To Know Him

In the Savior’s great intercessory prayer given on the eve of His crucifixion, He said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

I have often reflected on how the meaning of this passage would have changed if He had inserted the preposition of between might and know such that it read, “That they might know of thee.” To me it’s clear that knowing of Him isn't enough. Our relationship with Him must move beyond an intellectual understanding of stories, chronologies, names, and places. We need to know Him as intimately and personally as we would know a family member or a close friend if we expect to live with Him eternally.

How do we go from knowing of Him to knowing Him? 

In coming to know Him, we need to first learn of Him. He said, “Learn of me….” (Matthew 11:29). Learning of Him is more than just studying His life and teachings. Learning of Him must be an active process. He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me…” (Matthew 11:29, emphasis added). There is nothing passive about taking His yoke upon us. He expects us to do something. He said, “If any man will do his will, he shall know….” (John 7:17). Our faith must move us beyond studying about Him to striving to become like Him by incorporating His way of living into our lives. 

He promises: “That every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am.” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:1, emphasis added) Forsake, come, call, obey, keep are all actions necessary to come to know Him. Our faith in Jesus Christ will move us to abandon our un-Christ like ways, and to call upon Him for help. We must trust in Him, and submit our will to His as He did to God's will. As we do this we really begin to come to know who He is. 

King Benjamin details additional dimensions of our journey of coming to know the Savior. He said, "For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" (Mosiah 5:13). Serving Christ and others, and having our thoughts and desires centered upon Him are critical in coming to know Him. 

Coming to know Him is the journey of discipleship. It won't be a short journey; it may take a lifetime of refinement and development but the end result--life eternal will be worth it. 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, 

The truth is, those who diligently seek to learn of Christ eventually will come to know Him. They will personally receive a divine portrait of the Master, although it most often comes in the form of a puzzle—one piece at a time. Each individual piece may not be easily recognizable by itself; it may not be clear how it relates to the whole. Each piece helps us to see the big picture a little more clearly. Eventually, after enough pieces have been put together, we recognize the grand beauty of it all. Then, looking back on our experience, we see that the Savior had indeed come to be with us—not all at once but quietly, gently, almost unnoticed. This can be our experience if we move forward with faith….” (Deiter F. Uchtdorf, "Waiting on the Road to Damascus," Ensign, May 2011).

This is my journey—to come to know Him.

Hope

“Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time. The scriptures are clear and certain about the importance of hope. The Apostle Paul taught that the scriptures were written to the end that we ‘might have hope.’ Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness. Its absence—when this desire of our heart is delayed—can make ‘the heart sick.’ Hope is a gift of the Spirit. It is a hope that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the power of His Resurrection, we shall be raised unto life eternal and this because of our faith in the Savior. This kind of hope is both a principle of promise as well as a commandment, and, as with all commandments, we have the responsibility to make it an active part of our lives and overcome the temptation to lose hope. Hope…leads to peace, mercy, rejoicing, and gladness. The hope of salvation is like a protective helmet; it is the foundation of our faith and an anchor to our souls. Moroni in his solitude—even after having witnessed the complete destruction of his people—believed in hope. In the twilight of the Nephite nation, Moroni wrote that without hope we cannot receive an inheritance in the kingdom of God.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorff, “The Infinite Power of Hope,” Ensign, November 2008)

Lessons I Learned as a Boy

A Thought for the Day

“Regardless of our ego, our pride, or our feeling of insecurity, our lives would be happier, we would be contributing more to social welfare and the happiness of others, if we would love one another, forgive one another, repent of our wrongdoings, and judge not.” (N. Eldon Tanner, “Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged”, Ensign, May  1972)

Scripture for the Day

“Jesus…said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14)

“The Tender Mercies of the Lord”

Near the beginning of Nephi’s record of his family’s experiences, he records: “I…will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance” (1 Nephi 1:20). 

What are the “tender mercies of the Lord?” David A. Bednar defined them as, “The very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindness, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ (David A. Bednar, “The Tender Mercies of the Lord,” Ensign, May 2005).

Throughout my life I have experienced the Lord’s tender mercies. In this blog post, I reflect on just one such example in my life of the Lord’s hand in protecting me and my family.

In 1983, I had been working for U.S. Shoe for 8 years. I enjoyed my job, but I had become concerned that I didn’t have many more opportunities for advancement in the company. Therefore, I responded to an ad in the Wall Street Journal for an Assistant Treasurer position with Revco, a large drug store chain headquartered in Twinsburg, Ohio. I had several interviews with them and all indications were that they would offer me a job. But the job went unexpectedly to another person, and I was disappointed. 

While I was interviewing with Revco, our first son Andrew was born. Not long after Revco turned me down, Andy was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a horrific disease for which there is no cure, and so began the most trying six months of my life, which ended in Andy’s death in June of 1984.

With Andy’s death, it became clear that not receiving a job offer from Revco was a tender mercy from God. If Revco had hired me, I would have been living and working in northeast Ohio. Kathy and our children would still have been in Cincinnati trying to sell a house and dealing with a critically ill child. It wouldn’t have worked. Most likely I would have resigned the Revco job to be with my family during this difficult time.  

I can testify that a loving Heavenly Father was watching over us. In His infinite wisdom and foresight He didn’t give us the blessing we desired but the one we needed, given the challenges that were in front of us with our son, Andy. Additionally, unexpected opportunities for advancement became available at U.S. Shoe.

Eleven years later when I was U.S. Shoe’s Chief Financial Officer, I had another experience with Revco. Luxottica, an Italian eyeglass frame manufacturer, bought the company and I decided to leave and look for employment elsewhere. Not long after leaving, a headhunter contacted me about the Chief Financial Officer position at Revco. I had several interviews and everything looked like the job was mine. Yet I didn’t get the job. Again, I was disappointed; I couldn’t understand what happened because everything had looked so promising.

One morning several weeks later, Kathy came running to me with the newspaper in hand. The front page headline declared that another drug store chain was buying Revco. Apparently a dissident shareholder had forced the sale of the company so they had withdrawn my job offer rather put me in that precarious position. Again the Lord watched over us and a short time later I received an offer from KeyCorp to become their Chief Financial Officer—a much better opportunity.

Isaiah wrote, “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not: I will help thee” (Isaiah 41:13). From experience I know that this promise is true; we just need to believe the Lord when He says, “I will help thee” and move forward in faith. Sometime we won’t see the evidence of our faith until events unfold in the future. This was my Revco experience. The Lord did protect and provide for my family but I didn’t realize it until future events unfolded. I am grateful that the Lord lovingly watched out for my family. While we couldn’t always understand what was happening or why in hindsight it was clear—Heavenly Father was providing for us.

With the Psalmist, I can testify that, “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psalms 145:9).

Faith

“Faith resembles a lamp. As a lamp lights the whole house, so the light of Faith illuminates the whole soul.” Saint John Chrysostom