Service and Progress

We all want to progress and become better than we were. Ultimately, we want to be as much like Jesus as possible. What does that entail?

“He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him…” (2Ne. 26:24). The natural, practical reaction to this description of total service orientation is something like, “But I need to brush my teeth, study my scriptures, repent of my sins, gather food and money and clothes, and take care of me first. If I am a mess, can I straighten someone else out? If I am hungry, can I feed someone else? What can I share when I am broke?” This touches on a paradoxical truth in the gospel. We need to repent and change ourselves to progress, but at some point (far earlier in our development than we tend to suspect) progress can only happen as we use our gifts to serve others. Parenthood and missionary work and temple work are all shining examples of this. Exposure to the Holy Spirit refines and purifies us. Do we want the Lord’s Spirit with us? Then let’s be about His Father’s work. His work is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man—there are many ways in which we are privileged to help in that work.

“That’s fine for God—He has no physical requirements like I do. But I need Me Time to recuperate, and meet my own needs first.” Jesus tells us that the laborer is worthy of his hire—that anyone who is working for the salvation of others can count on the Lord’s help with regard to his physical needs. “Consider the lilies of the field, no thought for raiment, food. “But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish” (2Ne. 26:31). Those who obsess about their own needs become emptier and emptier, while those who serve others are filled with peace, love, and joy. It is a paradox, and yet it is not so hard to see that a dog chasing its tail gets nowhere.

Why are we saddled with so many needs, wants, desires, emptinesses, backs that we cannot massage or scratch for ourselves? Let’s invert the question: Why do all the people around us have so many needs that only we can meet? I believe that all this neediness was constructed by God to draw us together into communities, families. We, and others, are riddled with needs because we need the opportunities to serve and be blessed.

What about self-sufficiency? Isn’t that a virtue? No one is truly independent. “Are we not all beggars?” asks King Benjamin. He cites our dependence on God for oxygen. It’s hard to earn a bonus or get that promotion when our faces are turning blue. Be as self-sufficient as possible, yes; and acknowledge God’s hand in giving it to you. Remember Jacob’s injunction to seek riches for the sole purpose of lifting those who are less fortunate.

If our needs are already met, and we are in hot pursuit of more, more, more, is that a sign of ingratitude? A famine-mentality has swept American culture. One man quoted a sweeping survey stating that the world is incapable of producing enough food to feed X-billion people, and we are therefore headed for disaster. I wondered if the sources he was quoting had taken into account that a full third of the world’s food is wholly wasted, either thrown away after it is prepared, or lost to crop failures. I also wondered if he had considered that most American food companies process food in such a way as to make those who eat it hungrier and thirstier. Repentance on the part of wasteful customers and greedy manufacturers would solve the problem of sufficient food instantly. Delivery to the poor would be the only step left to eradicating hunger.

It is not just food that seems scarce in this richest society ever. Jobs are squabbled over. Everyone, including the wealthiest, is acting as though they do not have enough. If you told someone even a century ago that there would be a country where the leading cause of death was overeating, they would think you were describing some hedonistic version of a fantastic paradise. Overweight, rich people who think they are starving and poor. This is the dog chasing its tail.

Consider a few good men who broke free from this cycle and saw the needs of their fellow men: Ammon, Aaron, Omner, Himni, and their unnamed mission companions. They were up to their eyeballs in hedonistic pursuits when the angel came and blasted their activities. They suddenly had certain knowledge that what they were doing was wrong. What did they do instead? Did they start worrying about their righteous needs instead of their bodily appetites? No. “…the sons of Mosiah…desired that they might...preach...and...impart the word of God unto their brethren, the Lamanites—That perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God...that they might also be brought to rejoice...Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very vilest of sinners” (Mosiah 28:1-4).

Faith in our salvation leads to a feeling of security about our needs, which opens up our hearts, wallets, time, and resources for worrying about the needs of others. True, these missionaries were fearful of being destroyed themselves, lost because of their iniquities, but those pangs melted into sympathy for their fellow sinners, the Lamanites.

Joseph Smith: “The more we become like our Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion upon perishing souls with compassion, want to take their sins on our backs…” The plan (a predetermined course of action) of salvation (rescuing) is what we are currently involved in. So is the rest of the world, regardless of whether they know it or not. To be like God is to plot and conspire for the benefit and happiness of those in need.

The difference between a good man and a terrible sinner is much smaller than the difference between the same good man and God. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than there is over the good works of a hundred good men. This puts missionary work into a premium position in the economy of heaven, for it is the preaching of the gospel of repentance. Missionaries encourage sinners to repent; “And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great shall be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!” (D&C 18:15-16).

Ammon passes out because of the joy he feels. He spends an entire chapter exulting, and his brother even worries that he is carrying on too much. But Ammon demonstrates that he is still coherent in the midst of his joyful paroxysm: “Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance” (Alma 26:22). He gives us a formula for success as a missionary: take a massive dose of the same medicine you are trying to administer. Faith, repentance, good works, continuous prayer—these are the keys to empowering missionaries so they can convince others to exercise faith, repent, do good works, and pray without ceasing.

A sturdy beam falls over easily when you balance it on its end. But when it supports the weight of a whole house, it is not easily moved. Sheep are lost until they work as shepherds to the Lord, to help him find and reclaim his other lost sheep.

We each have an assortment of needs and weaknesses that render us dependent on the Lord and each other; we have also been given a tool belt of spiritual gifts. Why? “…they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him who seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me…To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby” (D&C 46:9, 12). Some people have all the gifts given to them, “…in order that every member may be profited thereby” (vs. 29).

Gifts from God are service-oriented. True, they benefit their owners, but if you have the gift of writing, you probably should not use your pen mainly as a backscratcher. The holes in my abilities find corresponding sufficiency in someone else’s tool kit, and I have the gifts he lacks. The barriers to a mutually beneficial exchange here are pride and self-absorption; if I need help, will I admit my weakness and ask for it? If I cannot see beyond my own naval, will I notice my neighbor’s need?

The Lord’s way of doing things is often backwards from ours. Instead of waiting to become perfect before we start helping others, He expects us to start helping others, and we become perfected in the process. Can we shift our obsessive self-help paradigm? Laman and Lemuel were not as wicked as they were just practical: “Leave our cushy home in Jerusalem to wander in the wilderness because dad is having nightmares about assassination? Help crazy brother Nephi build a boat to cross an ocean and colonize a place that may not even exist? What next, build a rocket and fly to the moon?”

If the Lord asks us to do anything, it probably will not make sense to us. If it made sense, we would already be doing it, and therefore no course correction or new direction would be needed. So most revelations are impractical on their face. The idea of healing one’s self by administering to the sick, or getting rich by giving everything away, or saving one’s life by losing it for Christ, all seem absurd to the natural man. I used to think the “natural man” was the black-hat bad guy, the villain. What does “natural” mean? Born that way. It’s not “they” or the “other.” We are all natural men and women until we appeal to the Lord and He changes us. Practical, pragmatic, evidence-based thinking is part of being a natural man. This pragmatism useful until the Lord tells us to go against it; then we enter the realm of 3-D faith called trust, where our actions become our testimony. (How we hem and haw and hesitate on the edge of obedience! How we kick ourselves when we defer and see action would have worked.) Black and white faith unfurls, becomes colorful courage and trust and humility as we act on those intimidating promptings.

Bro. Basset was an institute teacher of mine in college some years ago. He told a story about an excruciating headache he was experiencing. He prayed to know what to do. He was prompted to go and serve someone else. It seemed ridiculous, but he went and performed the service as directed by the Spirit. After he finished, his headache departed.

Service to others must be a pillar on which Zion is built. It is more that quaint; it is vital. One measure of how much we are like God is our usefulness to others here on earth, or our desires to be useful. That is the true measure of how similar we are to Christ.