As a boy, I delighted in making my parents feel old. It got such a good reaction every time. I teased them about gray hairs and new wrinkles and the aches and pains that come with age. These were beyond the horizon of my own future and didn’t seem like anything I would ever need to worry about, but I had a lot of fun asking my parents if they remembered when the pyramids were built or if they knew anyone that fought in the Civil War.
Now I can testify of Alma’s
words when he said, “that which ye do send out shall return unto you again”
(Alma 41:15). As I continue to age, my kids have carefully observed all of the signs
of my mortality and make sure I don’t forget about them. They used shocked
voices to exclaim that I was “born in the 1900s” or that something I like is
more than thirty years old. All of this is a just restoration of the judgements
I once made of my parents.
What I did not anticipate is that my doctor would some day
join the fray. I was chagrined recently when I complained about a few things I
was experiencing and all he said was, “yeah, that happens.” As we talked, he
reminded me of a few basic pillars of health that help all of us enjoy a better
quality of life: We need to eat real food, get enough sleep each night, drink
plenty of water, and be sure to exercise.
It is insightful to me to realize that none of these are
things we can make happen on our own. We can plant seeds in fertile soil, but
it is the Lord that makes nutritious grains, fruits, and vegetables grow. We
can have a relaxing bedtime routine, but the Lord gives us the gift of sleep. We
can dig a well, but the Lord sends the rain and snow to recharge the aquifers
we use. We can go for a walk or a hike, but the Lord’s consecrated creation is
what makes the right neurons fire or hormones flow so that exercise is a benefit
our bodies.
King Benjamin taught that we depend on the Lord to provide our every breath and preserve our lives from moment to moment (Mosiah 2:21). Thankfully, the Lord who created the sands of the sea and the stars in the sky desires to bless us with his abundance.
King David declared:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me
beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever (Psalm 23).
Perhaps this is why the Lord taught the earliest
missionaries that they should take “no thought for the morrow, for what ye
shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed… For your
Father, who is in heaven, knoweth that you have need of all these things.”
The Lord continued, “Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man" (D&C 84:80-85).
At the end of his fourteen-year mission to the Lamanites,
Ammon confirmed that missionary success is a gift from God and not necessarily
something that we earn on our own. “Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth
faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without
ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it
shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall
be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has
been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance” (Alma 26:22, emphasis added).
We have to plant the seed, but the Lord is the one that
makes it grow. We have to dig the well, but the Lord is the one that makes the
water flow. We have to enter the covenants of baptism and confirmation, but He
is the one who blesses us with His spirit to be with us. We have to share our
testimony with others, but the Lord carries it to their hearts and helps them
know it is true. We have to go to the temple, but He is the one who reveals
truth to our minds and hearts and unites our families for eternity.
The Lord provides for his faithful children even in the most
difficult of circumstances. He provided the escape for the Israelites through
the Red Sea and then made manna fall from heaven and water splurge from a
rock to support them through the desert. Nephi wrote that, while his people
endured many hardships in the wilderness, they were able to have children and
“so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon
raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their
children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men” (1 Nephi 17:2).
Nephi continued with his testimony that “thus we see that
the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of
men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and
provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them;
wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness”
(1 Nephi 17:3).
The Lord invites us to come partake of his abundance, to
yoke ourselves to him so he can carry our burdens, and to ask, seek, and knock
so that we might receive, find, and have His door opened unto us. But we must
come, we must yoke ourselves to him, we must ask, seek, and knock, or at least
we must give our best effort with faith that he will make up for any shortfalls
we may have.
Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not for the faint of heart. He
expects that we will be tired sometimes, sacrifice some of our time and priorities, get a few grey hairs and experience some aches and pains as we strive, however
imperfectly, to follow in his footsteps and do His work.
The secret, which I have only learned in what my children
would call my “ripe old age,” is that it is not about us. The Lord has declared
that He can do His own work. None of us could stop the work from progressing
any more than we could stick our puny arm into the Mississippi River and change its
course.
Yet, it is all about us. We are His Work and His Glory. He
wants to provide us with strong testimonies and the protection of sacred
covenants. He wants us to experience the thrill of revelation and the joy of
helping someone change. He wants to provide the temporal things we need and
teach us about service, sacrifice, and consecration. He wants to bless us with
knowledge of the mysteries of His kingdom and inspiration that will help us
better understand the world around us. He wants to provide all of this and
more, ultimately, because He is our father and He, in his perfect love for us,
wants us to not only return to live with him but to be exalted above the stars
and enjoy the kind of life that He lives.
Living that kind of life, eternal life in the celestial
kingdom of God, means we must first learn to make the choices that will lead us
to exaltation. So He invites us to plant the seeds, make the covenants, share
our burdens, and lose ourselves in coming to Him. He promises that, if we give
our best effort and strive to keep the commandments, He will take it from
there. He will provide. If we have been merciful, we will have mercy restored
to us again. If we have been just, we will have justice restored to us again.
If we have been good, we will have goodness as our reward. “For that which ye
do send out shall return to you again, and be restored” (Alma 41:14-15).
For the record, I don’t remember when
the pyramids were built and I have never met anyone who fought in the Civil
War. But I have lived long enough to know by my own experience that God lives,
that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that they want to bless us with greater
abundance than we now enjoy, and that we can receive of that abundance as we
make acting with greater faith and focus on our Savior a priority in our lives.