Last weekend, I was asked to speak at a funeral. A man in my ward had passed away unexpectedly, and I used to visit teach his wife. I never met the man - he had been pretty much home-bound for the last couple of years. When I did visit his wife, he never came out to the living room, and I never went into their back bedroom. So needless to say, the invitation to speak was unexpected. The motivation for the invitation seems to have been from a talk that I gave back around the first of the year. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the talk was recorded, and given to him. I guess it provided some sort of comfort to him in his situation, and he would listen to it regularly.
Admittedly, that information, and the invitation to speak, sort of "weirded me out", and I felt intense pressure. I'm not a General Authority, so that anyone should really set me up as someone to listen to gave me pause for concern. I was also worried that being my imperfect self, there would come a time that I would not be able to live up to their expectations of me.
This brings me to the topic I chose to speak on, which was on focusing on the Savior's atonement to lift us and bring us joy. As it says in the movie "The Prodigal Son", we're all helpless without the aid of Jesus Christ. That means that I am just as helpless as this brother was. And only the Savior can provide us with sufficient lift to help us make it through this life and into the next. This is confirmed in one of my favorite scriptures, Moroni 9:25:
"My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever."
I've been pondering this last couple of months about how to generate that lift. A young missionary from my ward used a phrase in his farewell talk, "lean into the Atonement". And that brought to my mind an experience I had several years ago, when some friends and I went indoor skydiving. The idea of indoor skydiving is that you enter a wind tunnel, and the wind should be blowing hard enough that you'll fly as if you were skydiving. In order to successfully fly, you have to do two things. First, you have to lean into the wind tunnel. And second, once you lean in, and are lifted up, you need to use all your muscles, particularly in your legs and core, to keep yourself perfectly positioned in the air, so you don't sink. So, giving this analogy a spiritual application, you have to lean into the Atonement to provide lift, and then you have to consistently work to maintain the lift - through the basic things like regular prayer, scripture study, keeping priesthood covenants, and service (and speaking at funerals).
To me, lift is really the same thing as joy. As President Russell M. Nelson taught:
"...the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. ...
"When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation, ...and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him."
So - that all said - lean in, focus on the atonement, and do the little things. You'll be lifted up, feel joy, and be glad you did.
Admittedly, that information, and the invitation to speak, sort of "weirded me out", and I felt intense pressure. I'm not a General Authority, so that anyone should really set me up as someone to listen to gave me pause for concern. I was also worried that being my imperfect self, there would come a time that I would not be able to live up to their expectations of me.
This brings me to the topic I chose to speak on, which was on focusing on the Savior's atonement to lift us and bring us joy. As it says in the movie "The Prodigal Son", we're all helpless without the aid of Jesus Christ. That means that I am just as helpless as this brother was. And only the Savior can provide us with sufficient lift to help us make it through this life and into the next. This is confirmed in one of my favorite scriptures, Moroni 9:25:
"My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever."
I've been pondering this last couple of months about how to generate that lift. A young missionary from my ward used a phrase in his farewell talk, "lean into the Atonement". And that brought to my mind an experience I had several years ago, when some friends and I went indoor skydiving. The idea of indoor skydiving is that you enter a wind tunnel, and the wind should be blowing hard enough that you'll fly as if you were skydiving. In order to successfully fly, you have to do two things. First, you have to lean into the wind tunnel. And second, once you lean in, and are lifted up, you need to use all your muscles, particularly in your legs and core, to keep yourself perfectly positioned in the air, so you don't sink. So, giving this analogy a spiritual application, you have to lean into the Atonement to provide lift, and then you have to consistently work to maintain the lift - through the basic things like regular prayer, scripture study, keeping priesthood covenants, and service (and speaking at funerals).
To me, lift is really the same thing as joy. As President Russell M. Nelson taught:
"...the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. ...
"When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation, ...and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him."
So - that all said - lean in, focus on the atonement, and do the little things. You'll be lifted up, feel joy, and be glad you did.
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