This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 1991 Conference.
Two sections from Elder Neal A. Maxwell's talk caught my attention:
…One’s small data base of personal experience permits so few useful generalizations! But by searching the holy scriptures, we access a vast, divine data bank, a reservoir of remembrance. In this way, the scriptures can, as the Book of Mormon says, enlarge the memory.
I have often thought about how difficult it is to generalize from my own experiences! What is the difference between the times I get revelation easily and the times it is difficult? What is the difference between quick answers and slow answers? There are too many variables—my own faith, my own desires and agency, the agency of others, God's timing, my ability to interpret what I'm being told…sometimes an "experiment upon the word" feels like a much more complicated matter than Alma makes it out to be! But I like this idea that the scriptures give us more data points and can help us get more meaning from our own experiences.
Second, there was this:
Do we naively expect Christ to come to us—instead of our going to Him? Truly He waits “all the day long” with open arms to receive the repentant. There are no restrictive “office hours.” But it is we who must arise and go to Him!
This was just interesting to me because I've run into the idea repeatedly lately that Jesus "meets us where we are." And I really like that view! In fact, I just read an article that talks about how the whole essence of the gospel is Jesus coming down to us so that He can then lift us up to be like Him! I really like the idea that He will come to us and help lift us, no matter where we are on our journeys. And I'm sure there is a way to harmonize Elder Maxwell's words here with that teaching—maybe it's in your definition of what it means to "come to us" or to "go to Him"!
Still, the two ways of seeing it seem pretty contradictory on the face of things. I'm going to have to think about what they both mean, and what Elder Maxwell might have been trying to teach through these words. Maybe it has something to do with our agency and choosing to invite Jesus into our lives.
Yes, that is a bit of a seeming conflict to grapple with, isn’t it! I suppose it could simply be about agency. We reach out and he comes, he’s already there, wherever we are and what every level we are at. Even Joseph reached out first. So in that way it makes sense. No matter how broken or sinful or lacking we might be, if ask, He is there to lead us along. On the other hand, even our capability to ASK or turn to him or reach out varies so much. What about those who don’t even have it in them or know how to reach? Surely he’s still willing to reach to them where they are. And I don’t know. Maybe he takes out capability into account and don’t expect the same reaching from everyone. Or maybe He’s quietly at work slowly leading them towards the place where they will know to ask a no claim the strength and help that brings.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I like that idea that what "reaching" even IS is different from person to person. And it also seems like it has to do with agency. Maybe if we can "no more than desire" to reach him...he counts that as us exercising enough agency that he can then come running to US.
DeleteThe resolution is probably similar to the whole Justice/Mercy paradox. If we had to reach out to him with the effort and time equal to our fallen state, we’d never reach him. When we put some effort in, He’s usually (maybe always) a lot closer than we DESERVE him to be. And I think He is often there helping us in ways that we are not aware of, that are just pure mercies without us having done anything to deserve it, even for the most wicked; thinking of the various scriptures that say something like, “I called many times, but ye would not answer.”
ReplyDeleteBut I believe what Alma said that God can’t save us IN our sins, but that He will save us FROM our sins, which to me, the division there is a “turning away.” While I think this is often the main effort that God asks from us, the act of turning away itself may feel like more of a journey than a pivot in place for a lot of sins.
Yeah, I like that. And sort of like the "all that we can do" question…he does expect something from us…but he also is already helping us as we DO "all that we can do."
Delete