Tom Christofferson - A Better Heart: The Impact of Christs Pure Love

2020 Thomas H. Christofferson

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CIP data on file

ISBN 978-1-62972-837-7 | eISBN 978-1-64933-017-8 (eBook)

Printed in the United States of America

Lake Book Manufacturing, Inc., Melrose Park, IL

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Book design Deseret Book Company

Cover design by Sheryl Dickert Smith

Art direction by Richard Erickson

Cover image Kanate/Shutterstock

Author photo by Brandt Hill

Contents

Introduction

S ome time ago, a dear friend was dealing with a serious heart condition of arrhythmia. Initial procedures were tried without success. Finally her physician, a cardiac electrophysiologist, performed an intricate procedure, followed by a new course of medication. At the one-year mark post-procedure, the doctor believed he could declare a success in managing the condition. My friend asked her doctor, So how is it that my heart has a completely new rhythm? He answered: The heart is a miraculous organ. The procedure I performed changed some of the tissue of your heart. In the process of healing, your heart has literally reformed itself. An echocardiogram confirmed the results. Her heart had dramatically changed. The cardiac intervention and medication each day improved her heart until a new heart established and maintained a healthy rhythm on its own.

The physical experience of my friend and the medical care she received has a parallel in our spiritual lives. The Master Physician cares for us and will change our spiritual hearts to work in rhythm with His. As we understand the love Jesus Christ has for us and our love for Him, and as we study and seek His precious gift of charity, we begin the daily process toward fashioning a better heart.

One summer evening, in a beautiful canyon setting during a family reunion, the adults were gathered for conversation. One of my brothers observed that, while gifts of the Spirit are separately provided that all may communally profit, charity is one spiritual gift that everyone may obtain, and indeed that each one of us should seek.

That insight and counsel captured my mind, and it has been the impetus for more than a decade of study and exploration. It has provided a wonderful reason to dig deeper and to be more observant of those around me who exhibit this virtue. Although today the word charity is often taken to mean giving money or other help to those in need, the more profound meaning the Lord attaches to this gift is much richer and, in fact, eternal in scope.

Mormon describes charity as the pure love of Christ (Moroni 7:47). Reading in the synoptic Gospels and Third Nephi, we can see what His love looks like for the people among whom He ministered while on this earth. I am particularly drawn to the Apostle John, who memorably describes himself on several occasions as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Uniquely found in his Gospel, or testimony, is the experience of Jesus, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end (John 13:1), washing the feet of His disciples. In this act of subservience, Jesus taught, If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one anothers feet (John 13:14). That gesture encompasses the outward expression of charity: His love is for our spirits, our hearts, as well as for our physical needs, our feet. For those who do not as yet know Him, He sends us to emit and reflect His love for their hearts and their feet. And as we seek His gift of charity, and our hearts align with His, each of us may humbly consider ourselves disciples whom Jesus loves. We may with gratitude recognize that in His service we are in the process of becoming as He is, each day gaining a better heart, one in rhythm with His.

In Almas superlative sermon on faith, he spoke of a willingness to believe, even simply a desire to believe, as the necessary first step. But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words (Alma 32:27). I believe the same process applies to our desire to gain all the gifts of the Spirit that the Lord sees fit to provide to us. In this case, a desire to be filled with Christs spiritual gift of charity is the necessary first step. Through the pages of this book, I invite you to join me in seeking to learn more deeply, as adapted to the individual circumstances of your life, as you desire, pray, work, and obtain a better heart.

Part One

Christs Love for Us

Chapter One

He Taught of His Love

No creature is so lowly,

No sinner so depraved,

But feels thy presence holy,

And thru thy love is saved.

Tho craven friends betray thee,

They feel thy loves embrace;

The very foes who slay thee

Have access to thy grace.

Karen Lynn Davidson, O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown ( Hymns , no. 197)

C ome, sit at my table! I love to cook for friends and family. Cleaning up afterward? Not so much. I enjoy paging through an exquisitely photographed book of recipes. Much like a travel guide that whets my appetite for adventure and learning in a new location, a cookbook inspires me with new ideas for elements to make a meal memorable. Over time I have collected and given away many cookbooks to share the pleasure and the experience of good food. When I read through a recipe, I imagine obtaining and combining the ingredients; at times, while reading the preparation instructions for a new dish, it is almost as if I can taste the finished product. And yet, as wonderful as that journey of imagination is, reading the recipe doesnt give the experience that comes from trial and error in the kitchen. And it certainly doesnt provide any nutrition!

Experiencing Christs presence through the scriptures, though necessary and helpful, can be like imagining the taste of food while reading a recipe: it is wonderfully satisfying, but even better is to make the visualization real. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, more than simply reading, we can experience the proffer our Savior has made: And ye see that I have commanded that none of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see; even so shall ye do unto the world; and whosoever breaketh this commandment suffereth himself to be led into temptation (3 Nephi 18:25).

With the assistance of the Spirit, as we contemplate the love of Christ for us, as we read of His engagement with others in the Gospels and Third Nephi, you and I can visualize in our minds what it must have felt like to be near Him. We might imagine seeing through the eyes of Mary and Joseph as Jesus grows in stature, grace for grace, experiencing His increasing knowledge of His divine mission, the path He alone will be able to walk. We sit with Him in a moment and place as He tutors His Apostlesas they struggle to learn and understand, we witness His patience and compassion. We place ourselves in the shoes of Mary and Martha as He comforts them after Lazaruss death, before performing the miracle of restored life, and as they feel both His touch and His tears. We picture being among the Nephites, hearing Him commune with heaven, overflowing with the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father (3 Nephi 17:17).