D&C 42:51-52 -- On Leaping

"The lame who hath faith to leap shall leap.
And they who have not faith to do these things, but believe in me, have power to become my sons; and inasmuch as they break not my laws thou shalt bear their infirmities."
Doctrine and Covenants 42:51-52


There is a lot of amazing stuff in this section, so if you get a chance, read more... but what sparked my thoughts today was the phrase "leap of faith." It isn't in this verse, and actually isn't anywhere in the scriptures, but I was thinking about it and looked it up. Some sources attribute the phrase to Kierkegaard, even though he never used that exact phrase. It seems to be a negative thing to some people, describing a leap of thought that doesn't really make sense... isn't reasonable. And then of course others see the idea as positive, as trusting God and taking that step into the darkness even though we don't really know what is coming next. Like anyone who goes seeking a promised land, perhaps.

The cool thing I found in these verses is that God provides both for high faith and low faith... he accepts both, loves both, and is willing to work with both. (And from high to low there is likely a spectrum, not an off/on switch, so I mean he is willing to work with all of us in our varying degrees of faith. Maybe we have faith to take a leap in one area, and not another... and that's okay. We're learning, and as we grow in faith and the knowledge of the Lord, we'll be able to see greater and greater things. And as a people we're asked to bear the infirmities of those who have less faith, which is merciful for all of us, since we all have some imperfections that other people have to bear.

Today, let's exercise the faith we have to leap as far as God asks. That's going to be a larger or smaller leap depending on who we are, and in some cases we will have to ask God to help us in our unbelief, when we want to believe, but just don't have that foundation yet. And let's also be willing to bear the infirmities of each other as we have weaknesses and doubts and concerns. Let's lift each other up rather than tearing each other down. Helping everyone find joy is God's goal, not just seeing how far we can individually high jump. :)