I recently read a blog by an LDS man who had many concerns regarding all the things which the church asks us to do. The common thread of all the concerns seemed to be: "Why is it that sometimes the divine spark seems to go out of our church service?" And "How can I get the spirit back into my home teaching/visiting teaching, and other duties?" There are legitimate times when we may simply feel we are doing too much in too many areas. These concerns are very real and should be discussed with priesthood leaders. But most of the time, I think the problem is not the church having requirements that are too much, but our having spirits that are too little.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints requires much of it's members. Not only are we asked to do measurable things like pay tithing, attend church, and visit others in the ward (i.e. home and visit teaching), but there are also many hard to measure items that we are encouraged to do. Things like "cease to do evil, learn to do right, pursue justice and champion the oppressed, give the orphan his rights, and plead the widows cause" (Isaiah 1:16-17).

Nearly everyone has a moment now and then when we wonder why we keep wearing ourselves out doing church duties that may periodically seem like drudgery. In thinking about why I have felt this way sometimes, and how I worked through it, I had some ideas which really helped me. These ideas came from the Holy Ghost for how I might get the spirit back into my church service and obligations. I put them here in the hope that perhaps they might also help someone else. That being said, everyone is a little bit different and your method for overcoming such things might be quite different from mine.

The first thing that seemed to come to me when I began pondering was 'repent'. That's not really something we like to hear, but that is what I was told. Why? One idea is that we have stopped hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Matthew 5:6). We have not obeyed the instruction to "seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" and secondarily the other things of the world (3 Nephi 13:33). More obviously, it may be that there is some sin in our lives that is preventing us from having the Holy Ghost with us as we serve.

I was next led to examine my motives for serving in my church duties. We are asked to do a great number of things, and there might be many reasons why we serve in the church. As illustrated by the above magazine pictures, it may be that we serve and fulfill our church duties to be seen by others (Matthew 6:1). We may hope that someone will finally recognize our great righteousness, and spiritual capacity. If we struggle to do our duty, is it because we aren't getting the praise we sought, or because our position is not as high profile as we think it ought to be? Obviously, this is probably one of the worst of the reasons to to do our duties in the church. Like my photoshop magazine covers, the praise of others is fleeting and easily obtained. How much better is the praise of God? (Matthew 25:21)

It may also be that we serve in the church to feed ourselves (Ezekiel 34:2). We like what we learn by serving and that is why we do it. Or it may be that we like to boast about what we have done (Helaman 5:8). I know of an Elder's Quorum president that was disgusted with his quorum's home teaching numbers and he literally home taught the entire ward one month. In my opinion, this man had entirely missed the point of serving in the church.

We may also forget that it is not enough to DO right things. In Matthew 7:22, we learn that there will be many people who will think they belong to Christ because they did all the right things. But God will not tell them to leave his presence. Why? Perhaps because he does not simply want us to DO righteous things, but he wants us to BE righteous people. It is not what we do, but who we are that allow us to return to God. What we do, must be a reflection of what we are. It is true that if we follow Christ, then we will do the kind things that he did (Philipians 4:9). But without the grace of God, made available by Christ's last and great sacrifice, no amount of doing will make us justified. No amount of doing will earn us a place with God (Romans 3:23-24). But, righteous works inspired by a desire to follow Christ (the greatest servant) and faith in his redeeming power will save us. It is only through this grace that we are saved (2 Nephi 10:24; 25:23).

That being said, we should not be discouraged when we feel overwhelmed by all we are asked to do. There will be times when doing our duty is hard; when no seems to appreciate how much we do in our church assignments; when we feel we are having no lasting effect on those for whom we pray. We should not think this means we are spiritual failures. We must not let this discouragement lead us to inaction. Further, we cannot assume that this means our duties are meaningless, that our home teaching would be more effective if done less often, that scripture study has no power, or that spiritual blessings are 'over-hyped'.

When God asks us to serve in the church, our families and our communities, we have a great opportunity to learn to be more like Jesus Christ. There may be times when doing our duty is difficult and it seems the rewards for it are slow in coming. But we are in good company, if we can remain faithful without murmuring or complaining.

When Christ was faced with the duty of the atonement he felt very heavy and was sore amazed at the burden of our sin (Mark 14:33). When the weight of our sins came upon him, he fell (Mark 14:35). The God who formed this earth and put the plan of The Father into action, fell.

We may picture Christ in Gethsemane praying neatly beside a tree, but Mark tells us that he walked forward a little and then fell under the great weight of our wickedness. What a humbling thought this is. This duty that Christ had commenced in was the more difficult than anything we will be asked to do. The pain was more sore, exquisite, and hard to bear than we can comprehend. This suffering caused "God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore (D&C 19:15-19).

He did not perform this great merciful act in order to get praise. He was not looking for recognition. He did it because of his great love for us, and his desire to do His Father's will. In fact, he only brought three men with him for support and witness; they were so tired that they kept falling asleep. They had little, if any, comprehension of what Jesus was doing for them while they slept (Mark 14:40). Yet despite all this, Jesus finished the work which God had given him to do (John 17:4).

The church asks us to do many things. There is no denying that it may sometimes feel like a burden to be asked to serve so often. But the same Christ who asked no reward for serving us, can give us his enabling power (grace) to make our service efficacious, meaningful, and healing. If we are truly following the path of Christ, can we expect our path to be easier than his? (Mark 2:14) When our service feels like unrewarding, 'number oriented', and lifeless, I am convinced that we must follow the example of Christ and pray more earnestly (Luke 22:44) for his grace. Pray more earnestly to have charity for those whom we serve, and to pray more earnestly to see God's hand working in our lives.