From the book ‘The Power of Stillness;’
“It’s common for us to talk about the aim of Church gatherings to be uplifting, comforting, and consoling our spirits. Although these are things we understandably want, what happens when the opposite happens, and it’s hard to be with others? Is that even okay?
The story is told of a community of monks living together well on an isolated mountain, until one monk began seriously annoying everyone else. Finally, in the middle of the night, that monk stormed off and moved out of the monastery, much to everyone’s relief. The head monk, however, went and convinced him to come back. The other monks were appalled, asking, “Why did you do this? We just got rid of him!” The wise monk responded, “We need him. He is the yeast to our bread. Without him we will not grow.”
Are we open to other kinds of “leaven” in the loaf?
Jacob Z. Hess, Carrie L. Skarda, Kyle D. Anderson, Ty R. Mansfield, ‘The Power of Stillness’ (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2019), 116-117
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