"Immortality and Eternal Light"

Which is more important, life or light?

I've always been fascinated by the fact that when the brother of Jared needed help taking his people across the ocean in the barges that the Lord had instructed him to build, the Lord immediately gave him the answer to the problem of how they would obtain air, but He made the brother of Jared work very hard to solve the problem of how to obtain light. While this is only my own opinion, I see this discrepancy as being very significant. 

For me, one of the many things that the experience of the brother of Jared teaches us is that God gives us breath, no questions asked, but light - His Light, can only be obtained as we participate in the quest to acquire it. We have to work for it.

The breath of life - our birth, is a gift freely given to us all, as will be the everlasting life given to us in the resurrection. It is something we cannot give ourselves. We cannot give birth to ourselves nor resurrect ourselves. We are totally dependent upon the Lord in this regard. To live and breathe is a gift. As King Benjamin teaches us in Mosiah 2:22 the Lord lends us breath.

But Eternal Life, or the kind of life God lives is something we must work for. Although we know that the Lord may lend us breath, we cannot live on borrowed light.  The ten virgins knew they could not share the light-producing oil in their lamps as much as they may have wanted to. It is something personal that each of us must seek to acquire. The unconditional gift of Christ's Atonement is immortality.  The conditional blessing is Eternal Life and Light.

We each come to this earth with the Light of Christ, but we must choose whether we will retain, lose, or increase that light.

The brother of Jared learned that light is something we must participate in acquiring. And he discovered that in the process of seeking to obtain light he ended up personally encountering  the very Light of the world Himself.

So, I wanted to do a training about the brother of Jared's experience in Ether 2-3 for our zone conferences.  I was excited that we found a rock and gem store by the beach where we bought an actual rock that had a light bulb inside of it so that you could illuminate it through a hidden switch. And it was even white and crystal-like in appearance as is described in the text of Ether.

But things didn't go too well from there.  While preparing my presentation I broke the light bulb that goes inside the rock, and it wasn't one that we could easily find a replacement for.

After several trips to different stores we did find one. But then I ended up breaking the wiring mechanism that holds the bulb. (I know, I know, pretty stupid. Please don't ask me how I did it. Did you know the word for idiot in Portuguese is idiota?) When I told President Lisonbee what I had done, after all he had gone through to help me find a replacement bulb, I could see that his patience with me was being tested in a brother-of-Jared like fashion. But to his credit he responded with patience and persistence, not unlike the brother of Jared, and he told me he would try to fix it.

Meanwhile, I also needed some small white stones to represent the 16 stones that the brother of Jared did molten from the rock and that he presented to the Lord asking Him to touch them and illuminate them with light. I didn't really know where to find any rocks that looked like this and we didn't really have time to search for some. I had looked at the rock and gem store, but there was nothing I could use there.

By this time I was feeling less than confident about moving forward with what was starting to feel like an ill-fated presentation. I was beginning to relate to the brother of Jared who recognized what weak and fallen and incapable creatures we are.  Even after all the the brother of Jared did, he knew that after all he could do, his rocks were still just rocks.  And for me, at this point I was feeling pretty insecure about whether to continue with this idea for my presentation.  I was worried that my rocks were not only just rocks, but they were just stupid rocks. But I persisted with my plan anyway.

Every time I wondered where to find some rocks to represent the 16 small white stones, I had the impression that I should look at our house.  We live on the third floor of a seven story building so there really aren't a lot of places to find rocks. There are some gardens surrounding the building but I had never seen any rocks there before. But I kept getting the impression to look at our house.

I looked in the flower bed on our balcony and found nothing.  I went from room to room feeling pretty stupid for looking for rocks inside the house.  I went into the spare bedroom where we sometimes house missionaries and I opened the curtain. I had actually never opened that curtain before.  And lo and behold, this is what I found -

Bingo!  Here were my sixteen small white stones!

Meanwhile, my good husband, who thought he had fixed the electrical thingy for the lamp, tried putting a new bulb in it and the bulb had popped. So we had to go searching for a new electrical thingy. And let me tell you that thingys are hard enough to find in a country you are familiar with, much less in a place where you don't even know what to call the electrical thingy that you need. We were not successful. But President Lisonbee, being the inspired man that he is, had the thought that maybe the problem was the bulb and that even though it was a new bulb that had popped we should try putting another one in. When we put a new bulb in for the second time, it actually worked.  As they say in Portuguese, "Haja luz!" Let there be light!

Well the presentation went really well!  The Spirit was strong and they loved the rocks and especially the part when President Lisonbee surreptitiously turned on the switch to illuminate the rock right on cue.

We ended up having a wonderful discussion about how this story can apply to us, especially as missionaries. We talked about how we understand all too well that no matter how much we prepare to teach people the Gospel, that unless the Lord blesses us with His Spirit there will be no light or life to our lessons.  It is the Spirit that illuminates our efforts and brings light to our investigators. We must do our part, not because we think it will be sufficient, but because our obedience gives us the confidence and faith to ask the Lord to do His part and bless us with His Spirit.  We know that the Lord must touch our rocks in order for them to provide illumination.

I find in the brother of Jared's story many other applications to missionary work and to all of us. Missionaries, like the brother of Jared and his people, have been taken out of the confusion and wickedness of the world and have been led to another place. On a mission it is easy to reach a certain point where we may become comfortable, as did the brother of Jared's people, and figuratively camp out for the space of many months or as in the case of the Jaredites, for four years. The Lord chastised them for not calling upon Him. Elder Holland says that this probably doesn't mean they ceased to say their prayers, but that they ceased to petition the Lord with the intensity they needed to know what the Lord would have them do next in order to leave their comfort zone and accomplish all that the Lord had prepared for them. We talked about how obedience is much more than just not breaking the rules, but true obedience includes a deep desire to seek out what the Lord would have us do and then strive to do it.

We explored many other applications in those amazing verses in those chapters. I wish I had room here to go through all of them.  Few things in life are more thrilling to me than discussing the scriptures with people who love them!

One of the great truths that emerges from the story of the brother of Jared for me is that he learned not only how to solve the problems he had, but he came to know the Lord in the process. In his quest to obtain light the brother of Jared ended up personally encountering He who is the Light and Life of the world.

I only hope that I can do the same.

"And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things." Doctrine and Covenants 88:67

Here are my sixteen little stones and the stone in the middle, that after much effort, and with the help of President Lisonbee, was finally illuminated with light.