How much will I lay on the altar?
Seeking to live God’s ways in man’s world often entails a certain amount of sacrifice. Some of the pleasures and delights of the mortal moment are foregone in favor of eternal light and love. Thus a greater joy is achieved in a lesser sacrifice. While we may know this truth and understand the logic of it, we often do not live it. Sacrifice and sin rest on either side of us like the ever-shifting pans of a scale that we must seek to keep in balance. Where that balance lies is unique to each individual and their own personal level of light and truth (lux et veritas!).
We know from the scriptures that unto whom more is given more is required. As we are each given greater light and truth, we are also given accountability for what we do with it. In a worldy metaphor, the longer we play the game, the higher the stakes become.
Buddhist philosophy tells us that attachment and expectation are the source of all suffering. (Well, they teach that all life is suffering, but that attachment and expectation are some of the greatest sources of it and that peace can only be attained by releasing them.) I see a gospel parallel in that. The temptations of worldly attachments and expectations can act as obstacles to our living in full harmony with the light and truth that we have received.
As the level of sacrifice required of us rises commensurate with the knowledge that we are given, some of the attachments that we are required to release can seem like too much. This can be a breaking point for some. Called like Abraham to deliver their own Isaac, whatever it may be, they find themselves approaching the altar, only to find that they think the weight of their offering is too heavy and they are unable to take the last few steps to lay it before the Lord. I, myself, have done as much, and even still do on almost a daily basis.
I am finding again and again now, though, that after one finds the willingness to shoulder even the heaviest burdens through those last few crushing steps, when the offering hits the altar a most beautiful truth is revealed–that those sacrificices, those offerings that were so heavy, those obstacles that were so insurmountable, being of the realm of moth and dust, are rendered weightless, revealed for the temporal nothingness that they are. I find that I think I can’t until I do, and then I see that I did and know that I could and even that I can again.
The wordly weight is nothing but illusion.
We must not be dissuaded.
12 Comments
These few weeks I have only sporadic access to a computer, and so I apologize if I am slow to release comments from moderation and/or reply to them.
I also wanted to say that while I realize that I wrote this in very general, and even somewhat preachy terms that this is actually a deeply personal, very real (and even somewhat painful) issue for me at this point in my life. I do not seek to preach to others; I only seek to share and understand my own current feelings.
2Timothy Ch.3 v.12,13,14
I enjoy reading your words and feeling your sweet spirit. Truly they apply to any of us who are truly seeking to live worthy of Heavenly Father’s blessings. Will we pay the price to earn the blessing? I want to. I don’t feel like much, but I pray the Lord will bless you and any and all who seek the truth.
Thank you.
Wow! Another beautiful post.
Thank you.
Light and Truth and Love
are indeed ALL, anything else
is merely illusion.
I love the statement found in a sermon
by President John Taylor…
“WE SAY IT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD
OR NOTHING.”
because there IS ONLY The Kingdom of God.
Anything else is nothing.(illusion)
God Bless!
Bethie
http://dayofpraise.blogspot.com/
Good for you, Naiah! Well spoken. In February of 1853, the Prophet Brigham Young said, “I hear people talk about their troubles, their sore privations, and the great sacrifices they have made for the Gospel’s sake. It never was a sacrifice to me. Anything I can do or suffer in the cause of the Gospel, is only like dropping a pin into the sea; the blessings, gifts, powers, honour, joy, truth, salvation, glory, immortality, and eternal lives, as far outswell anything I can do in return for such precious gifts, as the great ocean exceeds in expansion, bulk, and weight, the pin that I drop into it.”
If I would hope to walk and talk with The Great Prophet Abraham in The Eternal Realms, I Must be willing to pass through the FIREY FURNACE AS HE DID.
If I stop to count the cost, It can’t be considered a sacrifice.
Thank You. Naiah, for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks for the post – it was so well written. It is helping me put some of my current struggles in perspective. It reminded me of Elder Maxwell’s talk on Personal Sacrifice (years old, but I loved it and I still read it every so often)
Wow. Your post is beautiful and poetic. The struggle to give my burdens to the Lord is a different experience with each struggle. Sometimes it is so difficult to carry it those last few steps! How beautiful it is when the weight is lifted.
Thank you for writing this.
If you give alittle money for more wealth than money can buy,
if you sacrifice your home for worlds,
if you pass off the worldly “fun” for eternal happiness,
if you work to bless other and recieve heavenly blessings,
if you endure criticizm and in return receive Heavenly Father’s praise,
if you suffer death in return for eternal life,
Where then is the sacrifice?
Just 48 hours after Val’s post here, he gave his all, and has gone to his reward. His passing was the result of a heart attack.
Thank you all who contributed comfort to Val’s family during this difficult time. He was a man of steel and velvet.
Wife/Laurene
Val gave the ultimate sacrifice for his family and I believe he walks and talks with the great Prophet Abraham in the Eternal realms. He literally walked through the FIRELY FURNACE OF LIFE as Abraham did.