Spirituality Part 4

How Can I Increase Spirituality in my Life?

Part 4

Continued from last week’s letter

So far we have covered the first 6 of 10 points, which will help us gain spirituality as a mission. These points are from a talk delivered by Elder Joe J Christensen. We now continue with number 7 …

7. Be more concerned about how than where you serve.

At times we might be tempted to get caught up with attaining a certain position or calling as we serve in the Church. At other times we might get the urge to travel “under the radar” so that we aren’t subject to receiving a challenging church assignment.

In the 2008 October Conference priesthood meeting, we heard the masterful discourse on this subject from President Uchtdorf; ‘Lift Where you Stand”

"Although it may seem simple, lifting where we stand is a principle of power," he said, adding that most priesthood holders he knows understand and live the principle in faithfully serving others.

"There are those, however, who sometimes struggle with this concept. And when they do, they seem to fall into one of two camps: either they seek to lead, or they seek to hide. They covet a crown or a cave."

Those wanting to lead believe they are capable of doing more than currently asked and their abilities surpass their calling. Meanwhile, those wanting to hide claim to be too busy to serve.

"Oddly enough, often the root cause of both of these tendencies — seeking to lead or seeking to hide — may be the same: selfishness," President Uchtdorf said, adding there is a better way and a greater example.

"When we seek to serve others, we are motivated not by selfishness but by charity — we lift where we stand. This is the way Jesus Christ lived His life and the way a holder of the priesthood must live his."

In spite of the Savior's example, "we too easily and too often get caught up in seeking the honors of men rather than serving the Lord with all our might, mind and strength."Then he made that great statement, "The Lord judges so very differently from the way we do. He is pleased with the noble servant, not with the self-serving 'noble."

Elder Joe J Christensen tells of an experience when he was the President of the MTC in Provo.

“Don’t be like the young, handsome, enthusiastic elder who asked me on the first day he arrived at the MTC in Provo, “President, do you know what my major goal is in my mission?” Of course I didn’t know. He said, “My main goal is to become assistant to the president of my mission!”

How much better it would have been for him to have said something like this: “President, the main goal I have on my mission is to be a worthy representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to serve Him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. I would be happy to serve in whatever part of the mission and in whatever assignment I am given. I just want to serve.”

Remember that even the Savior performed the humblest acts of service. If there ever comes a time when we get concerned about where we are serving or why someone else is called to do this or that, rather than us, think of the Savior in that Upper Room when He, as the greatest of all, the Creator of worlds without number, our Savior and Redeemer, took the basin, water, and towel and knelt before His disciples, performing that humble act of service by washing His disciples’ feet. After overcoming Peter’s reluctance and finishing the process, He asked them:

“Know ye what I have done to you? “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.

“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

“If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:12-17).

About three-fourths through my own mission, as a young missionary in France, I needed to learn this lesson. The Lord provided me with that opportunity.

We lived in a 4 man apartment. The other Senior had been ill for several weeks, so I organized a system where as a threesome we could maximize every hour of the day. One of the ‘well’ missionaries would stay at the apartment, with the sick Elder, preparing food for lunch. When we returned to the apartment, we moved quickly to rotate so that after only the 20 minutes or so it took to eat lunch, the changed-up companionship would be back on the streets. We repeated the process at dinner and ended up getting in almost as many proselyting hours as two teams of missionaries. This was about the time when a new Zone Leader would be called. I looked at the other Elders in the zone and concluded that I was the best qualified and the hardest working so it was a good chance that it would be me. I was overly proud of our performance as a ‘threesome’ … I felt sure that I would be the new Zone leader. On transfer day the ‘sick’ Elder was made the Zone Leader and I was given a new missionary to train and was transferred to the outer reaches of the mission. I was shocked; I began to doubt my own abilities. A few days later I came across a talk by Elder Hugh B. Brown given four years earlier to BYU graduates. It is a little bit long but this story changed my life.

“Could I tell you just a quick story out of my own experience in life? Sixty odd years ago I was on a farm in Canada. I had purchased this from another who had been somewhat careless in keeping it up. And I went out one morning and found a currant bush at least six feet high. I knew that it was going all to wood. There was no sign of blossom or fruit. I had had some experience in pruning trees before we left Salt Lake to go to Canada, as my father had a fruit farm. I got my pruning sheers and went to work on that currant bush. And I clipped it, and cut it, and cut it down, until there was nothing left but a little clump of stumps.

As I looked at them, I yielded to an impulse which I often have, to talk with inanimate things, and have them talk to me. It’s a ridiculous habit, but one I can’t overcome. As I looked at this little clump of stumps, there seemed to be a tear on each one. And I said, “What’s the matter, currant bush? What are you crying about?” And I thought I heard that currant bush speak. It seemed to say, “How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as large as the fruit tree and the shade tree. And now you’ve cut me down. And all in the garden will look upon me with contempt and pity. How could you do it? I thought you were the gardener here?”

I thought I heard that from the currant bush. I thought it so much that I answered it. I said, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here. And I know what I want you to be. If I let you go the way you want to go, you’ll never amount to anything. But someday, when you’re laden with fruit, you’re going to think back and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down; for loving me enough to hurt me.’”

Ten years passed and I found myself in Europe. I had made some progress in the First World War in the Canadian Army, in fact I was a field officer. There was only one man between me and the rank of General, which I cherished in my heart for years. And then he became a casualty. And the day after I received a telegraph from London from General Turner in charge of all Canadian officers. He said, “Be in my office tomorrow morning at ten o’clock.” I puffed up. I called my special servant, they call them batmen over there. I said, “Polish my boots and my buttons. Make me look like a General, because I’m going up tomorrow to be appointed. He did the best he could with what he had to work on, and I went to London.

I walked into the office of the General, I saluted him smartly, and he replied to my salute as higher officers usually do to juniors, sort of a ‘get out of the way, worm.’ Then he said, “Sit down, Brown.” I was deflated. I sat down. And he said, “Brown, you’re entitled to this promotion, but I cannot make it. You have qualified, passed the regulations, you have had the experience. You’re entitled to it in every way but I can’t make this appointment.” Just then he went in to the other room to answer a phone call and I did what most every officer or man in the army would do under those circumstances: I looked over on his desk to see what my personal history sheet showed. And I saw on the bottom of that history sheet in large capital letters, “THIS MAN IS A MORMON.” Now at that time we were hated heartily in Britain. And I knew why he couldn’t make the appointment. Finally he came back and said, “That’s all, Brown.” I saluted him less heartily than before and went out.

On my way back to Shorncliff 120 miles away, I thought every turn of the wheel or crack across the rails was saying, “You’re a failure. You must go home and be called a coward by those who do not understand.” And bitterness rose in my heart until when I arrived finally in my tent, I threw rather vigorously my cap on the cot together with my Sam Brown belt. I clenched my fist and I shook it at heaven. And I said, “How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything that I knew how to do to hold the standards of the Church. I was making such wonderful growth, and now you’ve cut me down. How could you do it?”

Then I heard a voice. It sounded like my own voice. And the voice said, “I’m the Gardener here. I know what I want you to be. If I let you go the way you want to go you’ll never amount to anything. And someday, when you are ripened in life, you’re going to shout back across time and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down; for loving me enough to hurt me.’”

Elder Brown’s talk came to me just when I needed it most. I learned a valuable lesson that day. I felt the words burn into my heart. Where there had been anger and self-doubt was now the knowledge that God loved me. My embarrassment quickly changed from worrying about how the other missionaries and the folks at home would view me, to an embarrassment that my arrogance and pride had gotten out of hand. I prayed that God would excuse me. In looking back these many years later, I often feel like saying “Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down; for loving me enough to hurt me”

Be careful to keep pride out of service to God. Don’t aspire to anything more or less than to serve God and His children. Your spiritual strength will grow as you gain a desire only to serve Him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. Our mission will grow in spirituality as we each become able to say sincerely ”I would be happy to serve in whatever part of the mission and in whatever assignment I am given. I just want to serve”

Open your mouth and have a wonderful week,

President Brubaker