Can you believe?

This is an adaptation of an address I gave to a congregation so as you read it, keep in mind it was written for a specific audience. The ideas are more broadly applicable.

I work as a creative director for large company. That means my job is basically to make cool stuff. As tricky as this can be, the hardest part for my team is that the people we work with don’t really understand what we do. They’re often analytical people who spend their days crunching numbers and looking at spreadsheets. And while they often appreciate the end result of our hard work, they have no idea the thinking, planning, frustration, inspiration, and just plain effort that went into it.

We spend a lot of time trying to educate people about the creative process, to help them understand what we need to make stuff that really works. Sometimes, we’ll get folks who seem to get it, but when push comes to shove, they almost always fall back on what they’re familiar with. Number and boxes. Repeatable processes. And we find ourselves pulling late nights trying to cram the square peg of creativity into the round hole of executive expectation.

Recently, however, I went to conference and had an aha! moment. One of the speakers said that in order for someone to change, two things have to happen. First, they have to be able to imagine the change. And second, they have to feel. Imagine it and feel it.

Suddenly, it all made sense. In hindsight it seems so obvious, but I realized that the people I was trying to convince didn’t have the foundation or experience to be able to imagine what I was talking about. I spend a huge part of everyday thinking and studying the theory of creativity and its effect on people, but many of the people I work with have probably never thought the words “theory” and “creativity” in the same sentence. That’s not their experience. So while they could enjoy the final result of my efforts, I’ve realized that I need to do a better job laying the groundwork, to give them the context they need to understand the contribution my team makes, to help them imagine it and then make a positive connection to it.

With this in mind, I’ll turn to the story of Mary and Martha. We find the story in Luke chapter 10. Let me read it quickly to refresh our memories.

"Now it came to pass, as they went, that [Jesus] entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

There are a number of ways to look at this story. The most common, I think, is to see it as a parable about priorities. One sister was worried about stuff that didn’t matter. The other had it figured out. I’m not going to talk about that. If you want to hear a good talk about that, look up President Oaks’ talk, “Good, Better, Best,” which is pretty much the definitive treatise on that.

Instead, I want to talk about why Martha maybe had her priorities out of whack and why maybe we do sometimes too. So think for a second.

Do you really believe?

Do you think Martha really believed?

On the surface, this is an uncomfortable question. It seems to suggest that doubt can set us on a wrong path that leaves us frustrated and angry while others seem to enjoy the blessings of the Lord. So let me ask the question a different, slightly more uncomfortable way.

Could Martha have really believed?

This is not about doubt. This is about imagination. Clearly she respected Him. She welcomed Him into her house and served Him, and it seems likely that she understood or hoped that there was something different about Him.

But given the culture she grew up in, the expectations she had, and the years of experiences she’d accumulated before she ever even heard the name Jesus Christ, is it possible that she could have truly believed in Him as the Savior and Redeemer of the world? Like my colleagues at work, she simply did not have the experience to put the Savior’s words into context.

And she’s not alone. The four Gospels are basically one continuous narrative of people not getting who the Savior really is. The woman at the well thinking He means to give her regular water. The disciples refusing to acknowledge that He is going to be killed and resurrected, even though He tells them bluntly time and time again. Mary and Martha again, wishing He had come before their brother died. Peter sinking into the water. Lord, I believe. Help though my unbelief.

The Savior explains to them time and time again who He is, what His mission is, and despite everything, despite the miracles and the teaching and the love, they still fall asleep in the Garden when He needs them most.

I don’t think this is about doubt. Like I said, Martha clearly believed something. Peter believed enough to take those first steps off the boat. Instead, I think that these early disciples did not have the capacity to believe in Jesus as He truly was. They could not imagine His true majesty and glory.

This is an alarming thought until you start to read Acts and the rest of the New Testament and find this limited faith and belief blossoming into the truly miraculous power of these great men and women.

Clearly, believing in something is a good start and that is an encouraging thought, but is it enough? I think that sometimes, we think belief and faith are a matter of will. We see someone struggling and think, “if only they could have more faith,” as if they could just screw up their face, dig in their heals, and muster up some faith.

But belief and faith are less a matter of will and more a matter of how we see the world. Think about the brother of Jared. When he saw the finger of the Lord and more, it was because he had so much faith that the veil couldn’t be kept in front of his eyes. I take this to mean that he’d come to a point where he just saw things as the really were.

As Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!”

But this change in perception doesn’t just happen. How we see the world is the result of the experiences we’ve had. In order for us to really believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior, our brother, the creator of the world, we need a framework of context to imagine these things as not only possible but true, and then the experiences that help us feel them as well.

We see this again and again in the scriptures. Think of Ammon helping Lamoni equate the great spirit with God. He is giving Lamoni the context he needs to believe. And then he teaches the word of God, inviting the Spirit to come and seal the deal.

And so the question for us becomes not so much do we really believe, but can we believe? Do we have the context? Have we cultivated the right experiences that allow us to do as Alma says, to imagine ourselves that we hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto us, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

And if we have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, can we feel so now? (see Alma 5.16, 26)

For me at least, the answer to this question is maybe? Sometimes? I don’t know? I do know that like Martha, I believe something. And lucky for me, I think that’s okay. Heavenly Father is very aware of our limited perception and has given us everything we need.

Consider some other words of Alma: “And now, behold, I say unto you, and I would that ye should remember, that God is merciful unto all who believe on his name; therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, yea, even on his word.” (Alma 32.22)

In other words, God doesn’t expect us to believe everything at first. Instead, He wants us to just try and believe His word. This is where Alma offers his seed analogy. “Pick some of the words of God,” he says. “And just try them out. Honestly try them out and see if they bear fruit. And if they do, then try some more.” And on and on.

There is nothing in this that is passive. Just like planting a garden, it takes long, committed effort.

So how do we plant that seed word in our hearts? Obviously, we can pick specific commandments like the Word of Wisdom or tithing and try those on for size. That’s a great way to start, but to really come to see the world as God does, we need to constantly be immersing ourselves in activities that give us experience with the Lord and His ways.

In this context, suddenly the so-called "primary answers" make so much more sense. Praying, reading the scriptures, temple and sacrament meeting attendance, service. All of these things are designed to give us consistent daily, weekly, monthly experience with the things of the Lord, making it ever more possible for us to truly understand His role in our lives. This is what President Nelson is encouraging us to do.

“Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.”

Belief is not something that happens to us. It is something we cultivate. It is something we seek. We can’t force it. We can’t will it into existence. We must build it, bit by bit over time with the experiences we choose. It takes effort, but it’s worth it. As President Nelson said,

“Stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek] , thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.”

When it comes to Martha, I don’t believe the Savior was chastising her. I believe He understood her limited vision and accepted her faithful sacrifice, as He does ours. But just as He did with her and all His disciples, He is always there, gently pushing us to broaden our perception, to seek experiences with the Spirit, to imagine His love and then to feel it.