Humble Reaching: Having ears to hear

I listened to a talk in Sacrament meeting today about reaching. It was a powerful story, well presented. The speaker described her very imaginative and talkative five year old niece who was visiting temple square. A mall with fountains is found cross the street. This little girl looked at the black waters in one of the water features, and pronounced that Satan. The water was filled with black stones, so that gave the appearance of darkness. Then she looked at the fountains of water coming from that pool, and that water was clear. She decided that represented Jesus. This angel wanted to touch Jesus, so she climbed, reached and stretched and asked for help. Then she touched the water, and proudly proclaimed to all that were near that she touched Jesus!

A similar thing happened in this week's reading. Luke 8 describes how a woman reached out and touched Jesus. At that moment in history, people touching Jesus was not an unusual occurrence - there was a huge group of people, and all of them wanted to be close to Him. The difference was that they wanted to touch the miracle causer; the rock star; the new kid in town. This woman wanted something different. She wasn't about curiosity, and she wasn't about posting a selfie with Jesus. She had faith and a purpose, and wanted to touch the Son of God. She believed that He could heal her.

She also reached. She did what she could do for herself. Her actions included getting herself to the place where Christ would be, and positioning herself.  She had gained enough faith to know that Christ could do this for her, then she reached. Christ did the rest.

How different it is to acknowledge God, compared to accessing His power through humble reaching.

Another thing that strikes me in these chapters is the  phrase "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear". This is kind of the same thing as above for me actually - we all have arms, but few of us reach. We all have ears, but few of us want to know what Christ needs us to do. We'd love to have Christ show up and give us a clear path for what we need to do next - but only if those instructions fit our existing lifestyle. Otherwise? Not interested. And it would be convenient if those words that we want to hear from Christ didn't involve having to go anywhere to hear them. Just do it between my breaks at work, thank you very much.

I have discussed this in other posts - Christ protects us from ourselves by giving to us only what we are willing to manage. With parables, Christ can give great wisdom to those who reach for great wisdom, but if you didn't really want to know? Then he can hide what might have been damming to your soul behind the same parable. It's an act of love - not giving us what He knows we can't or won't handle.

And then a scripture that has always made me scratch my head: Matthew 13:11 and 12
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

So why would the Lord give to those who are already "rich" and take from the poor? Isn't that backwards? I thought it was always about giving to those who didn't have - isn't that right?

In this scripture, I believe that Christ wasn't talking about physical needs, but spiritual strength. Those who have ears, and listen, will be given more learning - because they listen. Those who have arms that reach for him will find him, and be healed. Those who want to get close to him for a really awesome facebook selfie with Christ? From them "it" will be taken away. We all have to be careful about that - are our motivations to get close to Christ, or to appear that way? Do we do things to check the box, or do we do things to show our love for Christ and to be His disciple?

I should probably quit here because it might appear that I view myself as "above", and that I'm preaching. This is not my goal. It's just what's coming to me as I think and type.

 I've spent a great deal of my life being very interested in pleasing others so I could have friends. I'm starting to learn that as I settle in to being comfortable with who I am, which is a disciple of Christ, that friends come to me. I'm grateful for that. Still a lot of issues, but I'm reaching. I hope that's enough. 

Come Follow Me: It's not about "getting through"

So we joined families to do our Come Follow Me lesson for next Sunday. It was interesting what expectations we put on ourselves. For example, one member of the group complained a bit about having six chapters to "get through". We have Matthew 10-12; Mark 2, Luke 7 and Luke 11. A lot of material.

Now, for me that's not a problem because of what I've learned as I've done this blog. I was originally challenged to read the scriptures for half an hour, then write for about 10 minutes about what I learned. What it has turned into is that I read until I find something that inspires me and compels me to write. Then I consider it as I write.

Priesthood meetings are much better for me lately. Our instructions are to sit in a circle, and have the group teach each other. It will be a surprise to no-one that many heads thinking and drawing from their experience is better than one lecturer and a group of chair sitters. I just congratulated my Elder's quorum president on his presentation - he is more of a choir director than a lecturer, and it becomes very rewarding to be in those classes. This is not a new thing necessarily - the Preach My Gospel manual has stated for some time that the most important trait of a teacher is his ability to listen. 

By contrast, the teacher who feels that he or she must "get through" the lesson is probably making the lesson about themselves. That's harsh, I know, because they would say their only desire is to serve. For me, the goal is not to "get through", but to deepen our souls. To improve our understanding, to gain from each other, and from the Holy Ghost. To recharge and enlarge our spiritual batteries. In some sense, a need to cut off a discussion that is doing those things, with the intent of getting through the lesson, is counter productive.

This goes me back to the beginning of this page. She was expecting to accomplish her goal within the time allotted. I was looking for gems, and places where we could discuss and learn. One is more check-boxy. The other is less check-boxy. One is about fulfilling self-imposed expectations, and the other is about spiritual growth and depth of soul.

I believe that when our goal is to check the box, we gain less. Much less.

Home teaching was changed to ministering to avoid the box checking. The change was made to align our goals with the Lord's goals: don't just visit them once a month - serve them. Love them. See them as the Lord does. Develop a relationship with them - take them swimming, or to the park, or four-wheeling with you. It was never supposed to be about getting an appointment on the 31st each month. 

I think it's similar with lessons and scripture reading. May we not just "get through", but may we learn to love the scriptures because it deepens our relationship with Jesus Christ - no matter how many chapters or verses that may take. 

It's a new way of thinking, and a new way to be. May we not just go to the temple so we can feel good about having done it, but go to be inspired. May we not just pray so that we did it, but to report in and commune with our best friend. 

It's better that way.