17 – Change and Growth Trainingfeatured

HAVE YOU TRIED THE FITNESS THING?

Have you ever tried to make some improvement in your health? Whether it was to lose weight, improve strength, build stamina or something else, what works for others does not always work for you. It can be frustrating to compare your workout to another and not see similar results. Often people will look to a trainer to give them specific advice to help them get their body from where it is now to where they want it to be. They benefit greatly from someone with another perspective giving them information that works for them – and often the push to get going. 

If they handle that push properly, they grow, but there are always those who try for a week or a month and then fall back into old routines.

Losing your membership is not repenting. But, it does give you a good firm push and you get to decide if you are going to use the momentum to move closer to Heavenly Father, or further away.

THE INDIVIDUAL NATURE OF REPENTING

In some respects, the repentance process is different for each one of us. We have our own Spiritual Personal Trainers, called by God, to help us identify small adjustments we can make to bring about big results. How often we meet with our personal trainer (Bishop or Stake President), how much we are asked to do and how long it takes is as unique as we each are. I have heard people say “It’s not fair” when their membership council outcome is different from someone else they heard of. I frankly feel that if the council is fair, each outcome will be unique to the individual.

We each come from different backgrounds. We each have different thought processes. We are motivated by different triggers and have different distances to go. I could go on, but the point is that with a diversity of input, fairness calls for a diversity of outcomes.

As much difference there may be in each of our repenting paths, there are some core similarities that Amulek taught in Alma Chapter 34 that I will be building this post on. Whether you are currently working alongside your Spiritual Personal Trainer or not, I believe these steps will help every one of us get our Spirits from where they are now to a much better place.

GOD IS STILL THERE – AND HE STILL LOVES YOU

First off we need a focus. God, our Heavenly Father, loves us. He did not lose that love for us because we sinned. The fact that he sent His Beloved Son Jesus Christ to atone for us proves that He understood we would need to make corrections in life. It’s not a punishment, it’s a free spiritual fitness club membership. 

In verse 4 Amulek encourages us to have faith just enough to try an experiment. Faith is an action word, so in other words, just trying what he is about to lay out is exercising faith. His audience seems to have been questioning if there even was a Christ coming, and just what would that mean for repentance. They lived the law of Moses with an “eye for an eye” mentality. If they killed someone, the law demanded their life in return. They did not comprehend how this future Messiah could change that.

Amulek bore his testimony of the coming Christ and the atonement He would perform so that all mankind could be forgiven of pretty much any sin. “ For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.”   Alma 34:9

Amulek goes on to clarify that those who believe, and then move forward to exercise “faith unto repentance” (vrs 17) would have God’s mercy upon them. Remember to think of faith as an action word – it is actually calling on us to do something. Think of Amulek as our Spiritual Personal Trainer, and this is the 5 step experiment he is encouraging us to try. Although prayer is an integral part of each step, notice that it’s not enough to just pray, we need to be specific in the intent and intensity. 

THE REPENTANCE EXPERIMENT

Step 1: Pray for mercy. But don’t just pray, cry! Cry out to Him for mercy for yourself. You want Jesus to show His grace, and walk through this with you!

Step 2: Humble yourself. My mind is drawn to the Savior’s teaching that “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” Mark 8:35. I think that by saying “humble yourself” He is telling us to let go of whatever we are holding on to that is keeping us from moving forward. It may be a mindset. It may be a sinful habit. All of us, when we prayerfully think about it, can find something that we need to let go of. That can be especially difficult for our sometimes-egocentric mindset. That persona you were building of yourself – let go of it. It is time to get to know and appreciate Jesus Christ on a whole new level!

Step 3: Now pray again – for yourself. Pray at work and at home – and do it over and over throughout your day. Pray for strength when dealing with those who do not like you. Pray for power to overcome the thoughts and temptations Satan is working on you when you allow things to fester in your mind. Pray for success in your work and for your prosperity. These things matter to Jesus Christ as much as they do to you, and He is willing to walk with you through all of this.

Step 4: Put your heart into it. Even when your mind is not focused on praying, work to have your heart turned towards God. President Henry B. Eyring stated that “Our hearts can only be drawn out to God when they are filled with love for Him and trust in His goodness” (“Prayer” Oct 2001 Gen. Conf.) Do you approach Heavenly Father with the same level of respect and attention that you give to others whom you love? How many of us approach Him with less deference than we would give our favorite person or celebrity? I know celebrities are people too, but you get where I am going.

Step 5: Attend to the needs of others. Amulek’s experiment is letting us get started with our own concerns and needs first, but now we must start looking out for the welfare of others even before all our needs are met. “And now behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you, do not suppose that this is all; for after ye have done all these things, if ye turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those who stand in need—I say unto you, if ye do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the faith.” Alma 34:28

I invite you to try these 5 steps of Amulek’s experiment as found in Alma chapter 34. Journal your thoughts and observations. See if you find this a way to draw closer to God.  The benefits of that relationship are wonderful! 

YOU DO YOU

There is currently a popular expression of “You Do You” in mainstream society. This expression is often used as an endorsement for being content with the status quo instead of fostering positive growth. It gets used as a reason to avoid the discomforts of making changes. I propose the expression can be of great value if you realize who YOU really are! Repentance is about changing and growing. It is about becoming who you really are as a Son or Daughter of very loving and patient Heavenly Parents. You and I – and all of us – are of royal birth with great rewards to be inherited! The challenge is growing into our birthright. If you can see that potential in yourself you can see the value of change and growth. 

When you realize who you really are, you will be more willing to try Amulek’s experiment. 

Then you are more willing to work with the Spiritual Personal Trainer the Lord has called to work with you in your ward or stake.

AN ARGUMENT FOR GETTING ON WITH GROWTH

When I was a small boy I was given a train set for Christmas. I was so excited and felt grown up, but I wasn’t grown up enough. It became frustrating for me, and I am sure for my parents, as I did not have the skills to use the trainset. I was just not ready for it. Eventually, Dad went and bought me a Fisher Price castle to play with and put the train away until I matured enough to benefit from using it. I had to have room to change and grow before I could fully access that gift.

Some of us feel we can wait a while longer before trying Amulek’s experiment or working with our assigned trainers. Amulek cautions us on that kind of thinking:

“…I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world. 

For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.” – Alma 34:33-35  

I don’t want to use fear-mongering to push you to make any necessary changes in your life, but the reality is that life is precious and fleeting. I had a stepdaughter from my first marriage pass away in a car accident just last week. I have no idea when my time is up, and neither do you.

CAN I HAVE SOME OF YOUR MUSCLES?

In the parable of the Ten Virgins, there were five who did not fill their lamps and were hoping to get more oil from the other five when the time came. The parable refers to a kind of oil that cannot be shared. In my fitness example, it is clear that reaching a desired level of fitness takes planful, deliberate effort over time.  To reach one’s fitness goal is hard work. You cannot show up and start running marathons or lifting 400lbs.  You cannot show up to play at a championship soccer game without months and years of careful training.  You must build your physical muscles, coordination, and stamina.  Those are not things that can be faked, nor can they be borrowed from someone else.  It is the same with our spiritual growth through the medium of repentance.  The more we contribute to that process, the more we will get out of it in terms of spiritual muscle mass, coordination and stamina.  Filling our lamp in this way will allow us access to our end goal of becoming like and being with our Saviour and Heavenly Father.

There are rewards for everyone in one degree of Glory or another on the other side. Do you want to prepare yourself for the trainset, or will you be happy with the Fisher Price Castle? I’m not judging you if you are happy with the castle, but I’m going to work for the train.

Now is the time to change and grow – AKA repent. With that change and growth, you can enjoy a closer relationship with our loving Heavenly Father that will help overcome the pain, anxiety and sorrow that this life throws at all of us. Do not change today because you will one day die, change today because, while you are on the earth you can really begin to live!