The Masterpiece

"It is a masterpiece!" In our culture today, to sincerely voice that sentiment is to give someone's work the highest compliment. With our modern usage of the term it is interesting to consider the source of the word. Prior to the growth of towns in Europe in the late middles ages, most artisans lived and worked within the walls of their lord's keep. When times became less deadly and towns began to thrive, a quality craftsman could no longer depend on his lord to provide materials, protection and stability. But he also had the opportunity to make wealth for himself. Artisan's kept the advantage of obtaining wealth, and helped mitigate the potential damage from expense, competition, and fraud by forming "guilds." Guilds were formed by artisan's who were established as masters of their craft. They banded together, pooled resources which brought down the price of obtaining raw materials, and created a structure for training new artisans that both ensured quality work for the consumer and protected their trade secrets.

So, lets suppose you were interested in becoming a master weaver. You would first have to apprentice out to a master weaver. During your time as an apprentice you would be taught the most basic skills. If the master weaver felt you showed promise you would be recommended as a journeyman. During this time you would learn more advanced skills, but "trade secrets," would be kept from you. Before you could complete you training and be considered a "master," you would be given a challenging work assignment from the master craftsmen who headed the guild. This piece of work was called "the masterpiece." If the masterpiece was completed to the guilds satisfaction, a new master was born! With the passage of time, the word "masterpiece" was also used by the general public to mean the best of the best produced by the masters of a craft. But whether you consider the origin of the phrase of its modern usage it refers to a unique and enduring work of craftsmanship.

Which brings me to Zion- the word the Lord uses to name those who decide they want to accept the "challenge to become," enter into His apprenticeship, and "with the help of their Heavenly Father, create a masterpiece of their lives." (Joseph B. Wirthlin, “The Abundant Life,” Ensign, May 2006, 99–102)

Zion is what we create both individually (Zion is the pure in heart), and collectively (the Lord called his people Zion), as we move through the process to become. (Doctrine & Covenant 97:21, Moses 7:18) Because it is a creative process, and we are the apprentices, it is imperative that we learn from the oft repeated accounts of the Master Himself creating. Have you ever wondered why the Lord lists out what he created day by day, piece by piece. There is more than one reason, I know, but today lets focus on just one lesson- one very important to building Zion- the importance of variety working together in unity.

Look at this picture of Mirror Lake. What gives it its beauty? Is it the mountains? The lake? The fluffy white clouds? The deep blue sky? The little flowers on the bushes in the foreground? The pine trees? Each does have a beauty of its own, but what makes the overall breathtaking scene is the way the very different parts work together.

Or consider music. A good friend of mine is currently serving as choir director in her ward. She told me of a wonderful spiritual moment when she viewed the very different people of various shapes, sizes, careers, and talents, all joining their voices together in a common goal. It is the very differences in the ranges and tones of the choir member's voices that make the music of a choir such a thing of beauty. She said she had an impression that one of the reasons the Lord's prophets have encouraged wards to have a ward choirs is because it is a perfect example and type of what the Lord means when he "called his people Zion because they were of one heart and one mind" or "if you are not one you are not mine." (Moses 7:18, Doctrine & Covenants 38:27)

Her comments rang true. Although I love music, I do not have great talent. In fact, for me to survive in a choir I need a strong soprano who can pick out the notes next to me. I have discovered that I can learn from those with more talent and training, and with their support I can sing with them and enjoy it, too. Imagine how ridiculous it would be of me, a mediocre soprano who struggles to follow the music, to judge everyone else in the choir whose voice and expression were not like mine as doing it all wrong. Not only would it disrupt the choir and cause contention, but I would rob myself of the opportunity to learn, grow, and rejoice in song.  I would, in that hypothetical choir, be doing exactly what James was trying to get the early Christians to see they were doing within their congregations.

Speak not evil (his problem is…; I thing what he is doing is not nearly as functional as me) one of another brethren. He that speaketh evil (I can judge that he is falling short- I am in a superior enough position to point out his dysfunction) of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law(God really doesn't do enough to correct the situation so I must; God really does allow others- not me, but others- too much freedom to make mistakes): but if thou judge the law, thou are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; who are thou that judgest another. ((James 4:11-12)Italics are completely my own work! Remember the origin of the word "evil!" See "Powerful Good")

In the last conference President Uctdorf talked of a this same phenomenon creeping into our lives today:

Sometimes, well-meaning amplifications of divine principles—many coming from uninspired sources—complicate matters further, diluting the purity of divine truth with man-made addenda. One person’s good idea—something that may work for him or her—takes root and becomes an expectation. And gradually, eternal principles can get lost within the labyrinth of “good ideas.”

This was one of the Savior’s criticisms of the religious “experts” of His day, whom He chastised for attending to the hundreds of minor details of the law while neglecting the weightier matters.( President Dieter F. Uchtdorf Second Counselor in the First Presidency)

To help further visualize what the prophets are teaching, consider the metaphor used above of us being apprentices, the Lord being the master craftsmen, and our lives being the "masterpiece" we've each be given to work on. Our current task is to concentrate on making our masterpiece, so that we can qualify to become a master craftsmen. We do have to make judgments, to be sure- we must choose the right materials and employ them in our masterpiece according to all we have learned from the master craftsman. This includes interacting with, helping, and receiving help from other apprentices. We must also learn to discern and turn away from fraudulent or poorly made materials that would prevent us from weaving a masterpiece. In the things we must judge, the master craftsmen has given us volumes of instruction on and we are expected to, under his tutelage, to utilize that knowledge. But, we do not yet have the skills or knowledge to make an accurate evaluation of another apprentices work. Moreover, if we take it upon ourselves to use our very limited time and knowledge to make the judgments only the master can make, we neglect our own given task. We simply cannot do both. In the words of Isaiah, "all that watch for iniquity are cut off." (Isaiah 29:19)

That scripture is especially poignant when you take it in context with the whole of Isaiah 28 and 29. Isaiah 28 is the Lord correcting his "apprentices" for believing they are full fledged master craftsmen, yet rejecting the foundation and cornerstone (Jesus Christ), who is both the very best of materials and the best master craftsman. Isaiah 29 turns to our day, and the restoration of the gospel, and how the same approach will prevent many from receiving all the Lord has prepared. Verse 19 is saying that if we approach this life with our perspective being that we are in an elevated enough position to judge others standing with the Lord, and then we use our limited time and energy to do just that- "watch for iniquity-" we are in essence cutting ourselves off from being the Lord's apprentice and being able to hear his instruction.(Also see 1 Samuel 16:7) It is like we leave working on our own masterpiece to, well, waste our precious mortal apprenticeship pretending we are something we just aren’t. I believe this very human, universal tendency is "the beam" spoken of by Christ. (Matthew 7:3)

Whenever I think of "the beam," I think of one of the most tragic scriptural accounts of what can happen when we put aside our God given assignment to work on our own beam, in favor of evaluating another's iniquity. I speak of the tragedy of Judas Iscariot. Remember the Lord is the master teacher- he never gives us assignments for which, if we turn to his grace, we are not adequately prepared. Thus Judas' call as and apostle indicates he was a very capable and talented apprentice. But some of the things Jesus said and did surprised him- they didn't fit with how he'd imagined he'd be instructed. Because of his approach, his feeling he had sufficiently mastered life enough to "watch for iniquity," he saw it in Christ- the one being who was completely free from iniquity. Not only did he use his erroneous assessment to justify his own iniquity in betraying the Savior, but in his self proclaimed judge, accusatory, state of mind, he left the last supper, and so missed some of the very important instructions for completing our mortal masterpiece.

Interestingly, as I pointed out in "Moses1-Patterns", Peter faced many of the same surprises, but he approached it differently. He truly saw himself as the Lord's apprentice- "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the word of eternal life." (John 6:68, Matthew 16:15-16) And because of that he was there, after Judas had gone his own way, to hear the Savior teach:

A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that yea also love one another. By this shall men know that ye are my disciples (apprentices), if ye have love one to another….

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he it is that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him….the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things…(John 14:34,15:21,26)

That same command and promise is given to us today. We have the Holy Ghost, the spirit of the Lord, to help us apply the information in the scriptures and teach us about the love of the Lord, so that we don't follow the path Judas did and lose the opportunity to "create a masterpiece of our lives." One scripture I have found very helpful in this quest is Galatians 5:22-23:

But the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.

In those moments when something someone does or says hits me with surprise, causes irritation or discomfort, if I manage to call that scripture to mind, it serves as a great barometer to measure whether I am being guided by the spirit. If I am not feeling love (do I want what is best for the other person involved), peace (do I trust the Savior and the atonement), longsuffering (patient in the interest of another's growth even if it causes you some discomfort), goodness (facilitating the use of the Lord's gifts for his plan-like that strong soprano who helped me sing), and so on- well I am probably in danger of plunking down in my self proclaimed, master craftsmen, judgment seat, and spending precious time and energy on something that will only prevent me from working on the masterpiece I've been given.

And a few times when that scripture has come to mind, and I've taken the Lord up on his promise to bestow charity on all who pray for it (Moroni 7:48), something extraordinary has happened. My surprise, possibly even irritation, turns to understanding that I am in the presence of a beloved child of God who is earnestly trying to love and serve him, and whose life and circumstances so vary from my own that they have so much to share with me and teach me. Through our association the master craftsman broadens my lens, gives me insight into how to better craft my own life, and how limited and poor my life would be without the infinite variety found among His children. And I think I begin to know the beauty and wonder of Zion. And that beginning- well it is so more than I could've ever imagined.

Storytime

Its story time!
Once upon a time there was a young man who loved cars. He worked and he saved and one day he was able to buy the sport car of his dreams. (Here you may insert in your mental film of this story your dream car.) He decided to take his precious new acquisition out for a drive on a winding country road. He came up over a rise and saw a boy up ahead standing by the road. The boy say him and waved. The man, thinking of how delighted he would have been at that age to see such a beautiful car drive by, slows,so the boy can better enjoy the view, and waves back as he goes by. As he passes the boy stoops down, grabs a rock, and hurls it at the car. The rock hits.

OK, freeze frame, stop film, and consider:
What do you think of the boy? What would you think or do if you were in the young man's position? (I haven't met anyone, including myself that didn't first assume the boy's motives were at least somewhat delinquent. If you are the first I would love to hear about it.)

OK, resume film.
The man was rightly shocked, which was quickly followed by anger and a determination that the boy would not get away with this. He stopped, put the car in reverse and quickly backed up. He was so busy running through the scathing correction he would give, and how the boy would pay for what he had done, that he didn't find it odd that the boy didn't run away. As soon as he was next to the boy, he put down his window and prepared to let the boy have it. He had no time, for as soon as the window cracked the boy began to thank him and tell him that he had a friend seriously injured in a nearby field, and he needed to get help and how sorry he was for throwing the rock, but he didn't know how else to get the car to stop and would he please help.

OK, end story number one.
Has your estimation of the boy and his motives changed? Why did you make the assumptions you first did? How come your first thought was not that this was a good boy trying to save his friend's life?

I first heard that story in a leadership training meeting. It stuck with me because I realized I often make the same kind of erroneous assumptions about others in my life. There is a saying that you shouldn't judge a person until you have walked a mile in his shoes. It would be a wonderful thing if we could actually do that, but then we wouldn't have time to live our own unique lives, would we? In the above story, the young man did kindly attempt to put himself in the boy's shoes. From the moment the man saw the boy he thought of his own experiences and desires, and assumed the boy was standing there staring and waving for the same reason he would have- in admiration of the car. Following the same train of reasoning, when the boy threw the rock, the young man assumed it was based on jealously or malice, because that is the only reason he could come up with as to why he would've thrown a rock if he had been in the boys place. But he was not the boy and he was very, very wrong about what was in the boys heart.

Which brings me back to the power of knowing the love of God. God loves each of us perfectly, and he is able to see and understand each of us more deeply than we can understand each other without his help. As he tells us in 1 Samuel 16:7 "for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man lookeeth on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." One of the remarkable promises the Lord gives us is the promise that if we choose to become his followers he will share the gift of his love and perspective with us, so that it becomes a defining characteristic of our being. In Moroni 7:48 we are taught "Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true follower of his Son, Jesus Christ." And one of the components of charity we are taught, is that it rejoices in truth. (1 Corinthians 13:6, Moroni 7:45) And truth we are taught is "things as they reallly are." (Jacob 4:13, Doctrine & Covenants 93:24). And, since it is story time, there is one particular story that brought this all together for me. I am so grateful Elder Groberg chose to share his experience. Though I've never had the dramatic experience he had, I delighted in recognizing that what had happened for him was happening for me- the same type change in how I saw the world and others- and the same struggle, at times to hang on to it. When I have one of those days when the the love of God feels light years away- you know the days you feel you could cheerfully cause great damage to various persons, and most often their cars- I find this story time helps me remember the most important thing I know.

Elder Groberg:

God is anxious to help us feel His love wherever we are. Let me give an example.

As a young missionary I was assigned to a small island of about 700 inhabitants in a remote area of the South Pacific. To me the heat was oppressive, the mosquitoes were terrible, the mud was everywhere, the language was impossible, and the food was—well, “different.”

After a few months our island was struck by a powerful hurricane. The devastation was massive. Crops were ruined, lives were lost, housing was blown away, and the telegraph station—our only link to the outside world—was destroyed. A small government boat normally came every month or two, so we rationed our food to last four or five weeks, hoping the boat would come. But no boat came. Every day we became weaker. There were acts of great kindness, but as the sixth and seventh weeks passed with very little food, our strength slipped noticeably. My native companion, Feki, helped me in every way he could, but as the eighth week commenced, I had no energy. I just sat under the shade of a tree and prayed and read scriptures and spent hours and hours pondering the things of eternity.

The ninth week began with little outward change. However, there was a great inward change. I felt the Lord’s love more deeply than ever before and learned firsthand that His love “is the most desirable above all things … yea, and the most joyous to the soul” (1 Ne. 11:22–23).

I was pretty much skin and bones by now. I remember watching, with deep reverence, my heart beating, my lungs breathing, and thinking what a marvelous body God has created to house our equally marvelous spirit! The thought of a permanent union of these two elements, made possible through the Savior’s love, atoning sacrifice, and Resurrection, was so inspiring and satisfying that any physical discomfort faded into oblivion.

When we understand who God is, who we are, how He loves us, and what His plan is for us, fear evaporates. When we get the tiniest glimpse of these truths, our concern over worldly things vanishes. To think we actually fall for Satan’s lies that power, fame, or wealth is important is truly laughable—or would be were it not so sad.

I learned that just as rockets must overcome the pull of gravity to roar into space, so we must overcome the pull of the world to soar into the eternal realms of understanding and love. I realized my mortal life might end there, but there was no panic. I knew life would continue, and whether here or there didn’t really matter. What did matter was how much love I had in my heart. I knew I needed more! I knew that our joy now and forever is inextricably tied to our capacity to love.

As these thoughts filled and lifted my soul, I gradually became aware of some excited voices. My companion Feki’s eyes were dancing as he said, “Kolipoki, a boat has arrived, and it is full of food. We are saved! Aren’t you excited?” I wasn’t sure, but since the boat had come, that must be God’s answer, so yes, I was happy. Feki gave me some food and said, “Here, eat.” I hesitated. I looked at the food. I looked at Feki. I looked into the sky and closed my eyes.

I felt something very deep. I was grateful my life here would go on as before; still, there was a wistful feeling—a subtle sense of postponement, as when darkness closes the brilliant colors of a perfect sunset and you realize you must wait for another evening to again enjoy such beauty.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to open my eyes, but when I did I realized that God’s love had changed everything. The heat, the mud, the mosquitoes, the people, the language, the food were no longer challenges. Those who had tried to harm me were no longer my enemies. Everyone was my brother or sister. Being filled with God’s love is the most joyous of all things and is worth every cost.

I thanked God for this choice time and for the many reminders of His love—the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the birth of a child, the smile of a friend. I thanked Him for scriptures, for the privilege of prayer, and for that most marvelous reminder of His love—the sacrament.

I learned that as we sing the sacrament hymns with real intent, phrases like “How great the wisdom and the love” or “Dearly, dearly has he loved! And we must love him too” will swell our hearts with love and gratitude (see “How Great the Wisdom and the Love,” Hymns, no. 195; “There Is a Green Hill Far Away,” Hymns, no. 194). As we sincerely listen to the sacrament prayers, phrases such as “always remember him,” “keep his commandments,” “have his Spirit to be with them” will fill our hearts with an overwhelming desire to be better (see D&C 20:77, 79). Then when we partake of the bread and the water with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, I know we can feel and even hear those most wondrous words “I love you. I love you.”

I thought I would never forget these feelings, but the pull of the world is strong and we tend to slip. But God continues to love us. (John H. Groberg, “The Power of God’s Love,” Ensign, Nov 2004, 9)