Enoch
Wednesday is my teaching day, and today was Doctrine & Covenants 45, which is the Savior's reiteration of what he told his apostles in Matthew 24 about the last days and then the continuation of more knowledge. There are a number of things here, and we thought and talked about many of them. One is the promised return of Enoch and his city when the Lord comes. We are so fortunate to have a greater record of Enoch beyond Genesis, where the record has been mostly lost.
When I was younger, if you had asked me how long Enoch preached, I would have said, a long time, a generation I suppose--which would have meant to me 20, 30, maybe 40 years. I would have believed 50 or 60 if you insisted. But the true number of years during which Enoch preached, taught, rallied and purified his people was (drumroll, please): 365 years...one year equivalent for each day of a single year. It not only didn't happen overnight, which I understood, it didn't happen in a century. Or even two or three centuries. 365 years. I think Enoch would have identified with Churchill's, "Never give up. Never, never, never give up."
There are many things to ponder in Enoch's story, but for today, I will pick one. It is a point of hope. It takes time to make the changes which redirect our lives. It takes time to gain and deepen the experience of the Spirit in our lives. It takes pain, hope, challenges, struggles, commitments, blessings, and actions. It takes love and faith put into practice over time.
There's a standing joke in the Church that "I must not be perfect, because I haven't been translated [taken up to heaven directly] yet." . I don't know if Don Musak is still on Sesame Street as a muppet character; he used to be noodling at the piano composing what we recognized as a famous ditty only to hit writer's block and plunge his face into the keyboard, crying, "I'll never get it! Never!" Kermit would make some mild suggestion and presto! inspiration returned, somewhat fractured, and the day was saved. Well, on those days when you plunge your face into the keyboard, crying, "I'll never get it!" take heart. We aren't given 300 years to be here, so it's okay if we're still working on it. What's important is that we ARE working on it.
When I was younger, if you had asked me how long Enoch preached, I would have said, a long time, a generation I suppose--which would have meant to me 20, 30, maybe 40 years. I would have believed 50 or 60 if you insisted. But the true number of years during which Enoch preached, taught, rallied and purified his people was (drumroll, please): 365 years...one year equivalent for each day of a single year. It not only didn't happen overnight, which I understood, it didn't happen in a century. Or even two or three centuries. 365 years. I think Enoch would have identified with Churchill's, "Never give up. Never, never, never give up."
There are many things to ponder in Enoch's story, but for today, I will pick one. It is a point of hope. It takes time to make the changes which redirect our lives. It takes time to gain and deepen the experience of the Spirit in our lives. It takes pain, hope, challenges, struggles, commitments, blessings, and actions. It takes love and faith put into practice over time.
There's a standing joke in the Church that "I must not be perfect, because I haven't been translated [taken up to heaven directly] yet." . I don't know if Don Musak is still on Sesame Street as a muppet character; he used to be noodling at the piano composing what we recognized as a famous ditty only to hit writer's block and plunge his face into the keyboard, crying, "I'll never get it! Never!" Kermit would make some mild suggestion and presto! inspiration returned, somewhat fractured, and the day was saved. Well, on those days when you plunge your face into the keyboard, crying, "I'll never get it!" take heart. We aren't given 300 years to be here, so it's okay if we're still working on it. What's important is that we ARE working on it.
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