As I read about Jeremiah this week, I just noticed how his story was similar to that of my older sister, Tiffany, so I called up my sister and asked her to e-mail me the story about how she decided to go on a mission. This is what she e-mailed me:
“A few months before I turned 21, I started to think that maybe I was supposed to go on a mission. I really didn't want to, because I knew that spiritually I wasn't where I needed to be, and my knowledge of the scriptures was next to nothing. I couldn't imagine that I was the kind of person the Lord would want out there working for Him. And yet, I couldn't squash those feelings that I should go.
“I took a missionary prep class at the Institute hoping to find clearer reasons why I should or shouldn't be a missionary. One day our teacher asked us to list the reasons why someone should go on a mission. The class came up with a pretty good list, but then the teacher said there was one reason that beat all the rest. He said the best reason to serve a mission was that you loved the Lord. Well, I thought that I was off the hook. I wasn't sure I really did love the Lord enough to serve Him.
“A few days later, I was reading my patriarchal blessing and came across a passage that read: ‘You have a wonderful ancestry and heritage; they loved the Lord. This is a trait given to you, you also love the Lord.’
“There it was in black and white. I couldn't believe it actually said that. The Lord thought I loved Him, and how can you argue with your patriarchal blessing? I knelt by my bed to say the prayer I had been putting off saying for months. I would finally ask Heavenly Father if He wanted me to serve a mission. As soon as I said "Dear Heavenly Father" I felt the spirit stronger than I ever had, and I knew that I was being called to serve a mission. The Lord wanted me to go out into the world and serve Him even though I was unknowledgable and spiritually weak.
“My mission was the best thing that ever happened to me. It completely altered the course of my life. My testimony grew and solidified. Everything I had learned and heard in church and seminary finally clicked for me. I felt like I finally understood what the gospel was and, therefore, I could commit myself to living it better than I had been. I discovered talents that I had been given that continue to help me to serve in the church.
“What you have heard many missionaries say is certainly true in my case, I was the main person that was converted as a result of my mission. I'm so grateful that the Lord called me on a mission.”
Tiffany’s call to serve and subsequent mission parallels Jeremiah’s calling and mission in that (1) the Lord called both to serve, even though both had some feelings of inadequacy when accepting their callings, (2) both were shaped and formed upon the Potter’s Wheel during their missions, and (3) both found a deepened testimony of the gospel, as they served.
Three verses, in particular, really define Jeremiah’s story. The first is Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” The key here is to know that the Lord gave Jeremiah a task to perform. As we go through Jeremiah's life, we will see he struggled greatly to perform this task—and even, at times, felt like giving up, yet he persevered, kept going and ultimately succeeded in performing his mission.
The second key verse comes in Jeremiah 18:6: “Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” This is, I think, the major theme of Jeremiah—through all his trials, Jeremiah was being shaped and formed. This concept of clay in the Potter’s hands corresponds to what the Lord told Joseph Smith when Joseph was in Liberty Jail: “Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7) Jeremiah and Joseph Smith faced similar persecutions: Jeremiah, like Joseph, was routinely teased, imprisoned and beaten. Like Joseph, a defining moment in Jeremiah’s life came in prison.
Jeremiah had been out prophesying, as the Lord had commanded him to do. He was overheard by Pashur, the chief governor of the Temple. Pashur hated what Jeremiah had to say—so he had Jeremiah beaten and then put him into the stocks by the temple’s high gate so that Jeremiah would be publicly humiliated. It is in the midst of this ordeal that Jeremiah begins mourning how his life has turned out. It’s easy to imagine Jeremiah taking a deep sigh and muttering—Why? I did what the Lord told me to do. Why did it turn out like this? “I am in derision daily,” he laments (Jer. 20:7).
A basic human need is to be loved and accepted—and, in following the Lord, Jeremiah has been met only with hate and loneliness. It’s just easy to feel his frustration, as he considers the way his life has turned out.
Certainly, it’s easy to understand how Jermiah feels because many have felt like that at some point in their lives. His frustration is understandable, and so perhaps is the tantrum that follows—in which he essentially says: “This is it! I am done! No more!”
And that brings us to perhaps what is one of the most remarkable verses in all of the scriptures in Jeremiah 20:9. “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Let’s look at that one more time: “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name.” But then you look at the very next words he writes: “But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”
So, there Jeremiah is, so discouraged that he feels he can’t go on, so he makes this vow, this pronouncement that he will no longer speak of the Lord. And you can just see him saying this. And then you can just see him take a sigh—and in a moment of honest, life-changing realization—say, “Ah, who I am kidding? I can't quit teaching God's word! It's been burned too deeply into my heart to quit now.” Two things that really jump out about this verse: 1) the great description of what a strong testimony feels like: “as a burning fire shut up in my bones,” but 2) this verse is really about perseverance—giving God room in your heart (thereby, creating inner strength) so that you can keep going and even move past your trials, no matter how fierce or cumulative they may seem.
I like how Jeffrey R. Holland described this process that happened within Jeremiah: “So speak unto them [Jeremiah] did, but initially not with much success. Things went from bad to worse until finally he was imprisoned and made a laughingstock among the people. Angry that he had been so mistreated and maligned, Jeremiah vowed, in effect, never to teach another lesson, whether that be to an investigator, Primary child, new convert, or—heaven forbid—the 15-year-olds. “I will not make mention of [the Lord], nor speak any more in his name,” the discouraged prophet said. But then came the turning point of Jeremiah’s life. Something had been happening with every testimony he had borne, every scripture he had read, every truth he had taught. Something had been happening that he hadn’t counted on. Even as he vowed to close his mouth and walk away from the Lord’s work, he found that he could not.”
In other words, all the testimonies Jeremiah had ever given, every attempt he made to fulfill his calling, he was really allowing himself to be shaped by the Lord. And when he comes to this critical moment, he discovers that the Lord had been shaping him on the Potter’s Wheel, and Jeremiah finds himself stronger than he thought he was, more converted than he thought he was, and more willing to soldier on in the good fight than he thought he was.
Let me end by quoting James E. Faust, who said: “Any man or woman who enjoys the Master's touch is like potter's clay in his hands. More important than acquiring fame or fortune is being what God wants us to be. Before we came to this earth, we may have been fashioned to do some small good in this life that no one else can do. The Lord said to Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jer. 1:5). If God has a work for those with many talents, I believe he also has an important work for those of us who have few.
“What is the central characteristic of those having only five loaves and two fishes? What makes it possible, under the Master's touch, for them to serve, lift, and bless so that they touch for good the lives of hundreds, even thousands? After a lifetime of dealing in the affairs of men and women, I believe it is the ability to overcome personal ego and pride—both are enemies to the full enjoyment of the Spirit of God and walking humbly before him.”
So for Jeremiah, and for my sister, Tiffany, the change came from humbly placing themselves on the Potter’s Wheel, going where the Lord wanted them to go, and doing what the Lord wanted them to do. It doesn’t matter whether it was in Jerusalem where Jeremiah served, or the Arizona Tempe Mission where Tiffany served, or the Dixie College Seventh Ward where we serve—what matters is that we do what the Lord wants us to do. And by doing this will we allow Him to instill in us the strength and testimony we need to succeed in this life and attain Eternal Life in the life to come.
