Maxwell Moments: September 12, 2004

In continuing tribute to the late Elder Neal A. Maxwell:

If we truly follow Christ in our life's journey, we will share to some extent in His experiences, which can help us to become more like Him. When He says, "Come unto me," it is surely not accomplished in a single step, but each step is one step closer.

If we act aright for our true self-interest (2 Nephi 2:13-16), we are growing. If instead we are merely being "acted upon" by appetite and circumstance, we are docile, subordinating ourselves to stimuli which will drive us, oozing with self-pity, into the gulf of misery.

If instead of surrendering to Him we surrender to ourselves, we are surely bowing before an unjust and unwise emperor.

There can be no conditions attached to unconditional surrender to God. Unconditional surrender means we cannot keep our obsessions, possessions, or cheering constituencies. Even our customized security blankets must go.

Does this sound too severe and too sacrificing? If so, it is only until we realize that if we yield to Him, He will give us everything He has (D&C 84:38). Anyone, for example, who prepares to sit down at that culminating banquet with Jesus, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, certainly would not bring along his own beef jerky. Nor would he send an advance press agent to tout his accomplishments to that special company and in the presence of Him who trod the winepress alone (D&C 76:107).

Our personal trinkets, if carried even that far, are to be left outside at the doorstep or in the courtyard, where such clutter and debris would indicate the shedding of selfishness.

...

Our obsessions are as varied as our possessions. They may consist of a favored doctrinal emphasis, a favored Church program, or even a "trademark" leadership style. Having pride in these things, we sometimes polish them carefully and stand especially ready to defend them. Sometimes, if only unconsciously, we even cultivate a cheering and reinforcing constituency which, perhaps unintentionally, encourages us in our obsessions. To us, sooner or later, it will be said, "One thing thou lackest" (Mark 10:21). It is possible to have illegitimate pride in a legitimate role or in a deserved reputation. Such pride must go, for we are servants of Him who lived His unique life as a person of "no reputation" (Philippians 2:7).

Every obsession or preoccupation must give way in total submission. Only when we try to subdue our obsessions or preoccupations do we see how powerful they have become.

(Neal A. Maxwell, Not My Will, But Thine [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1998], 92.)