Going Through the Motions

We can sometimes place too little value on "going through the motions" of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's easy to overemphasize the later stages of spiritual growth, and get to feeling like the initial ones don't matter.

Satan is good at convincing us that we're wasting our time if we don't see immediate, dramatic, overwhelmingly obvious results.

A fully developed testimony of truth is the goal, but before we get there, we're not worthless.

Doing things out of a pure love of God is the objective, but it's okay to keep commandments just because it's the right thing to do, or because we want to see if it results in positive blessings.

Knowing and seeing are not required for us to be pressing forward, and upward.

Remember that those who were advancing on the right path in Lehi's vision were just as blind as those wandering into forbidden paths. What made all the difference was holding onto the rod of iron. This rod, a symbol of the word of God, allowed them to make it through despite the blindness caused by the dark mists. Never let go of that sure, steady rod! (1 Nephi 8: 21-24)

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When is doing the right thing wrong?

Only when it's to construct a facade to deceive others. This is the only hypocrisy.

Not "feeling it" all the way all the time but continuing to do outwardly righteous things is not being an imposter.

There's no "faking it until making it"; there are only beginning stages of making it, and then more fully making it.

You're not "faking it" unless you're faking it (trying to make others think you're something you're not).

Giving up on gospel living because you think you'll be more "authentic" by indulging in sin is absurd. You're not more authentic by doing this, you're a phony!

If you made covenants with God and then decide you "didn't really know" what you got yourself into, this does not justify walking away.

Do something you know is good, maybe something you can no more than wish is right.

Doing what's been commanded of us will always be better than not doing it.

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I've never come across someone who says:

"I'm reading the scriptures, I'm praying hard every day, I'm worshipping at Church every week, I'm serving others... and, I'm just not getting it. My faith is... [fading, dying, already dead, etc.]"

Do you know anyone experiencing a "crisis of faith" who is living these basics of daily and weekly gospel living?

I am willing to bet on the probability that they are not doing the simple things that feed faith.

Do you know anyone who lost their testimony despite actually living the gospel?

I don't. Every person I've known who has drifted away from walking with the Savior has some excuse, some reason they hold up as the governing principle above all the truth they and others have known.

Every person I know in this situation has stopped keeping commandments, stopped living gospel principles, stopped acting according to the truth they know. It's not that the truth is rooted out of them in an instant. Often it slowly fades as they gradually allow falsehood to cover it, darkening their minds and warping their ways of thinking.

Obviously, there can be great value in "going through the motions."

I've experienced times when all I could do was to "go through the motions" of basic gospel living. I wasn't spiritually thriving. I was only surviving. How grateful I am that I could survive!

I always had just enough of what I needed, no matter how uncomfortable I felt about the current situation.

Living on the edge can help us treasure the deeper safety we find in more stable times.

We don't stay on the edge (in the realm of "bare-minimum" discipleship), but it's no shame if life forces us to rest there occasionally.

We all might face some traumatic revelation of doctrine, of church history, or a bad example of discipleship, which causes us to stumble.

I have experienced such stumbles.

What we do after we stumble is the key. Do we keep on living what we know to be right, or do we justify indulging in spiritual laziness by our newfound problem?

Do we hold that problem up as the governing "truth" overarching and overwhelming all else that has been revealed?

You might have a real problem with some teaching, person, policy, principle, historical event, or bad experience of your own.

To such I ask, "And what does that have to do with your covenants with the Lord?"

"Just between you and Him, how are things?"

You might be allowing some mighty small grains of sand to grind the gears of your spiritual machinery. Change the oil. Dump the bad attitude. Refill your reservoir.

I'm not saying your problems are not real, nor that they are not a hard obstacle for you. I am saying that they are not nearly as impactful as everything that is going right in your life. If you choose to do so, you may severely limit their power to drag you down to misery and woe.

If instead, you choose to insist on making them your central focus, and replace Jesus Christ as the center of your life, you will have allowed some silly, stupid, tiny things to trip you.

"Keep the most important things the most important things."

See also:

Of Things That Matter Most, by Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Quench Not the Spirit Which Quickens the Inner Man, by Keith K. Hilbig

“Lord, I Believe” by Jeffrey R. Holland