Lazy, or incapable?

There's a difference between being lazy, and simply being incapable.

You wouldn't tell a deaf person that they're just not trying hard enough to hear, otherwise they could. You wouldn't tell a wheelchair bound vet who lost both his legs in the war that he's just not trying hard enough to stand up and walk. You wouldn't call an infant lazy for not picking up William Shakespeare and reciting it from memory.

I suffer from mild depression. I've spent many days and countless nights doing absolutely nothing. I've had a list of things I needed to do, had plenty of motivation to do it, but instead sat around doing nothing. Not because I didn't want to, but because I literally felt physically and mentally incapable of getting up and doing it. I have close friends and family members who suffer from moderate to severe depression that do this more often than not. They are literally incapable of doing something that any outsider would think they should have no problem doing.

There is a difference. A lazy person simply chooses not to fulfill responsibilities. A depressed person simply can't do it. Not everyone is open about their depression. There may be someone you or I have called lazy, or mumbled to ourselves about how lazy they are, when there actually is a psychological problem they're suffering through that makes them incapable of living up to our expectations. Don't be so quick to judge. Just as we are only doing our best with what we have, remember to give others the benefit of the doubt that they're doing their best as well, even if their best seems less than what we think it should be.

Spiritual Intersection

             
One day I was walking home from the bus stop, and I was at an intersection. The light was red in the direction I needed to go. I was on Facebook on my cell phone, but I was aware of my surroundings. When the light turned green and I got the walk signal, I started walking across the street, but I was still paying attention to my phone. After I had just barely left the curb onto the crosswalk, I saw out of the corner of my eye a car that was headed directly for me. The driver didn't notice me until they were almost right on top of me, but thankfully they hit the brakes fast enough as I jumped expecting a collision. I was heading in the right direction, and I had the right of way, but I wasn't paying attention to what was going on around me. Instead I was focused on my phone. The driver of the car that almost hit me didn't stop at the green light before making the right turn, as they weren't required to stop, but they apparently didn't see me until after they started turning. I didn't do anything wrong, and they didn't do anything wrong, it was just a matter of paying attention to your surroundings before moving.
This can sometimes happen to us on the crosswalks of life. We may be heading in the right direction, and not be doing anything wrong, but we may not be paying attention to what's going on around us. We may be going to church, saying our prayers, reading our scriptures, but we aren't looking to notice the opposition that sometimes subtly crosses into our path. If we're doing all the right things, but we have our focus on something other than what's going on around us and just mindlessly going through the motions in the Church, Satan can slyly stick his foot in the door. He will tell a thousand truths to get you to believe one lie. Along with being a good person, we also need to know what situations we need to avoid, harmless as they may seem, to avoid being "hit by a turning car," or being led into temptation without realizing it. We are taught to avoid the appearance of evil. We need to think about who we hang out with, what groups we're affiliated with, and our overall appearance to other people. If we're aware of our surroundings, we can stay on the right path and we won't be led away by the subtle temptations of the devil. If we keep our attention off of our "cell phones" when we cross the intersections of life, and we pay attention to our surroundings, we can avoid those temptations and stay on the straight and narrow path without getting bumped off.

Spiritual Word Search

             
A word search is made up of many different characters, or letters, that at first glance may seem like they're just in a random order. But when you start looking closely at the letters, you will find a lot of them arranged to form words. These words are arranged in several different ways. Some words you can see just by glancing at the letters, and other words you have to focus on what you're looking for to find. Sometimes you need someone else to point out words to you that you're having trouble finding yourself. The end of some words might be the beginning of other words, and the beginning of some might be the end of others. There are some words that, within the letters that form those words, you'll find the beginning, end, or even the middle of other words. And there are yet other words that seem to be isolated on the sidelines and not connected with any of the other words at all. But no matter how the words in a word search are arranged, if every letter isn't in the exact place they are in, the letters wouldn't come together the way they do, and the word search wouldn't be complete as it is.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is made up of many different characters, or people, as well. At first glance, the Church may look like just a bunch of people doing a bunch of different things that don't seem to have anything to do with each other. But when you look at the duties and responsibilities of each member, and the role they play for the better of the Church as a whole, you will find that they come together to fulfill different goals, or purposes, that come as a result of the individual responsibilities. These responsibilities are designed in several different ways. The purpose of some responsibilities seem clearly obvious. To see the purpose of other responsibilities you have to look closer to understand. And yet other purposes, you're not going to see unless someone else explains it to you.

The letters in the word search represent the individual members of the Church. The words that the arranged letters create represent the duties and responsibilities that are performed by the individual members. The word search itself represents the Church as a whole. Some responsibilities in the Church lead to the beginning or end of others, and some intersect with each other. Others seem to be on the sidelines not playing as big a role as the rest. But just as the letters in the word search, if the members of the Church don't fulfill their individual responsibilities in the callings and positions they hold, the Church as a whole wouldn't come together the way it does, and it couldn't truly contain the fulness of the Gospel.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints contains the fulness of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We each have responsibilities to fulfill, and each responsibility is just as important as another. No matter what position you hold, or what role you play, whether it be a Nursery teacher, Primary teacher, Relief Society or Priesthood leader, Bishop, or even a Deacon's Quorum second counselor, we all play an important role. But we all need to work together in fulfilling our individual responsibilities, as well as helping each other to achieve the end goal of assisting Heavenly Father in fulfilling His work and His glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Spiritual plea in abeyance

God forbears judgment on account of Christ's propitiation through His Atonement. His forbearance isn't forgiveness of our sins, but simply covering them in order to allow us to repent and be forgiven. This forbearance will be lifted at Judgment, and those sins we haven't repented of will be uncovered and judged. I see it as similar to a plea in abeyance. When you commit a crime, and you go before the judge, you are given instructions on what you need to do, and if you fulfill the requirements, the charge is dropped from your record as if it never happened. The judge forebears judgment to give you a chance to make it right, and have the wrong blotted out. Our "plea in abeyance" as God's children requires us to repent of our sins and follow His Son's perfect example.

Spiritual Bank Account

Think of your righteousness as the money in a bank account. You have a bank account, and Christ has a bank account. The more righteous your are, the more money you have in your account. Anything in the positive is considered perfect, as it is without blemish. Because we are human, imperfect and subject to sin, our account will always be in the negative, because our righteousness will never make up for our sinfulness. As it says in the Scriptures, to Christ (or compared to Christ, since He was and is perfect), our works are as filthy rags. Nothing we do can or will ever make restitution for the wrongs we've done in the eyes of God.

Now think about Christ's bank account. He never sinned. He was perfect in every way. His righteousness is as the righteousness of the Father Himself. He has an infinite amount of money, or righteousness, in His account.

By ourselves, we will always be in the negative. But when we come to Christ, when we believe and do His teachings, it's as if He is joining His account with ours. We then have a joint account with Christ, so long as we continue to follow Him and do His teachings. His account, which is infinite, is then added to our account, which was negative, bringing it positive, not infinite as His, because we had the negative to make up for, but it is far in the positive, making our account without blemish, or perfect.

This is what it means to be perfect in Christ. His righteousness is accounted to us, according to our faith and willingness to follow Him, and we are perfected, not of ourselves, but through Him.

BRAD

Opportunity to serve

Those who know me know I love to give service when I can. Those who know me also know I love to share some of my experiences with giving service, not to boast or be noticed, but to encourage and inspire, and to remind that even those in the humblest of circumstances can give of themselves. I had one such experience tonight on the way home from work that I would like to share.

I was driving home from work, it was about 1:00 in the morning. I was driving on an unlit road that leads to our apartment complex. As I approached the entrance to the parking lot, I saw to my right a woman trying to push an overloaded shopping cart, which held what looked to be everything she owned. I stopped at the entrance and watched her for a few seconds, and I had a feeling that I should turn around and see if she needed help. I pulled up beside her and asked if I could help her with anything. She asked if I had a cigarette, but as I don't smoke, I couldn't provide that for her. So I asked her if she could use some money. She said yes, that would be helpful. I'd thought I had cash in my wallet, but it was empty. So I dug all the change out that we had in the car and I gave it to her. I asked her if there was anything else I could help her with, and she said no. I had a feeling to ask her if she had any water, and she said she didn't. I had a full water bottle in the car that I used for work, so I picked it up and offered it to her. She gratefully accepted. As I pulled away, I felt bad that I couldn't do more to help her. As I pulled into our parking spot, I felt compelled to go to the gas station and pull out $40 from an ATM to give to her. I went and pulled it out, and drove back down that unlit road, pulled over and got out of the car and handed her the money. She told me I didn't have to, and I told her I felt like it was what I needed to do. She shook my hand and gave me a hug, and expressed sincere gratitude for my generosity. I asked her where she was staying, and found out she doesn't have anywhere to stay. We got into a little conversation about the homeless shelter, police officers, and the state things are in right now. I told her my wife and kids used to stay at the homeless shelter. She asked me where I work and I told her at a temp job, and she expressed concern that the money I had given her would cut into our family's budget, but I told her we had a little extra money right now, so we'd be fine. We said our goodbyes and she gave me another hug, and told me how grateful she was for my help.

I still feel bad that I couldn't do more to help her, but I feel like I did all the Spirit lead me to do. I pray that the Lord will help this woman through her temporal struggles, I pray for more opportunities to help others in need, and I pray that we all can be open to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, so we can be instruments in Heavenly Father's hands when He calls us to be.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

BRAD