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It came like a flood over me the other day, I don’t have adequate words to express. The idea is centered around:
Quote:Matthew 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Think about our efforts to complete our “checklist” and gain for ourselves eternal life as our efforts to find our life.
Ponder the question “what IS Christ’s
sake?” How could we “lose” our life(or desire for our personal reward) for this purpose that Jesus was promoting? My major concept around this idea is when we get caught up in the idea of a literal, physical (not exclusively mortal) reward – we become largely self-centered and lose the “greater than ourselves” focus. It’s like finally staking our claim on a cottage in the ideal community where our efforts to obtain our prize came at the expense of that ideal community as a whole. What we are effectively left with is a nice little cottage in the middle of a ghost town. It is only when we honestly don’t care about our own reward that we can focus with effectiveness on the important task at hand of Christ’s purpose. (What was that purpose again?)
Quote:Matthew 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Is our desire to “earn” an eternal life with our loved ones in effect putting our reward or “life” ahead of Christ’s purpose? …What is righteousness?
I don’t believe there is any simple answer that can encompass the whole purpose of Christ, it is about our opportunity to continually gain ground in becoming more Godly, more loving, more selfless — yet “selfless” is a complex topic in itself. Sometimes an action that looks self-serving can in fact be for the greater good of others. Self-sufficiency for example reduces the burden on others to provide for the poor.
However:I do believe that when we focus on Charity (the great commandment) and becoming more selfless in general, we find our way toward righteousness and becoming more Godly. Where it all comes together for me is in the thought that the essence of selflessness has nothing to do with physical/material stuff. Selflessness is a spiritual ideal. Physical paths lead to physical rewards, spiritual paths lead to spiritual rewards. Of course as mortals we exist in a physical world, physical actions will play a part in everything we do. The key question is what are we seeking? If we are looking for some tangible reward at the end of our path we may be “finding” our life in the way where it is ultimately lost. If we can rise above the desire for personal gain (even eternal life) then maybe we can make some progress toward divine love. After all isn’t love the ultimate reward? Love isn’t something that we can gain by seeking it. The only way to gain more love is to first give it away.
I gave up years ago trying to build a life I wanted for myself as an individual. I have sacrificed a lot over the years for my wife and kids – and other pursuits that are not rewarding to me in any way other than my belief that I am a better person when I forget about myself a bit and focus on helping others. The people I respect the most aren’t the ones who accomplished some great individual achievement, even though I respect many of those achievements greatly. My heroes are the people who spent their lives helping others. To me, that is Gospel greatness.
For example, I love Mother Teresa – and my favorite modern prophet might be Thomas Monson. There are some things I wouldn’t emulate about either of them, honestly, but I love both of their constant, untiring, unyielding focus on the poor, the lonely, the neglected. President Monson has been criticized by some members for his stories that can appear to be the same old, same old conference after conference after conference. Some people want the poetry of Neal A. Maxwell (which I loved and miss) or the theological proclamations of Bruce R. McConkie (which I liked or loathed, depending on the sermon), but I love President Monson’s willingness to preach the one thing that I believe is the absolute heart of the Gospel and not worry about being a mighty orator or theologian.
I really like that passage, Orson – and I think we (collectively) and I (personally) don’t understand it nearly as deeply as we should.
As usual, I have written about it on my personal blog.
😳 The following is a post you might want to read:“How to Have the Greatest Love in Our Own Lives”( http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-have-greatest-love-in-our-own.html I struggle with that concept right now but I have had a lot thrust on me lately. There are those who would interpret it as meaning a person doesn’t get any downtime to recharge. I would hope that it doesn’t mean a person isn’t allowed some happiness in this life but sometimes that’s what it seems to mean to me. Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
Yes sirbikesalot, that interpretation is a real danger of this concept – and I’d say that tends to happen when we try to “run” before we are stable in our “walk” so to speak. The proper application goes along the lines of what we hear when we fly regarding the oxygen, FIRST help yourself – then aid the child or others. A position of total selflessness should come from personal strength, not desperation to an ideal that is not fully understood. In the end it comes down to an attempt to understand the higher levels of being. The desire to reach higher should come from within and wanting more for all. If you raise the tide you lift your own boat as well, it is not a matter of sinking your boat to lift another, in reality that is not a good lasting solution.
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