(Editor's Note: from an LDS sacrament meeting talk originally given July 27, 2008)
Many years ago I gave a lesson on Family History. To illustrate my points, I brought in pictures of my family, and told a little bit of each person's history. Given my heritage from the both my mother's and my father's families, that history is interesting and exciting: scientific discoveries (and a Nobel prize), presidency of NASA, invention of lasers, prominent church and political positions, etc. After relating several such stories, one of the
students quipped, “How do I get to be a part of that gene pool?”
It is
totally natural for me to be justifiably proud of such a heritage. Indeed, I am honored to talk of my ancestry
and to celebrate their accomplishments.
As someone joked to me once, “It isn’t name dropping if they’re your
relatives.” It is natural to want to associate my name with the names of these great
people.
It's totally natural...and yet the
scriptures tell us that “the natural man is an enemy to God”. The natural, worldly reaction to such a
heritage would be to think of myself as “better” than other people, as somehow “entitled” to a certain prominence or importance in this world. But that same scripture says that we will
remain enemies to God until we:
yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man
and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the
Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit
to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him. (Mosiah 3:19)
So while it
would be natural to be proud of such a heritage, to truly honor that heritage I
must learn to be a saint through the atonement of Christ. Such sainthood comes only through humility
and submission to the will of my Father in Heaven.
I must
admit that I am often tortured by my heritage.
My least favorite scripture is D&C 82:3, which reads:
For of him unto whom much is given much is required; and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the
greater condemnation
I am
tortured because who has been given more than I? I have a very rich and prominent heritage, I
have been given every opportunity on this earth, I have had access to
education, culture, travel, athletics, and worldly power. I have been blessed with a spiritual giant
for a wife, who is more spiritually powerful than she is worldly beautiful, and
given how beautiful she is that is saying a lot.
In short, I
have been given the world, and, well…what am I doing with that gift? The
realization that with such a gift comes a great requirement—an equal or greater
gift to be returned—has, at times, been a heavy burden on my soul.
But again,
the scriptures provide the counsel, in Matthew 11: 28-30:
Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
In order to handle the “burden” that is my requirement in life, I must take
upon myself the yoke of Christ, and he will make my burden light. Taking His yoke upon myself is an act of
humility, for He is “meek and lowly of heart.”
There is a
paradox in humility, which is this: I
believe that if you are truly humble, then you are powerful beyond
measure. There is a great exchange on
this subject in the Book of Mormon, in Alma 26, between Ammon and Aaron. Ammon is talking about their great missionary
successes. He is justifiably glowing about the great work that they have done, when he
says:
My brothers and my brethren, behold I say
unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when
we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted
unto us such great blessings?
2 And now, I ask, what great
blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?
3 Behold, I answer for you; for
our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss,
but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of
God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have
been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this
great work.
4 Behold, thousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold
of God.
5 Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did
ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they
are not wasted.
…
8 Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness
forever.
9 For if we had not come up out
of the land of Zarahemla, these our dearly beloved brethren, who have so dearly
beloved us, would still have been racked with hatred against us, yea, and they would also have been strangers to God.
Ammon is justifiably
proud at their accomplishments, but Aaron reminds him of the source of their
success:
10 And it came to pass that when Ammon had
said these words, his brother Aaron rebuked him, saying: Ammon, I fear that thy
joy doth carry thee away unto boasting.
11 But Ammon said unto him: I
do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom;
but behold, my joy is
full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in
this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
Humility, like
faith, is a power. In the strength of
the Lord we can boast of all things, because truly, HIS strength is how those
things will be accomplished. He enlightens minds to create scientific
genius. He emboldens souls to produce
military courage. He softens hearts to
inspire selfless service. HIS strength, and not our own, has provided the world
with all of its great advances in all of the fields of human endeavor, from art
to medicine to physics. Realization of
that dependence on the Lord for human greatness, is called humility.
The lyricist
of the song “Great Things and Small Things” put this concept clearly:
To move a mountain, To make the sea become dry land.
To cross an ocean, To build a ship upon the sand.
Such things I could do If the Lord should command,
But the Lord has commanded me
To love a neighbor, And to forgive when I am wronged.
To keep a promise, To have my word become my bond.
How simple and small are the things He has asked of me.
Great things and small things, I can do all things,
All that the Lord may require.
Though the world may assail me, God will not fail me.
He will remain by my side.
Whether He asks for the great or the small,
I can do them all!
In General
Conference in October of 2003, Bishop Richard Edgely said,
Humbly submitting our will to the Father brings us the empowerment of God--the power of humility. It is the power to meet life's adversities, the power of peace, the power of hope, the power of a heart throbbing with a love for and testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ, even the power of redemption. To this end, the Savior is our supreme example of humility and submissiveness. After all, His submitting His will to the Father brought about the greatest, and even the most powerful event in all of history. Perhaps some of the most sacred words in all the scriptures are simply, "Not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42).
Great men
and women humbly submit themselves to the will of the Lord. Sometimes this comes as a sacrifice of
personal glory, such as parents who set aside their own dreams and ambitions to
care for ill or disable family members.
But for many of us, that submission to the Lord comes in the willing
obedience to his calls for action.
I was taught this as a boy by the example of Bob Sears, a high priest in our ward in New Jersey. In that era wards were required to do fund-raising projects to provide for the ward budget; our ward counted inventory at a local department store. One Sunday a bishopric member noted that an upcoming inventory-counting project, scheduled for a mid-week afternoon, was four brethren short of our required team. He asked if there were any brethren who were in a position to take the afternoon off at such a short notice.
Immediately four hands went up, all prominent businessmen in positions of high responsibility. Included among them was Bob Sears, CFO and member of the Board of Directors for Phillips Petroleum.
That afternoon, as Bob took his place counting inventory, my brother asked him, "Why do you do this? You could certainly afford to donate more money than you will earn counting inventory? Why don't you just give the money instead?"
Bob replied, "I do give the church my money, but that's not what the Lord asked for today; today He asked for my time."
* * * * * * *
I love to
speak in public. I consider the power of the spoken word to be a sacred
power—that great things can come of speaking from the heart. I believe that there is a strength in the
turn of phrase—a strength that moves us to action or to tears. The words, “Ask not what your country can do
for you, but what you can do for your country” ring out through the generations
of Americans as a clarion call to action, as do the phrases: “Give me liberty, or give me death,” “…a
government of the people, by the people and for the people.” There is nothing quite so satisfying to me as
to give a great address, and to conclude to thunderous applause or even a
standing ovation.
Yet in the
church, we end our talks with a humble, “Amen.” Because our words are to be
dedicated to the Lord, and it is His glory and His honor and His power that we
merely represent as we speak. So it is
with all that we do in life—seeking the applause, the ovation, the honor of men
is worldly, and belittles the true nature of accomplishment on earth. True accomplishment comes only through
serving His will.
In
conclusion, I would like to return to my personal family heritage. As a young man, my grandfather was asked to speak at a regional conference of the Church. Following his remarks, a prominent leader is the church commented that "some day this boy will be among the great men in the Church and in the world." My grandfather humbly replied, "I would rather be good than great."
After a lifetime of supreme scientific achievements, it can be truly said of him, as it says on his gravestone, that he was "both good and great." May we all aspire to the same goodness by learning to become reliant on Him from whom true greatness comes.
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