Confess His Hand in All Things

In the most recent general conference, Elder Steven C. Barlow described this gospel paradox about seeking to feel God’s love: “Like the prodigal son’s elder brother, our focus is often centered on ourselves. We are so consumed with seeking evidence of God’s love for us, and we become frustrated when we do not see it. But the beautiful paradox is that the more we are focused on showing our love for God, the more easily we recognize His love for us. Perhaps this is why the Savior responded to the question ‘Which is the great commandment?’ with this simple and important invitation: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’” This idea that the best way to receive God’s love is to show love to Him reminds me of these words of the Savior, “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25). If we focus only on loving our own life and finding happiness for ourselves, we may never really find it. But if we seek to love God and lose our life in the service of others, we will find that happiness and His love will come to us. I like the analogy that Elder Neal A. Maxwell once gave: “Too many anxious openings of the oven door, and the cake falls instead of rising.” If we are constantly checking to ensure we are happy and loved, we may feel that we never are. But if we focus instead on serving and loving the Lord, we will ultimately find that the figurative cake has turned out far better than we could have imagined.

               Elder Barlow encouraged us to show our love for God so that we will feel His love more for us. One of the ways that he encouraged us to show love for the Lord was this: “We also manifest our love for God by having a grateful heart. The Lord said, ‘In nothing doth man offend God, … save those who confess not his hand in all things.’ We show our love for God by acknowledging Him as the source of every good thing in our lives.” There is a saying that “there are no atheists in foxholes” since those whose lives are being threatened will inevitably feel the need to reach out to God and ask for His protection and grace. But we don’t say that “there are no atheists who sit in safety and peace” because too often we fail to see the divine hand that has protected us. In the culture of the Church, we often hear prayers that we will “travel home in safety,” but we hear far fewer prayers thanking the Lord that we have traveled there to that spot in safety. The Savior lamented this tendency in us as humans to fail to see His hand when He said after only one leper had thanked Him: “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17) Nine of them had been miraculously healed and yet failed to even recognize what He did for them. Mormon lamented this tendency in these words: “Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One” (Helaman 12:2). Too often when things go well, we forget the Lord who has done so much to bless us.  

            This reminds me of the anecdote told by Richard Paul Evans, “As a boy I heard this story in church. A man was patching a pitched roof of a tall building when he began sliding off. As he neared the edge of the roof he prayed, ‘Save me, Lord, and I'll go to church every Sunday, I'll give up drinking, I'll be the best man this city has ever known.’ As he finished his prayer, a nail snagged onto his overalls and saved him. The man looked up to the sky and shouted, ‘Never mind, God. I took care of it myself.’ How true of us.” As comical as this story might seem, I think there is a lot of truth in it for each of us. We often plead to the Lord for help, but once that help comes we often fail to see that it was divine help we received and not due to our own merits or luck. We should instead strive to be the one and not the nine, always recognizing His hand in our lives. As we Elder Barlow summarized, “Our Heavenly Father and our Savior recognize our expressions of love for Them when we… gratefully acknowledge every blessing from Them.”