According to Their Wants

We have a problem with service.  We want to give what is convenient and easy for us to give.  We want to give a meal or a dollar, but find it hard to give time or anything that really inconveniences us.

Don't get me wrong.  Sacrificing our money or our time to make a meal for someone else is noble and admirable.  But what if the person needs help in training for a job, or a ride to the doctor?  Somehow we need to learn to find out from the person and from inspiration from the Lord what they need and want.

I remember reading about some immigrants from an Asian country who arrived with practically nothing but the clothes on their backs.   The ward welcomed them and stocked their pantry with food.. But the newcomers were only used to fish and rice and didn't know how to prepare the American food.  They needed friends who spoke their language who could teach and guide them and who would find out what they WANTED.

We can only know these things through inspiration.  Sometimes even the people themselves don't know what they need.  What they think they want may be different than what they really need.  Only the Lord knows that.

I was thinking this morning about Christ's Atonement.  If you were writing a fiction story about a god who had to save a world, you would imagine that an immortal and all-powerful being could save a world by waving his hand or writing a proclamation or something easy.  Maybe call down his minions or something.   You wouldn't imagine that an all-powerful being would have to SUFFER for the world he was saving.  Or that He would be WILLING to suffer for those lowly people in His world.  But He was willing, and He did suffer for us.  Because He loves us.  And He wants us to be like Him and to sacrifice, maybe even suffer a little, for those around us.  Because we love them as He loves us.