Obedience – What We Yet Lack
Elders and Sisters:
Today I quote from one of my favorite talks by Elder
(then President) Jeffrey R. Holland - The Will of the Father in All Things to
make a very important point about obedience.
"The whole face of the land has been changed, the
entire earth around you has been deformed. Then, as you and your neighbors are
milling about the temple grounds (a place that has suddenly seemed to many like
a very good place to be), you hear a voice and see a man clothed in a white
robe descending out of heaven. It is a dazzling display. He seems to emanate
the very essence of light and life itself—a splendor in sharp contrast to the
three days of death and darkness just witnessed. He speaks and says simply,
with a voice that penetrates the very marrow of your bones, “I am Jesus Christ,
whom the prophets testified shall come into the world” (3 Nephi 11:10). There
it is—or, more correctly speaking, there he is! He is the focal point and
principal figure behind every fireside and devotional and family home evening
held by those Nephites for the last six hundred years, and by their Israelite
forefathers for thousands of years before that. Everyone
has talked of him and sung of him and dreamed of him and prayed—but here he
actually is. This is the day, and yours is the generation. What a moment! But
you find you are less inclined to check the film in your camera than you are to
check the faith in your heart. “I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified
shall come into the world.” Of all the messages that could come from the scroll
of eternity, what has he brought to us? Get a pencil. Where’s my notebook? Turn
on every tape recorder in town. He speaks: I am the light and the life of the
world; . . . I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given
me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of. the world, . .
. I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning. That
is it. Just a few lines. Only fifty-two words. “And. . . when Jesus had spoken
these words the whole multitude fell to the earth” (3 Nephi 11:11–12). I have thought very often about this moment
in Nephite history. I cannot think it either accident or mere whimsy that the
Good Shepherd in his newly exalted state, appearing to a most significant
segment of his flock, chooses first to speak of his obedience, his deference,
his loyalty, and loving submission to his father. In an initial and profound
moment of spellbinding wonder, when surely he had the attention of every man,
woman, and child as far as the eye could see, his submission to his father is
the first and most important thing he wishes us to know about himself. Frankly,
I am a bit haunted by the thought that this is the first and most important
thing he may want to know about us when ‘we meet him one day in similar
fashion. Did we obey, even if it was painful? Did we submit, even if the cup
was bitter indeed? Did we yield to a vision higher and holier than our own,
even when we may have seen no vision in it at all? One by one he invites us to
feel the wounds in his hands and his feet and his side. And as we pass and
touch and wonder, perhaps he whispers, “If any man will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). If such
cross-bearing self-denial was, by
definition, the most difficult thing Christ or any man has ever had to
do, an act of submission that would, by the Savior’s own account, cause him,
“God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every
pore, and to suffer both body and spirit” —if yielding and obeying and bowing
to divine will holds only that ahead, then no wonder that even the Only
Begotten Son of the true and living God “would that [he] might not drink the
bitter cup, and shrink” (D&C 19:18)! ("The Will of the Father in all
Things" Holland)
Will each of you "gathered together in this
place" called the California Fresno Mission, be willing to submit to the
"Will of the Father in all Things" and be Exactly Obedient? It's not just about the Mission experience
and blessing your companionship, area, Ward, District, Zone and Mission -
although those are truly wonderful and very motivational reasons to be
obedient! It is about a way of life for
each of you that will transcend your mission and dictate, not just a little
but, in the end everything as to who you become in a gospel sense - which is an
eternal perspective. Your willingness to
yield, obey, and bow to divine will is and will be the anchor for the rest of
your life to living fully the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And the missionary way to achieve Exact Obedience passes
through the halls of integrity and accountability. You must be willing to hold yourself
accountable. Remember I have asked you to do so and you have committed you
would. In my recent interview with each
of you I asked the question if you were being exactly obedient. There are far too many of you that said you
were when you are not. This is an issue
of honesty and integrity. President
James E. Faust suggested that integrity is the mother of many virtues. He noted
that integrity can be defined “as a firm adherence to a code of moral values.”
He also suggested that “integrity is the light that shines from a disciplined
conscience. It is the strength of duty within us” (“Integrity, the Mother of
Many Virtues,” Faust). It is difficult for a person to display virtuous traits
if he or she lacks integrity. Without integrity, honesty is often forgotten. If
integrity is absent, civility is impaired. If integrity is not important,
spirituality is difficult to maintain.
Do you want to know what we yet lack in order to truly
live our Missionary Purpose and in doing so register over 100 people baptized
in a month? Exact Obedience! And I'm not asking for a push for a while or
a program for a season. I am asking you
to make it the way you live your lives during your mission experience and for
the rest of your lives. Desire and
accountability will be key components to your success of offering and yielding
Exact Obedience - will you do it with a willing and a glad heart or see it as
"one more thing I have to do"?
So, ask the question: "Lord, is it I" and then get to work on
being Exactly Obedient - one of the great hallmarks of the California Fresno
Mission. After all, Christ's example to
us is one of Exact Obedience as motivated by love and isn't that our culture as
well?
With all of my love and the energy of my soul for you,
President Clark
P.S. Sister Clark sends her love and her desires that you
be Exactly Obedient. Nothing would make her happier!
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