Many things in the past year or so have caused me to reflect on the importance of my motivation in worshiping, attending church, and practicing religion generally. Specifically, that it is very important for my devotion to be aimed at God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and nowhere else. Among other things, I've seen how focusing on the personal nature of worship protects me from feeling offended, becoming prideful, being distracted, or a myriad of other things that would reduce the meaning of and minimize the blessings from these devotions.
Thinking about this has made me reflect on the example of a man I met in the last area where I served as a missionary. Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints follow a schedule for their geographic assignments within the mission (a broader geographic area) known as transfers. Every six weeks, transfers occur, and that's when missionaries are sometimes moved. About two weeks before the 2nd to last transfer of my missionary service, the mission president asked my companion and I to visit an adjacent island (Brava) to determine whether or not missionaries should be placed there again. The missionaries had been removed for a time due to inconsistent boat service and no airport that made it unacceptably risky to keep missionaries there. As the boat service was now functioning normally, he sent us, we visited, and then we recommended that missionaries be placed there.
Two weeks later, my mission president informed me that I'd be transferring from Fogo to Brava, and I ended up finishing my missionary service there. As we got to know the members - most of whom had been members of the church for less than two years - we saw that they felt alone. Many had stopped coming to church; if I remember correctly, the average church attendance had gone down to six people per Sunday while there were no missionaries there.
Among the faithful was a man we'll call Ricardo. In one conversation, Ricardo told me how alone he felt as he saw the numbers of faithful Saints dwindle over time. He missed the fellowship of those who left greatly, and often felt lonely and forgotten as he worked to keep the church functioning on this small island, cut off from the world. He also mentioned how he'd felt offended at times by not being asked to serve in certain ways, even when he felt ready and capable to shoulder the burdens of these callings. In short, he had a number of serious obstacles, but he continued to attend and serve at church*.
Ricardo then told me why he never stopped coming: he simply stated that the promises he'd made when he was baptized and received the Priesthood were between him and God and no one else. It didn't matter that he felt isolated on this tiny island or even that at times he felt let down by things he couldn't control or influence in the church. Ricardo knew that his path back to his eternal home consisted in keeping the promises he'd made to his Father in Heaven.
Ricardo has been a tremendous example for my life; I see time and time again that when I act with devotion to God alone I am better able to commune with Him. I know that He watches over us and wants us to come to Him, and I testify that He will help us to do so as we try to walk the covenant path.
*Just a note that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a lay ministry. He served in a volunteer capacity and was not a church employee.
