Most weeks I go to church for three hours. We call this the "block schedule." It is made of three parts: first is our Sacrament meeting, in which we partake of the bread and water in similitude of the Savior; second is Sunday School, in which we study the teachings of ancient scripture; and third is our Relief Society (women) and Priesthood (men) meetings, in which we study modern-day teachings and daily living values.
All three meetings serve important purposes that help us to become closer to God and to become better people. But for the last several weeks, we have foregone the three-hour block and held only a truncated Sacrament Meeting, in order to allow the members of our congregation the time and opportunity to serve our community in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. This temporary change has called my attention to the importance of service to our spirits.
By cutting our church time, our church leaders are essentially showing us that in this time of extreme need, we are better off helping others than learning about Jesus. And why is that? "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17).
Christ is the ultimate example of service. By spending our Sundays cleaning the homes of the misfortunate, preparing and delivering meals, creating hygiene kits for the homeless, etc, we are DOING the Lord's work. We are learning and teaching about Jesus in a very visceral way.
Next week we will go back to our regular schedule at our regular time. At some point life must return to some semblance of normalcy. But for those coming in to our city from around the nation, these truncated Sacrament meetings will still be there, allowing those who serve to follow Christ as he bade, to partake in the covenants and ordinances of his love, and to serve his children.
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