The Power of Experience

The other day, I was playing tennis with friends and I noticed something about how I played.  My backhand is still terrible, but I can hit a forehand reasonably well.  While playing, it occurred to me that certain things came naturally to me.  Hitting up through the ball, finishing high, using my legs.  I didn’t think about it. I just did it.  I thought back on when a good friend, who was an excellent tennis player, got me playing about 10 years ago.  I listened to him and watched.  I took some lessons from a local pro.  He took each part of my stroke and worked on it—explaining that I needed to hit up through the ball, finish high, and use my legs.  I couldn’t quite get it, but I worked on it.  At times I wondered if I wanted to go through the effort, because not getting it was discouraging.  Not hitting the ball well would take away from the parts of the game that I enjoyed—the strategy, the competition, etc.   It was hard work to keep all the elements of the stroke in my mind but over time, as I concentrated, my shot would improve.  Now after these years of playing semi-regularly, I don’t have to think about my stroke—it comes naturally.  Of course, still takes conditioning to play comfortably, and I have to keep my eye on the ball to play well—it requires daily effort.  But the focus on my stroke is no longer a burden.   Having built experience in that area, I can now focus on the fun part of the game.

Karen and I were going through our Come Follow Me study, and we went over a scripture:

Moroni 6:4      And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith.

I must’ve read that verse dozens of times over the years.  I have taught it as a missionary and as a teacher at church.  But this time, the thing that struck me was what it means to be wrought upon by the Holy Ghost.  I just knew what it means.   I didn’t know it because I thought through it deeply to discover the meaning—I have done that in the past on many things.  But I just knew inside—along with nuances and parts that you can’t know just by book study. 

Over the years, I have worked and concentrated on the principles of the Gospel.  I have read the Scriptures almost every day since I came home from my mission in 1973.  I have sought for principles to guide my life and teach my children.  I have gained experience as I have put the principles of the Gospel in action and “proved the Lord” as I did so.  In the same way that I have gained experience through practicing my forehand, my experience in the Gospel has let me to a deeper understanding of the reality of the mission of the Master and His teachings.  It has led me to understand how He works with His children.  I know clearly many reasons why things don’t always go smoothly, and why even the Lord’s anointed have had to struggle at times to implement the Lord’s will.  I make many mistakes and am far from the man I want to be. But when I read the verse above, I just knew deep inside exactly what it meant to be wrought upon by the Holy Ghost.

I have worked hard to teach my children how this and other principles are true principles to be incorporated into our daily lives.  I know that some people hear the teachings and find the work of learning and living those principles too difficult or perhaps unproductive to go through the effort.  They eventually meander at best in their trek along the narrow way, and at worst they wander off completely, having not gone through the experience necessary to partake of the fruit or to learn to sing the song of Redeeming Love.  

It is hard work and demanding to gain that experience.  So I keep at it. For all of us, we know that mistakes are made and there is a temptation to be casual in our faithfulness.  Those who we look to as an example are not always the beacon we hoped. There is increasing social pressure to lead us away from the light. But in the end, the effort that it takes to hold to the Rod is worth it.  John recorded these beautiful words.

 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came ^aout of great ^btribulation, and have ^cwashed their robes, and made them ^dwhite in the ^eblood of the ^fLamb.

Virtually every single promise that we receive as a result of our covenants is that we may have His Spirit to be with us.   As we gain experience, we gain access to His Spirit.  It becomes part of our nature—which is not the nature of the Natural Man, but we become “partakers of the divine nature.”

We become wrought upon… by the power of the Holy Ghost.