Don’t Go It Alone

I recently learned an interesting lesson and it strengthened my testimony of a VERY important gospel principle.

My family and I just visited Nauvoo, Illinois to be with friends and watch the Nauvoo Pageant. When you attend, if you linger for a little while before or after the Pageant, you will more than likely be approached by a member of the cast who wants to speak to you about sharing the gospel message with others. They will ask you if there is anyone you thought of during the pageant that could use the gospel, and if there is (or you are not a member of the church) they will ask you to fill out a referral card for that person (or for yourself). The card will then go to the missionaries, who will send the person a copy of the pageant CD and (I think) the DVD of the restoration, delivered by a pair of missionaries. A member of the cast came up to me before the Pageant, and we talked for a little while, and then he challenged me to fill out 15 referral cards by the end of the pageant, and bore his testimony. I agreed, with some doubt, and took the 15 cards. Living in Rexburg means you will be surrounded by members of the church, and so it was hard for me to think of anyone. But as I sat and thought, I got 15 names, which I wrote on the 15 cards. I even had an extra, making 16. And I wrote down as much information as I could, copied down the names for myself so I could get the contact information later, and gave the cards to that cast member. The next day, I was trying to contact people so I could get their information, and I received a response from one of them that left me sort of jarred. The person said that they didn’t wish to offend me, but that they were not interested in the church, and that they found information about missionary work and the gospel sincerely offensive. They ended their message by wishing me well.

This was devastating to me. Afterwards, I felt like it was hard for me to feel the spirit, and I felt like my testimony was shattered. “How could anyone take offense to the gospel? Is it really true?” It was hard. And for several hours afterward, I simmered in depression and anger and confusion. Eventually, I decided to open my mouth and let off some steam. After talking to the people in my vicinity, I felt much better, and that is the principle I would like to talk about. When things were hard, I wanted to go it alone, and I wanted to bounce back by myself; I wanted to be independent of anyone else. But I was having no success in that arena. And when I finally decided to accept help, I felt SO much better for it. There’s a passage in Doctrine and Covenants 76:

40 And this is the ^agospel, the glad ^btidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us—

41 That he ^acame into the world, even Jesus, to be ^bcrucified for the world, and to ^cbear the sins of the ^dworld, and to ^esanctify the world, and to ^fcleanse it from all unrighteousness;

42 That through him all might be ^asaved whom the Father had put into his ^bpower and made by him;

There is a hard truth that we must face, and that is that we cannot do mortality by ourselves. From infancy, we needed help to learn and to grow, and even at our present age, nothing we do is done independently. We rely so much on other people, and the many things they do for us. This computer I’m typing on, this chair that I’m sitting in, and this house in which I live were not created by me. Neither was the food I eat every day grown or harvested by my efforts. I do nothing independently. And what I want to teach in this post is that we cannot make it back to the presence of God independently. And that’s just the way it is. Through our own imperfection, we have rendered ourselves incapable of being with God. But there is hope, and that hope comes in the Atonement of Christ, and that is the root of the message we share: that Christ, the son of God, came into the world. He preached and he prophesied, he taught, and he healed. He established his gospel. And then, in his final days, he entered the Garden of Gethsemane, and suffered for everything you, I, or anyone else has experienced on this Earth. Sickness, broken bones, heartbreak, and remorse for sin; he felt it all. And then he was taken before the people, and condemned to death. He was beaten, scourged, mocked, and then crucified. And then, after 3 days in the tomb, he was resurrected, paving the way for us to follow! And we are saved from physical and spiritual death because of his willingness to obey the command of Heavenly Father, and because of the love he has for us. But to be saved from spiritual death and to receive Eternal Life, there are steps we need to take. And those steps can be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which we preach. That is our message: that Christ is there to help us make it back to our Heavenly Father. And I want to testify that we cannot do that by ourselves; we need his help.

There is a video made by the church that will perhaps convey this message better than I can. It can be found here. Thanks for reading. If you would like more information on the church, please don’t hesitate to visit lds.org or mormon.org.