Week Seven - Brother Butler

What is so hard about life?
If we were to take a poll about the most difficult aspects of life, what would the top five answers be?
Would a disciple of Christ, a rescuer, answer differently than someone who is not yet?

My Jenny has a game we used to play after we were first married called the "Journal Game."  It is not the most exciting game in the world,
but it is one we really liked to do before we had children to fill our time.
The rules are simple.
You call out a date--any date--and the other person has to read their journal entry from that day.
My favorite entries from my missionary journals were experiences that I had that concluded with the line:
"This is an experience I will never forget."
Ironically, the entry is always a reminder of an experience I had most definitely forgotten.
This happened a lot for me.
However, there was one experience I had that I can remember as clear as if it were this morning.

I had been learning Korean Sign Language from a deaf member in a ward in Seoul.
The lessons were a great, and I can remember a point when I was starting to feel confident I could hold a gospel centered conversation with a deaf individual while out tracting.
I began to look for deaf people in the subways, trains, streets, etc that I could share the gospel message with.
The very first person I saw who was deaf was in a subway station by the church.
I was so elated to go strike up a conversation with her.
I approached her and started to introduce myself in sign when she noticed my tag and immediately turned cold and unfriendly and then walked briskly away from me.
I had been rejected plenty of times, but for some reason this one cut deep.
I stood, rejected, in the busy subway station while thoughts flashed through my mind as quickly as the busy commuters passing by.
I went from sad, to frustrated, to dejected, to optimistic, to overwhelmed, to deflated, then back to optimistic I am sure.
For the first time I can remember, I was hurt because of Who I represented and what I was trying to do.
I wanted to stop the lady and plead with her to treat me like another person.  I wondered if we would get along or what we would have in common if we met in different circumstances.
I wanted her to know that what I was doing was for her.
I left home for her.
I ate squid for her.
I learned Korean for her.
I learned Korean sign language for her.
I woke up at 6:00 am for her.
I slept without a/c for her.
I was standing in a crowded subway station for her.

Then my heart turned to the prophets.
All throughout time prophets have been rejected, mocked, beaten, killed, and everything in between.
I realized they are people.  I felt for them.  I wondered if they had similar thoughts to what I was having.
I wondered if they wanted to yell out sometime--I am doing this for you!

As I study the lives of devoted disciples of Christ, I realize that many of their recorded heartaches could have been avoided.
Lehi, Alma, Amulek, Peter, Paul, Mormon, Moroni, Stephen, and Abinadi all could have lived more comfortable lives.
Some of their greatest hardships seemed to come because they put themselves out their to rescue another.
Their tears were often shed for others--others who perhaps never even knew it.

Rescuing brings heartache.  Rescuing brings knee aches.  Rescuing brings elbow, and head, and feet aches.
What extent are we willing to go to rescue another--to invite them to come unto Christ?
What price will we pay to merely invite a soul to change their ways?
How long will we pray, and reach, and speak, and pray, and love, and invite, and ponder, and pray, and cry, and yearn?
How much is too much to give for another?
Is it a different price for our own child, grandmother, neighbor, stranger, enemy?

The road of rescue is often a lonely and trying road.  A road less traveled because of its obstacles.

Walking this thorny path is evidence of the fiercest type of discipleship.
The Rescuer chose the hard road for us.
The Savior's darkest hours came during His hours of rescue.  His brightest hours came, and come, because of His hours of rescue.
Can we expect our own experiences to be different?

Consider doing the following:
Read Mosiah 26:26-30
Look up words like mock and reject in the scriptures and consider the hardships of disciples of Christ because of their choice to try to help another.
If there is something you are not doing because of the pain it might bring you, pray for strength, and do it.  You will have good company as you do so.