36: Lazarus Heart?

Alma 32: 26-27

26 Now, as I said concerning faith -- that it was not a perfect knowledge -- even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

Lazarus Heart?

1/15/09

My heart lies cold - its life spent out

On hope for home and kin

So freely seen in neighbor lives,

So many gathered in.

Long coveted I what is not so

In Promise' timeless face

Till empty strength and empty time

Forfeit this solo race.

Now body shall live though heart has died,

Though no-one sees to mourn

'Less Lazarus heart the Lord shall raise -

Should thus His will be borne.

Even when you have no strength left and have to let go, you can remember that the Lord can raise anything from death - be it hope, love, life, peace, safety, understanding.

We are taught that if we can only desire to believe, that it is enough for the Lord to work with. So too, I believe, can He work with what we see as our failures in life - strength, family, work, health. He can make them all find life again. So even when we lose hope, we can remember Lazarus and hope again.

26: Hope

1 Peter 3: 15

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

Hope

2/18/07

The flame of hope wants to be shared

But must be guarded well

From those who have not eyes to see

Who'd try its strength to tell.

They blow to try your strength and will

To keep it burning on

They blow for fear what it will show

For long their flame's been gone.

So guard you precious hope and faith

From those who wish to kill

For doubt or fear - it matters not -

Just keep it burning still.

Hope can melt the ice of fear

And fuel the tired heart

And lift another's burden clear

And prompt a better start.

So guard your precious hope and faith

To share with those who see

That hope gives strength when wisely shared

And sets the bound heart free.

Out of faith, hope, and charity, hope is the least represented it seems. I see faith as the belief in something we may not understand that motivates us to act accordingly. Hope is the expectation that our faith is not in vain. I believe it is a symbiotic relationship - they feed each other. Without them, we may act, but it would not be the same for we would feel the actions were empty of meaning. This in turn would ultimately lead to abandoning the actions or resenting whatever actions we continued.

It is the original source of charity, the pure love Christ offered us that allows us the chance to have faith and hope. By overcoming the effects of death and sin, life and our actions have meaning again. Instead of emptiness there is a future possible of continued life for everyone. There is hope.