TRAIL OF LOVE

 

When the lawyer asked Jesus, “Which is the great commandment in the law?”, Jesus answered:  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

The first one is rather simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The second one, in my opinion, is a little bit more complex. The inference here is selflessness as opposed to selfishness, that we should want for others what we want for ourselves, and that we should treat others as we would want to be treated.

The question begs to be asked, how much do we love ourselves? Our behaviour towards others is often a mirror of our inner selves. Do we love ourselves enough to make others feel loved? I am not talking about prideful love of self that elevates us in our minds to be above everyone else, but an appreciation of self and our self-worth.

If we see ourselves less than everyone else, and think nothing of ourselves, we will think nothing of others too. You simply cannot exude love if you don’t have it within you. How we see ourselves is usually how we see others too. If we are in the habit of undermining ourselves, we will tend to do the same to others.

If we do not love ourselves, we will most likely suffer from low self-esteem, depression, anger, resentment and unhappiness and this will reflect in our behaviour towards others. Love is much needed in this world and it needs to start with us so that we can extend it to others.

I am generalizing here and do acknowledge that there are exceptions to the rule. As a rule of thumb though, lack of self-love seems to be true for a lot of people and often it has a lot to do with our upbringing, abandonment, abuse, constant criticism etc. This is a deep issue that requires insight into the root of self-perception and realization that healing is needed both on the psychological and spiritual level. All I am saying here is that you cannot assuage someone’s thirst from an empty well so the well might need some serious attention.

As we draw closer to God and discover our spiritual identity, healing becomes a reality affording us an understanding of our self-worth. From there self-love is much easier to embrace.

Some people are natural conduits of love. It is their spiritual gift…..for the rest of us it is a challenge in one way or another but for all of us it is a commandment. The Saviour is the epitome of selflessness. He has left a trail for us to follow so we can become like Him, but until then, may we allow His selfless love for all to flow through us to our neighbour…..and lastly, if we love God, other commandments just follow….

Your footsteps, so big and so deep

Swallow my feeble feet;

I try to keep up

To tend Your vulnerable sheep;

To gather the lost,

To clothe, to feed;

So many for my poorly

Devised shelter to keep.

Illuminate my steps dear Saviour

With Thy glorious light;

And grant me Thy power

To feed them from Thy godly heart.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Guardian by Kelsey and Jesse Lightweave)

THE MIRROR

 

“The Saviour desires to save us from our inadequacies as well as our sins. Inadequacy is not the same as being sinful – we have far more control over the choice to sin than we may have over our innate capacity. We sometimes say that the Lord will not save us IN our sins, but FROM them. However, it is quite possible that He will save us IN our inadequacies as well as FROM them.

“A sense of falling short or falling down is not only natural but essential to the mortal experience. Still, after all we can do, the Atonement can fill that which is empty, straighten our bent parts, and make strong that which is weak.

“The Saviour’s victory can compensate not only for our sins but also for our inadequacies; not only for our deliberate mistakes but also for our sins committed in ignorance, our errors of judgment, and our unavoidable imperfections. Our ultimate aspiration is more than being forgiven of sin – we seek to become holy, endowed affirmatively with Christlike attributes, at one with Him, like Him. Divine grace is the only source that can finally fulfill that aspiration, after all we can do.

“The truth is not that WE must make it on OUR own, but that HE will make us HIS own.”

-        Elder Bruce C. Hafen, “The Broken Heart”, p 19-20

This, among many other reasons, is why I love Paul the Apostle, a missionary to the Gentiles for 35 years, a servant of Jesus Christ, scourged, beaten, persecuted, stoned, shipwrecked and martyred: he had a ‘thorn in the flesh’ (2 Cor 12:5-10)…..an imperfection, a weakness, an inadequacy….

Paul is the perfect scriptural example of what Elder Hafen spoke of. Paul gives us two explanations for the ‘thorn’ in his flesh. This is the first: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh…..” (v 7). He could see plainly that his calling in life which brought him to spiritual greatness could also bring him to the altar of pride. The thorn served a great purpose to keep him grounded in his humanity and mortality.

The second is this. After repeated pleadings that the Lord remove the thorn, Paul was told ‘no’. Hence the lesson in grace. Perhaps the Lord preferred a humble Paul to a prideful one but Paul understood something more significant: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (v 9)…..in other words, I would rather have a weakness that would bring me in the end to Christ than not…..

Paul, who sacrificed all for Christ, and who endured much suffering for His name’s sake was torn between his eagerness to ‘depart and be with Him’ and his desire to stay and serve Him (1 Philippians 1:23-26). He remained faithful to the end despite his ‘thorn in the flesh’…….

I looked in the mirror today

And didn’t like what I did see

Then I remembered that one day

Dear Saviour, I will be like Thee.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Gentle Saviour by Jay Bryant Ward)

THE ONLY ANSWER

 

“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go”.   – Abraham Lincoln

There comes a time in life when you know that God is your only answer……for comfort, for understanding, for help, for healing. I can testify of His efficacy because I have experienced it in my life. It’s a time when you know nothing and nobody of this world could come to your rescue and fix what seeks to destroy you. When a storm so big and so violent and so soul crushing comes into your life, and you cry out for help, the Saviour comes to do what He alone can do, He comes to save.

I think of a great moment in His ministry when Jesus showed His capacity to do so. Whilst preaching in Capernaum, His fame had spread so far and wide that ‘multitudes from Galilee, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan, and they around Tyre and Sidon’ came unto Him’.  They pressed upon Him to touch Him and ‘even unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God’(Mark 2:7-11).

So great was the multitude who were by the sea on the land that the Saviour had to enter a ship to preach to them (Mark 4:1). When they had dispersed, and evening had come, the tiredness had overcome Him and He slept through a violent storm. This is the moment of His humanity that sears my heart. I cannot fathom how intense that three-year mission was for Him as He traversed the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea on foot with no doubt little rest.

And this is the moment when the Saviour showed His saving power. As the storm increased it became obvious to His disciples that it was beyond their power to control the vessel they were in. And this is something significant. They were experienced fishermen who knew how to handle a boat in the storm but they called upon Jesus, the carpenter.

They knew that He was the only answer in an unbeatable storm and there was nowhere else to go. And this is how they knew. When Jesus proclaimed Himself as the bread of life, many of His followers stopped following Him. When Jesus asked the Twelve, “Will ye also go away?”, Simon Peter answered: “Lord, to whom shall we go?.....we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” (John 6:66-69)

 

He arose and rebuked the roaring winds

 and the raging sea.

He, who with His word

caused the earth to be,

Spoke to the Galilean tempest:

“Peace, be still”.

He who has all things

under His command,

Calmed the troubled sea of dismay

in the souls of men.

He, who holds all humanity

in the palm of His hand,

Caused the waves of the sea

to whisper His name.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Coming to Save You by B. Laura Wilson) 

THE PLAN

 

“In the theology of the restored church of Jesus Christ, the purpose of mortal life is to prepare us to realize our destiny as sons and daughters of God – to become like Him….. through the Atonement of the Only Begotten of the Father, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (President Dallin H. Oaks, “Apostasy and Restoration”, Ensign May 1995, 86-87).

Even though the Doctrine and Covenants describes our latter-day theology of our ultimate destiny, it does not give it a name. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, refers to it by many names among which is the name we use in the Church, “the plan of salvation” (Jarom 1:2; Alma 24:14, 42:5).

Among other names given in the Book of Mormon are these: “the merciful plan of the great Creator (2 Nephi 9:6); the plan of our God (2 Nephi 9:13); “the great and eternal plan (2 Nephi 11:5); “the great plan of the Eternal God (Alma 34:9); “the plan of happiness (Alma 42:8,16). The “plan of redemption” appears fifteen times in the Book of Mormon. You could write books about this subject.

We are told one of the reasons we are here is to learn lessons through mortality that we could not otherwise learn while we were spirits, that mortality alone can propel us into further progression in our quest for godhood. I have come to see throughout my life that through opposition and conflict one truly does need a body to overcome and learn resistance, wisdom, and most importantly the process of cause and effect, in other words, consequences that come through exercise of free will.

I have a fourteen-year-old grand-daughter who claims she is old enough to make her own informed decisions. If only she could see that her brain is still so under-developed she can’t grasp life at all. Later she will learn that obeying parents when you are young trains you for higher obedience to God when you are an adult.

We are so eager for the adventure called life when we are young but we tend to miss many lessons when we need them most. And some of those we miss tend to repeat themselves a few times until we get it, thanks to God’s mercy. I marvel how merciful, tolerant and forgiving He is towards our humanity. Where would we be without Him?

When Moses encountered God on Mount Sinai, God revealed Himself to him and Moses saw the glory of God and every particle of this earth and all the children of men (Moses 1:8,27) that have ever been created. The vision of God's power was overwhelming to a man who grew up in an Egyptian court believing that Pharoah was god and there was none greater than him so he exclaimed that now he could see that man is nothing (v 10).

God, however, didn't want Moses to miss the point so He showed him the same vision again and He ended it with the sum of what we call The Plan of Salvation: “For behold, this  is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39)….because Moses, among all of God’s creations, none are greater than man, man is everything.

The lessons of my life flowed like a river

Winding through days, months and years;

I rescued a few but missed so many

From the currents as I saw them passing;

They drowned in the daze of my ignorance,

Unwanted and ignored but yet abiding.

I fish them now from the pool of my memory

And give them life everlasting.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Moses by Greg Sargent)

A GLORIOUS SPIRITUAL DIMENSION

 

“I fear that some members of the Lord’s Church ‘live far beneath our privileges’ with regard to the gift of the Holy Ghost. Some are distracted by the things of the world that block out his influence, preventing them from recognizing spiritual promptings. This is a noisy and busy world that we live in. If we are not careful, the things of this world can crowd out the things of the Spirit.

“Some are spiritually deadened and past feeling because of their choices to commit sin. Others simply hover in spiritual complacency with no desire to rise above themselves and commune with the Infinite. If they would open their hearts to the refining influence of this unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, a glorious new spiritual dimension would come to light.

“Their eyes would gaze upon a vista scarcely imaginable. They could know for themselves things of the Spirit that are choice, precious, and capable of enlarging the soul, expanding the mind, and filling the heart with inexpressible joy.”

-        Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, “The Unspeakable Gift” GC April 2003

From time to time, I get amazed at how many of us in the Church really do live far beneath our privileges. The wealth of knowledge we are given is endless, the opportunities to spiritually advance ourselves equally so. In our busy day and age spiritual complacency is alive and well and things of greater worth are slipping through our fingers.

A lot of us expect the Church to spiritually feed us. Perhaps it used to more in the past than it does now that attendance has been narrowed down significantly. The onus now is on individual testimony building. The “Come Follow Me” programme was introduced for this reason.

I cannot help but think of the incredible promise the Lord made to us in Doctrine and Covenants that would elevate us to the ‘vista of a glorious new spiritual dimension’ that Elder Wirthlin spoke of. We are told in Section 76 that the Lord honours those who serve Him in righteousness and truth and that to them He will reveal all the hidden mysteries of His kingdom:

”Even the wonders of eternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them….And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven, and before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish……for by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will – yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man” (D&C 76:5-10)

Do you know of any other group of people on this earth who have been given such a privilege????

I cannot fathom

The greatness of Thy Godhood.

I can scarce contain who You are

In the hollow of my lacking heart.

I am so small

And You are so vast;

Endow me with wisdom,

Endow me with might,

Help me to comprehend

Beyond the ages of the wise. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Liz Lemon Swindle)

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

 

 

In one of my recent posts I wrote about the law of tithing. I would like to offer here my experience with living this law because I learnt from it that the Saviour’s focus is always on the one.

I never had a problem paying tithing until I became a single mother with two young children. All of a sudden money became a challenge I lived with every day. Nevertheless, I continued to pay tithing because of my commitment to it before I was even baptized. That story is in my previous post.

I would like to share just three of the miracles I received where the Lord showed me that He watches over His faithful children, especially mothers without husbands.

The first was my lack of funds one week to put gas in my car. One day before I left for work, I prayed and I asked for $20 for this purpose. I left that request in God’s hands not knowing how promptly that prayer would be answered.

At lunch time my co-worker came to my desk and put $20 on it. I was surprised to say the least and asked him why he was giving me this money. He answered he was returning back from lunch and saw this $20 note on the pavement. He said he picked it up and as he wondered what to do with it, I came into his mind. Upon returning to work, he immediately came to my desk and delivered the pennies from heaven.

The second time I was faced with mounting bills to the value of $1,000. I didn’t know how I was going to pay for it. I prayed again and expressed that concern. Two days later a friend and her business partner knocked on my door. They said they had just been over their books and discovered they had $1,000 to spare and I can have it if I needed it.

The third time, I did not have adequate amount of money to cover my car registration. I was short $350. This time I was embarrassed to go to the Lord asking for money again but He was one step ahead of me and proved to me that He knew my life and was aware of me.

I decided to ask my friend for a loan. I suspected she and her husband were having struggles themselves but they were the only couple I was comfortable asking. When they came back to me they said yes they can help because the husband had a strong feeling some months before that he should save all his spare change. When they went to count the money he had been putting away, they discovered they had the exact amount I needed. They said the money was not from them but from Him who is the source of all blessings and there was no need to repay it.

“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury; and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor window, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

“And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” (Mark 12:41-44)

When you have nothing, cast in all that you have and in Moses’ words regarding this law of return: “then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God: Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel…..” (Deut 26:12-15)

 

You flowed like a river through my heart

Showing me the wonder of You;

You lifted me to see the majestic view.

You parted the heavens for me

And showered me with Your love;

Oh the love divine! 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Widow's Mites by Liz Lemon Swindle)

OF GREAT WORTH

 

“I remember once a seven or eight year old son of ours jumping on his bed hard enough that I thought it might break. I felt a flash of frustration, and I moved quickly to set my house in order. I grabbed my son by his little shoulders and lifted him up to where our eyes met.

“The Spirit put words into my mind. It seemed a quite voice, but it pierced my heart: “You are holding a great person.” I gently set him back on the bed and apologized. Now he has become the great man the Holy Ghost let me see 40 years ago. I am eternally grateful that the Lord rescued me from my unkind feelings by sending the Holy Ghost to let me see a child of God as He saw him.”

-        President Henry B. Eyring, “My Peace I Leave with You”, GC April 2017

Wouldn’t it be something if we could see the spiritual stature of babies, children and adults we do not know? I wager there would be no contention, hate, mistreatment, abuse, crime or war. If we could see each other as God the Father sees us, we would understand who we truly are. Abraham gave us a glimpse of our eternal greatness when he spoke about all the great and noble intelligences that were organized before the world was (Abraham 3:22-23).

We are told we are here to progress and improve upon ourselves. This progression began before we were even born: “In the prior life, we developed various capacities and talents. Some developed them in one field and some in another. The most important of all fields was the field of spirituality, the ability, the talent, the capacity to recognise truth” (Bruce R. McConkie, When Thou Art Converted, Strengthen Thy Brethren, A Study Guide for the Priesthood Quorums of the Church, 1974-75, pp 8-9).

Our individual efforts were not all, however. God told Enoch that man was the ‘workmanship of His hands’ (Moses 7:32). The dictionary defines ‘workmanship’ as ‘the product or result of labour and skill, or work executed’.

To arrive at the estimate of what we are worth, consider all the possible ‘work’ that went into the making of YOU: 1. Your spiritual creation which depended on the Father’s rise to Godhood; 2. Your spiritual tutoring for eons of time; 3. The creation of the earth for your mortality; 4. Overseeing of your earthly progress and protection; 5. Preparation of kingdoms for your eternal destination.

Now think of the scale of guidance, protection, care, overseeing, anguish and sorrow of your Heavenly Parents, the Holy Ghost, your guardian angels, your ancestors, your departed loved ones and all the hosts of heaven who know you. This is true for each one of us who grace this earth.

Obviously, we achieved a lot before we were even born into mortality. What price would you put to all the work that you put into you and the investment of others into you??? I know three things:  the price would be higher than we can possibly imagine; I know who paid it and I know why.

Surely Christ’s supreme sacrifice for all mankind is the crescendo of all the work invested into each soul ever born on this earth, of every creed, of every colour, of every nation. The Atonement is the crowning glory of the work that has gone into you and me. It is the ultimate proof that the worth of a soul is great in the sight of God (D&C 18:10).

All the prior work that had been put into us would be in vain if there was no Atonement, and even more importantly, there would be no future for any of us, and the future is what counts, because it ensures our rightful place in the eternal scheme of things. It completes the Plan, it ensures the success of the Plan, it validates the ‘workmanship’ and preserves its value.

Next time we confront somebody, may we remember we are at eye level with ‘a great person’………

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: I Am A Child of God by Howard Lyon)