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Church is a spiritual hospital. People are in serious pain. Sometimes, injuries prove to be fatal. Sometimes the Spirit, through the ward, manages to stop the bleeding before faith dies. Those who have the misfortune to frequently visit real hospitals for physical ailments understand that there's nothing more frustrating than being sick, being afraid, being alone, and not getting the treatment you need. That's why so many Latter-day Saints simply can't stand going to church anymore. They're dying, and sometimes we're not acknowledging their wounds.

The problem

I'm not blaming anyone in particular for the way things are, and I'm not trying to absolve the patient of personal responsibility for their spirituality. What I am saying is that, all too often, people who are suffering spiritually feel severely underrepresented (and therefore, alienated) at church.

For example, maybe you're sitting in Sunday School and the teacher leads a discussion about temple worship. Someone comments,

"I love the temple. I feel the Spirit so strongly there. Every single time I attend the temple, I receive revelation. I go with questions and come back with answers. I feel spiritually rejuvenated and gain the faith and energy I need to get through my next week."

That's awesome. We need people to testify of that. But we also need to remember that there are probably multiple people in that class thinking,

"I usually feel nothing in the temple. In fact, sometimes I feel bad. I've never received a revelation there. I don't find answers. I feel guilty for not having felt the Spirit. And because of that, I feel unworthy to be in the Lord's house at all. What am I doing wrong? Am I to blame?"

It's like going to the doctor with a broken arm and instead of treating it, the doctor just flexes. "Isn't it great to have arms? Watch this! *Does one-armed pull-up* Well, thanks for coming in today. That'll be two hours of your time."

The same thing can happen with many other topics:

The power of prayer

Blessings of tithing

Testimony of Joseph Smith

The gift of the Holy Ghost

The Book of Mormon

General Conference

The sacrament

Family history work

Ministering

The list goes on and on. Now, don't get me wrong, we don't need to dampen or censure our testimonies to cater to the emotional sensitivities of others, but we do need to follow the counsel given to a young Henry B. Eyring by his District President:

When you meet someone, treat them as if they were in serious trouble, and you will be right more than half the time.

President Eyring added, "Not only was he right, but I have learned over the years that he was too low in his estimate." It is great to testify and share spiritual experiences. Let's continue to do that as long as it's truly sincere and not a recitation of an expected answer. But let's also remember to be inclusive and thoughtful of those members who feel marginalized and fringed because they can't yet don the same cape of testimony and blast off into infinity and beyond.

How to fix it

Tone down the butterflies and crank up the real stuff.

Note that I don't advocate for turning off the butterflies. We need to strike a balance. A completely spiffy and sanitized lesson is, frankly, boring. It's the adult version of, "I like to bear my testimony, I know the Church is true, I love my mom and..." But jumping to the complete opposite end of the spectrum is spiritually dangerous. We don't want Sunday School to turn into an hour of voicing complaints and problems. We've probably all been to a class where a series of questions has completely derailed the lesson. We can't go down that rabbit hole.

The very best lessons I've experienced in Sunday School or Elders Quorum have been the result of real, honest, sincere, and raw vulnerability. These can be transformative moments. The discussion becomes alive. Engagement increases. The people who have been silently hurting perk up as the lesson suddenly becomes relevant to their needs.

But you do need both the ailing patients and the experienced doctors to run an efficient hospital. I think you'll find that when a patient reveals himself, someone else in the class will respond, "I appreciate that question because I've been going through something very similar. Here's what has helped me..."

The wounds get uncovered, the Spirit shows up, and the real doctor is in.

Challenge

If you are a teacher, I challenge you to do the following:

Testify of truth, but also, ask real questions. If the answers people give to your questions are shiny and beautiful, maybe try to represent the concerns of the other side. Play devil's advocate ... in Church (ah, the irony). If the lesson is about fasting, ask, "So what happens if you fast for something you need more than anything, and nothing seems to happen? Did you do something wrong?" That's an OK thing to ask, because that hypothetical scenario happens all the time.

Find an aspect of your lesson that you have questions or doubts about. Get the ball rolling in class by being vulnerable as a teacher and asking for help with your own doubts. Just because you're the teacher doesn't mean you have to give off the impression that you know everything about your topic. The real teacher is the Spirit, and inspired questions invite Him to the classroom.

As you do these things, you will " help class members feel comfortable sharing their testimonies [or lack thereof], insights, experiences, questions, and ideas." If you're a student, I challenge you to do the following:

If you're in pain and the class you're attending is just going through the motions, be brave. Don't put up your walls and revert to spiritual survival mode just yet. Shake things up. Raise your hand and be vulnerable. Ask your questions insofar as they apply to the topic, voice your concerns. Take a leap of faith. My guess is that someone in that class will catch you.

If you're not in pain, consider asking the painful questions anyway, because someone near you is suffering.

Lives will change

Elder L. Tom Perry once said that the gospel "answers all of life's questions and problems that face us." The purpose of church classes is to learn that gospel. But how will we ever be able to apply the gospel to our problems if we don't apply the gospel to actual problems? Sure, it's something we can work on at home (and indeed, our learning should be home-centered and church-supported), but let's take advantage of the allotted time we have together. As we address personal doubt, uncertainty, and discouragement in church, the Spirit will operate more freely, class engagement will dramatically improve, and lives will change.

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Why So Many Latter-day Saints Can't Stand Church (And How to Fix It)

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Church is a spiritual hospital. People are in serious pain. Sometimes, injuries prove to be fatal. Sometimes the Spirit, through the ward, manages to stop the bleeding before faith dies. Those who have the misfortune to frequently visit real hospitals for physical ailments understand that there's nothing more frustrating than being sick, being afraid, being alone, and not getting the treatment you need.

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This week's talk to be discussed.

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My fellow brothers and sisters, recently, as I was pondering President Russell M. Nelson's charge to call the Church by its revealed name, I turned to where the Savior instructed the Nephites about the name of the Church. As I read the Savior's words, I was struck by how He also told the people that "ye must take upon you the name of Christ." This caused me to look at myself and ask, "Am I taking upon myself the Savior's name as He would have me do so?" Today I would like to share some of the impressions I have received in answer to my question.

First, to take upon ourselves the name of Christ means we faithfully strive to see as God sees. How does God see? Joseph Smith said, "While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard," for "His love [is] unfathomable."

A few years ago my older sister passed away. She had a challenging life. She struggled with the gospel and was never really active. Her husband abandoned their marriage and left her with four young children to raise. On the evening of her passing, in a room with her children present, I gave her a blessing to peacefully return home. At that moment I realized I had too often defined my sister's life in terms of her trials and inactivity. As I placed my hands on her head that evening, I received a severe rebuke from the Spirit. I was made acutely aware of her goodness and allowed to see her as God saw her-not as someone who struggled with the gospel and life but as someone who had to deal with difficult issues I did not have. I saw her as a magnificent mother who, despite great obstacles, had raised four beautiful, amazing children. I saw her as the friend to our mother who took time to watch over and be a companion to her after our father passed away.

During that final evening with my sister, I believe God was asking me, "Can't you see that everyone around you is a sacred being?"

Brigham Young taught:

"I wish to urge upon the Saints ... to understand men and women as they are, and not understand them as you are."

"How often it is said-'Such a person has done wrong, and he cannot be a Saint.' ... We hear some swear and lie ... [or] break the Sabbath. ... Do not judge such persons, for you do not know the design of the Lord concerning them. ... [Rather,] bear with them."

Can any one of you imagine our Savior letting you and your burdens go unnoticed by Him? The Savior looked upon the Samaritan, the adulterer, the tax collector, the leper, the mentally ill, and the sinner with the same eyes. All were children of His Father. All were redeemable.

Can you imagine Him turning away from someone with doubts about their place in God's kingdom or from anyone afflicted in any manner? I cannot. In the eyes of Christ, each soul is of infinite worth. No one is preordained to fail. Eternal life is possible for all.

From the Spirit's rebuke at my sister's bedside, I learned a great lesson: that as we see as He sees, ours will be a double victory-redemption of those we touch and redemption of ourselves.

Second, to take upon ourselves the name of Christ, we must not only see as God sees, but we must do His work and serve as He served. We live the two great commandments, submit to God's will, gather Israel, and let our light "shine before men." We receive and live the covenants and ordinances of His restored Church. As we do this, God endows us with power to bless ourselves, our families, and the lives of others. Ask yourself, "Do I know anyone who does not need the powers of heaven in their lives?"

God will work wonders among us as we sanctify ourselves. We sanctify ourselves by purifying our hearts. We purify our hearts as we hear Him, repent of our sins, become converted, and love as He loves. The Savior asked us, "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?"

I recently learned about an experience in the life of Elder James E. Talmage that caused me to pause and consider how I love and serve those around me. As a young professor, before he became an Apostle, in the height of the deadly diphtheria epidemic of 1892, Elder Talmage discovered a family of strangers, not members of the Church, who lived near him and who were stricken by the disease. No one wanted to put themselves at risk by going inside the infected home. Elder Talmage, however, immediately proceeded to the home. He found four children: a two-and-a-half-year-old dead on the bed, a five-year-old and ten-year-old in great pain, and a weakened thirteen-year-old. The parents were suffering with grief and fatigue.

Elder Talmage dressed the dead and the living, swept the rooms, carried out the soiled clothing, and burned filthy rags covered with the disease. He worked all day and then returned the next morning. The ten-year-old died during the night. He lifted and held the five-year-old. She coughed bloody mucus all over his face and clothes. He wrote, "I could not put her from me," and he held her until she died in his arms. He helped bury all three children and arranged for food and clean clothing for the grieving family. Upon returning home, Brother Talmage disposed of his clothes, bathed in a zinc solution, quarantined himself from his family, and suffered through a mild attack of the disease.

So many lives around us are at stake. Saints take the Savior's name upon themselves by becoming holy and ministering to all regardless of where or how they stand-lives are saved as we do so.

Finally, I believe that to take upon ourselves His name, we must trust Him. At a meeting I attended one Sunday, a young woman asked something like the following: "My boyfriend and I recently broke up, and he chose to leave the Church. He tells me he has never been happier. How can this be?"

The Savior answered this question when He said to the Nephites, "But if [your life is] not built upon my gospel, and is built upon the works of men, or upon the works of the devil, verily I say unto you [you will] have joy in [your] works for a season, and by and by the end cometh." There simply is no enduring joy outside the gospel of Jesus Christ.

At that meeting, however, I thought about the many good people I know who struggle with great burdens and commandments that are daunting at best for them. I asked myself, "What else might the Savior say to them?" I believe He would ask, "Do you trust me?" To the woman with the issue of blood, He said, "Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace."

One of my favorite scriptures is John 4:4, which reads, "And he must needs go through Samaria."

Why do I love that scripture? Because Jesus did not need to go to Samaria. The Jews of His day despised the Samaritans and traveled a road around Samaria. But Jesus chose to go there to declare before all the world for the first time that He was the promised Messiah. For this message, He chose not only an outcast group but also a woman-and not just any woman but a woman living in sin-someone considered at that time to be the least of the least. I believe Jesus did this so that each of us may always understand that His love is greater than our fears, our wounds, our addictions, our doubts, our temptations, our sins, our broken families, our depression and anxieties, our chronic illness, our poverty, our abuse, our despair, and our loneliness. He wants all to know there is nothing and no one He is unable to heal and deliver to enduring joy.

His grace is sufficient. He alone descended below all things. The power of His Atonement is the power to overcome any burden in our life. The message of the woman at the well is that He knows our life situations and that we can always walk with Him no matter where we stand. To her and to each of us, He says, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but [shall have] a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

In any of life's travels, why would you ever turn away from the only Savior who has all power to heal and deliver you? Whatever the price you must pay to trust Him is worth it. My brothers and sisters, let us choose to increase our faith in Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

From the very depths of my soul, I bear testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Savior's Church, directed by the living Christ through a true prophet. My prayer is that we will faithfully take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ-by seeing as He sees, by serving as He served, and by trusting that His grace is sufficient to deliver us home and to enduring joy. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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Taking upon Ourselves the Name of Jesus Christ - By Elder Robert C. Gay

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My fellow brothers and sisters, recently, as I was pondering President Russell M. Nelson's charge to call the Church by its revealed name, I turned to where the Savior instructed the Nephites about the name of the Church.

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Come Follow Me for Individuals and Families March 18-24

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March 18-24 "Who Hath Ears to Hear, Let Him Hear" As you read Matthew 13 and Luke 8; 13, think about how you will prepare yourself to "hear" and appreciate the Savior's teachings in these parables. What will you do to apply these teachings in your life?

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May we faithfully take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ—by seeing as He sees, by serving as He served, and by trusting that His grace is sufficient.

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3 And they said unto him: Lord, we will that thou wouldst tell us the name whereby we shall call this church; for there are disputations among the people concerning this matter.

4 And the Lord said unto them: Verily, verily, I say unto you, why is it that the people should murmur and dispute because of this thing?

5 Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day;

6 And whoso taketh upon him my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day.

7 Therefore, whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye shall call the church in my name; and ye shall call upon the Father in my name that he will bless the church for my sake.

8 And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel.

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What are the barriers to "trusting in the Lord"? How do we become more trusting?

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from Meeting the Challenges of Today (10-10-1978)

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from Meeting the Challenges of Today (10-10-1978)

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Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught: “When in situations of stress we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capacity perfectly, placed us here to succeed. No one was foreordained to fail or to be wicked. … When we feel overwhelmed, let us recall the assurance that God will not overprogram us”

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How can we "do His (Christ's) work and serve as he served?

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What does it mean to "see as God sees"?

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2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.

3 And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things.