "I do not like to prophesy much, . . . but I will venture to guess that this day, and the work we have performed on it, will long be remembered by this people, and be sounded as with a trumpet's voice throughout the world. . . . Five years ago last July I was here, and saw in the spirit the Temple. [I stood] not ten feet from where we have laid the chief corner stone. I have not inquired what kind of a temple we should build. Why? Because it was [fully] represented before me." (Anderson, Contributor, 257-58).

As we set about to live our faithful lives in mortality, I am also reminded we come in for our share of adversity and opposition, just as Brigham Young observed, "We never began to build [any] temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring." (Discourses of Brigham Young, Deseret Book, 1973, 410). That principle is true of temples like our physical bodies of flesh, blood and bone, and temples made of granite.

When the foundation work was done, Johnston's Army set out for the Salt Lake Valley to go to war with "the Mormons." Despite all the hard work they had done to date, President Young made provisions to evacuate and, if necessary, to destroy the entire city behind them to avoid armed conflict. The hole and the footings and foundation were buried again so the temple site looked like an open field. How disheartening to make such a diligent and faith-filled beginning, only to suffer the setback because of the imposition of others. How much like that is our own lives? We chart a course, we take control, we move ahead, only to be pushed back to the starting line again and again.

Once the threat of war subsided and the Army left, the pioneers returned to their homes and then painstakingly began uncovering the foundation and removing all the material from the excavated basement structure. To their dismay they discovered the sandstone had cracked and also had to be removed. Granite was offered as the preferred building blocks, but the materials were twenty miles away in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Imagine the degree of difficulty! Precise design and dimensions of every one of the thousands of granite stones to be used had to be meticulously measured in the architect's office and then shaped individually by skilled stone cutters. Progress was excruciatingly slow and tedious. The first layer of six hundred stones took three years to complete. It seemed no one could discern any progress being made at all. Have you ever felt progress in your own life was seemingly impossible? I have likened progress in my life to watching my toenails grow. It's imperceptible. You seem to take one step forward and two steps back. Discouragement can often become our constant companion. The opposition we face tends to wilt our faith and the temptation to curse God and quit trying so hard becomes overwhelming at times.

But the persistent Saints of those early days never stopped trying and coming up with new and ingenious ideas. A canal on which to convey the massive granite blocks was begun and a great deal of labor and money expended on it, but it was finally aborted. Other ideas were tried and abandoned, but eventually using teams of oxen and reinforced wagons proved to be the preferred method. Throughout two decades, teams of oxen could be seen almost every day of the year toiling to haul one massive granite block to the temple site.

Then came the arrival of the railroad during that time. Workers abandoned the temple for three years to work for the more lucrative wages offered by the railroad companies. Twice during those years, grasshopper invasions sent the workers into full-time summer combat with the insects.

By mid-1871, fully two decades and untold misery after it had been begun, the walls of the temple were barely visible above ground. Through all those years, President Young seemed to be in no hurry. "The Temple will be built as soon as we are prepared to use it," he often said. His faith was so unwavering, and his vision of futurity so fixed in his mind that amid all the hardships they were suffering he announced plans to build temples in St. George, Manti and Logan. Who of us is left with an excuse for faltering under the weight of our burdens in the face of such faith, diligence and commitment to a dream like that?

"Can you accomplish the work, you Latter-day Saints of these several counties?" he asked. And then, not waiting for their reply, he affirmed, "Yes; that is a question I can answer readily. You are perfectly able to do it. The question is, have you the necessary faith? Have you sufficient of the Spirit of God in your hearts to say, yes, by the help of God our Father we will erect these buildings to his name? . . . Go to now, with your might and with your means and finish this Temple." (Anderson, Contributor, 267). When I look for examples of inspired leadership, I seldom have to look beyond Brigham Young. Our pioneer ancestors never flinched nor doubted. They went forward in faith with their might and put to rest their doubts and fears. And so must we.

When President Brigham Young died in 1877, the temple was not yet twenty feet above the ground. Ten years later, his successor, President John Taylor, and the temple's original architect, Truman O. Angell, were dead as well. The side walls were finally up to the square, ready for construction of the roof.

Complicating progress in the final stages of completion was the imposition by Congress of the infamous Edmunds-Tucker Act. It had the effect of disincorporating The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and putting the Church into receivership. The U.S. Marshal, under a court order, seized the temple. The object of their blood, sweat and tears was wrested away from them and put into the hands of their enemies, the very group who had often boasted that the Latter-day Saints would never be permitted to finish the building.

But in this latter-day extremity, God was also with these modern children of Israel, as He always has been and always will be. They did all they could do and left the rest in His hands. Then the Red Sea parted before them, and they walked through on firm, dry ground.

On April 6, 1893, the Saints as a body were filled with joy. After 40 long years they had cut out of the mountain a granite temple that would become their offering, a mountain of the Lord, where He could reside. The streets that day were jammed with upwards of 50,000 people.

Inside the Tabernacle President Wilford Woodruff, visibly moved by the significance of the moment, said: "If there is any scene on the face of this earth that will attract the attention of the God of heaven and the heavenly host, it is the one before us today — the assembling of this people, the shout of 'Hosanna!' the laying of the topstone of this Temple in honor to our God." (Anderson, Contributor, 270). Then, moving outside, he laid the capstone in place exactly at high noon.

In the writing of one who was there, "The scene that followed is beyond the power of language to describe." Lorenzo Snow, beloved president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, came forward to lead the Saints in the Hosanna Shout. Every hand held a handkerchief and every eye was filled with tears. One said the very "ground seemed to tremble with the volume of the sound" which echoed off the tops of the mountains. "A grander or more imposing spectacle than this ceremony of laying the Temple capstone is not recorded in history." (Anderson, Contributor, 273). It was finally and forever finished.

The prestigious Scientific American referred to this majestic new edifice as a "monument to Mormon perseverance." And so it was. Blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

The best things in life are always worth finishing. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). You are worth finishing. As long and laborious as our efforts to build our lives may seem in mortality, may God grant us the courage of our pioneer ancestors to keep shaping and setting our stones in place to make of our faith and our diligence "a grand and imposing spectacle."

Whether we are at the end of our mortal path or the very beginning, there is life on the other side of the veil in both directions for as far as our minds can imagine. I pray we may take advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow, dream our dreams, see visions of futurity to bless our families, work toward their realization, wait patiently when we have no other choice, lean on our sword and rest a while when we must, but get up and fight again.

It is not unimaginable that like Brigham Young, we may not live in morality long enough to see the completion of all our dreams in our lifetime. But if we live well, work in faith and build something lasting, our children will, or our children's children will, until finally we, with all of them, can stand by and see the salvation of our God. He will surely crown our efforts with eternal life as he did Father Abraham who expended the last ounce of his faith after waiting 90 long years for posterity. . .

But today we wait upon God with our faith in tact for a miracle if it be His will. And we submit to yet another Abrahamic test.

We Worship a Fourth Watch God

On this Christmas afternoon in Pine Valley, the snow is piling up, the trees are adorned in a covering of white, and I'm listening to Christmas carols in the quietude of the scene spread before me. I'm in a reflective mood, and cleaning up some old files on the computer. I found an entry I had written during a bleak time of doubt and fear about the future. All these years later things did work out for us. I wrote these words when the hour was the darkest, just before the dawn's light began to shine. The answers that had seemed so elusive eventually emerged, and yielded themselves after persistence, faith, hard work and consistency. This was "self talk" back then, now I share it with those who may be toiling in the darkest time of their lives:

Several years ago I was given a Christmas gift that endures. It was a talk on CD given by Michael Wilcox titled “The Fourth Watch.” It was right on point for us. Echoing back to me in my ears was the advice and counsel I have given to so many over the years. But looking back, it’s always different when you’re the one in the barrel going over the falls. It’s so much easier to be the dispenser than the recipient. I am grateful to Julie for giving us this gift of inestimable worth to remind us that even when it seems we are receiving no answers that there is still hope to be found in the journey!

A useful bit of historical trivia to help you understand the New Testament scriptures: Brother Wilcox explains that the Hebrew day was divided into four three-hour segments beginning at 6:00 a.m. The third hour is 9:00 a.m., the sixth hour is noon, and the ninth hour (when the scriptures say the Savior was crucified) is 3:00 p.m.

At night, the three-hour segments are divided into “watches.” The first watch is 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the second watch is 9:00 p.m. to midnight, the third watch is midnight to 3:00 a.m., and the fourth watch – the object lesson of his talk – is 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.

He teaches some powerful principles to those of us who have toiled in faith, seemingly with no answers coming our way. He gives the example of the Savior’s walk on the water as the illustration. Many of you, perhaps, have not come to realize yet that His coming to the troubled and weary disciples who had rowed all night on the Sea of Galilee was in the darkest and most foreboding time of the night – just before dawn.

He had fed the multitudes earlier in the day (five thousand men plus the women and children), sent them away, and told the disciples to get into a ship and row to the other side. Then the scriptures say (Matthew 14:23) he “went up into a mountain apart to pray,” and he must have prayed into the evening and well into the night all alone.

Meanwhile, the ship “was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.” Mark in his record (Mark 6:48) adds the detail that “he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them.” John says “it was now dark, and the Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs (a “furlong" is about 220 yards, so you do the math – they were no doubt tired and exhausted by now), they see Jesus walking on the sea.” (John 6:17-19).

Well, what are the lessons to be learned by this extreme example from the scriptures? 1) He sees us toiling in our discipleship from a vantage point far higher and more superior to ours; 2) He knows we are often exhausted and apt to grumble about our circumstances, yet loves us anyway; 3) He has power over all the elements that conspire to create the waves of adversity and has the power to calm them; 4) He tells us not to be afraid. I would add one more – when He does come to us in the fourth watch “immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.” (John 6:21).  In other words, the timetable of when He comes to us is His not ours, and when the time is fully ripe in the fourth watch it seems the miracle is immediate.

Brother Wilcox suggests that we worship a “fourth watch” God. I used to say, “God loves a cliffhanger.” It seems when all help is seemingly spent, when the last extremity has been reached, then and only then – in the fourth watch – does He respond in mercy and kindness. I suppose that fact is mandated in discipleship to determine whether or not we will really – REALLY – learn to trust Him.

Brother Wilcox cites the example of Hagar with Ishmael in the wilderness, when the “water was spent in the bottle.” (Genesis 21:15). He gently chides her with “What aileth thee, Hagar?” Oh, I don’t know, she had just been cast out of Abraham’s household, was at the point of starvation and dehydration, near death, and she could not have had much to complain about, could she?  He told her (and all of us) that someday, “I will make him a great nation” (verse 18). God “opened her eyes” when all hope was lost and “she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink” (verse 19). He came in the fourth watch, but He DID come!

Another example was the widow in Zarephath who was commanded to sustain Elijah in the moment of his extremity, when all she had was “a little water in a vessel,” and "a morsel of bread,” “a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse,” just enough to make her last meal for herself and her son in preparation of their death. (1 Kings 17:8-16). The promise was once again fulfilled, and “the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.” He came in the fourth watch, but He DID come!

I’ve also wondered about Abraham and his sacrifice of Isaac (see Genesis 22).  In that example I have learned not to fear the long hike up the mountain of preparation. I’ve learned to embrace the tests that come along the way. And I’ve learned that by accepting the invitation to join the church of the Firstborn, consecration defies (and is in direct contradiction) to the natural man within us. There is no evidence that Isaac resisted even a little bit. He went forward in his uncertainty trusting his father. “Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called upon him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me (verses 10-12). Again, He came in the fourth watch, but He DID come!

Extreme examples? Yes, each one. But are our lives any less dramatic? When all seems to be lost in our lives, we can paint ourselves into these stories and learn to trust God at all costs. That’s what the path of discipleship is all about, and yes, it is a dangerous doctrine.

What is coming up ahead of us on the path of discipleship as we live our lives on borrowed time well into the sixth seal is a darker night and more fierce winds on the sea. It will take fourth watch faith if we are to successfully navigate our dark night of stormy seas up ahead. But remember, He WILL come even in our fourth watches!

We really do worship a Fourth Watch God! He hears your desperate pleas for help. He will succor you in your afflictions. He will be merciful and kind.

When Sore Trials Come Upon You

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we sing a familiar hymn, "Did You Think To Pray?"

Click the link and listen to the combined BYU choirs sing a Mack Wilberg arrangement. The words of the last verse have been playing again and again in my mind this weekend. I hope you will enjoy the spirit of the video as much as I have for the comfort it has given me:

Ere you left your room this morning,

Did you think to pray?

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Did you sue for loving favor,

As a shield today?

Refrain:

Oh, how praying rests the weary!

Prayer will change the night to day;

So when life seems dark and dreary,

Don’t forget to pray.

When you met with great temptation,

Did you think to pray?

By His dying love and merit,

Did you claim the Holy Spirit

As your guide and stay?

When your heart was filled with anger,

Did you think to pray?

Did you plead for grace, my brother,

That you might forgive another

Who had crossed your way?

When sore trials came upon you,

Did you think to pray?

When your soul was bowed in sorrow,

Balm of Gilead did you borrow

At the gates of day?

During our mortal lives sore trials may come upon us in an instant. Most often these trials come as unwelcome guests and they appear in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is the death of a loved one. Often relationships once filled with promise and hope sour and become bitter. Divorce in marriages can result when spouses grow apart and the once raging bonfires of love and devotion to one another dissolve into smoldering embers and turn stone cold.

The vicissitudes of life are seemingly countless. When employment disappears overnight in a downsizing, and loyalty and hard work seemingly mean nothing to an employer you once loved and admired, bitterness sometimes results. One wonders if the universe has singled them out for particularly harsh treatment, because no one could have been dealt with as harshly as they were.

Health, once taken for granted and never second guessed, can suddenly evaporate with a cancer diagnosis. The worldwide financial meltdown of 2008 wipes out life savings. A well-planned retirement suddenly evaporates overnight. 

There seems to be no end to the possible scenarios, does there? 

Our family was struck with this reality of a "sore trial" this weekend. A routine intrauterine ultrasound diagnosis revealed one of our little granddaughters has a birth defect known as anencephaly. Her parents were in shock. When they informed us, our hearts were burdened with sorrow over the diagnosis, knowing all too well the feelings of having to bury a little one when our youngest daughter Adrienne died unexpectedly of SIDS at seven weeks of age. This year marked the twenty-first anniversary of her birth and death. Perhaps the only thing worse than having to live through these traumatizing experiences yourself, is to have to live them vicariously, knowing so well what our children are now facing. In seeking to produce a posterity of our own, it should not be surprising when we are called to pass through Abrahamic tests not unlike those of our noble progenitor.

So the words of the hymn keep replaying in my mind - "When sore trials came upon you, did you think to pray? When your soul was bowed in sorrow, balm of Gilead did you borrow at the gates of day?"

We have been forced to our knees as we have fasted that they might be comforted through the weeks and months of uncertainty that lie ahead. 

Seeking to comfort our family this weekend, I sent out an e-mail:

Words are hard to come by in expressing our feelings. . . 

The hardest questions to answer in this life are all the "Why?" questions. Those will have to wait awhile as our faith is tested and galvanized in the fiery furnace of affliction here on earth. Jake quoted Nephi, in answer to the question if he (Nephi) knew what the "condescension of God" meant. Said Nephi: "I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." (1 Nephi 11:17). 

His love for us rarely shields us from the randomness of an imperfect and fallen world, but it is always in evidence when our hearts ache as they do today.

Because Christ descended below all things on this earth, including every conceivable human condition, He is able to succor us in our sorrow, grief, doubts, guilt, anxiety and every other human emotion we feel. Alma summarized Christ's role in our lives when tragedy strikes and "sore trials" come upon us: "And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things. . ." (Alma 7:12-13, emphasis mine). 

Allie called this morning, heartbroken over this news. She sobbed, "What can I do? I would do anything for them." The answer is the same as it has always been - love them and love one another. 

Love and blessings,

Dad & Mom

I testify from these pages that Christ is our never-failing balm of Gilead in times of traumatizing knee-buckling tragedy. He will heal us of all our infirmities as He promises, when we turn to Him for comfort. There is nothing in the human condition He does not know intimately, having suffered in Gethsemane at at Golgotha for EVERYTHING that threatens our peace and our joy. 

Wherever we are in our lives presently, no matter what fiery trials we are currently passing through, He is an ever-present and willing participant in all our outcomes. He answers with the calm assurance we need when we turn to Him in our anguish.

Prayer really can change the night to day.

We open prayer in the name of our Heavenly Father because it is He to whom we address our prayers. We thank Him for all the blessings we enjoy because we know He is our Father who loves us. We ask Him specifically for the help we need, whatever form our "sore trial" may be taking, and we close our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, who makes all the answers possible because of His atonement. Prayer is available to all of us. We are all brothers and sisters, children of the same God.

We just need to remember to pray when the sore trials come. . . I pray we may always remember.

Hiding from God Under our Pavilions

President Henry B. Eyring

I have been preparing to give a lesson to the high priests tomorrow. The assigned October 2012 General Conference talk is one from President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency. He titled it "Where Is the Pavilion?" It was the anguished question Joseph Smith once asked while he was incarcerated in the dungeon cellar of Liberty Jail in the cold damp Missouri winter of 1839. He believed God had abandoned him.

There are times in our lives when we, like Joseph Smith, feel betrayed and abandoned by God. President Eyring suggests God never abandons us. Rather, it is we who separate ourselves from His loving watch care and desires to bless us by what President Eyring defined as "a pavilion of motivations." It's an interesting choice of words. What is it about our motivations that separate us from God? He expanded with the thought, "Our own desires, rather than a feeling of 'Thy will be done,' create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God."

"God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time," observed President Eyring.

This matter of submitting our will to the will of our Heavenly Father is tricky stuff, to be sure. It seems God is determined to help us understand that we, as little children, must submit our will to him "as a child doth submit to his father," since it comes up so often in Holy Writ. In another passage, we are admonished, "Cast off your sins, and [do] not procrastinate the day of your repentance; . . . humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest." (Mosiah 3:19; Alma 13:27-29).

Being submissive and meek makes us keenly aware of our blessings. I felt to say based upon my own life experiences with President Eyring, "I was blessed to know that whatever success I had in my career and family life was a gift from God."

This week marked a "dubious" milestone for Patsy and me. Our eldest grand-daughter Tessi gave birth to an infant daughter. They named her Quincy Aida Wood. That makes five generations of our family now living on planet Earth! What a breathtaking thought! This little girl threatened an early arrival a couple of months ago, but as we united our faith and prayers as a family on her behalf her delivery was delayed until she could be born full-term at a healthy 8 lbs. 1 oz. with a full head of black hair! I don't think we ever recover from the miracle that is birth, no matter how many times we witness it. And our gratitude finds a way to expand exponentially.

Sometimes we lose sight for a season of our blessings. President Eyring suggested that happens when "[our] desires for professional success might have created a pavilion that would make it hard for [us] to find God and harder for [us] to listen to and follow His invitations." He reflected, "My personal ambitions might have clouded my view of reality and made it hard for me to receive revelation."

As you reflect on your own life, how often can you find a time when "my desire to know and do His will gave me a soul-stretching opportunity?" I thought of one in recent years. My world had turned upside down almost overnight when a long-sought fulfillment was snatched away at the finish line. I found myself adrift in the aftermath of the worldwide financial meltdown, having to search for employment late in life.

I reached out for help from the Employment Resource Center sponsored by the Church. To make a long story shorter, I was invited to accept a calling with Patsy as a senior missionary couple to serve as the Chair of the Professional Placement Program. I found it so ironic. I wasn't considering myself retired and certainly not eligible to be called a "senior" missionary. I still had years of work ahead of me. However, I learned a valuable lesson about service. It could not have come at a worse time in our lives. I needed to focus on my own employment needs. How was I to be able to give precious time I didn't feel I had to serve others in their search? As I helped others network into new opportunities, I found few were helping me. "Where was I to find answers to my own problem?" we wondered frequently. I learned that service to others of any kind is rarely convenient.

As the months in that assignment unfolded we found marvelous fulfillment not only in helping others, but it seemed our own prayers were being answered. Marvelous lasting relationships with those we served were forged out of the fires of our shared adversity. I was fond of reminding those who showed up week after week, "Look around, you're in good company. Don't let your temporary unemployment situation define you."

And so it was. My heart was drawn out continually as I watched the suffering of those we served. My own appreciation for my blessings was heightened. I found joy again. From the joy came new hope for the future. None of it happened overnight. In fact, it has taken years since it all happened to fully appreciate just how blessed we have been. And isn't that true for all of us? We are rarely able to discern the blessings while we are in the crucible of our suffering. Only looking back do we fully appreciate that we were not consumed in the fires of adversity, only singed a little.

I also learned perhaps the most valuable lesson of a lifetime. "We can't insist on our timetable when the Lord has His own." While we often have an agenda for goals being reached on the timetable we set for ourselves, God is often interested in a completely different timetable with eternal objectives. We are in such a rush to get things done here and now, and He is willing to wait upon the harvest a bit longer. Said President Eyring, "We remove the pavilion when we feel and pray, 'Thy will be done' and 'in Thine own time.' His time should be soon enough for us since we know that He wants only what is best."

It seems God is willing let us simmer on the back burner as long as it takes for us to submit. He is willing to be invited to move us to the front burner when we are ready to accept His judgment for what is best for us. "Submitting fully to heaven's will. . ., is essential to removing the spiritual pavilions we sometimes put over our heads. But it does not guarantee immediate answers to our prayers." And I found that to be the case also. When you're building for eternity, it takes time for the cement to cure a bit in the weather.

Who could doubt the time it took for Abraham and Sarah? God had purposes in mind that had to be fulfilled first before the promised blessings were realized in their lives. "Those purposes included not only building Abraham and Sarah's faith but also teaching them eternal truths that they shared with others on their long, circuitous route to the land prepared for them. The Lord's delays often seem long; some last a lifetime. But they are always calculated to bless. They need never be times of loneliness or sorrow or impatience. Although His time is not always our time, we can be sure that the Lord keeps His promises." I wondered how many childless couples there are today, and how many single women, who would give anything for the promised blessing of posterity. Sarah-like faith is to be prized as we wait upon Him. And that requires patience.

Paul reminds us, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:26-29).

Abraham-like, we are often required to remove our "pavilions of motivations" by waiting patiently upon the Lord for His promises to be fulfilled. The harvest will come, even unto the fifth generation. Of that, I am sure.

Fathers Day and Abrahamic Tests

With all the political chatter recently, Fathers Day 2010 slipped past without so much as a whisper from me, but there were some thoughts I captured four years ago that are worth preserving here.  The following is taken from my journal of that day:

On Sunday morning, Father's Day, 2006, I awoke with three distinct "bullet points" for my upcoming talk about service in the Woodland Ward that day. In the mercy of the Lord, and yet another demonstration of the marvelous economy of the Spirit, it seemed a personal message to me in addition to forming the foundation for what I was to say in my talk.

Here are the three points, lest they be forgotten:

1. Do not fear the hike up the mountain of preparation.
2. Embrace the Abrahamic tests in your life.
3. Accept the invitation to come in at the front gate of the church of the Firstborn.

Having just finished that fabulous book about Abraham, The Blessings of Abraham, by E. Douglas Clark, I suppose my reading must have laid the foundation for my talk -- all I got early in the morning was the outline.  It was left to me to fill in the detail around those three points.  (That's not a misprint on the price, but it's worth every penny, trust me).

I began by expressing the wish to elevate our thinking about service. I suggested that no one is opposed to the notion that service is a desirable trait for all disciples to have. I started discussing Abraham's preparations for answering the call to be prepared for the complete consecration of his life by answering the call to go to the land of Moriah to a mountain he was told he would be shown to sacrifice his only son.

It was a three day journey. He began immediately to make the preparations, and he did as he was told to do -- cut the wood for the pier upon which Isaac was to be offered.

Imagine the thoughts that went through his mind on that three day journey. Imagine what Isaac was thinking. What is unknown from the account in Genesis is what Sarah was thinking. Imagine that faith on the part of all three! Because he knew God was in it, he did not hesitate.

He was led by the Spirit to Mount Moriah (what is today known in Jerusalem as the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock now sits). His preparation and his willingness to carry out the required sacrifice is what tested him to the limit.

Joseph Smith once said if there had been a more severe test God could have devised to thoroughly try the heart of Abraham, God would have given Abraham that test instead. The whole idea of Abrahamic tests in our lives is to test the depth of our commitment to God -- to infuse us with the desire to consecrate our lives to God's work.

In order to serve our fellowmen, it would seem, each of us must bow to the demands of consecration -- the sacrifice of all earthly things and desire.  Simultaneously, we are offering the only thing to God that is truly ours to give -- our free will.

These are high and holy objectives, even "dangerous doctrines" in the eyes of some. But that was the example Abraham set before us as aspiring disciples.

Then I suggested each of us would have similar tests if we sought fellowship with the saints of former ages. How would you feel if invited to sit down to dinner one night with luminaries like Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, Alma, Paul, Elijah, and others like them if in your own right you had not been willing to offer the same commitment they demonstrated? To think we would someday inherit an equal portion with them without a similar measure of sacrifice would be haughty indeed! I can't imagine meeting Paul someday in the realms ahead, but when I do I want to be able to look him in the eye, shake his hand, and feel adequate.  That's all.  And I realize only the atonement of Christ can level that playing field for me. 

I know I'm not even a freckle on Paul's nose, but through Christ and His sanctifying blood I want to at least be able to hug him without being embarrassed at my lack.

When those Abrahamic tests come to each of us (and surely they do), I suggested rather than blame God for our hardships and trials, we must embrace the chastening and accept the tutorial as a gift from God to help reveal ourselves to ourselves. Finding God in the fiery furnace is what it appears to be all about.

To conclude, I suggested that fellowship in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, begins at the gate of baptism. Fellowship in the church of the Firstborn, however, is outlined in D&C 76, and is found beyond the gates of the temple within in the covenants we make there.

Many come in at the gate to the outward Church (capital "C"), but few seem to find the fellowship of the inward church (lower case "c") outlined in the revelations.

Like these outward ordinances God offers to us with a promise of someday obtaining as joint heirs with Christ all that He possesses, too many members of the Church conclude that nominal membership in the Church is all there is, never looking beyond and deeper into what can only be termed as the "mysteries of godliness," which I feel I am just beginning to understand in part (I'm slow).

I suggested there is a church within a Church we must each discover by doing the works of Abraham, embracing his example and following the same path he laid out for us. Abraham and Sarah represent the path of true discipleship in modeling concern, service and lovingkindness for all our Father in Heaven's children. This awareness is anchored in humility, kindness and love for others.

I remembered that years ago during the time of President Lee, President Kimball and President Benson, the prophets used to answer the reporters' questions about why the Church wasn't doing more to lift the burdens of the millions around the earth who were suffering with expressions that we simply didn't have the resources to do as much as we would like, although we would do more if we had the resources. Now we do.

I concluded with these inspired words from President Hinckley:

"In the last ten years we have supplied in cash and commodities hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to those not of our faith.
"We have traveled the earth bearing witness of this, the work of the Almighty. During these same years I personally have traveled nearly a million miles visiting some 70 countries. My beloved companion traveled with me until a year ago when she passed away on the 6th of April. It has been lonely since then.
"Our hope concerning the future is great and our faith is strong.
"We know that we have scarcely scratched the surface of that which will come to pass in the years that lie ahead." (Ensign, May 2005, 4).

When it comes to service, we have barely begun as a Church and individuals to do the works of Abraham. We must enlist all "our substance" (as King Benjamin described it -- not just money) but everything we have and are, or ever will have or be, to fulfill that ideal to truly consecrate our lives for the building up of the kingdom of God on earth and for the establishment of Zion.

I don't know if anyone else in the audience learned anything in that talk, but I know the Lord certainly enlarged and expanded my vision.

On another occasion, President Hinckley reminded us: "We must reach out to all mankind. They are all sons and daughters of God our Eternal Father, and He will hold us accountable for what we do concerning them. . . May we bless humanity with an outreach to all, lifting those who are downtrodden and oppressed, feeding and clothing the hungry and the needy, extending love and neighborliness to those about us who may not be part of this Church." (Ensign, November 2001, 6).

I concluded by testifying there is a living prophet among us. He is no small thinker, this man Gordon B. Hinckley. Indeed, he is a man like Abraham, and we can do no less if we would claim our own place with them in the church of the Firstborn. As "firstborns" in the church of THE Firstborn, only by doing the works of Abraham will we claim our rightful place as a joint heir with Jesus Christ, the Firstborn Son, inheriting all that the Father hath.

Now that he's gone, I could easily say the same of his successor, President Thomas S. Monson, whose example of Christian service and love for his fellowmen knows no boundaries.  Said he recently:

"I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish — and in effect save their lives."  ("What Have I Done For Someone Today?", Ensign, November 2009, 84-87).

And yes, these are all thoughts beyond my feeble attempts to understand or adequately explain, underscoring the source of it all.

I have always loved the words of Nephi.  Some have called it "the psalm of Nephi:"

“My soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard," Nephi stated. (2 Nephi 4:16).

And yet, as all of us have sinned and "come short of the glory of God," (see Romans 3:23) Nephi, too, explored those feelings:

"Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities. I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily best me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted." (2 Nephi 4:17-19).

Through all of the trials and tribulations Nephi had been through, he had come to know the Lord. "And having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God..."

Nephi truly does know the Lord. He has seen him (2 Nephi 11:2,3). He has been taught by angels many times. He has been supported and strengthened by the Lord through the terrible ordeal of the wilderness crossing and the ocean voyage to the Promised Land.

I have always wondered how I could possibly be weighed in the balance with Paul and Nephi and not found wanting.  Then I have remembered, "Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted."