LEARNING – PRACTICING – IGNORING – FORGETTING

When I was a young man I served my mission in the era before language training centers existed, a time when those who were called to labor in missions where learning a new language was necessary had an extended time of service in the field. Kathleen and also I served together for three years in the wonderful country of Colombia. In fact there was a time when I counted my time as a full time missionary as a tithe or tenth of my life. Although that mathematical phenomenon went by the way side a long time ago, I still have day and night moments when I have two scenes parade though my conscious and unconscious mind.

I first see an army of the Lord, made up of young men and young women marching forth with determination and dedication, anxiously desiring to help people come unto Christ. As this scene closes it is quickly replaced by the vista of thousands of returned missionaries I have been involved with a few months after they have returned from their fields of labor.

As I ponder upon these scenes I am usually left in a state of marveling how it is that in the mission field this young army of the Lord’s steps seem fairly uniform and their variance of commitment is within a small range. Sadly, thinking about those who have been home from their fields of labor a year or less, their paths seem extremely diverse and the spectrum of their commitment is very broad.

I understand agency and the fact that the world would be a very dull place if we were all the same and had the same personalities and views of how life should be lived, but never the less my pondering of missionaries going into the field, learning to live the laws of happiness, devoting their lives to the labor of love, returning with honor and then almost too abruptly many of their lives barely resemble what they were taught about the laws of happiness in their mission fields.

The vastness of variables created because we are gifted with agency causes us to acknowledge the reality that it is almost impossible for two individuals, although they share common experiences, to react and be acted upon by those experiences in the same way. In fact it seems what we become is not just a result of the experiences we have, but how we as individuals react to those experiences.

I have come to believe the degree to which a return missionary continues to live the laws of happiness after their release will correspond to the level of conversion they had to that way of life during their mission experience. The reason so many of life’s lessons don't become a permanent part of our being is there are many times in life we perform ‘as if’ we believe in something, but later on we find that we were just ‘going along’ because that was the roll we were given to play at the time.

As the saying goes, I would be a very rich man if I had a dollar for every time I have heard a returned missionary say in one way or another; ‘these were the happiest, most productive and most spiritual years of my life’. Somehow, many fail to see the correlation between the ways they had conformed to the laws of happiness during their full time mission experience and the happiness, productiveness and spirituality they had experienced. Ironically, the conversion process they had been attempting to help others experience had not taken root in the hearts of many, that the missionary life isn't just the plan of happiness for two years but for all of mortality.

I am not ignorant of the fact that upon returning from the mission our lives become diverted into paths of education, jobs, courtship, marriage and family which make it impossible to do 24/7 what we did as full time missionaries. Also the removal of the ‘mantle of the calling’ makes continuing with the devotion to living the plan of happiness more challenging. However, there are some fundamentals we learn while laboring as fulltime missionaries which should not disappear as rapidly as they seem too with many of us. All too rapidly upon returning from the mission field we find our lives have changed from that to this:

Regular hours of work and sleep are replaced or severely substituted by late nights and unproductive days.

Careful grooming and ‘set-apart’ appearances are replaced or severely substituted by getting back into ‘style’.

Good reading habits and classical sounds are replaced or severely substituted by reality shows and hearing destructive noises.

Meaningful minutes of Scripture study are replaced or severely substituted by now and then glimpses of verses.

Elevated thoughts and words are replaced or severely substituted by common and vulgar images and expressions.

Constant concern with serving and edifying others is replaced or severely substituted by the quest for the all mighty $ and stepping on people’s heads to get an elevated position on the corporate ladder.

Obedience to high moral standards and missionary habits are replaced or severely substituted by overwhelming desires for independence and faddishness.

Although I have focused on the difference between the laws of happiness taught in the mission field and the lives we return to or turn to after our missions, this thought could easily have been centered on things we learn in our homes, things we learn in school or any other institution we go through during our lives and whether the experience sinks into our being or if we spend our time during those phases wishing for the day when we can be free and independent and use our agency for our own plans for living life.

Witnessing the vast variation of ideas which have been proclaimed as the passage ways to happy, productive and spiritual lives, we are left to wonder if the difference in the lives we choose to live is a result of conversion as well as agency.

We have all undergone many learning, practicing, ignoring, forgetting periods during our lives and yet we are well aware that in spite of similarities of the experiences we have undergone, what we eventually become converted, convicted and committed to doing in our lives and what we choose to lay aside, forget and/or ignore is very dissimilar.

It is worth pondering that the Savior said that it is by our fruits we will be known. Interestingly, he didn't say it was by the nurturings, mentorings and callings we had experienced. It would be well for us to take more seriously the great teaching moments we are blessed with and the changes which could have resulted had we continued to live by those principles and maybe even find a way to return to making them part of our lives.

When our lives are reviewed with complete openness, we will see clearly how many important opportunities we were given which we did not allow to permanently affect us.

I have long believed that the mighty change we all seek to be worthy to stand in His presence is wrought upon us line upon line through gifted experiences, but mostly by how much of these blessed experiences we allow to become an eternal part of our being.

THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY
EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY