Moroni 10:32

The Haitian rescue and aid efforts continue, but from my vantage point here in the States it's all fading from normalcy-shattering crisis to background noise. I hate that transition. Even though, of course, life goes on and I've gone on reading my scriptures and doing different kinds of spiritual reflection during the week, I've kept my blog entries for the past couple of weeks focused on Haiti because it seemed callous to let anything else into the spotlight. But at some point, Haiti passes from center stage to join a whole chorus line of other concerns.

At the Advocate, we do the Prayers of the People each week. By unscripted custom, certain petitions are routine: Someone always prays for the other religious groups who loan our congregation use of their buildings; someone typically prays for peace in Iraq and Afghanistan; someone often prays for those working to end the death penalty in our state; etc. If someone else doesn't do it, I want to make Haitian relief and reconstruction one of our routine petitions.

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For the past couple of years, I've been using the blog principally to post weekly reflections on the standard works being studied in Sunday School. I haven't settled yet on a weekly routine for this year, but I'm pretty sure it won't be following the Sunday School reading schedule. I feel like it's time to do something different, and I have some sense of where I'm being nudged to go, but I'm in a "wait and see" mode for the time being.

Before the earthquake hit, I'd been planning to post this. It's a very free "retranslation" or paraphrase of Moroni 10:32, something that I felt moved to work on a while back. I have a couple more paraphrases of commonly cited scriptural passages I'll probably post later.

Unfamiliar as the paraphrase may seem, every phrase is a reflection on something in the original text.

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Come to Christ—enter into Christ—
and you will be made complete.

Let go of everything that holds you back
from growing into the fullness of your divine nature.

Let it go,
and let love for God take over your life.

Throw yourself at God with unrestrained passion;
hold nothing back.

You will be transformed
in ways you would not have dreamed possible—
transformed by God’s power working in you,
remaking you into the image of Christ.

Skeptical?
Try it, and see for yourself.

(Moroni 10:32)