Sick?

Are you sick or afflicted?

No, thanks, I’ll be alright.

Come and I will heal you.

What marvelous opportunities to experience God’s compassionate mercy are lost because I refuse to recognize my neediness and ask for help?

Work

My Father worketh, and I work.

I am startled.

Maybe because I picture God as a tranquil part of a perennial Sabbath,

I have imagined Him merely speaking, and it was done.

The Sabbath is but one in seven days: the same God moves mountains, divides waters, and works on dusty creations.

Although He may rest on the Sabbath, He never sleeps.

And whenever He sees me ready to receive His help, even on the Sabbath, My Father worketh, and I work.

God is not a God of laziness: His miracles are not effortless.

In spite of the pain it entails, God works hard to bless me.

Real, exertional work is a part of celestial glory.

Climbing

Whose ox have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed?

Not that I could be justified by these questions: there is a competition for things: Whom have I stepped on in process of climbing? How will I reduce the damage that I do and delegate wrongs that I cannot right into the hands of God, who can?

Sinners

A woman which was a sinner washed the Savior’s feet with her tears. The Pharisee thought that Jesus should not have let the woman touch Him.

Are sinners best abandoned as untouchables?

I should wrap my arms around sinners, trying to show them the Father’s love, as the Prodigal’s father who saw him when he was yet a great way off and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

Will I be tainted by having a sinner for a friend?

I should strive to continually include sinners in my circle of close associates: they that are whole need no physician, and friendship is a celestial therapy.

Will God judge me “guilty by association”?

To the contrary, the Judgment may hold me guilty by dissociation: For I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

I have an unspoken aim never to have sinner for a close associate. Why should I strive to be opposite from the Savior? Rather, I should aim to have sinners as my close associates.

Relationships

Relationships are strengthened by forgiveness, not freedom from offense.
Simplicity will replace duplicity as I stop looking for fig leaves, preferring an honest image of who I am.
I will admit my faults, frankly repent of every one, and trust forgiveness to preserve treasured relationships.

Eye single

As a teenager, I self-righteously checked whether any girl I saw was dressed modestly. Of course they weren’t. Ironically, watching the lines meant that I saw every immodesty. Look for faults and the whole world is miserably dark.

Open up your eyes and see God’s goodness everywhere. See the depth of His condescension to dwell with mankind. Ponder the fullness of His mercy toward you, your friends, your enemies, and unmet generations. Let everyone you see display God’s goodness: then, if your eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light.

Visions

What can I do to receive the visions that the Lord has promised?

• “every soul [shall see my face and know that I am] who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments”
• “all the pure in heart [shall see God] that shall come into it… my glory shall rest upon it; Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, … inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it”
• “All the faithful may see the vision of the degrees of glory … by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him; To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves”.

Is it not because the Lord rations visions (He gives generously), nor that He reserves them for periods of restoration (visions are intended for all times). The angel didn’t warn Nephi that most people don’t see visions like Lehi. Nor did the angel discourage him when he asked “to behold the things which my father saw.”

How would seeing a vision affect me? How would I see my position after having received it? If I would think myself superior to those around me or an obligate leader (I have trouble with that now), then my reaction is damning: it stops further light. I need to be content to be taught as a humble follower of Christ and not necessarily a leader.