One small step for man

Today was a unique day.  It's not every day that a major religious organization changes leadership.  In fact, in the nearly 200 years since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith, it's only happened 16 times.  That's roughly once every 11 years.  It's only happened 5 times in my lifetime, and really only 4 times that I remember. 

For the LDS faith, the calling of a new prophet and First Presidency feels a lot less like a changing of the guard, and more like the next-man-up mentality held by many sports teams.  When the prophet passes away, the apostle with the most seniority, in terms of years serving as an apostle, not years of life, is called as the next prophet, and life goes on.

Even though a divine pattern for succession has been established and the whole event is predictable, it's still a unique and sacred experience for most members of the church.  We have an opportunity to see the mantle of prophet passed on to another, and we wait with great anticipation to see what will be the distinguishing characteristic of the new prophet's tenure.  They all have one.  Ezra Taft Benson was known for his emphasis on the Book of Mormon.  Gordon B. Hinkley was known as a builder of temples.  Even Howard W. Hunter, who only served as President of the Church for nine short months, was known for a legacy of genealogy and family history work.  Time will reveal how President Nelson will be remembered.

The LDS Church is a church of order, patterns, and routines.  I've often found it interesting that a doctrine based on growth and progression would be so rooted in repetition, but I've found that repetition is one of the keys to growth.  The key is to see past the repetition into the future.  You have to learn to see it as a process of building a foundation and adding to that foundation piece by piece.  You have to learn to see past the mundane and into the divine.

If you attend a Church service and stay past the first hour, you'll find the members organize themselves into classes where they teach each other doctrine and principles.  You'll hear questions asked by an instructor designed to draw out thoughts and feelings from the other members of the class regarding how we as members can live better lives.  If you listen long enough, you'll notice a pattern to the answers:

     Say your prayers.

     Read the scriptures.

     Follow the prophet.

It won't matter if you're listening to a class of seven-year-old children, or a class of teenage boys and girls, or a class of more seasoned men.  It won't even really matter what the question was in the first place.  The answers are always to do the small, simple things that provide us a foundation for doing the big things.  

It can seem tedious to be reminded each week to read your scriptures daily.  It can be even more tedious to actually do it since there is a finite amount of scripture and you're guaranteed to finish and start over many times, but there is great power in understanding the value of repetition.  Just as a concert pianist builds their talent one note at a time, we build our testimonies one prayer at a time.  We build our character one action at a time.

So, we have a new President of the Church, but the patter is still the same.  President Nelson, in what may be termed his inaugural address, encouraged members to "keep on the covenant path."  That can be a long and arduous journey, but as the old Chinese proverb says, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."