Becoming More in Christ
I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am also a lot of other things – wife, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, grandmother, employee, photographer, author, friend – but the most important part of my identity is that of a disciple of Jesus Christ. I follow Jesus Christ and I try to emulate His example of love and good works. I believe in His power to save me from sin and redeem me from death. I want every person on this earth, living and dead, to know and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Redeemer. I want to become more in Christ.
The journey of faith and growth is ongoing, constant, and sometimes relentless. When I say that I want to become more in Christ, it is a multifaceted endeavor, embracing all of the parts of me at once, both separate and combined. I’ve wanted to write this for a long time, but I wasn’t really sure I understood myself what it means that I want to become more in Christ. I’m already “all in,” and yet I’m not complete, nor can I be complete in this life. What I’m seeking encompasses identity, growth, character, purpose, and trust. In my exploration of this effort, I’ve found a beautiful interaction between those elements.
EMBRACING IDENTITY IN CHRIST
Our Church has encouraged its members to examine our lives as disciples of Christ. By starting this essay with my statement, I assert my identity in Christ. I believe in the reality of the man, Jesus of Nazareth, but in a magnificent expansion, I know the reality of Jesus the Messiah, the Christus, the Anointed One. Studying His life, His mortal mission, His eternal mission, and His love for his brothers and sisters has brought me to tears of joy and tears of sorrow. Through Him, I have become “a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is difficult, but not impossible, to leave behind the person I used to be and embrace the woman that Jesus Christ knows I can become. It is a personal alignment, this connection I have with my Savior, because in that day that I gave myself over to Him, I was “born of him and …. become his … daughter…” (Mosiah 5:7). I no longer wonder why He cares what becomes of me, because He has taught me that “…the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 18:10).
There’s a difference, though, between knowing this, and knowing this. Truly knowing, at a soul-deep level, in a way that transcends any intellectual knowledge comes only after much toil and effort. Yes, it’s work to have this depth of understanding. It’s not easy – but it is simple. It comes from doing some simple things consistently, and that’s what’s hard. Studying scriptures daily; praying daily, those soul-dripping prayers where you pour out everything onto the carpet for Heavenly Father to sort and sift through. Attending church meetings and renewing covenants. Keeping covenants with exactness. Truly searching and seeking to become One with the Father. Those things are simple, but they aren’t always easy.
SPIRITUAL GROWTH THROUGH SURRENDER
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a control freak. I don’t want to control anyone else, but I hate to be in a situation where I don’t have some level of control. It’s why I don’t like taking bus trips as a group, I’d rather follow in my car. As a result, you may believe that the idea of surrendering my life to Christ would not be appealing to me. You’d be wrong. While I don’t believe that there is a force “out there” controlling my life, fate, destiny, or whatever, I do believe that there are things that I agreed to do before I came to earth, and I believe that there are things that Heavenly Father would have me do because nobody else will do them as well as I will, and I know that there are things that Heavenly Father has put in front of me because I need the experience that those things will provide. These things may constitute my cross: ”Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26) I have come to recognize the value of my soul, and what my Savior did to protect it.
One of my husband’s favorite scriptures is Mosia 3:19: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” Nobody who knows me would ever call me submissive, and yet the more I know my Savior, the more willing I am to give my will over to Him to guide and lead me. The process of repentance – of confessing my sin to the Lord, of pleading for forgiveness, of resolving to forsake the action forever – offers me the chance to become more like Christ. The Savior submitted to the will of His Father in all things, so that I can be made whole and clean and become perfected – as He is. It all requires submission of my human, worldly will to His divine will.
CULTIVATING CHRIST-LIKE CHARACTER
When we think of our Savior, there are certain key virtues that reflect His character: love, patience, humility, to name just a few. Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon quote Jesus as commanding us to be perfect – or rather, to come unto him and to be perfected in Him, a quality that, without Him, is simply impossible. Our perfection upon our resurrection is possible only because of His resurrection. However, there are many of His qualities that we can develop and improve in this life that will take us further along the road to perfection: longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, and pure love unfeigned.
But people! People are so …. so….so…annoying…exasperating…ridiculous. How can we be expected to be so good when the world is so bad and people are such people? Yeah. That’s the part that catches us up, isn’t it? Again, we have an answer that is simple, but not easy. It takes practice, to be sure, but I think the most effective thing for me was my prayer to see people as He sees them. Another effective thing was my prayer to see me as He sees me. Two very different things, but both gave me a much more charitable view of both others and myself. Asking, at the end of every day, how I treated Heavenly Father’s children that day also helped me understand where I needed to make improvements in order to become more like my Savior.
LIVING WITH PURPOSE
I don’t think that many of us were born with one thing to accomplish in our life and then we die. I know we’re here to gain a physical body and to find our way back to Heavenly Father through the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those things are purposes, and those two things, along with the charge to bring as many of God’s children back home with us as possible, would constitute a purpose that could conceivably command every waking hour. However, I also believe that there are many other worthy purposes to pursue, and it can be very easy – as well as simple – to know if the Lord considers an endeavor to be a worthy purpose. We can gain those answers through prayer and personal revelation. We are counseled, “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). The prophet Alma instructed his son Helaman, “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good…” (Alma 37:37).
I am a polymath. I am interested in many things, and I want to learn it all. I can’t, obviously, there aren’t enough hours in a day and years in a lifetime. I can do a lot of things, though, and I want to spend my time and resources in a way that serves many purposes. I want to make good use of my talents and gifts, and I want to use my time wisely. (Not all the time, though; at the end of the day, I just want to sit and watch videos.) When I take on a new project, especially one that will be quite consuming, like starting and building my business, I pray about it. I ask Heavenly Father to open to me the future of the endeavor so that I’ll know if it’s a fool’s errand or something that I can use to do something great. I also read my scriptures for clarity. I don’t often get the answer while reading my scriptures, but the process of readying my mind for scripture study and then reading, bringing the words to life in my mind, has a great calming effect on me. It helps me to center my focus on the things that matter most, so that I can focus my efforts on the most important areas in my life, and over time, I’m able to see whether this new thing I’m consider will feed those important areas. Being a polymath, I’m always tempted to chase every rabbit that comes across my path, and that provides opportunities to avoid the things I should do in the projects I’ve already started. Praying and reading my scriptures helps me back-burner new ideas and discard ideas that will never be in alignment with God’s will.
TRUSTING IN CHRIST’S STRENGTH
Even the strongest mortal is a weakling compared to the Savior’s power, and so relying on His strength can make me invincible. I truly believe that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Sometimes we just need to acknowledge our own weakness as humans: “And if men come unto me I will show 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” (Ether 12:27). It’s part of our humanity to have weakness that we need help with.
Trusting in Christ can allow us to grow beyond our own limitations. That infinite power is available to us as we need it to serve His purposes. It’s ours for the asking, but we need to be prepared to make use of it when we have it. My career is an example of that. I never really intended to land where I’ve landed at this stage, and the advances haven’t always been easy. There have been many times when I wasn’t at all certain how I was expected to accomplish a particular task or achieve a stated end, but through my prayers and study of scriptures, coupled with perseverance and a trust in my Savior, I have completed every side quest on my journey. As a result, I have a deeper trust and understanding and dedication to Him.
YOUR TURN
Every walk with Christ is different. When I was working at a Christian record label, we produced music for artists whose life experiences had brought them to different musical destinations. Some of the music was gentle and peaceful. Some was rich and challenging. But some was rough and raw, and when I heard the stories of the artists’ lives, I understood the pain that provided the emotion for those songs. Your journey is yours, it’s individual, it’s particular to you, and only you can take it. But I want you to take that next step. What is it you need to do to make the next piece of progress? Take some time to reflect on how Christ is working in your life and where you can grow more. Drop a comment and tell me anything that’s on your mind.
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