I was inspired to write this story for a talk I gave in church recently.
Once upon a time, a young boy named Billy found himself enthralled in his grandfather’s house while his grandfather watched a symphony concert on TV. He watched to the end as Beethoven’s Ode to Joy was being performed. He stood there captivated as the music built and built. Instruments, dynamics, and energy, culminated in full orchestral statements. The movement concluded with a glorious, blazing affirmation of joy and unity where the orchestra and the choir exploded into triumphant harmony.
“Thou our Father, Christ our Brother,
All who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.
Mortals, join the happy chorus,
Which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us,
Brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward
In the triumph song of life.”
Billy decided at that moment that he wanted to become a concert pianist. He asked his father on their way home if he could have piano lessons. They had a piano at home, but it was seldom played and Billy knew that he could put it to good use. Of course, his father said yes, but he told Billy that it would require dedication and discipline. He would need to spend countless hours day after day practicing to achieve his newfound dream. But if he was serious, his father would gladly pay for the lessons. And so days became months and months became years. Billy was getting pretty good when he discovered sports. Now he was in middle school and it was Bill, no longer Billy. As he spent more time playing sports, he spent less time practicing and improving his piano skills. One day, he broke his arm playing football and required many weeks to heal. He was no longer able to play sports or the piano. Well, he could still play with one hand, but with the other it was difficult. All he could do was do his best. His desire to become a concert pianist rekindled and he did his best to practice even with his limited mobility. After many weeks, the cast was removed and Bill continued to focus on his piano studies.
Then he made more friends who liked sports. Gradually, his daily piano practices decreased in duration and intensity. He enjoyed being with his friends more and more while playing school sports. Then he broke his other arm. Again, weeks passed as his desire to return to the piano increased. His friends weren’t around unless it was to play sports anyway. So, he did his best with limited mobility to improve his skill with the piano until this cast came off. By the end of the year, he was at his peak. He was no Mozart—yet, but he knew that he would achieve his goal.
By the time Bill entered high school, he had been noticed by the coaches due to his size and he was recruited to play football. He began to enjoy it even more and the camaraderie that came with it. He spent more time with the guys on his team out on the field than he did at the piano. His very supportive father never objected to any of Bill’s goals, desires, or dreams because he was, of course, a very good and supportive father. During a game, he was hit so hard that the impact tore the rotator cuff on his right shoulder. This required surgery and months of rest, recovery, and physical therapy. This time, Bill could not so easily practice on the piano. He was required to keep his arm in a sling which was required to be fixed against his torso. It was imperative that his arm remained immobilized to allow the connective tissues in his shoulder to heal properly. This time, he could not practice the piano unless it was with his left hand only. For the next six weeks, he practiced with his left hand. After much frustration, His father told him that if he really wanted to become a concert pianist, he would have to quit sports. Dividing his time and talents would make it impossible for him to achieve his childhood dream. Bill wasn’t even sure anymore that he wanted to play the piano. Sure, he enjoyed it, but he felt the pull to be with his friends, his teammates, the stadium lights, and all the fun and attention that came with playing football. That night, Bill was looking at his cellphone and scrolled through his playlist and saw it. Ode to Joy. He did not feel like listening to it, but he clicked on it anyway. It had been some time since he listened to it, let alone Beethoven’s 9th symphony.
At first he just stared at the wall while the music played. It started quietly with ambiguity and tension. Then a simple, noble melody played. Orchestral variations began to rise and that childhood captivation returned. The choir then exploded with human emotion and concluded with ecstatic, unified joy. Bill’s heart had swollen with emotion. He searched his memories for the same emotions when playing sports with his friends, but none of the excitement that he ever felt playing football compared to the fire that built inside him when he listened to his music or played on the piano. Many years later as an adult, Bill achieved his dream. He became a maestro pianist and performed at sold out concert halls and amphitheaters. He enjoyed the lights and the attention again, but those paled in comparison to the swelling joy inside from playing the piano.
In the recent April General Conference, Sister Camille N. Johnson, the Relief Society General President said, quote:
“We are whole in Jesus Christ when we exercise our agency to follow Him in faith, submit our hearts to Him so He can change them, keep His commandments, and enter a covenant relationship with Him, meekly enduring and learning from the challenges of this earthly estate until we return to His presence and are healed in every way.” end quote.
In the story, Bill could not become a master pianist until he fully committed to his goal. Every time he became distracted, he ended up hurting himself and could not resume his journey of becoming a concert pianist. His father had paid the price for his lessons, but he had to decide that he was fully committed to his desires. He had to be singularly focused. Keeping God’s commandments teach us to become like Christ in the same way that following all the rules for mastering the piano taught Bill to become a concert pianist. It involves techniques, discipline, dedication, focus, posture, hand placement, coordination, tempo, and so on.
I used to think that keeping God’s commandments was like flying a kite. The string keeps the kite high up in the air, but if I were to cut the string, the kite would come crashing down. While keeping God’s commandments keep us safe from falling like that kite, a more suitable explanation is that keeping God’s commandments teach us to become like Jesus Christ. While we should want to stay far away from harm and punishment like a kite stays far away from the ground, fear and pain are the wrong motivations to have. Instead, we should want to become exactly like Jesus Christ. All His commandments and all His teachings and sayings inform us about Him and His attributes and about all those who dwell with Him in heaven. The ten commandments not only forbid us from lying or stealing or committing adultery, but they also teach us that celestial people have no desire to lie or steal or commit adultery. When we LOVE like Jesus loves, we will always only do what is right and good and true. This is what being whole is like. Every time we sin, it is like breaking a bone or tearing a ligament and being unable to practice the piano to become a master pianist. And if we compare Jesus Christ to a master pianist, then becoming anything less than a master piano player is undesirable. It is to waste our full potential. And when we decide that we have received enough light and truth and desire no more or we desire to go no further, we in effect damn ourselves and remain broken.
When the Lord destroyed Zarahemla and many other cities, he spoke to the people in darkness who survived and said, quote:
3 Nephi 9:13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?
14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.
Jesus Christ wants to heal us. He wants to forgive us and make us whole. But God will not save those who do not obey His commandments. Why? Because those who desire and choose to remain broken and sinful, choose to be unlike Jesus Christ who is clean and pure. And no unclean thing can dwell with God. Thinking celestial is not enough. It’s a fun catch phrase, sure. But we must become celestial. And that happens now. In this life. With constant practice and desire and discipline like Bill had to become a concert pianist. The words disciple and discipline go hand in hand. Without changing our desires to become like Christ, we will continue to commit the same sins for which we have asked forgiveness and continue to ask forgiveness. In the presence of God, there is no difference between one who has committed sin and one who can (and will) sin again. Confession alone does not change our behavior.
God will forgive us freely again and again, but we are supposed to learn and grow, not return to a broken state. Forgiveness of sins absolves us from penalty of past sins, but it does not make us any less capable of committing future sins. To be healed or to be made whole is a permanent condition, or should be a permanent condition. Otherwise, we’re like Bill who kept breaking bone after bone, tendon after tendon. One day, there won’t be a doctor or a surgeon who can help Bill if he breaks another bone. In Mosiah 2:38-39 we read:
38 Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever. 39 And now I say unto you, that mercy hath no claim on that man; therefore his final doom is to endure a never-ending torment.
2 Nephi 9:38 And, in fine, wo unto all those who die in their sins; for they shall return to God, and behold his face, and remain in their sins.
When the Lord heals us or forgives us of our sins, making us clean, He expects us to stop sinning. To sin in Hebrew means to miss the Mark. And the Mark is none other than Jesus Christ. To shift our focus away from Him is to deviate from His character and attributes. It is to miss the Mark, or in other words, to sin. When the Jews wanted to stone a woman, Jesus intervened and when they had all left, Jesus told her that he did not condemn her. He told her to go and sin no more. To conclude, I will read one more passage from the book of John chapter 5, verses 5-14, and share my final thought.
5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
10 ¶ The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
12 Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
13 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
If we have repented of our sins and received forgiveness, let us be firmly resolved to retain a remission of our sins as described in the Book of Mormon. Let us not succumb to the temptation to invent ways to punish ourselves in order to distract ourselves from the real sacrifice that God asks of us, which is a broken heart and contrite spirit. If we do, we will either find ourselves without the progress we could have by focusing on God, or we will find ourselves retrograding, or in other words, moving backwards, when our sacrifice does not result in any spiritual progress. God’s path is hard enough—we don’t have to invent things to make it more difficult. Instead, let us use that energy to ask Him what He wants us to do, and then do it. A full relationship with God requires full trust in Him. We can’t hold anything back. God will require of us anything we haven’t already given Him. It is total submission no matter what God may ask of us. Submission is a perishable status. We must die daily to the Lord as Paul describes in the New Testament by crucifying the flesh with all its affections and lusts. May the Lord heal each of us as we resolve firmly to keep God’s commandments because we love Him.
Latter-day Lamanite 