Just do your best. I think about this phrase often, and I really don’t like it. Hypocrite that I am, I often use the phrase myself, but I roll my eyes when I hear other people say it. I don’t like the phrase because I find it somewhat meaningless. But sometimes, it’s just too hard to say what you really mean.
For example, if Bro. Knapp were to ask me to give a talk on Becoming a True Disciple of Jesus Christ, I might say that I wouldn’t think I would do a very good job because I don’t really know much about becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I image that Bro. Knapp would say “Don’t worry, just do your best.”
I imagine that Bro. Knapp would not intend to have me take a week off work, withdraw all my money from my bank accounts, and hire the best speech writer I can afford to help me write my talk. I could have done that, and if I had done that, my talk probably would be better than the one I’m giving. If doing that would have been better, am I really doing my best?
I understand that in most situations, when someone says, “do your best,” there’s always an implied qualifier that you should be reasonable. We mean, do your best without being excessive or unreasonable. Do the best you can without putting to much thought or effort into it.
We have all learned to make sense of the phrase “just do your best,” but in doing so, we stripped the phrase of its meaning. Most of the time, I don’t think that’s a problem. But, for me, it can make things very confusing when we talk about discipleship.
I often hear it said that the Lord doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He only expects us to do our best. Whenever I hear anyone say that phrase, I automatically re-phrase that in mind. The Lord doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He only expects us to “serve him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength.” (Doctrine and Covenants 4:2 also Luke 10:27 and Deuteronomy 6:5)
I also think of Pres. Hinckley who taught “Do the best you can. But I want to emphasize that it be the very best. We are too prone to be satisfied with mediocre performance. We are capable of doing so much better.” (Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting January 2004, Standing Strong and Immovable)
When considering “doing your best” with this perspective, it seems so wrong to preface it with the word “just” as if our best were something easy to do. How do you even know what your best is? Even if you work tirelessly for a long time, could you have done better? Is there something that you knew you were supposed to do, but you did not do it? Even if there wasn’t any duty you knew you neglected, were you paying enough attention to the Spirit that you would have know if you were being prompted to do something more?
I do think these questions are important for anyone desiring to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ to ask, but it is crucial to ask these questions with the right frame of mind.
The truth is that if you spend any time at all pondering these questions with sincerity, I’m sure you will have to admit that not only have you not been perfect, but you also haven’t even been doing your best. At least that’s what happens to me. When I think about the choices I make, I can think of moments when there was something I knew I should have been doing, but out of laziness or pride, I decide to simply do less than my best, and I ignore the thing I should do.
When you know you have not done your best, you are in a vulnerable position. You can see that you are weak, and you may doubt your ability to succeed. It doesn’t matter whether your shortcomings are large or small, whether you’ve accomplished great things despite your decision to do less than your best or accomplished nothing good at all. You are in danger of entering into one of two harmful mindsets.
The first of these dangerous mindsets, is that it doesn’t really matter. You might be telling yourself that you’re not perfect, but at least you’re better than some people. Or maybe you’re saying that you’re not perfect and the Lord doesn’t expect you to be perfect, and that’s that.
This dangerous mindset reminds me of the Lamanites who lived under the reign of King Lamoni and “supposed that whatsoever they did was right.” (Alma 18:5) I believe that it was nothing short of a miracle that after listening to the teachings of Ammon, the king was able to view his true state and report that he “I [had] seen [his] Redeemer; and he shall come forth, and be born of a woman, and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name.” When this happened, we learn that “his heart was swollen within him,” (Alma 19:13) and I believe that from that point forward, King Lamoni and many of his people became true disciples of Jesus Christ.
Of course, the story doesn’t even end there. When King Lamoni’s father saw his son with Ammon, who was supposed to be an enemy of the Lamanites, and when he saw the love that Ammon had for his son, he was greatly bothered. Eventually with the help of Arron, one of Ammon’s brethren, King Lamoni’s father also realized that whatsoever they did was not necessarily right. He felt the desire to “give away all [his] sins to know [God]” (Alma 22:18)
We must be as King Lamoni, his father, and their righteous subjects who learned that the Lord truly does hope for us to give up “all our sins.”
But that brings us back to the second dangerous mindset we might enter. We might recognize that because we are not perfect, we have not yet given up all our sins. We may go even further and say that not only have we not given up all our sins, but we also haven’t even given up very many at all. Perhaps we consider any progress we have made to be very meager at best.
This reminds me of another saying that I really dislike. I often hear that we don’t need to be perfect, we just need to be better today than we were yesterday. Well, sometimes I feel I have done better than the day before, but sometimes that’s a depressingly low standard. Sometimes, even when being better than yesterday is a low standard, and still cannot even beat that.
When I look at the long term, it’s truly hard to say if I’m improving. Am I honestly a better disciple of Jesus Christ than I was 5 years ago? 10 Years ago? 20 years ago? In some ways I think I kind of am, but in other ways I think I’ve probably fallen a bit.
If you spend too much time thinking about how you fall short of even the lowest standard of discipleship, you may feel that your fate is already sealed. You are who you are and that’s that.
I suspect that we will all have to face feelings of inadequacy from time to time. But we must have the faith to move forward and do what we can.
When standards of discipleship seem too high, when the work of the Lord seems too difficult, I believe that the Lord will “prepare a way [to] accomplish the thing which he [has commanded].” (1 Nephi 3:7) Moreover, I believe that the Lord will make the way known to you.
The specifics are different for each of us. Maybe you, like Nephi, have tried several times already to keep the Lord’s commandments and you have failed each time. You’ve tried and you’ve failed, you’re tired and your completely out of ideas. But, you know where you’re supposed to go. So, you can “[go forth] not knowing beforehand the things which [you] should do.” (1 Nephi 4:6-7)
Maybe, you know exactly what you should do, but you’re struggling to find the faith to do it. My wife and I often joke about how we tend to repeat the wrong phrases from the scriptures, but sometimes it’s just easier to relate with Laman and Lemuel because it truly is “a hard thing” (1 Nephi 3:5) we have been asked to do. And, if you don’t think that it’s hard to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, then you are either doing something wrong, or you have an unpleasant surprise in store for you. I’ve forgotten where the verse is, but I’m pretty sure somewhere in scripture is says “life is pain, and anyone who tells you differently is selling something.”
True discipleship does seem too difficult to endure sometimes, but that’s not a flaw in the plan. That is the plan. That’s the whole point. Christ was the one who was able to endure when he felt that even God had forsaken him. (Matthew 27:46) He was the one who was able to “[bear] all things [and endure] all things.” (1 Cornithians 13:7) The point of discipleship is that we may become like Christ and be able to endure as he endured.
When we read that “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved,” (Matt. 24:13) perhaps we would do well to think of enduring to the end as being synonymous with becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ. He is Endurance. He is the End. But, he is also the Beginning. (Revelation 22:13)
So, if on your path of discipleship, you do not see what you need to do, or if you know what you need to do but you do not see within yourself the faith to do it, remember Christ, and just keep looking. Remember, though the gospel is about being like Christ, it is even more so about becoming like Christ. He is the Beginning, He is the Way, and He is the End.
He has promised you that not matter your struggles, no matter your circumstance, no matter how many times you have tried and failed before, “His grace is sufficient [and if you humble yourself before him, he] will make weak things become strong” or in other words, he will make weak things become true disciples of Jesus Christ.
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