Continued from Coming Together to be Uncomfortable? Are we open to other kinds of “leaven” in the loaf?
One Sunday, while serving as Primary president, Carrie was not at her best at church:
“I dropped important balls, put my foot in my mouth, and was all-around clumsy in my interaction with others. I retreated home and right in the middle of my sulking soiree, had an awful epiphany: I am the yeast monk! The yeast monk in my Primary!
That led to a full-on weeping and wailing session, which my wise husband just sat and watched, in awe, probably, at my drama. I went on and on about how I am not a good leader . . . and someone seriously needs to fire me . . . and how we need to have paid ministry so they don’t have to deal with my mess-ups. . . .
Why am I being asked to subject others to my weaknesses? How does this really benefit anyone? Why do we have to worship as a group like this?
Christian author John Backman has written that this motivation to come to church is, in part, so he can be uncomfortable. Compared to staying home alone in his own thoughts, he describes how worship in a collective body allows him to be challenged by others’ ideas that sometimes even drives him nuts! How easy would it be to be united if we simply agreed on everything, right? How valuable, then, it is that we do not agree on so many topics—politics, health, Napoleon Dynamite—and are still asked by the Lord to be one and learn to be united.
These words from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, are a helpful summation, translated into language more representative of Latter-day Saint Community:
In the ward (sangha) there must be difficult people. These difficult people are a good thing for you—they will test your capacity to build Zion and practice Christlike love (of sangha-building and practicing). One day when that person says something that is not very nice to you, you’ll be able to smile and it won’t make you suffer at all. I am speaking to you out of my own experience. I now have a lot more patience and compassion are now large enough to embrace difficult people, but with practice you will grow, your heart will grow, your understanding and compassion will grow. And thanks to the ward (sangha) practicing together, those people will transform.That is a great success.
It is the caring about each other that turns a ward into a covenant people. And that means loving those who are quirky, frustrating, or down right “out there.” Because the reality for every single one of us is, well, some days you’re the bread, and some days you’re the yeast. And we all need each other to keep growing. ~ Jacob Z. Hess, Carrie L. Skarda, Kyle D. Anderson, Ty R. Mansfield, ‘The Power of Stillness’ (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2019), 116-117 Coming Together to Be (Un)comfortable
