Service: Less is More

          Each of us has the capacity to help others for good.   Many people feel it a privilege to be placed at the right spot at the right time in order to be a positive influence in others' lives.  Sometimes we yearn to be able to help those that are close to us in time of difficulty.  Those who have had that experience know that it is one of the sweetest moments we can have.

          Yet, at the same time, there are moments when the best thing we can do for someone is to hold back.  To desist, rather than to act.  Sometimes what we don't do is just as important as what we do.  There are several reasons that this may be the case.

          First of all, the action we want to perform to serve another person may be beyond the scope of our calling.  John the Baptist recognized this.  He said, "He it is of whom I bear record. He is that prophet, even Elias, who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose, or whose place I am not able to fill;" "He must increase, but I must decrease."  There were certain things that John the Baptist did not do.  Not because he could not, but because they were not within his stewardship.  He accepted his place with a full heart, in doing so supporting the cause of the Master far more thoroughly than he would have otherwise.

          Secondly, the service we want to render may be another's to give.  Even though the nature of our calling may not preclude us from helping someone else in a specific way, sometimes it is the Lord's will that someone else be the hero.  If we have been training ourselves to respond to the needs of others, this might be a hard pill to swallow.  Even if we don't care about anyone else knowing what we've done, it's only natural to want to be the one who does the helping.  But leaders understand that holding back helps others to grow. 

          For a doctrinal example of this we need not look further than God the Father.  Although He is all-powerful and all-knowing, He directs His children on the Earth to carry out His purposes rather than acting personally.  All that He does, He does through Jesus Christ.  Not because He could not do those things He asks, but because allowing others to act will help them to grow.  In this case, holding back from action is the critical service He provides us.  Although, in His love for us, He must yearn to personally be able to succor those in physical or spiritual pain, He sacrifices that desire for our good, so that we can grow through performing that service ourselves.  Thus we see that if the most important thing to us is that the services that are needed are rendered, regardless of who actually does it, our attitudes and behaviors will change.

          Lastly, sometimes withholding from action allows those we would have served to use their own agency.  Too much advice, even when it is accurate, will not often be as effective for the would-be receiver as gaining that knowledge themselves through personal revelation.  Sometimes we are the vehicle that God uses to deliver a message.  Other times our best recourse is to give frustrating answers like, "pray about it," ,"study the scriptures," or even, "well, I'm sure you'll figure it out."  Giving these answer might be hard, but it may also cause more growth than anything else you could do.  It may allow you to preserve the specific conditions of your relationship with the person you are helping so that your efforts will be more effective later on.

          The purpose of this article isn't to convince you to make excuses not to help other people.  Rather, its objective  is to highlight the fact that when in the course of desperately trying to help someone, sometimes the brake will get you to the finish line faster than the accelerator.  As we look to God for instructions on how to serve each individual person, He will guide us to do those things that will result in the greatest possible happiness for those we associate with.  How do we know that?  Because we know that He loves them so much, and that he can take far better care of them than we can.

The Prophet Joseph Smith declared that God, “before [the earth] rolled into existence, … contemplated the whole of the events connected with the earth. … [God] knew … the depth of iniquity that would be connected with the human family, their weakness and strength, … the situation of all nations and … their destiny, … and [He] has made ample provision [for mankind’s] redemption”.

Part of God’s “ample provision” consists of imperfect people like you and me, committed to shining and serving in our appointed orbits, knowing all the while that we are encircled “in the arms of [His] love”

--Elder Neal A. Maxwell