Moving On

Although I was released from my calling as my ward's Young Men president a couple of Sundays ago, my last activity took place this week. We had a combined activity featuring square dancing. How fun to see about 40 youth and their parents strutting their stuff! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. And I noticed that most everyone also got quite a workout!

It is going to be hard leaving the Young Men program. I remember early in my mission in Viet Nam that President Bradshaw, probably seeing something in me that I did not yet clearly see in myself, warned me that I would complete my mission and return home unsatisfied, feeling that I had not done everything I was supposed to do. That was certainly true then ... and it remains true now.

Most church callings seem to me to be designed to do more than the average person can possibly accomplish. With the Young Men, I certainly never figured out how to attend all the meeting, hold all the interviews, work with all the quorum presidencies, meet with all the families, track all the progress, prepare all the lessons, plan and carry out all the activities, fill out all the reports, perform all the service, and do all the good that I was expected to do. I do leave this calling with some regrets for what I did not do well or do at all.

But I also know that I made an impression on these young men. I know that I taught them truth, shared my testimony, encouraged them to live the gospel, helped them understand the scriptures, showed them how to serve, taught them to honor women, and had some fun with them. That's not so bad, really. I could have done worse.

Now I move on to another calling, to serve on the stake high council. I don't yet know what I am supposed to do. I don't yet know what I will need to learn to fulfill my responsibilities and magnify my call. I don't know what will come easily to me and what will not. I don't know whom I will help and whom I will hurt. I only know that when this calling ends, I will leave unsatisfied, feeling I did not do everything I was supposed to do.

I will not have figured out how to attend all the meetings, conduct all the interviews, correlate all the activities, train all the leaders, support all the teachers, report all the progress, motivate all the priesthood holders, preach all the sermons, and render all the service I could have. But perhaps I will have made an impression. Perhaps I will have taught the truth, shared my testimony, encouraged others to live the gospel, helped people understand the scriptures, showed them how to serve, taught them to honor their family members ... and had some fun with them. And that won't be so bad, really. Maybe at that day I will once again leave thinking that I could have done worse.