Helaman 10-11

(May 15, 2015)

                There is a billboard on my commute to work that is for the Wounded Warrior Project.  The symbol for this project is one soldier carrying another on his back.  I have been struck by this a number of times, because I am now in a place in my life when I would like nothing better than to be the soldier carrying others and yet I feel as though I remain the wounded (spiritual) warrior.  I want to bless the lives of those around me, and yet I feel exhausted and beaten down.

                As I read through these chapters, though, I was struck by the fact that Nephi felt this same way when the call came to him.  And I realized that our calls to serve likely would not happen when we were at full strength, but rather when we were beaten down and weary and depressed.  It isn’t the healthy soldier in the War in Heaven that carries his fallen comrade.  In the War in Heaven, both soldiers are wounded (mortally) and it is the soldiers taking turns carrying each other as far as they can before being carried in return.

                The changes to my nature have come most readily when I was weighed down with sorrow and care.  They have come when I have been exhausted, and unable to continue, and forced to rely upon the Lord.  They have come when He has given me instruction that I felt incapable of fulfilling because I was so weak as to be nearly destroyed.  When I, in those moments, complied with His instructions were the times when I was blessed to be changed in my very nature.