Last year I shared my "eclipse" testimony, or what I learned after having gone down to Greenville, SC to see the US Solar Eclipse of 2017. I gave that testimony at my church the first Sunday in September 2017. Shortly after that in October, there were at least two different General Conference talks using the eclipse as an analogy, only the speakers went a different route than I did.
I saw the corona as a beautiful thing, of which the surface of the sun was a distraction, hiding it from our view. The moon helped to cover the distraction, which allowed us to see the corona.
But the general authorities went with the idea that the moon was a small distraction hiding the larger sun from us -- turning a once-in-a-lifetime beautiful phenomenon into an ugly thing -- something that didn't resonate with me.
They said that one can hold up a thumb and hide the sun from view ... just a tiny little thing (a distraction) keeping us from seeing the bigger picture. Yeah ... I get it.
Then, around that same time in 2017 we had a general authority from Utah announce a visit to our upcoming Stake Conference in December -- generally a big meeting with over a thousand of congregates attending. I'll give more details in a later post, but for now let's just say that the visiting authority didn't like the music I had picked with the stake music director for the meeting -- rejected it outright without even listening to it.
To me, that was, and still is, a really big thing. I felt I had been inspired, and that God himself approved our choice, only for it to be rejected by a visiting authority who "doesn't really understand music." I was bitter, and I must admit that it still stings, two and a half years later.
For the few weeks that followed, I made plans ... I wasn't going to provide any of the music for Stake Conference ... or I'd show up and walk out in the middle, leaving them high and dry for an organist ... or I'd stop going to church altogether -- perhaps shop around and check out the music scene at other churches. In fact, one or two weeks I was so angry I couldn't go to church at all. I had to stay home and cool off.
During a social event at this time, I ranted to my good pianist church friend, thinking she would help feed into my "righteousness indignation," but instead she had the gall to bring up the General Conference talks. "You know, like what you said in your own testimony about the solar eclipse." She said I was letting a little thing get in the way of my salvation. It was blocking my view of what was important.
My first instinct was anger ... first off because I did not like their analogy and it was NOT what I said in my testimony. And then I was angry because -- why couldn't see how big this thing was? It may have been a little thing to her, but it didn't happen to her. It was still big to me.
But her words sunk in. I couldn't ignore her, and I had to admit she was right. Leave the church? If I were to return to Jesus and say, "But you saw what that general authority did to me, going against your inspiration," would I really expect him to pat me on the back and say, "Yes, I know; come on in"?
Walk out on my peeps in the middle of Stake Conference? That would guarantee they'd never ask me to come back to play organ. If I had carried out any of my plans, it would have backfired more than I would have intended. Ultimately, the music director asked me to stick with her and play some other pieces she had picked out -- I couldn't leave her after all we had been through, and if anyone was hurt more than me from the event, it was she. In the end, we both ended up doing the right things -- I played, and I stayed.
With so many aspects of life to consider, I couldn't let this one musical event destroy my life.
From this whole experience, I had two key takeaways ...
#1) It is very EASY to let one small thing pull you away from the church. It almost happened to me, and I've seen it happen to several other people. Someone gets into an argument, and one, or both, decide not to come back to church. Someone may disagree with a church policy and leave. I've even seen someone disagree with the Church but then wait until the Church reverses before leaving. There are entire blogs, pages, and organizations, each built on single specific issues against the Church. In each case, it's such a small little thing in the grand scheme of things.
#2) It is also very EASY to push people away from the church when they're going through hard times by telling them how small the thing is. (Of course, my friend knew what I could handle.) Even though small in the grand scheme of things, it's still a big thing to that person. Music is very important to me, and so my pain was magnified, while I know others would never understand. If you want the friend to stay in the church, you will have to be careful and diplomatic in how to help them understand how small the thing really is. At first, step into their shoes and listen. Show your support and understanding. And then when they feel your trust, you can start to give them perspective, and help them to see for themselves that there are much bigger things to worry about.
With this in mind ... hopefully you can use some of these ideas to help you stick with church, and also how to keep others to stick with church ... helping each other to become better people, viewing everything with the proper perspective ... not letting single issues getting in the way of your salvation. There is so much going on in our lives that's bigger than most anything that can happen to us, and with God we can overcome anything.
