The Journey Toward Becoming His

"We do not really grasp who we are until we know whose we are" -Truman G. Madsen
In the journey of true discipleship, in learning to become more, to becoming His, we need to learn how crucial being and become are. If all the doing and believing aren't shaping us into what God wants us to be, then they aren't enough. In our culture, we have many lists, of things we need to be doing. There are commandments and covenants, and there are standards which we need to live by. Sometimes I think in this world of chaos, we think all we need to do is to be doing things. To be praying, reading the scriptures, attending the temple, going to all of our Sunday meetings, paying our tithing, home and visiting teaching, service, just to name a 'few'.

 A little over a month ago I had the tremendous opportunity to attend Education Week at BYU in Provo. What a blessing and exactly the type of experience I needed. S. Michael Wilcox, a favorite of mine to listen to, gave a series of lectures on "The way back to heaven: Parable of the crystal stairs". He shares a parable that was something I never heard before, but understood the process of becoming more. I would like to share that parable now. The human imagination is a great tool that God used to help us understand more. In this parable of the Crystal Stairs: We are wanders on this plain "mortal existence" There is a sense of longing we feel, a "divine homesickness". There are many stairways on the plains, made of different materials. Wood, metal, stone, marble, and brick. These stairways are built from the ground up. But the stairway we really want is one that comes from Heaven. As you are wandering searching for that special staircase, you then see a bright light from above. And descending from that light you see a crystal stairway. Every step is beautifully etched. Then a being appears and says "My stairway is strong, you may club it and I will show you how". He slowly ascends the stairway. One group leaves, one group takes their belongings and as they set their feet on the first step, the stair shatters. They then go to climb the staircase of men. Another group leaves their belongings and as they ascend the stairs up into the clouds. fearing the height, abandon the crystal stairs. The final group, leaves all and climb each step patiently off the plain and into heaven-where most beautiful things await us. This is such a beautiful world, but Adam and Eve called it the "lone and dreary world" Lehi sees the mortal world and a "dark and dreary wasteland". There is much in this world, but what we long for is spiritual nourishment.  There is a poem by Matthew Arnold that explains this dreary wasteland and wandering and yearning for something more.

"Dover Beach"

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

We need to be true to one another in the world of the "Plain". There is always one who is walking beside us, always with us guiding and directing us. He leads us to the way to heaven. On this "plain" there is something that helps us-that sense of longing, we are made for a better world. We are something more than what we are. There is something in us that draws us to that stairway. As we find and climb each stair, we start to let go of those things that hold us back. Pride, greed, selfishness, in leaving the world behind, and embracing what God has in store for us.

In this lecture he discuss the importance and journey of becoming more. That all that we do in the Church is for a real purpose. It isn't so it looks nice on a eternal resume. It is to show us the importance in becoming more like Christ, in the journey of becoming His. Elder Dallin H. Oaks encourages us to become "Now is the time for each of us to work toward our personal conversion, toward becoming what our Heavenly Father desires us to become" There is so much that Heavenly Father has in store for us, so much that is beyond on imaginations and dreams. He has a real reason for asking and pleading with us to do and obey His will and commands. They are so we can learn our spiritual capacity and power. This life is a journey in learning to come unto Christ, so that we are becoming more, we are becoming His.