Brother Joseph (Lawless)

My good friend Joseph Lawless just got back from his mission a couple of weeks ago, and I had the opportunity of going to see his homecoming talk today. He spoke on a topic very personal to him and one that should be personal to every member of the LDS church: member missionary work.

Joe was baptized at the ripe young age of 17 1/2, a direct product of friends who were willing to share the gospel with him. His father did not want him to join the church, and so Joe took the discussions at six month intervals for over three years, attended church and went to (and I believe even graduated from) seminary until his dad finally consented.

Seeing him speak was a great for multiple reasons, not the least of which was witnessing the immense spiritual growth he had over the last two years. However, what stuck with me was how powerfully he taught the importance of member retention and enduring to the end.

In a comparison I've never heard used before, Joe taught that enduring to the end is much like building a brick wall around your house. He said you don't just lay a few bricks down and call it a day, you continue to slowly build it, layer by layer.

The analogy is extremely fitting and pondering it more only made me realize it more so. Many people fall away from the church because they don't continue to build this protective outer wall. How many RM's have fallen away, not because they necessarily lost their testimonies of the church but because they stopped building their brick wall, which kept the ever increasing dangers of the world out? I don't know how many inactive members I met in Mexico who could still bare a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon but because they stopped building their wall were no longer willing to do anything about it.

As members we often hear of the first four principles and ordinances of the gospel, and later as missionaries we add "Enduring to the End" as the fifth. In the story of the Israelites in bondage, God creates divine symbolism by having them pass through the Red Sea (baptism) and protects them with a pillar of fire (gift of the Holy Ghost). I'm not sure if this is part of God's intended symbolism, but I certainly find wandering around in the desert for 40 years symbolic of enduring to the end. Enduring to the end takes a long time and is oftentimes difficult, but the payoff is worth it.

Building a brick wall takes a great deal of time as well, and in a spiritual sense we will never stop building it. But it is the only way to keep ourselves safe from the damaging outside influences of the world.

Thank you Joe.