To participate in your own miracle

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Relief Society Sesquicentennial Broadcast of the April 1992 Conference.

Sister Chieko Okazaki, speaking to the Relief Society sisters, shared some lessons she'd learned from the story of Jesus healing a blind man. I really liked these applications:

You are powerful! Where does that power come from to “do many things of [our] own free will”? It comes from the Savior himself. Feel that desire to serve in your own heart. Sense within yourself that strength to choose!

Remember Jesus healing the blind beggar. He spat on the ground, rubbed the mud on the man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash [your face] in the pool of Siloam.” (See John 9:1–7.)

My sisters, this story has a lesson about service in it for us. First, remember that Jesus and the man didn’t have an appointment. They encountered each other almost by accident. So look for little opportunities in your daily life.

Second, Jesus saw the need of an individual. Sometimes I think we see programs instead of individuals.

Third, Jesus performed the service immediately with just the resources he had—spit and mud and a desire to help. He didn’t transport the man to an exotic medical facility, organize a cornea transplant team, or didn’t make it into a media event. Sometimes we think we can’t serve because we’re not rich enough, not educated enough, not old enough, or not young enough. Remember, if we have the desire to serve, then our bare hands, a little spit, and a little dirt are enough to make a miracle.

And fourth, Jesus didn’t just dump that service on the man and walk away. He gave that man a way to exercise faith and strengthen the faith he had by asking him to participate in his own healing. It was a simple thing—washing in the pool of Siloam. But what if the man had refused? Jesus took that risk and let the man participate in his own miracle.

Those are all good lessons, and I especially like the idea of "looking for little opportunities in daily life" to serve others, without advance planning or overthinking, but just responding to needs we encounter as we go. It seems so…achievable.

Then that last point, #4, was interesting to me because I can't quite figure out how to apply it. I can see how it helped the man develop faith to "participate in his own healing," but how would anyone besides Jesus set up such a situation? I guess when someone asks a priesthood holder for a blessing, the person being blessed "participates" by exercising faith that the blessing comes from God and will be effective in his or her own life. But how would I, when serving someone, "let them participate in their own miracle"? Hmmm. Maybe there is an application there in giving my children chances to participate in service with me? Or maybe it means not leaving a sister alone after the need to serve her is over, but going on to help teach her or involve her further—so she too can have a chance to serve? That seems more like she'd be participating in someone else's miracle, though. But maybe the miracle comes to us all as we become transformed over a lifetime of serving and being served.