Prepared as a Sacrament Meeting talk and given on July 15, 2018
Last summer included one of the unique
experiences of my life. While the Detwiler Fire was becoming the largest wildfire
in our county’s history—burning more than 80,000 acres and taking 74 homes-- I
was stationed in the Emergency Operations Center. The Emergency Operations
Center does everything except respond to a disaster. This is where a limited
number of staff are making sure firefighters are fed, disabled residents are
getting help to evacuate and recovery efforts are underway from the first day. It
is a government operation, so you have to expect a few acronyms are involved—we
call it the EOC for short.
A couple
of things made working in the EOC a unique experience. First, normal
organizational hierarchy is suspended. There are no bosses or subordinates in a
traditional sense and it doesn’t matter what you do in your day job or where
you normally do it. There’s no time for drama or office politics. Each person
has an assignment and everyone depends on everyone else to get the job done.
Normal
organizational rules are also suspended. For two weeks, it didn’t take
committee deliberations and public meetings to make a decision. I didn’t
receive a single request to meet with a union before work could continue. The
EOC is authorized to do what needs to be done. Fortunately or unfortunately,
doing what needs to be done also tends to include very long hours without many
opportunities to take a break or slow the pace. In fact, one of the assignments
is for someone to get food for the rest of the EOC staff so they can keep
working.
Now,
perhaps some of you are thinking that casual relationships and loose rules are
no way to run an operation. And much of the time, I might agree with you. But I
also observed some behavior that taught me a great deal about the principle
I’ve been asked to discuss today. I’ll share three quick anecdotes.
On the
morning of the second day, it was becoming clear that we would need more staff
in the EOC to support the more than 5,000 firefighters that had arrived or were
on their way. I texted the department directors and asked for five volunteer
clerical staff to work 12-hour shifts in the EOC with no mention of overtime. In
less than five minutes, I had seven volunteers on the way.
A few
days into the fire, I noticed that one of the department directors assigned to
the EOC was smiling more than usual. When I asked about it later, I was told
that they had been so bogged down with administrative duties that they felt
like they had almost forgotten why they entered public service in the first
place. Though a tragic event, the opportunity to directly serve the people of
our county was rekindling all of the positive feelings that drove them to
public service in the first place. They felt privileged to be doing something
that would make a positive difference for their community.
Shortly
after we returned to normal operations, one of the EOC staff who responded that
second day related to me what a positive experience they had. They told me that
working for the County had always just been a job before, but now they wanted
to make a career in public service. This employee enrolled in an online
bachelor’s program shortly thereafter and is already making plans for a master’s
degree when that is done.
These
experiences, and dozens more like them, left me with a question. What is it
about two weeks of casual work relationships and loose rules that makes seven
people drop everything, an accomplished director love their job again and an
already stellar employee recognize there’s even more they could be doing? A
year later, almost to the day, why is the EOC still the most mentioned positive
experience when I ask my team about their work?
As I’ve
asked these questions, many of those that participated in that EOC echo the
words of one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine, who wrote that it is “not
in numbers but in unity that our great strength lies.”
In the
days of the prophet Enoch, the city of Zion was unbeatable. The scriptures
record that “so great was the faith of Enoch” that he used earthquakes, moved
rivers and mountains and called lions out of the wilderness to fight their
battles for them. The enemies of Zion, including the giants upon the land in
those days, were so intimidated by the strength and glory of Zion that they
scrambled away to a newly-formed island where they hoped they would be safe.
And how
does the Lord describe the people of Zion? As ferocious? Of superior education
or training regimen, perhaps? Or as a peaceful, giving and united people? “And
the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind,
and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them… and lo, Zion, in
process of time, was taken up into heaven. And the Lord said unto Enoch: Behold
mine abode forever” (Moses 7:18, 21).
The Lord
wants each of us to enjoy great strength and so he commands that we be One in
at least four different ways: one with ourselves, one with our spouses, one
with Him, and one with our fellow Saints. Each of these is important for our
salvation.
First, we must be one with
ourselves. The people of Enoch were “of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in
righteousness.” The Lord has warned that we “cannot serve God and mammon” and
that he spews out the lukewarm because it is neither hot nor cold.
I
recently read an interview of Wendell Berry, who is a farmer, poet, novelist
and a sort of philosopher of the land. He was asked in the interview if farming
was more of an art or a science. He replied, “To farm you have to know, which
is science, and you have to do, which is art. In practice,” he continued, “it
is impossible to draw a straight or firm line between knowing and doing. When
this line is drawn… it is at best tentative and suppositional, at worst false.”
None of
us would imagine that we could stop watering or weeding our gardens and get the
same results. It seems too obvious to say that we cannot enjoy the fruits of
our labor, literal or metaphorical, if we skip planting or harvesting. We
understand quite clearly that what we know and what we do must be in sync for
our garden to be successful. Yet, somehow, we don’t always seem to understand
that it is the same with what we know is right and how we live our lives. Life,
like farming, is a good deal of art and a good deal of science with no clear
lines between the two.
The
polarity and union of knowing and doing shapes our lives and our challenges.
For example, sometimes we get comfortable coming to church and listening to
those who have been assigned to teach us for the day. We come to expect
inspiring messages and maybe a list of what we should know or what we can do; but
reading a list about what we can do is not doing, so when we approach our
church meetings in this way we relegate ourselves to passivity. We can come to
church every week and still be little more than observers—and we can learn very
little this way.
The opposite of passive observance
is active participation. What the observer appreciates as valuable concepts and
ideas, the participant understands as a call to action. The Lord has designed
his Church as a place of activity: we sing the hymns together as “songs of the
heart” (D&C 25:12), we “teach one another words of wisdom” (D&C
88:118), we volunteer for assignments and magnify the callings we are asked to
perform. On occasion we have a reason to practice forgiving someone who has
offended us or serving someone who needs our help. Approaching our time in
church as a time of giving, rather than receiving only, not only increases our
learning, but it also affects our integrity.
Integrity is “the quality of being
honest and having strong moral principles,” but the second definition is “the
state of being whole or undivided” including “the condition of being unified,
unimpaired, or sound in construction”. We are whole or undivided with ourselves
when there is high fidelity between the person we know we should be and the
person that we are because our knowledge of what we should be doing is
consistent with what we do—or, in other words, when we are honest with others
and ourselves about who we really are.
Interestingly, this is similar to a
definition of the word, “perfect,” which is to be “complete, finished, or fully
developed.” I submit that one way we can heed the Lord’s call to “be ye
therefore perfect” (Matt. 5:48) is to be true to the person we really are, a
son or daughter of the Most High God with courage to do the things we know we
should. Because we cannot really give what is not real, personal integrity, or
what we might also call “strength of character” or “unity of self” is
prerequisite to dedication to the Lord, fidelity to our spouse and unity with
others.
Next, unity with our spouse. In
Matthew 19, the Pharisees attempt to trick the Savior into verbal support for
no-fault divorce. “Is it lawful,” they asked, “for a man to put away his wife
for every cause?” (v. 3)
Jesus answered, “Have ye not read,
that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said,
For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his
wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but
one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder”
(v. 4-6).
The unity of a married couple is
recognized in our temporal law as well. When my wife and I were married, she had
recently graduated from BYU. She had a full-time job teaching at a nearby
elementary school, a newer car, a rented duplex and no school debts. I, on the
other hand, was just starting my sophomore year of college. I had no car, I was
sleeping on a buddy’s couch and since I didn’t have a fancy scholarship I had
already racked up over $10,000 in student loans.
On the day we were married, we were
no longer separate individuals in the eyes of the law. We became one
unit: a single family. I was now the proud owner of a little white Hyundai; and
with my name, My wife also received responsibility for my school loans. This is another
reason why you should always date people who are smarter than you.
The same thing happens to us on the
day we step into the waters of baptism. When we are baptized, we covenant with
the Lord that we will always be willing to keep his commandments, remember him
and take his name upon us. We take his name upon ourselves as a bride takes the
name of her groom. So long as we keep that covenant, the laws of eternity
recognize we who have sinned as a single entity with our Savior, who died and
rose again the third day as a part of His infinite and eternal atonement.
Through our baptismal covenant and the boundless grace of God, our debt of sin
can be wiped out by the wealth of his grace. Each of us can be declared perfect
as a consequence of our unity with our perfect Savior, making us joint-heirs
with Christ of all the Father has (Romans 8:17).
Finally, the Lord commands us to be
one with each other. This, of course, makes perfect sense in light of the unity
introduced by the baptismal covenant. If I am bound to Christ by virtue of my
baptismal covenant and you are as well by yours, then you and I are bound to
each other. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, when we are baptized we are “no
more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the
household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).
In the household of God, we are
charged with being of one heart and one mind, dwelling in righteousness with no
poor among us. We teach each other the peaceable things of the kingdom and pray
to know the Lord’s will individually and collectively. A slight against another
is a slight against ourselves, particularly if our offense breaks the covenant
we have made. We may choose to cut ourselves off, but we cannot choose who else
is in the household of God.
Likewise, service to one another is
only service to our God. Such service is for our own benefit and has a
multiplier effect as those we serve are strengthened, our capacity grows and
the household is enhanced more than the sum of the two. No wonder the Lord
would ask us now to improve our efforts to minister to one another.
Each of us brings our own gifts to
the household of God. The Lord taught Joseph Smith that these gifts “are given
for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that
seeketh so to do… And again, verily I say unto you, I would that ye should
always remember, and always retain in your minds what those gifts are, that are
given unto the church. For all have not every gift given unto them; for there
are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God. To some
is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby”
(D&C 46:9-12).
Unity in each of these covenant
relationships—with ourselves, with our spouse, with God and with each other—are
of the upmost importance to the Lord. Each of the ten commandments address
these relationships. The third commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain,” refers not only to our language, but also prohibits
wasting or abandoning the strength that comes through the baptismal covenant,
for example.
In many respects, a life in the
household of God is a lot like what I experienced in the EOC. The staff of the
EOC was unified and motivated by an urgent need to help our community; the household
of God is united by the urgent need to save all mankind. Worldly status is
irrelevant here—we are all equal in the sight of God. Worldly excuses are also
of no use here—none of us are too old or too inadequate or too busy-- each of
us has gifts that are given for the benefit of all.
When we live with integrity, being
true to our real and divine identities, we will recognize that this is the
greatest cause there ever was. We will prioritize service to others and be
willing to drop everything to help them. Our service will bring us joy and help
us smile a little more even in the worst of times. And we will undoubtedly find
that there is more we can be doing, more purpose for our lives and more
blessings available to us than we are currently experiencing.
