Now that we
are on a 2nd mission…. We see both missions in comparison. When people hear that we were in Cambodia
for 22 months the first question is always…. “how was that?” I always respond with “It was a WOW every
day! Not always a good WOW but nonetheless,
a WOW”
The Salt
Lake City Headquarters Mission has proven to be very different. There have been no language barriers, no
shock value on the streets nor any cultural challenges. Although
there are still beggars but they stay on the sidewalks and are never in the middle
of the street. The beggars here seem to
be seasonal, evidently, it is too cold to beg during the winter months.
The Salt
Lake City Headquarters Mission as proved to be more of a subdued “ah-ha!” We get to see the Church up close and
personal. One thing that impresses me the
most is that we get to hear about the sacrifices that people make to be
here. It has caused me to look at and
evaluate sacrifice. What HAVE I
sacrificed, what DO I sacrifice, and what am I WILLING to sacrifice?
Recently in
an MTC Devotional by Elder David Bednar he quoted C.S. Lewis from the book Mere Christianity. It is Mr. Lewis’ thoughts on what God would beg
from each of us,
“Give
me all of you!!! I don’t want so much
of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I
want YOU!!! ALL OF YOU!! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural
man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half
measures will do. I don’t want to only
prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand
it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and
wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will
make of you a new self---in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give
you Myself. My will, shall become your
will. My heart, shall become your heart.”
How much
more would I need to give to reach that level?
Am I strong enough to do that?
Where do I begin to step it up?
It seems that as I read and study about sacrifice, obedience always
ushers in sacrifice. Faith in Jesus
Christ is a must that leads to obedience.
An
observation that I made many years ago was that the Church (really it was more the
Ward level) was looking for one of three things from me: my time, my food, or my money. When I had an abundance of one they seemed
to ask for the others! During my second
year as a member of the Church, I realized that when the missionaries had asked
if I would be willing to pay tithing that was just a financial spit in the
bucket compared to what was really required!
The first
January after we were married I learned about the Ward Budget! WHAT?!?!?
We have to help pay for electricity and maintenance on the building?! Who does that? Is that the way it was with every church? I wasn’t really reconsidering my choice I had
made the previous year but we were paying 10% of an already meager wage now we
have to give another $10/month for the Ward Budget (some people had larger
allotments than that… every family was assigned according to what the Bishop
asked). Paying your Ward Budget was not
attached to your worthiness of having a Temple Recommend but obedience and
sacrifice had a definite connection! A
few years later (around 1976) the Cardston Stake had been approved by the
Church to build a new Stake Center.
This was exciting news until I learned that the membership had to
contribute 50% of the cost of the building.
The Stake Presidency asked every member to pay and extra 5% of their
income to pay for our portion of the new building. With faith in one hand and obedience in the
other, this sacrifice was made month after month. I could have baked a pie, made some squares,
or contributed a craft a lot easier than 10% tithing + 5% Stake Budget + Ward
Budget, but money is what was at the top of the Lord’s sacrifice list for
now.
The building
was only a few months away from being dedicated when we moved! We both secretly rubbed our hands together
saying, “oh boy, we now have 5% more money”!
I don’t think we realized one thin dime of that money. I don’t know how we paid that because I
couldn’t see where it was coming from in the first place. There was no extra money floating
around. That was my first great lesson
learned about sacrifice, obedience, and faith.
About 1988 the Church did away
with Ward Budgets…. couldn’t find that money either!! So we continued to give our money, time, and
food and didn’t try to figure out where it was coming from or how it was going to
show up.
The
sacrifice the Lord asks of us is to wholly rid ourselves of the “natural man”
“
For the Natural man is an enemy to God…unless he yields to the enticings of the
Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the
atonement of Christ the Lord…” (Mosiah 3:19)
When we
completely surrender ourselves to the Lord, then He will cause a mighty change
in us and we will become a new person, justified, sanctified, and born again
with His image in our countenances.
Amaleki, simply put it, “Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls
as an offering unto him….” (Omni 1:26)
Brother
Truman G. Madsen tells about a visit he made to Israel with President Hugh B.
Brown, an Apostle of the Lord. In a valley
known as Hebron, where tradition has it that the tomb of Father Abraham is
located, Brother Madsen asked President Brown, “What are the blessings of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” After a short moment of thought, President Brown
answered, “Posterity.”
Brother
Madsen writes: “I almost burst out, ‘Why, then, was Abraham commanded to go to
Mount Moriah and offer his only hope of posterity?’
“It
was clear that President Brown, nearly ninety, had thought and prayed and wept
over that question before. He finally said, ‘Abraham needed to learn something
about Abraham’” (The Highest in Us [1978], 49).
I learned
many things about myself during those years.
Tithing didn’t seem like a challenging commandment at all when first
approached with it but you add Ward Budget and a Stake Budget on to it and it
became a true sacrifice. This was my
pioneering lessons in tithing. It was my own personal way to trudge through
the snow.
The word sacrifice means literally “to make
sacred,” or “to render sacred.” Today we
are not called to pay Ward budgets or Stake budgets or to pull handcarts
through the snow-swept plains of Wyoming. However, we are called to be ministers within
the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is
interesting how often we now see the word ministering
in the scriptures. A sister recently queried,
“how did we miss that? Why didn’t we see
ministering before?” I have
come to the conclusion that we read ministering to be the act of teaching and
preaching (and maybe sometimes some finger wagging!). President Nelson has put us on a higher
plain. Now we see ministering as it has
been redefined and refined as being an act of loving, nurturing, giving, and
serving. We have been lifted higher in
thought, word, and now it is up to us, in deed.
I now need
to decide what part of “ALL of me” am I holding back? What does “ministering” look like on my shoulders? This is some of the “ah-ha’s” that the Salt
Lake City Headquarters Mission gives to me.
Although, these upcoming sacrifices are still in the question form
rather than an answer…..
To Be
Continued.
