Soaked and happy! Are we not all beggars?

Hello everyone! :)

It's been a pretty great week.

Friday was super fun. We were on exchanges with the Laurier elders; I was with Elder Yerke, a missionary who came in with Elder Aulner. Super fun exchange. It was raining ALL day for like the third day in a row, and it was hilarious because neither of us remembered an umbrella (sorry, Mom... I promise I remembered it after that) and we had to walk in the rain for a solid 2 hours. It was super cool though because we went ahead and just had fun with it. I was that dorky guy wearing a very wet sweater, soaked to the skin, singing a song about how God is good and life ain't that bad. Elder Yerke looked at me several times and just laughed. I suppose I was a sight to behold. But it was super cool because we ended up finding several people in the rain who were interested in hearing our message.

I have had a scripture on my mind this week. In the Book of Mormon, there was a righteous king named Benjamin who was preparing to hand over the kingdom to his son, Mosiah. Before he did, he wanted to give a last discourse to the people. In this discourse, he spoke of the importance of helping those less fortunate than ourselves. He said, 

"And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish. Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just— but I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God. For behold, are we not all beggars? ...and now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another."

Here in Montreal, I have met a lot of beggars. I don't always have money to give them. I rarely do. But I have been thinking about this scripture.

Are we not all beggars?

How many times have I come to the Lord, begging again for forgiveness after having broken my promises to Him?

How many times have I knelt in prayer, begging Him to watch over my family, my friends, my companion, myself?

How many times have I cried out to Him, begging for comfort and healing in my moments of despair and guilt and pain?

Am I not, myself, a beggar?

And yet sometimes I find it so easy to turn away those who are begging for my help, be it temporal or spiritual.

I look back on so many moments where I could have given aid and I turned away. Like the Levite and the priest, I passed by on the other side, leaving the work of the Savior I profess to follow to be done by another good Samaritan.

We owe Him everything. He made no excuses in Gethsemane. He made no excuses before Pilate.  He made no excuses on Golgotha.

How can I then turn and make excuse to not help my brother or sister, for whom He suffered just as much pain as for myself? We may not always have money to give; the aid those around us need may not even be financial. But what excuse do I have to not learn their name? To talk to them for a moment and smile and show them His love?

Jesus Christ never refuses us succor. He runs to our aid.

Let us do the same for every one of His brothers and sisters - which is everyone - and let us do it without excuse and without complaint.

For, as Benjamin stated, are we not all beggars?

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber