“If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have
felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?”
(Alma 5:26)
As an active member of the church, there are many times that
I’ve experienced these feelings. I’m sure many others can relate that when the
spirit is strong and resounds in your heart it just makes it impossible to stay
still. It’s like your heart has become a bouncy ball, bouncing higher and
higher and pushing you up and out of your seat and into action! It makes you
think, ‘I can do anything!’ And then you go out and do it.
The pure feelings of the gospel are so powerful, but it’s
hard to keep those feelings with you all the time. It’s disheartening when you
realize that you can’t ‘feel so now.’ Elder Cook explains that many times, the
reason we can’t ‘feel so now’ has to do with some kind of lack of commitment.
He says it is important for us to evaluate what it is in our lives that are
making it so that we can’t ‘feel so now.’
Why is this so important, that we 'feel so now'? As I thought about that question I
realized that it is at that time that the gospel becomes easy. It is when we have those penetrating feelings of the spirit
that we feel not only the courage, but also the intense desire to do those
things that we have been commanded. This is when we go above and beyond. These
are the moments of our discipleship that we really remember; because they are
the moments we went above and beyond. We are so much happier when we are in
that state; how could we not be? We are so much closer to God and his Spirit!
When we are in a “spiritual drought,” or feeling apathetic
to the gospel, it’s so much harder to live it. The world pushes on us from
every angle, and distorts our vision. Not only does it make wrong things seem
ok, but it makes the right things seem so much harder to achieve, so far out of
our grasp. It tells that we are barely average, and not good enough to be a true
disciple. It tells us that it’s ok to start tomorrow instead of today, because
tomorrow we’ll try harder; but then that tomorrow never comes.
I decided that I wanted to evaluate some reasons why I
sometimes have a hard time ‘feeling so now.’ As I mentioned before, Elder Cook
states that it is in a lack of commitment that this spiritual drought comes,
and he gives several specific examples of this:
1. Some are casual in their observance of sacred covenants.
2.Others spend
most of their time giving first-class devotion to lesser causes.
3.Some allow
intense cultural or political views to weaken their allegiance to the gospel of
Jesus Christ. 4.Some have immersed themselves in Internet materials that magnify,
exaggerate, and, in some cases, invent shortcomings of early Church leaders.”
Later, he gives a couple more examples:
5.unkindness, violence, and domestic
abuse, and
6.sexual immorality and impure thoughts.
Out of these specific
examples, what are some things in your own life that may cause a lack of
spiritual commitment?
The one that struck me the hardest was ‘giving first-class
devotion to lesser causes.’ Isn’t that a powerful phrase? When I read this, I
knew that this was the one I wanted to work on. This is definitely something I
struggle with! There are so many fun ‘lesser causes’ out there! Probably my
biggest one is the internet. I definitely have a devotion to the internet.
Facebook. Pinterest. Email. Pottermore. Blogs. Newsfeeds. I love it! And
sometimes, I spend an inordinate amount of time on it! The internet is a
wonderful thing, don’t get me wrong, and all of these sites are good too; I
never do anything bad on them, but sometimes they take up time that I should be
spending on other things. I could be spending more time with my family; I could
be spending more time on my homework, or my scripture study. I could probably
learn a new amazing talent in the time I waste on the internet! It seems that
as I spend a lot of time wasting time on the internet, my senses begin to dull,
and the apathy of the world creeps in. It's harder to have a commitment to the gospel when I'd rather be surfing the net! So I’ve set a goal for myself. I
determined a decent amount of time that I’m allowed to spend on the internet
every day. So far it’s going well (it’s been two days, ha ha!)
Besides just decreasing my devotion to lesser causes, I also
want to increase my devotion to higher causes! That’s why I’ve made another
goal, to be more respectful of the Sabbath, and not do homework or things of
that nature on that day. Now to be clear, I think that homework, and
education and bettering one’s self is a wonderful cause! As I stated earlier, I
find surfing the internet to be a lesser cause to homework. But likewise, I
find homework to be a lesser cause to spiritual growth and development. It’s a
good, better, best thing. I will strive harder to get those kind of things done
on Saturday so that Sunday can truly be a day of devotion for me.
I know that these are good goals for me, because as I was
making them and putting them into practice I could feel that burning of the
spirit within me again. I know that both of them are just small things really,
but even these small things will bring the spirit that much more into my life!
But just because these are good goals for me to help my spiritual commitment,
doesn’t mean that they are for you.
Looking back at Elder Cook’s talk, are there any of the specific examples that
he gives that you know you need to work on? What is a small goal that you can
make today to help take that out of your life and replace it with commitment? I
only focused on one of the examples he gave, but I’d be interested to hear your
thoughts on the rest of his talk, and maybe some examples of how you’re going
to change them in your life! What are your thoughts?
Ps, I’m going out of town for the next few days, so expect my next blog post on Sister Dibb’s talk on Sunday. (I’m excited about that one!) J
