Sabbath Devotional :: The Parable of the Plastic Bag, or The Lord Shall Prepare a Way

I want to tell you a story. I call it “The Parable of the Plastic Bag.” Technically, it’s not a parable, because it’s true. But “The True Story of the Plastic Bag” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

So, here’s the story. Which really happened, just as I tell it.

One morning several years ago I went for a run. As I ran, I was praying and thinking and sort of spiritually planning my day. I had a lot to get done, and knew I’d have to stick to a very tight schedule. But it all seemed very routine and small-circle-focused (meetings, appointments, kids’ school activities, lessons, laundry, meal prep) and I was yearning to do something outside my normal sphere — just something small that would have a positive impact on the larger world. And so I started praying very specifically for that kind of an opportunity, a chance to do some little thing that would make the world a better place.

I came to the corner of 200 South and 1050 East where I needed to turn to get back to my house. 1050 is bordered on the east by a large apple orchard — one of the few remaining in our still pleasant but now nearly groveless town of Pleasant Grove, Utah. The road there is unimproved (no curb and gutter or sidewalk), and something about that fact seems to give people license to think they can use it as a garbage dump. The first thing I saw as I rounded the corner was a Big Gulp cup, its lid impaled by a long red straw, that someone had tossed from his/her car window, and the thought came into my mind: “Here’s something you can do. Something for Mother Earth. Pick that up and carry it home to put in your recycling bin.”

It was a small thing, but it was something. So I picked it up.

Then I saw an empty Coke can a few feet further on. So I picked that up too. Then a crumpled hamburger wrapper. Then something else, and something else. Soon my hands and arms were full, and I couldn’t carry any more. But there, just ahead, was a jettisoned Arby’s bag, half-eaten French fries spilling from its innards.

I stopped and looked down at it. “I don’t have any more hands,” I said aloud. “If I had another hand or something to put it in, I’d pick this up too. But I don’t.”

And then something caught my eye from across the road. There on the other side, nonchalantly sunning itself and fluttering a bit in the morning breeze, was a plastic bag. And not just any old run-of-the mill plastic bag from Walmart, barely large enough to hold a head of lettuce and a couple of cans of beans. No, this was a full blown, line-your-kitchen-trashcan-sized bag. A miracle of a plastic bag, large enough to hold everything that was in my arms plus all the other trash I found along that entire stretch of road as I made my way home.

There was nothing particularly earth-shattering about this experience. It was a relatively small, insignificant little miracle in the grand scope of things, but it was a miracle nonetheless. The Lord had heard my heartfelt plea, presented me with an opportunity, and then provided the means for me to accomplish my desire/His work despite the meagerness of my own capacity.

And it taught me again an important truth: God will always, always prepare a way when our desires are righteous, our motivation pure, our willingness to place our trust in Him complete, and our commitment to do all that we can do, despite the obstacles, firm.

I know, as a result of both personal experience and the Spirit’s witness, that if we will seek divine help in whatever it is that we are doing — in our families, our callings, our jobs, our activism, the development of our gifts — and if we open ourselves up to receive that help, it will come. The Lord will always provide a way for us to accomplish the thing which either He has commanded or which we, of our own free will, have chosen to do out of a pure desire.

And so we must not be afraid. When it seems too hard, too scary, too exposing, too messy, too inconvenient, we must do it anyway if it is right.

The Lord tells us that “(wo)men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause and do many things of their own free will and bring to pass much righteousness, for the power is in them.” (D&C 58: 27-28)

The power is in you, sisters. Claim that power.

When you don’t know what to do next, hit your knees — and then, with God’s help, figure it out. Google it, for heaven’s sake, if all else fails!

I would love to have a Yankee dime (to use my grandmother’s expression) for every time over the past year when I have said to myself, “I have no idea what I’m doing.” But then I’ve gone ahead and done it, because it mattered, and because someone had to do it.

Be bold, sisters. Now is not the time for timidity. Let your fear be swallowed by your compassion, for “perfect love casteth out fear.” (1 John 4:18)

We are living in strange times, and we must answer the call of love and become advocates for those who have no voices or whose voices are not heard.

We don’t need to wait for someone to tell us what to do or how to do it, “for he (or she) that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant.” (D&C 58:26)

We have been created to act and not be acted upon. The power is within us. We must claim that power, turn on our lights, lift up our voices.

When you answer a call to love, God will be with you. And truly, whom the Lord calls, He qualifies.

Trust this, and go and do.