Our garage

During the last one general conference there was a beautiful statement from President Uchtdorf:

I think this is so beautifully said. Many people, including me when I first joined the Church, think that because we call ourselves saints we are a Church full of perfect people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Each of us has our problems. In the beginning I often thought “oh, I'll never be able to live like those people”. Now I know that there are people who probably think this about us and then I think “they should know”.

For some people, the pressure to have a  five star mormon to be too big. They stumble over the smallest bump in their path and land with a thud.

Or they expect the church as an organization itself to be a shiny showroom. If something less nice comes to the surface - and believe me, bad things happen in the church too - that is enough for them to decide that if there is one spot, it is all dirty.

At the same time, the statement is also a warning. We should not live to be judged by others. That is the wrong motivation. We do our best to get back to Heavenly Father, not because others are ours  cool mormons would find.

Rather, we should enjoy the church as a workshop where skilled people are active to restore us under the guidance of the master guest. That's why it's so important to go at times when you don't feel like going to church on Sunday. Because then it's time for a lubrication.

Work is being done in a garage. It's dirty there sometimes. Sometimes something falls on the ground and something goes wrong. Becomes a showroom  pimped; reality is left out and it is presented as more beautiful than it really is.

I know that I often need maintenance and repairs. I've already put quite a few miles on it. My place is not in a showroom, but in a garage; both to be restored and to recover.

I am really happy that we have a church, as an institution and as a community, to help each other and - to end with a garage metaphor - to lift each other up.