Jesus said that “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
We members need to remember that.
That’s not to mean we can’t disagree on a given topic.
Last October Elder Nelson went out of his way to point out that the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve have differing opinions on a range of different topics.
We can disagree with each other. We can disagree on lots of issues.
But let’s put that aside for a moment.
I don’t want to talk about female ordination.
Or race and priesthood.
Or BYU’s rules regarding beards.
Seeing how this is the first of hopefully many articles I’ll write for the Cultural Hall I’d like to start on a more positive note.
Something a bit more unifying.
When I was a year old, my parents divorced.
My Mom went to some single’s ward activities, started dating a guy, and eventually got married.
A year later we were sealed in the temple for time and eternity.
I remember every part of that day with exception to the actual sealing. I don’t look at that as some spiritual cleansing of my memory or anything. But I do find it interesting.
Afterward life went on as usual. I got older, started going to school, acted like a punk in high school. It was a pretty normal life.
But when I was 17 my step-dad diagnosed with stomach cancer.
The doctors started him on chemo.
The cancer made it hard for him to eat while the chemo made it hard for him to do much else.
Luckily we had some friends who helped us a lot during that time. A lot of people who should have helped us didn’t. But it’s more important what people did do and not so much important what other people didn’t do.
One of the people who helped us out was Bishop Berrey. He was there the day my parents broke the news to me that my step-dad was sick. He also visited our family regularly. My Mom was never very interested in visiting teaching so she decided that if she wasn’t going to visit teach people that she didn’t want people to visit teach her. Despite this long-standing agreement she had with past bishops, Bishop Berrey called a friend of my Mom to be her Visiting teacher anyway.
After a couple of cycles of chemo my step-dad went into remission. But shortly thereafter the cancer came back.
He made the decision that he didn’t want to go through chemo anymore. A few months later he died. We picked a cemetery to bury him in, designed a headstone, and organized a funeral.
After that my Mom and I tried looking for a new normal.
My Mom, after a bout of depression, started looking for a job to keep herself busy. Our Bishop moved with his family out of state for a business opportunity he had. By then I started going to a local community college and waited tables to save up for a mission.
Eventually I had enough money saved up to go. So I went to the doctor’s office, talked with my Bishop and Stake President, and then I sent my papers.
My Bishop flew into town with his family to hear my going away talk.
But what I didn’t know is that during the second and third hour my mom skipped church to visit my step-dad’s grave with the Bishop’s wife.
Before they made it to the cemetery, Sister Berrey stopped at a store to buy some flowers.
They went to the cemetery, talked, and left the flowers there.
There was no discussion about whether or not they should have skipped church. There was no debate about whether or not buying flowers on Sunday was a good thing.
And this is what is important.
The Berrey family mourned with those who mourned. And comforted those who stand in need of comfort.
It was a building experience.
We can disagree about LGBT issues or youth program funding. No doubt those discussions need to be had. But if we’re not trying to be more like Jesus we’re really missing the point.
Let’s try to build each other up in a Christ-like way a little more this week than we try to discuss the location of Kolob.
Featured Image by Dirk Loop