Building Barges (Lessons from the Brother of Jared)
Building Barges
And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you. -Ether 2:25
First,
this tells me that the Lord’s way is not to give us the "whole" of
everything all at once. We see this pattern a lot in the early restoration of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints where things were given line
upon line, a lot of the time having to be refined through trial and error. After pondering on why that is so, I believe
that in the Lord’s wisdom, he knows the growth that comes from searching and “experimenting on the word” and even that which comes through our failures.
This
is evident in the coming forth of the temple ordinances in the quote
below. “Until his martyrdom, Joseph
Smith continued to receive revelations that furthered the restoration of the
endowment and sealing ordinances. He
recognized, however, that further refinement was needed. After administering the endowment to Brigham
Young in May, 1842, Joseph told Brigham, “This is not arranged right, but we
have done the best we could under the circumstances in which we are placed, and
I wish you to take this matter in hand and organize and systematize all these
ceremonies.” - ChurchofJesusChrist.org
Some might see this line upon line, trial and error process as evidence that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints couldn’t possibly be true. Many have the mind-set that the Lord wouldn’t allow failures, struggle, imperfect men or any such “growing pains”, as the early church had, (or of our current church, for that matter) to afflict His true church, but that He would just reveal it in perfection and wholeness.
But
as we see in scriptural patterns, the Lord in his infinite wisdom, knows the
understanding and soul stretching that comes from struggle.
Struggle
is what keeps us humbly dependent on the Lord in our lives, whether in the big
things, like restoring the Lord’s true church on the earth, or in the little
everyday things in our lives. It is all the same to Him. Struggle, trial, even
our honest mistakes are all part of His Divine plan for they bring about a
little thing called wisdom.
Wisdom,
as Adam and Eve learned, cannot come without opposition, nor can Joy.
I
used to falsely believe that if I just lived the Gospel and never made any
mistakes, that I would be happy & successful all the time… (The adversary is
so clever, he tries to convince us that we can’t be happy unless we have a life
devoid of struggle, having everything we want, & pleasure all the time and
that if we don’t, then we must be doing something wrong).
The
Lord, knowing that we learn better through personal experience, expects us to
use our agency and our Divinely designed minds to develop problem solving
skills (as I believe this was the Lord’s intent with the brother of Jared). Not
only does this create new neural pathways (growth and wisdom), the struggle of
having to figure things out, invites us to involve Him in the process. Amazingly,
He allows failure and struggle even in important things like The Restoration.
He obviously isn’t a controlling perfectionist, haha! His desire is our GROWTH…
and knows that sometimes, well, most times, it comes the hard way, through
trial and error. But, that is His way. A mistake-free, problem-free life, is
not.
Deep
down, our souls know this truth, for, even though the world (adversary) teaches
differently, these truths, for instance, still come out in our entertainment
and most beloved stories. How boring would a story be if there were no
overcoming of insurmountable odds or great defeats?? And how unfulfilling, a
life of ease? To quote Yoda from the
beloved Star Wars saga: “The greatest teacher, failure is.”. Failure, like struggle, teaches us much, but
most importantly, humility, and our deep dependence on the Lord in our lives.
I
think the Lord is teaching us another great lesson here too, leaving us an
example for our own teaching/parenting experiences: that is…Not to be control
freaks! haha. I love, for instance, in the youth organizations, that the focus
has evolved from adult leadership to youth-assisted leadership. and just
recently (Nov. 2022) this has expanded even further with a call for Stake
Presidents and Bishops of YSA (Young Single Adult) Stakes and Wards to call the
young people as councilors, high councilmen, Stake Relief Society Presidency
members, etc. instead of older, more seasoned members). This can be a challenge for those of us who
grew up in a culture of perfectionism. Allowing our youth to plan and carry out
activities/events as well as to learn from their mistakes IS part of the plan.
So, the next time someone forgets the refreshments or fails to show up to
decorate for an event, it’s ok AND needful for us to just allow it… they will
never learn the hard lessons that come from failure if we always jump in and save
the day.
In
such instances, we are being given the opportunity to overcome fear of
judgement and can take comfort that we too are learning: Learning to be like
our Heavenly Parents who allow our struggle and failure, knowing that every
time we do, we are gaining wisdom, line upon line.
So,
we might ask, why is there so much emphasis on perfection, on NOT making
mistakes? To answer, I think it a natural desire of leaders and parents to help
those they have stewardship over to avoid the mistakes they, themselves have
made. We want better for our children, we don’t want them to suffer the same
consequences, so we erroneously micro-manage them and often end up
inadvertently shaming them.
Do we sometimes equate our success as a parent/leader on the choices of our children? Fear of judgement is what keeps us in this space. There is so much wisdom in the statement by the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Teach them correct principles (why we can and should have faith in Christ, the JOY of repentance,the "why" of commandments, natural consequences, etc.) and let them govern themselves.” We need to start seeing “mistakes” as opportunities for growth and not as evidence of our lack of parental skills. (I’m not sure why these insights are just now coming to me… Now that my kids are already raised :/. I’ve always wondered why Heaven sends His precious children to us when we are young and inexperienced, but I guess learning to forgive our parents for their mistakes, is part of the plan for our learning and growth as well.)
Secondly,
I also think this story is a scriptural example of why we are being asked to
learn to "Hear Him"... Moses, like President Nelson, in trying to get
the Israelites to be “taught by the Lord, Himself”, said: “…would God that
all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit
upon them.”- Numbers 11:29. I think we (as a church culture) have become so
reliant on "the Church" and His "Prophets" and see them as
"the WHOLE", expecting them to be perfect and without flaw and to
direct us in all things, that we can't see outside the box or even feel the
need to. We see this in the
"milk" vs. the "meat" of the gospel...some believe that
because the church doesn't openly teach much "meat" that the
"milk" is all we really need. & conversely, some judge the Church for
NOT teaching more “meat”.
After
pondering on this, I believe "the Church" is like these barges- Good,
and "tight" and necessary to carry us across the "great
deep", but its teachings and programs, alone, are not enough and cannot
provide the full "light and breath" needed to progress spiritually in
the way Heaven intends for us. Yes, it is a necessary vessel to get us from
point A to point B, but it is not the whole.
The
job of the church is to prepare us for our Covenants (teaches us how to build
our barges good and tight through the basic principles of the Gospel), but
beyond that it is up to us to gain that "light and breath" directly
from The True Source. The Lord, CAN
personally help us finish our barges, with ALL that we need to safely
(and more comfortably AND joyfully) cross “the great deep” to the “Promised
land”.
How spiritually
safe & comfortable our barges become, depends solely on our own efforts to be
taught by the Lord, Himself. President Nelson is constantly teaching us this.
And that leads me to my third lesson. I learned that it is ok to ask questions and that the Lord may actually have better blessings in store for us when we do.
When
the Lord instructed them to build barges, he said “Go to work and build, after
the manner of barges which ye have hitherto built.” -Ether 2:16. So, we see that
they have built these kind of barges before, but, only now, is Mahonri bringing
up the problems of no light nor air. Why?? Was it not a problem before? Maybe the
distance they had to go was not far enough for this to be too much of a problem?
Or was it that they just trusted that because this was how the Lord said to
build them, that that was how they should be…no questions asked… I wonder if this was the case, because of what
he asks in vs. 22: “…Behold, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross
this great water in darkness?” I can
almost hear him saying “it was hard enough to go in darkness before, but crossing
THIS “great deep”? Please have mercy on
us!”. Did they not ask before, because
they didn’t want the Lord to think that they were second-guessing Him? Did they think…”well, I guess the Lord must want
us to learn something from this, so we just need to grit our teeth and endure
it.”
With
the Lord’s answers, we see, again, the character of the Lord: that He is never a
dominating, controlling, “helicopter ‘parent’”.
He allows our agency, delights in our growth and learning and rewards
our humble questions and efforts to seek His help.
As
for the problem of no air, the Lord just answers Him immediately, as if to say,
“you know… your last barges could have been a lot more comfortable if you would
have just asked me”. But then, with the
problem of no light, He puts the ball back in the Mahonri’s court and asks
“What will ye that I
should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows,
for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye
shall not go by the light of fire.” He now gives him opportunity
to use and increase his own thinking skills.
This
story has taught me so much of what to do when given direction by the Lord or
His prophets, especially when it doesn’t feel quite right or 100%. In these cases, He may just be inviting us to
explore our feelings, and ask the right questions, so that He can bless us in a
better way. The Bible Dictionary, under the topic ‘Prayer’ says, “The object
of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for
others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made
conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on
our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an
appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.”
"And behold, I prepare you against
these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you." Ether2:25 Sometimes,
that “preparation” includes teaching us to ASK: To “SEEK & EXPECT MIRACLES” as He has invited us to do through His prophet, Pres. Nelson.
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