Pure Religion

   While at dinner with my sister and her husband, my brother, and our cousin this Thursday, we began a discussion of why a lot of people say they don't like religion.  She went on to explain that she thinks that a lot of people think religion is bad (see the Crusades), when really religion is just really powerful.

   Those people who feel strongly religious are not just dealing with the consequences or blessings of their actions in this life, but in life afterwards, and that means that they are willing to sacrifice a lot.  Even though there are times when religion has been a powerful force in people doing regrettable things in its name, religion has also been the cause of a lot of kinder, gentler people, who are taught and trying to live to be more compassionate and loving.  Condemning it is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and who wants to throw out that wonderful baby?

People Serving!

    James says that pure religion is to serve other people and to try to remember God before the pleasures of this world.  When people are honestly following their religion, I think the world is a happier place.  I've recently been reading the Biography of Thomas S. Monson, President and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it has been so easy for me to see that he practices pure religion.  When President Monson was the ecclesiastical leader over a group of church members (otherwise known as a bishop), there were a lot of widows and older men and women in his congregation.  He made sure to visit them on Christmas, to make sure they were loved and physically cared for throughout the year.

President Monson, a little younger

   A couple years ago, someone asked President Monson want his favorite birthday gift would be.  He asked if people would "do something for someone else on that day to make his or her life better. Find someone who is having a hard time or is ill or lonely, and do something for them. That's all I would ask" (see article here).

Christ healing the Sick at Bethesda (Carl Bloch)

   I know that we have been asked by the Lord to serve others and that "when [we] are in the service of [our] fellow being, [we] are only in the service of [our] God," as the prophet Mosiah explains in the Book of Mormon.  The Lord wants us to love others, and the way to do that is by serving them.  He asks this of us because He loves us so much; He knows it will be for our eternal gain and for theirs.  If we are truly following Christ, if we are truly living our religion, we will try to love others as He does.  It's really hard sometimes; sometimes, I'm feeling lazy or unmotivated to go out and serve others, to go to a nursing home and talk with the people there, or go tutor, or help a friend study, but whenever I do decide to make that small sacrifice, I can see how it helps me to step outside myself.  I can see the Lord's love for the people I am serving, and feel His love for me.  I am so grateful for that.  


So, I would encourage you, and myself too, to try to find a way this week in which you can be a little better at serving.  Just a little more willing to sacrifice your time and resources for others.  I am really sure we won't regret it.