We Are Something

"And except they should have charity they were nothing."

"...my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing..."

"...and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Raise your hand if you were raised on these scriptures. 

Okay. Lower your hand. 

Now raise your hand if every time you read or were taught lessons about these scriptures, they revolved around charity being a quality or character trait that you needed to develop. 

Lower your hand. 

Now raise your hand if "having charity" was always about having a fantastic amount of love and patience for others. All others at all times. 

You can lower your hand. 

Thank you for participating in my exercise. If you're anything like me (which is a pretty unreasonable assumption, but just in case), then you raised your hand for all three of those statements. I was totally raised on scriptures and church lessons and sermons about charity. I absolutely thought they were talking about developing a character trait, and the way Paul described charity it sounded very fantastical. Have you read Paul's description of what charity is? It's crazy!

Be patient. Be kind. Be long-suffering. Be meek. Be hopeful. Be good all the time. Don't get angry. Don't think evil thoughts. Don't be jealous. Don't be proud. Endure suffering. And, unrealistic as that is, you'd better do it all the time because if you don't have charity, if you don't love other people perfectly and purely, then you are nothing. And anything you do means nothing. You could feed the poor, move mountains, talk with angels, understand all the mysteries of God, and still if you don't have the pure, perfect love of Christ, you are failing. 

Did anyone else feel like maybe, just maybe, charity was impossible? Like God was setting a bar so high we would spend our whole lives striving for it, trying to love others as purely as Christ, and still reach the end of our lives and realize that we're nothing because hard as we tried in the midst of maintaining family relationships, putting food on the table, fulfilling assignments, and trying to be happy, we still didn't love like Christ did?

Well, that's certainly one way of looking at charity, and in my experience, it's the most prevalent view. I have personally never heard charity talked about any other way, so for me, what I am about to say was revolutionary. 

What if every time those old prophets talked about having charity, they weren't admonishing us to develop a character trait? What if they weren't telling us that we needed to be long-suffering, kind, and not easily provoked? What if having charity had nothing to do with us being something or doing anything? 

What if they were telling us to literally have charity. To possess it. To tangibly feel and receive the pure love of Christ. To have and hold and know His love. The love that is kind. The love that is long-suffering. The love that seeketh not His own agenda but seeks for what is good for us. The love that isn't easily provoked and doesn't think evil or judgement about us. The love that rejoices when we find truth. The love that beareth and puts up with all things that we do. The love that believes in us. The love that hopes for the best for us but endures the worst. The love that never fails. 

What if having charity is understanding His love for us. What if it is having His love for us in our hearts.

Here is a fascinating fact. Without the love of Christ--without understanding and accepting His love, His kindness, His even-temperedness, His desire for the best for us, His delight in our success, His belief in us (who we are and who we can become), His understanding, His patience, and His forgiveness--we will never feel like we are enough. 

Jesus Christ loves us with pure love which means that we already are, and will always be enough. But if we don't have His love we will never feel like we are enough. We will always feel like nothing. We will always be searching for that thing that will make us something. The action, the choice, the relationship, the career, the hobby, the thrill, whatever it is that will make us enough. Good enough. Worthy enough. Lovable enough. Important enough. If we don't accept Christ's charity, if we don't have His love, we will spend our lives vainly trying to fulfill the law--to check all the boxes, follow all the rules, and do all the things that will make us enough. Because if we don't what are we? Nothing. Not enough. And it won't matter if we feed the homeless, move a mountain, understand the mysteries, or talk with angels because each new thing we check off our list of accomplishments still won't make us enough. 

Yet if we "pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart," if we let go of the resentment and pain that are keeping us from accepting the love and forgiveness that He bestows on His followers, then He will fill us with His love and we will become the sons and daughters of God. We will be like Him. We will see Him. We will talk with Him. We will know Him. We will have hope because we will be loved. We will be valuable. We will be enough. We will be something. 

And suddenly it won't be hard to love others with charity. Instead of reacting out of a fear of not being enough we will respond out of genuine love and understanding for what others are going through. We will see a need and fill it because we are filled with love to overflowing. We will automatically see others as "something" or someone important and treat them as such because we will truly understand that we are something to God. 

2 Nephi 26:30; Moroni 7:45-48; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Romans 13:8-10