LOVE

 

“I am struck by the similarity between the process of developing a testimony and the process of falling in love. Love and testimony are two of the most important human experiences, yet often we are unsure how we can be certain that either has come fully into our lives.

“In finding the love we seek during the courtship years, we often have in mind the personal qualities we are looking for. But even when we meet someone who has everything on our list (the test of reason), there may be something missing: the “spark”, that mysterious something that makes us FEEL love, not just think it (the test of feeling). Yet rational satisfaction and good feelings are still not enough.

“To know if this relationship is the real thing, we must give it some time (the test of experience). We must see how things go when the “new” wears off. We need to know how the relationship holds up under pressure, whether it grows and stirs, almost whether it takes on a life of its own. As it is in the search for love, so it is in the search for testimony…….through reason, feeling, and experience.”  (Bruce C.Hafen, “The Believing Heart”, p 23-4)

Out testimony is in essence, a courtship. Whether it will lead to marriage when the Saviour appears is something we are yet to see. The marriage depends on one thing: if “the spark” has passed the test of time. I often hear some converts say that they miss those early days of their Church membership: the excitement, the discovery of spiritual moments and doctrine, the motivation of Church involvement. I know it all because I have been through it. But so often the spark dulls over time and is sometimes even lost altogether. That’s when people leave.

The path is clear: “If thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”  (Deuteronomy 4:29). For those who leave the seeking seems too much work.

The degree of our acceptance of Christ as our personal Saviour and our testimony of His Gospel is proportionate to our love for Him and vice versa. Seeking Christ and the truth does not end at baptism. It is just the beginning. How much we seek Him thereafter will determine how bright the spark is on the wedding day. It’s about the heart and about the love. Is it any wonder the Saviour compared our relationship with Him to a marriage covenant?

I followed all Your footsteps

And I sacrificed everything.

I did Your bidding no matter

What You asked of me.

I trusted, I had faith, I endured

All the pain that was given me.

I kept my love burning like a flame

Until I came to see the reality:

It is not my love, but Yours,

That is consuming me.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: His Love Fills My Heart by Greg Collins)

THE COMPASSIONATE CHRIST

If you feel that nobody understands the anguish of your heart, I am here to tell you that there is one person who does. I have been struggling of late with certain long held debilitating fears and for which I had sought healing through prayer. My petition was in these exact words: "Please heal all that is broken in me". Following my prayer, as is my custom, I opened my scriptures randomly to a page in Ezekiel from which stood out one marked sentence: "Thou shalt know that I am the Lord". Whilst studying and pondering 3 Nephi the following day, I had an exquisite experience where I was taken into the Saviour's presence in my mind's eye and was granted the healing I sought at His hand, which was outstretched to me in beckoning repose. The words which He spoke to me validated me as a person and validated the pain I had experienced in my life. This was the single most significant vision I have ever had because it afforded me personal understanding of the compassion of Christ. 

This year as I studied 3 Nephi, I came to truly understand Nephites' experience with Christ during the three days of His ministry among them. I know now why they bathed His feet with their tears (3 Nephi 17:10) because I was given the privilege of bathing His outstretched hand with mine. The Book of Mormon account tells us that the Saviour ministered amongst these ancient people with compassion (3 Nephi 17:6). The same is true of His ministry amongst the Jews prior to His death. The New Testament mentions Christ having compassion towards the people on many occasions (Matt 9:36, 20:34; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13), especially at Lazarus' grave which was directed towards those who were grieving (John 11:35).  However, I imagine His compassion reached a new level post Atonement. Fresh from the cross of Calvary, trailing the memory of the Garden, where He experienced every agony known to man, the Saviour's compassion was intensified to the point of tears when He ministered among the Nephites (3 Nephi 17:21,22). 

Why is this scriptural account of Christ's compassion important for us to have and to understand? Because He who has suffered it all, understands it all. He understands the diminished self worth that comes through the sufferings of mortality. He understands our human inability to rise above certain scars that we bear with exhausting endurance. He understands the fears that we cling to and count on for protection from perceived pain. He understands it all because He has felt it all. And because He understands the scars of each heart, He knows the path of healing we individually need. Should we not seek such and bathe with our tears His outstretched hand? 

In the words of beloved Isaiah: "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no fathoming to his understanding....He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength....Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:28-31)

- Cathryne Allen, Did Not Our Hearts Burn When He Opened To Us The Scriptures?

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