The Greatness of the Task

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I was feeling burdened a few days ago by the demands of my particular leadership calling in cub scouts, and I felt I needed some scriptures to help buoy me up. I headed for my scriptures with a prayer in my heart that Heavenly Father would help me flip instantly to something that would help me.

Here’s where I turned to:

8 And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul.

9 Wherefore, it burdeneth my soul that I should be constrained, because of the strict commandment which I have received from God, to admonish you according to your crimes, to enlarge the wounds of those who are already wounded, instead of consoling and healing their wounds; and those who have not been wounded, instead of feasting upon the pleasing word of God have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds.

10 But, notwithstanding the greatness of the task, I must do according to the strict commands of God… (Jacob 2:8-10)

This was from Jacob, who was about to deliver a chastity talk and an anti-pride-and-materialism talk to the Nephites.

At first I wondered whether I was going to be admonished for sins that I didn’t realize I had. 

But then what suddenly struck me were Jacob’s words of how burdened he felt by the constraint of the Spirit to follow the commandment to admonish the people. But notwithstanding the great task and the overwhelm he felt as a leader, he waded into it determined to do what the Lord asked of him.

Aha! I thought, Another leader has felt overwhelmed by the demands of their calling. I’m not alone. Not that I’m required to admonish people for their sins right now, but it is neat to 1) find this openness in the scriptures about the burden of leadership and 2) find it right when I needed it.  Heavenly Father had answered my prayer, and that gave me just the encouragement I needed to get back to the stuff I needed to do.

See? Heavenly Father answers our prayers to receive knowledge and encouragement from the scriptures.

I honor and salute the church leaders, past and present, who do their duty despite their overwhelm, and who do it with such grace.  Sometimes it can seem like I am the only one who struggles. Maybe you feel the same in your calling.  Jacob’s words show us his struggle, and then we see his obedience and we can see how the Lord magnified his efforts. That gives hope that the Lord can also magnify our efforts.

Bearing with the weak

1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. (Romans 15:1-3)

As I was reading my scriptures yesterday I ran across this series of verses and I had to stop and think about it, because I wasn’t sure how the exhortation to bear the infirmities of the weak was related to the prophecy of how Christ would bear the reproaches of others.

I started to make a little headway when I remembered that Christ said that inasmuch as we do it unto one of the least of these we have done it unto Him. He takes an insult to others as if it is an insult to Himself and He takes charity to others as if it is charity done to Himself.

(It is interesting that this principle is something that is codified in international politics that aggression against one must be considered aggression against all. But it doesn’t always happen that something is done about it, because of the limited resources and apathy and so on..)

It’s not a pleasant thing to take what happens to others personally, especially when someone else is getting persecuted. We have a natural instinct of self-preservation and a desire to avoid pain and suffering, so it seems counterintuitive to deliberately involve ourselves in bearing the suffering and reproaches of others.

This is where I realized that not only does bearing the infirmities of others mean recognizing and trying to help them cope with their handicaps (physical or spiritual), it also means we step forward when others are coming in for abuse and say, “Hey, you pick on them and you’re picking on me too.”

Why was Paul exhorting the saints to do this? Because Christ did it, and Christians are committed to following Christ’s example.

A story about escape from slavery

Today I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Alma’s people and their escape from slavery and I ran across this verse:

Yea, and in the valley of Alma they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God. (Mosiah 24:21)

I thought about that phrase “none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God” and I thought I would go back and study the situation to see if I understood the full magnitude of their deliverance.

While in slavery, they had burdens on their backs and task masters and it was so bad that they began to “cry mightily to God” (see Mosiah 24:10).

I find it interesting that the Lord tells them He will deliver them, but He also adds that He will do something very special for them:

And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. (Mosiah 24:14)

They were strengthened by the Lord that they could carry their burdens easily to the point that it seemed no burden at all. This was done not just to benefit them, but to benefit many other people too; the Lord expected them to testify forever after that the Lord does help people with their troubles. And it says that they put their faith in the promise of deliverance and had patience. “…and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord” (Mosiah 24:15).

Because of their faith and patience, (and we don’t know how much time passed) the Lord told them “on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage” (Mosiah 24:16)

When the word came that they would be delivered the next day, after a hard day’s work in slavery, they didn’t hesitate; they spent the entire night gathering their flocks and grain and stuff together, and then in the morning, when they saw their Lamanite task masters were sleeping unusually long, they booked it out of there and traveled the whole of the next day! Extraordinary! 12 hours of hard forced labor, then 12 hours of herding and packing and carrying heavy loads of grain back and forth to pack animals, and then 12 hours of quick traveling and herding animals and carrying babies and running to get away as fast as they can and keeping small children from getting left behind and keeping everyone together … 36 hours of hard work! No sleep! Now, I’ve spent a day hauling boxes and buckets of food storage before. I’ve pulled all-nighters before. I’ve done a few miles of “pioneer trekking” before, but I’ve never done a 36 hour period of all of it combined and no sleep!

And then, notice that it says that after twelve days of travel they arrived in the land of Zarahemla. Just for comparison’s sake, the people of Limhi journeyed for “many days” (Mosiah 22:13) So it appears that Alma and his people were strengthened so that they could travel farther and faster.

That first day’s journey for Alma and his people may have been the equivalent of a multiple days’ journey for other people, which may be why the Lamanites stopped searching for them in that particular valley that Alma and company stopped in after one day.

So this is what the Lord did for them:

• The Lord promised to deliver them from bondage.
• The Lord turned the burdens they carried while in bondage into strength training necessary for their escape.
• The Lord informed them ahead of time of the day they would be delivered, so that they could prepare for it.
• The Lord strengthened them to gather their stuff together to get ready for departure.
• The Lord made the Lamanites oversleep substantially to give them time to escape.
• The Lord strengthened them to keep up the frenetic pace to get them beyond reach.
• The Lord also guided them back to Zarahemla, as none of them knew where it was.

Learning this has been wonderfully encouraging. My semester has started to really sink down on my shoulders recently and I’ve been finding that I need to budget my time so carefully. I have a lot of large projects that I have to prepare for and I am tired of the stress of procrastination, so this semester I have been trying to break them up into little pieces that are small enough and do-able enough that I can fit them in with my usual weekly class work. I’ve been working on homework until about 11:30 or midnight most nights, even Saturday and trying to fit in scouting and a temple visit every week and this weekend I just didn’t get everything done that I had on my list. Reading about Alma and his people has encouraged me to submit with patience and cheerfulness and not complain about what I have to do. It’s showed me that the Lord has the power to strengthen me to do all that is required of me and that the Lord will be with me, even in crunch times.

I said before that I didn’t get my homework done on Saturday that I had on my list, and I was a little worried about that. I felt that I was starting to fall behind and I worried that I was failing to do what I needed to do.

Then, last night I had a dream. I dreamt I was at a school campus and I was being chased by three threatening guys. I didn’t know what would happen if they caught me, but I was certain I wouldn’t like it. I did a lot of climbing and hiding and dodging to try to get away from them. I was in a dormitory with lots of bunk beds everywhere, five or six high. To get away from my pursuers, I would climb up the sides of these bunk beds, and the amazing thing was that I could climb up only using the strength in my arms. My body was so light that my legs didn’t have to do anything to help and I could even hold myself out horizontally. (I found this particularly fascinating, because in real life I don’t have much arm strength.) Sometimes I could fly or float short distances to escape and other times I could turn invisible. I was really having a lot of fun in my dream doing this and I remember thinking, “I could have even more fun if I didn’t have to keep away from these people chasing me!”

I had so much fun that I actually was reluctant to wake up.. but when I did I felt that this dream was from Heavenly Father and that He was trying to show me that I was stronger than I thought, that how I was handling my homework demonstrated strength, and that it could be very fun, if I had the right attitude. In the Lord’s eyes my burden was light and I was doing just fine.

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

(Image credit - RULA, www.asmnetwork.net/brotha_pruitt.htm)