One More Word

Elder Holland is reported as saying, “I would walk on hot lava, I would drink broken glass to find one more word, one more phrase, one more doctrine, any parable that anyone could give me of the life of Christ the living Son of the living God" (see here).  For me hearing this kind of passionate desire to learn of the Savior and hear His words of course begs the question as to whether I feel the same way.  How strong is my yearning to receive the words of God?  I remember a time on my mission when the book True to the Faith had just come out and was passed out to people during Sunday School, and right after the meeting I walked out of the meeting and saw Rodrigue, a member from Togo, earnestly reading the book.  Obviously that experience impressed me enough that I still remember it, and I was touched by his desire to receive the word of God, whatever format that came in.  Do I earnestly seek the words of life that reveal the Savior and His plan with the same zeal? 

                In the scriptures we find those I think that did indeed seek both the Savior and His teachings with that level of faith and sincere desire.  Nephi told us that he had “great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord” (1 Nephi 2:16).  Later he wrote, “Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard” (2 Nephi 4:16).  He longed to commune with the Lord and learn of His ways, and he was shown great things because of it.  Jeremiah told us, “His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9).  So great was that fire of faith that he could not forbear from preaching despite the terrible persecutions he faced.  A group of Nephites was “desirous beyond measure” to know what was in the scriptural record of the Jaredites which King Mosiah eventually translated for them (Mosiah 28:12).  Anna in the New Testament showed her deep desire to commune with the Lord and ultimately see the face of the Savior.  We don’t know hardly anything about her, but we learn from Luke’s account that “she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day” (Luke 2:36-37).  She was 84 years old and spent, it appears, nearly all of her time in the temple in prayer, and finally she was able to see the face of the newborn Babe of Bethlehem.  And of course Enos so sought to hear the word of the Lord that he “cried unto [God] in mighty prayer and supplication… all the day long” and into the night (Enos 1:4).  All of these examples and others show those whose most powerful motivating force was to come to know the Lord, and that they did because of their righteous desire.  Their lives inspire us to “seek the face of the Lord” more earnestly so that we too may “possess [our] souls” and have eternal life (D&C 101:38).