A few years ago I was asked to give a talk at a baptism for a new converting member to our church. My talk was on baptism which the scriptures state as the first necessary step we all must take in order to return to live with our Heavenly Father again. In my preparations I quickly came to realize that my talk needed to center on the duties, requirements, and goals for this individual after they had passed through the gate of baptism.
Unfortunately, many in today's world feel that if they are baptized they are automatically saved, nothing more is required after a priest sprinkles or perhaps submerses them in holy water. I have always found this puzzling. Where does this similar line of thinking hold true and fruitful in any other area of our lives? Virtually no where.
While baptism by immersion by one having the proper authority (God's Priesthood) is an essential ordinance in the LDS faith, it is no where close to the end all be all for our path to salvation. Much more is required of us.
This is where things can get a bit "sticky'. One can truly drive themselves crazy trying to figure out how much they must do and how good they must be to return to the highest Celestial glory to live with our Father once again. The constant questions of if we have served our families, our neighbors, all of humankind in the way the Savior would want us to can keep you up at night if you let it. So how do we gage our Celestial worthiness against what seem like unattainable expectations?
The short answer to this deep question is that we will never measure up. We will never be or do enough. We will ALWAYS fall short. Now this is where perhaps another writer would then wax eloquent as to the grace of our Savior who will make up all the difference. I am not here to dispute that fact at all. He most definitely will make up all the difference - for everyone who ever has and ever will live on this planet. None of us are exempt from needing His help. In many ways that is a very comforting statement. It frees us of ever trying to reach perfection in this life because it is simply impossible.
Where it does leave us is on the path we place our feet on when we are baptized. I like to look at baptism much like a gate on the yellow brick road to Oz. We, like Dorothy, must walk that road if we want to get home. Passing through it's entrance gate only gets us so far. The real test comes in staying on the road and always moving forward, even when that forward progression seems to occur at a snails pace. Far too many of us feel that we want to take a breather in the lush green fields we see on the side of our path. We want to have a picnic and laze about the wildflowers and just relax. We can see others on the path who look like they are right with us or just a little ways up. We feel we can just simply jump back on whenever we like. The thing we forget to realize is that there will be a point where being on the road is all that will matter because like the great Master He is, Christ will one day pick up the end of that road and pull it and all who are on it to Him. How sad if we miss that journey simply because we found a pretty poppy that we wanted to smell just off the path. What a temporary pleasure we will have traded at the expense of an eternal garden full of every kind of delightful flower to smell for all of eternity.
Get on and stay on the path my friends! Simply, just keep trying to do what is right with a humble heart.
God needs you there!
God wants you there!
You are worth it!