Opportunities to Serve

As I think about what blessings have come to me because of the Restoration of the gospel in these latter days in response to President Nelson’s invitation, one that comes to mind is the opportunity and challenge to serve.  President Hinckley once noted that “activity is the genius of this Church. It is the process by which we grow.”  He wasn’t referring just to any type of activity but service in the Church through callings, activities, service projects, and other engagement that invites members to be active participants.  Our wards and stakes in the Church are not run by some elite group that does everything; rather, we all can be, if we choose, active  participants in building the kingdom, serving others, and leading others to the Savior.  In the preface to the Doctrine and Covenants, given in 1831 as the Church was in its infancy, the Lord expressed His desire that “might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:20).  The Lord wants us all participating; He wants us all to not only speak in His name but to act and serve and teach others in His name. 

               Another revelation expresses this principle this way: “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:27-28).  In other words, the Lord has given us all power to serve and to work righteousness and bring about good things through our own free will.  I am grateful for the opportunities that I have been given to so act and serve that I wouldn’t have had otherwise without the Church and the restored gospel, from serving as a full-time missionary in France to teaching 12-year-old young men to learning to play the organ for a congregation.  All of these and so many other opportunities we receive as members of the Church help us to see the fulfillment of the Savior’s statement in our lives: “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matt. 10:39).  All of the service we are asked to give in the Church is meant to help us step outside of ourselves and lose ourselves in His service.  Of course we all fall short of how we ought to serve at times, but the great thing about the Church is that there will always be more opportunities to serve and to give, to put up chairs and shovel walks and clean up yards and visit the sick and to give of ourselves in a thousand other ways.  I am so grateful for the Restored Church that provides us so many opportunities to step outside ourselves and try to follow the example of our Savior who always “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38).