A Greater Work

In a BYU devotional titled Wresting With Comparisons, Brother J.B. Haws spoke about Doctrine and Covenants 7 that describes Peter’s conversation with the Lord concerning John’s desire to remain on the earth. He said, “Here is how I have imagined this scenario playing out. This is my mental screenplay of the scriptural story. Peter approaches the Savior a bit hesitantly and quietly asks, ‘What was John’s heartfelt wish?’ Peter learns that John desired to stay on the earth until the Second Coming to preach the gospel. I can see Peter keeping a forced smile and saying, ‘Wow. That is wonderful.’ But in his mind he is really thinking, ‘Ahhh! I am so dumb! Why didn’t I ask for that? Why didn’t I even think of that? John is so much more righteous than I am! Not to mention he is a faster runner than I am! Why do I always have to be so impetuous and jump in first on everything?’” He then suggested that with this reading of the text we might think that verse 5 says this: “I say unto thee, Peter, [your desire to come speedily into my kingdom] was a good desire; but my beloved [John] has desired that he might do more, or a greater work yet among men than what [you have done, thou slacker].” But the text doesn’t really read that way, and the Lord does not compare Peter with John. Instead, the Lord actually said, “[John] has desired that he might do more, or a greater work yet among men than what he has before done.” The Lord didn’t compare John to Peter, but instead he compared John to the former John. He wanted John to do a greater work than he, John, had previously done, but he wasn’t considered with how that compared to the work the Peter would do. It is often so hard for us to not constantly compare ourselves with others and get discouraged when we see someone else doing something better than we do it, but the Lord doesn’t make those kinds of comparisons. Instead, He wants us to improve each day and compare our progress with our former selves.   

            As I think about the problem of comparisons, the scripture story that comes to mind is that of Moroni as he wrestled with his own weakness in writing. He was given the incredible privilege of reading and rewriting the words of the brother of Jared who recorded his supernal vision. Moroni described it this way: “Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared. Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them” (Ether 4:4-5). So, according to Moroni, these words of the brother of Jared recounted the greatest things that God has ever manifested unto man. Later, as Moroni continued to abridge the account of the Jaredites, he started to compare in his mind the writing of the brother of Jared with his own. He said to the Lord, “Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing;… And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them. Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words” (Ether 12:23-25). Moroni did acknowledge that the Lord had made their spoken words powerful, but he lamented that his written word did not measure up to the brother of Jared’s. His experience reading the words of the brother of Jared was overpowering, but looking at his own words they just seemed weak. It was in this context, as Moroni struggled comparing himself the brother of Jared, that the Lord said these words now well-known among Latter-day Saints: “If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” In the end, that is the only way to overcome the discouragement we will all feel from time to time as we compare ourselves with others and recognize our weakness: we must humble ourselves before the Savior and seek His strength. There will always be those who are better than us at just about everything, so what is the point of comparing? Instead, we can focus on He is the greatest of all and seek His strength to do a greater work than we have done before.