Line upon line

In my last post I explored what the Savior may have meant when He taught the Samaritan woman about living water that could be in her a “well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:10, 14). I concluded that it meant coming unto Christ, feeling His love, and developing a testimony and being converted by and through the power of His matchless Atonement.

I am grateful when heaven teaches me “line upon line.” Last Sunday was our Ward Conference and the Bishop in his talk referred to a BYU Devotional he had listened to on the BYU Podcast app that interested me so I downloaded it to my phone and listened to it as I traveled earlier this week. The talk was Lost and Found by Mark Alden Callister (Oct. 7, 2014). It’s a great talk that explores the question of why it is important to serve out of charity. I will not try to summarize his thoughts but will just share this excerpt from his comments.

“I have learned that as we strive to follow the Savior and as we fervently pray for charity, our service undergoes a remarkable change. We begin to feel His love more keenly for those we serve, and we feel His love for us as we serve. The outcome can be marvelous. When our Heavenly Father bestows His love upon us, it is not meant to simply pool within us. As it flows through us to others in Christlike service, we are transformed. Like a river flowing over rough stones that with time become smooth, polished, and beautiful, as His pure love flows through us, it transforms our nature and blesses those we serve.”

I was intrigued by this idea, that God’s love was “not meant to simply pool within us,” but should flow through us in Christlike service to others. What an interesting concept. Several things have come together for me this week as I have thought about this idea—that God’s love should flow through me to bless other’s lives.

One time Elder Ballard compared the cardinal virtues of faith, hope, and charity to the legs of a three-legged stool. He taught that they were interconnected and that each was essential. Alma taught the Zoramites (Alma 32-33) about planting the word of Christ in their hearts and told them it would change them. In the next chapter (Alma 34) Amulek taught them about exercising faith unto repentance and that a beginning step was to cry unto the Lord in all their circumstances (for mercy, for their families, for their enterprises-flocks, herds, crops, etc., and for the welfare of those who were around them). Certainly they would feel the love of God as they pursued these steps of coming unto Christ. But then Amulek told them if that was all they did it wouldn’t be enough. They must also reach out to others in service—they must remember to be charitable (see Alma 34:28).

Here are some other things I thought about this week.

Lehi partook of the fruit of the tree of life (he tasted of the love of God) then immediately turned his attention to his family so he could share the fruit with them.

Mormon ended his discourse on faith and hope by teaching that even if a person had faith and hope, if they did not have charity they were “nothing” (Moroni 7:44). And he taught how we could be given this pure love of Christ—we must “pray unto the Father with all the energy of [our] heart” then the Father would “bestow” this love upon us. Then we would become like the Savior.

I listened to another BYU devotional talk this week by Sheri Patten Palmer titled “Convenient Service.” In her talk she talked about how opportunities to serve are often “inconvenient.” She said, by contrast, for the Savior opportunities to bless lives were always "convenient" for Him. That is an attitude we could seek to emulate. Her talk reminded me of how hard it was, as a young father, to drag myself out of bed in the middle of the night to help our children when they were little. I don’t remember praying for an attitude change but I knew I wanted to get to the point where such calls to serve did not annoy me. It’s a work in progress.

Sister Palmer shared the following: “President Thomas S. Monson taught Brigham Young University students that their student days should include ‘the matter of spiritual preparation,’ including service to others:

An attitude of love characterized the mission of the Master. He gave sight to the blind, legs to the lame, and life to the dead. Perhaps when we [face] our Maker, we will not be asked, ‘How many positions did you hold?’ but rather, ‘How many people did you help?’ In reality, you can never love the Lord until you serve Him by serving His people.” [“Great Expectations,” BYU devotional address, 11 January 2009]

I have been taught (and have taught) about service my whole life. And I have served and have at times felt God’s love while doing so. A couple of years ago our ward was asked to join other Latter-day Saints to go to the Rockaways to help them dig out of the destruction left from hurricane Sandy. I was asked by the Bishop to be a team leader. Later in the day, when we were done, I was walking back to the buses with a young man from our ward. He asked, “Why do I feel so good?” I don’t remember my response, but of course he was feeling God’s love because he had been serving His children.

President Kimball once told of a monk who in his monastery sought with all his heart to get closer to God. He prayed. He fasted. He read the scriptures all day. And he was lifted but he knew there was something missing. He even tried praying up in a tower, perhaps to be closer to God. Then one day in frustration, in the tower he lifted his hands toward heaven and cried out “Oh God where art thou?” He heard a soft, quiet voice. It said, “I’m down here among the people.”

This then is an important piece in the puzzle of trying to understand how the Savior's love can be a living spring of water in me. The key is for His love to flow through me to others. As Brother Callister said, this love from God was not meant to pool within us, it was meant to flow through us to others.

This changes the way I think about the purpose of my life. It changes my prayers. It changes the way I serve. Actually I’m not completely sure all that it means, but I am glad to be taught line upon line. I hope I can learn better how to serve others and help them feel the Father’s love.

Living Water

You may have wondered like I have what the Savior meant when He taught the Samaritan woman about living water that could be in her a “well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:10, 14) and the importance of worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth (see John 4:23-24, including JST). You may have asked questions such as, “What is this water?” “How do I obtain it?” “How can it be ‘in [me] a well of water [that springs] up into everlasting life?’” “What does this water have to do with worship?”

It has been said that one thing we can do with things we wonder about in the scriptures is put those questions on the shelf, so to speak, then go about our life and perhaps later in another scripture we will find an answer for that question.

Here are some teachings in the Book of Mormon that help me understand this living water.

In Lehi’s dream he partook of white, sweet fruit that filled his soul with “exceedingly great joy.” (1 Nephi 8:10-12) Later in his dream he saw multitudes “pressing forward” toward the tree, “continually holding fast to the rod of iron” who “fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.” (1 Nephi 8:30) In a similar vision Nephi saw the advent of the Savior and learned that the tree represented the love of God that sheds itself in the hearts of men and was “most joyous to the soul.” He saw many “fall down” at the feet of the Savior “and worship him” and learned that the rod of iron (the word of God) “led to the fountain of living water, or the tree of life,” both of which represented “the love of God.” (1 Nephi 11:18-25)

Later in the Book of Mormon (Alma 32) the prophet Alma taught some poor, humble Zoramites about worship. He taught them of faith and invited them to “experiment” upon his words (v. 27). He challenged them to plant the word of God in their heart, much like you would a seed. And he promised them that if they would do this sincerely, with faith and humility they would learn the truth of those words because of how they felt and because of what those words would do for them (enlarge their soul, enlighten their understanding, and taste delicious) (v. 28). Then they would know those words were true. They would have a testimony. And then if they would “nourish the word” by their faith, diligence, and patience the seed (which had become a tree) would take root in their heart and provide them precious, sweet, white, pure fruit that would fill their heart and be a “tree springing up unto eternal life.” (v. 41-43)

The Zoramites weren’t quite sure what words (seed) they needed to plant in their heart and still wondered about worship so Alma explained in Alma 33 that one form of worship is prayer (v. 2). Then he taught them about the Savior and His Atonement and challenged them to “plant this word” in their hearts and nourish it by their faith, promising them it would “become a tree, springing up in [them] unto everlasting life.” Then Alma promised them that God would lighten their burdens “through the joy of his Son.” (v. 23)

The Book of Mormon Institute Student Manual includes this important explanation of the symbolism of the Tree of Life that Lehi and Nephi saw in their visions.

1 Nephi 8:10–12; 11:8–25. The Tree of Life as a Symbol of Jesus Christ and His Atonement

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that the tree of life represents the Savior and His Atonement: “The Spirit made explicit that the Tree of Life and its precious fruit are symbols of Christ’s redemption” (Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 160).

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles further emphasized that partaking of the love of God means partaking of the blessings of the Atonement. The tree of life is a symbol of God’s love and Christ’s Atonement: “The tree of life … is the love of God (see 1 Nephi 11:25). The love of God for His children is most profoundly expressed in His gift of Jesus as our Redeemer: ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son’ (John 3:16). To partake of the love of God is to partake of Jesus’ Atonement and the emancipations and joys which it can bring” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1999, 6; or Ensign, Nov. 1999, 8).

So what is this “living water” that can be a well of water in me, springing up unto everlasting life? It is the same thing as the tree of life that can grow in my heart until it is a tree springing up unto eternal life. It is the same thing that Alma spoke of when he awoke from his three day conversion experience. Here is a description of that.

Mosiah 27:23-26

 23 And it came to pass after they had fasted and prayed for the space of ^atwo days and two nights, the limbs of Alma received their strength, and he stood up and began to speak unto them, bidding them to be of good comfort:

 24 For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been ^aredeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.

 25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be ^aborn again; yea, ^bborn of God, ^cchanged from their carnal and ^dfallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his ^esons and daughters;

 26 And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in ^anowise inherit the kingdom of God.

Elder David A. Bednar, and others have taught that gaining a testimony is not the same thing as being converted. (see Converted unto the Lord, October 2012 Conference) Alma taught the Zoramites that they needed to do more than just find out that the word/seed was good/true. They needed to nourish the tree through their faith, diligence, and patience—they needed to repent and obey and experience the fruits of the Atonement in their lives. Or to use his earlier words, they needed to be born again.

In Alma 34 Amulek bears testimony of Alma’s words and explains in further depth how they can experience the Atonement in their lives. Two things they would need to do would be to exercise “faith unto repentance” (v. 15-17) and be charitable (v. 29). Amulek promised them the redemption of Christ was available to them “immediately” if they would repent sincerely (v. 31).

So the Samaritan woman was being invited to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him (Moroni 10:32-33). She was being invited to receive the blessings of the Atonement in her life, to plant His word in her heart, to grow in faith, to be born again and to develop an anchor-like hope in Christ (Ether 12:4). Then with this hope she would be assured that “through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection [she would] be raised unto eternal life … because of [her] faith in him according to the promise.” (Moroni 7:41)

That’s what I want—an unshakable tree in my heart from which I can partake of the satisfying, nurturing, joyful fruits of the Atonement, and living water that will sustain me, assure me, and lead me home where I can experience eternal life with my family and our Father in Heaven.