{"id":3167,"date":"1994-04-12T11:48:02","date_gmt":"1994-04-12T17:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speeches-dev.byu.edu\/?p=3167"},"modified":"2024-05-13T09:06:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T15:06:49","slug":"many-one","status":"publish","type":"speech","link":"https:\/\/speeches-dev.byu.edu\/talks\/kate-l-kirkham\/many-one\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe, Being Many, Are One\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
These are the last few hours of classes for winter semester, giving yet additional meaning to the phrase \u201cendure to the end!\u201d The end of a semester, for many of us in the university community, invites as much attention to resolutions as the end of the calendar year\u2014to study more, eat right, change a major, etc.<\/p>\n
I remember a poem I wrote in high school titled \u201cProcrastination.\u201d It described the conditions under which I resolved to initiate actions to move my intention into behavior. It was a series of if\/then episodes depicting more ideal conditions that were \u201cworthy\u201d of my waiting.<\/p>\n
Certainly not all of our interest in the future is a product of procrastinating. We look to the future anticipating the results of the day-to-day effort required to achieve goals. We also look forward desiring blessings or experiences that are in the Lord\u2019s timing. The fact that some experiences cannot (or should not) be ours until conditions change can, however, become a rather large umbrella under which we stack too many of our intentions\u2014and therefore procrastinate what can be changed now.<\/p>\n
Are there not ways in which we withhold effort, waiting for better conditions in which we could live the gospel more fully\u2014the better ward, the right spouse, more resources, after we move, etc.? Are there not ways we attempt to make others accountable for our responsibility to live the gospel?<\/p>\n
Postponing repentance or pondering what we need to give up or give more of to follow our Savior delays realizing what is possible now.<\/p>\n
I want to focus on the possibilities that are ours as a community of Saints. I know there are times when waiting is required\u2014individually and as a people. I know that individual righteousness and family relationships are very important. I want to testify of that which each of us can do now, independent of our immediate circumstances, to create in our collective lives more that is possible from fully, joyously seeking and struggling together to live the gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, being many, are one\u201d is a statement of both diversity and inclusion\u2014a description with us from the beginning and about us as a people. Romans 12:4\u20135 states:<\/p>\n
For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:<\/i><\/p>\n
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.<\/i><\/p>\n
Our common gospel ground begs our attention as the container of the many who are one. Each of us has \u201cgifts differing\u201d (Romans 12:6), and each of us is required to \u201calways remember\u201d that the gifts are \u201cgiven unto the church\u201d (see D&C 46:10).<\/p>\n
Continuing in D&C 46:12: \u201cTo some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.\u201d<\/p>\n
How may all profit? First, I\u2019d like to present a definition of oneness that serves us now. Then I will highlight three aspects of being many that accelerate our being one. Although there is a oneness that is as yet beyond our common experience, there is a oneness that each of us can nourish now. Were our eyes not veiled, we would clearly see that the full spectrum of the many are already one with us\u2014those we like; those who irritate us; those we want to talk to; those we admire; those we want to avoid; those of all shapes, sizes, colors, and incomes. We are already one in seeking to return to a heavenly home we once knew. We are already one in our imperfect state. We are already one in that each has spiritual gifts. We are already one in each having the capacity\u2014whatever our circumstance\u2014to grow. We are one already.<\/p>\n
Though we may be ranked, divided, graded, and rewarded by secular measures, by a common spiritual measure, you and I know each of us is as valued as the person next to us by a just and merciful Savior\u2014a value that surpasses any worldly appraisal. We can simultaneously know of the Lord\u2019s great love for each of us and for all of us\u2014a knowledge that enables us to place our difference in his service, seeing oneness rather than competition. John 21:20\u201322 contains a conversation between Peter and Jesus illustrating that we need not be in competition for experience, since we are equally asked to follow our Savior:<\/p>\n
Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following. . . .<\/i><\/p>\n
Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?<\/i><\/p>\n
Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.<\/i><\/p>\n
Being many is not a threat to our individual gospel livelihood. It is a necessity for us to demonstrate obedience to the two great commandments on which \u201chang all the law and the prophets\u201d (Matthew 22:40):<\/p>\n
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.<\/i><\/p>\n
This is the first and great commandment.<\/i><\/p>\n
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.\u00a0<\/i>[Matthew 22:37\u201339]<\/p>\n
Can we manage being many and being one? What does it take to love the Lord and our neighbor as ourself? Each of us knows the frustrations of not having sufficient time or resources for the things we want to do or the assignments we have been given. In our secular tasks it is possible that the behavior of someone else will block an opportunity: the book we needed is checked out, the computer lab isn\u2019t open twenty-four hours, too many tests are scheduled in the same week. Such is the limited and imperfect nature of temporal resources that can generate both competition and comparisons.<\/p>\n
However, to help us obey the first and second commandments, we have unlimited gospel resources\u2014twenty-four-hour access through obedience, prayer, fasting, and faith to guide all our actions and achieve salvation. Others around me, instead of being seen as competition for an opportunity, can now be seen as the source of my opportunities to serve, to love with all my heart, soul, and mind. As Saints, whether we are in Belgium, Beijing, or Bountiful, we have the same assignments and one Shepherd: \u201cIf ye love me, keep my commandments\u201d (John 14:15). Seeing our oneness, we see our relationship to one another.<\/p>\n
The lyrics of Ron and Carol Harris say:<\/p>\n
In this very room, there is quite enough love for one like me;<\/i>
\nIn this very room, there is quite enough joy for one like me;<\/i>
\nQuite enough hope, quite enough power to chase away any gloom.<\/i>
\nFor Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room.\u00a0<\/i>
\n[\u201cIn This Very Room,\u201d Ron Harris Publications, 1979]<\/p>\n
The next verse affirms there is quite enough for all of us, and the last verse tells us there is quite enough love for all the world.<\/p>\n
Each of us is an ingredient in that oneness we will know as a Zion people and can know in this very room.<\/p>\n
We know some of our oneness as we experience the unfolding of the gospel in missionary work and as we collectively respond in times of need. But what about day-to-day possibilities? Even Mondays? What is possible?<\/p>\n
Peter Senge writes about the \u201clearning organization\u201d in organizational behavior literature and describes a current state and a desired state or vision of what is possible. He, as have others, indicates that seeing both is very important. The distance between the two he labels \u201ccreative tension,\u201d a required zone that energizes organizational members to stretch toward what is possible while they are aware of their current situation (Peter Senge,\u00a0The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization\u00a0<\/i>[New York: Doubleday\/Currency, 1990], p. 150). Creative tension is an interesting term for what can be a vast area between what we currently do and what we are capable of doing. But as a descriptive term it is way ahead of \u201czone of guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Areas of creative tension exist for us as a community of Saints\u2014they are opportunities for our mutual development and progression. We have many resources. I am impressed, almost overcome, with the increasing presence of goodness, which is not governed by ego, inequity, or evil. It is the spiritual companionship the Saints are promised to match these times. The same Spirit affects our many lives differently; the quality of our collective response will \u201cmake ready a people prepared for the Lord\u201d (Luke 1:17).<\/p>\n
I would like to comment on three things that can accelerate our being one.<\/p>\n
First:\u00a0Doubt not that your contribution matters.<\/i><\/p>\n
We may think of doubt as a personal condition, but doubt is contagious. Seeing ourselves as one of the many\u2014hundreds in a ward or thousands in a community\u2014we may doubt the importance of our individual effort. We may wait for a better opportunity or look to someone else in another capacity or with other gifts to make a contribution. Yet each of us contributes to the spirit in a meeting or the feeling in a ward.<\/p>\n
Have you seen a wonderful mosaic\u2014individual pieces of tile carefully placed together creating a wonderful whole? We notice when one is missing.<\/p>\n
On other occasions we notice what just one contributes and how each contribution accumulates.<\/p>\n
The Relief Society General Board adopted a stretch of I-215. We have become very acquainted with that portion of our interstate. Walking along the road and collecting items ranging from soda-straw wrappers to empty paint cans, a few of us got into a conversation imagining how this situation was created. We knew we were not at the scene of a single garbage truck rollover. No, here was visibly the moment-by-moment, day-by-day product of individual actions, some, unfortunately, intentional and some unintentional that created the whole.<\/p>\n
As Saints our oneness is a product of our day-to-day interaction with each other. Intentional comments that label each other and behavior we judge with certainty\u2014these contribute with greater magnitude than we may see at the moment. Our single acts of kindness, prayer, and love also accumulate. What do we individually contribute to the whole?<\/p>\n
President Hinckley\u2019s message \u201cOur One Bright Hope\u201d talks about our Savior and our contribution:<\/p>\n