Odyssey

In a scene from a film adaptation of The Odyssey, Odysseus is at the brink of death in a storm. He yells at Poseidon, who is creating the storm. "What do you want me to learn?!"

Poseidon responds: "That without the gods, man is nothing!"

When Moses was called as a prophet, the Lord showed him all of creation. It must have been such an incredible experience. When the Lord was done, and Moses was left to his own strength, he fell down on the earth and couldn't get up for several hours. When he was finally able to stand, he said this: "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed."

Sometimes life can be difficult. This is not to say that God causes the difficult things that happens in our lives. But he may allow them so that we will turn to Him. When the difficult times come to us in life, we can be like Moses and remember our strong foundation. When Satan tempted him and called him a son of man, telling him to worship the son of Perdition, he said, "Who art thou? For I am a son of God."

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Remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice.

Sacrament Meeting

For those of you who are not of my faith, let me first explain a few things before I get into the main body of my message.

In our church, every Sunday we partake of what we call the sacrament (what other churches often call "the sacrament of the Lord's Supper"). It may surprise many that we have young men of 12-17 who typically bless and pass the sacrament. But we confer the authority to officiate in this ordinance to all worthy young men of that age. Those who bless the sacrament are 16 and older, and are ordained priests in the church. Those who are 12-13 are ordained deacons, and their primary responsibility is to pass the sacrament. They take this responsibilty seriously, and it is a wonderful sight to see them in their white shirts and ties, reverently administering the sacrament to the members of the church.

But I love watching these young men as they pass the sacrament. Because they take their calling so seriously, and are trying so hard to make sure it is a solemn and reverent experience for everyone there, sometimes it's a little humorous to watch.

Standard Sunday dress for men in our church is formal business attire: suits or slacks with white shirts and ties. When you're 12 and 13 years old, though, some of us are a bit smaller than others. That means that your tie width where it wraps around your neck can be just about the same width as your size 14 shirt collar. This often results in what we call the "deacon tie," where your tie sticks out from underneath your collar. One thing that makes me smile in our ward is a young man who has avoided this issue entirely by wearing bow ties. It's awesome.

I also like to watch the little rituals/customs that work their way into how the young men in each ward do things. I've moved around a lot and been in multiple wards, and everyone does it a little differently. I was in one ward where every young man would carry a sacrament tray in his right hand and place the back of his left hand on the small of his back, and walk throughout the chapel in that way. I can't lie - it looked kinda funny. :)

But my favorite part by far is the lining up at the end. When everyone has received the sacrament, the deacons line up at the back of both sides of the chapel (at least, this is how it is done in our current ward). When they are ready, the priests at the front of the chapel stand up, signaling to the deacons to come forward. Before this happens, though, there is always a lot of shuffling around, with one deacon (probably the bossy, know-it-all one like I was) pointing and whispering to the people in the wrong positions to go where they're supposed to be. That never ceases to bring a smile to my face. Mostly because it's not very important what order they're in. But to the young men, it is.

But despite the humor that abounds, the young men do a spectacular job of blessing and passing the sacrament.