Mortal To-do List

It is almost Sunday, late on this Sabbath eve, and I have been pondering for some time writing another book. I have never approached writing a book that way, of searching for a subject and seeking divine approval to turn it into a book. In the past I wrote a book because some principle of truth lit my life like a stroke of lightning. I felt jolted by the truth and its life changing power, and it simply came to me that I should jot this one down. A paragraph or two, or a short essay in time became a book. It is an interesting and amazing process, because there is power in doing the Lord’s work, in being the Lord’s fingers that flutter joyfully across the keys. There is joy in being His hands and eyes and voice.

So, I look and I wait and I wander among the jewels for a diadem to spread out upon the pages of the book that seems to be gestating in my soul. There is a principle that the Lord has infused into my soul that I have not written much about in the past. It isn’t flashy, or startling, or even obscure, but it is life-altering. It is something which we all know, yet is something few of us actually achieve in full measure. We talk about it, and we believe it, but we don’t do it well. It is something that we must do, that we must excel at, which we must be flawless in doing, or we will not be worthy to enter into the greatest blessings of mortality, nor will be worthy of immortality.

I speak of receiving Christ in this life. Even those words leave a blank spot in our minds. We hear them, feel warm and fuzzy, then think – how? We know we must, yet we don’t understand what is being commanded. Most of us have not – not because we can’t, but because we really have no concept of what it means, and lacking that understanding makes it appear as if what we already do, and already are, answers this vital command. If this is the subject to which I am being led, it will be a joy to obey. It seems to me that to write about this one great truth, to cast bright light upon this one thing, would be of great benefit to all of us who desire to lay hold upon the greater things.

Why? Why seek to write any book? Why place the bullseye upon your forehead one more time? Why set one’s self up for the endless hours, the endless criticism, and the months of editing and rewriting, the pointed pondering and prayer? It is because I have been nudged by the Spirit to write one more time, possibly on this grand theme, and I am anxious to go and do all that the Lord commands, and in the twilight of my life to ensure  that my mortal to-do list is complete.

Brother John