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So the last couple of times i've written something, its been those letters to my future kids and wife. i think i'll switch it up this time and go a bit more spiritual/scriptural with some things on my mind from lessons from Priesthood and just talking with others.

On Sunday, we read in Luke 15: 4-7 about the parable of the lost sheep. It says:

4) What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

 5) And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

 6) And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

 7) I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

(Here at BYU-Idaho, there are some that looooooveeeee to complain about the Honor Code we have, saying that it forces us to conform or that it limits so much we want to do. If you feel that, read it over and then ponder about how its a daily reminder of the same type of covenants we make when we're baptized, which we should be living everyday anyway...but thats another tangent for another time)

When someone we know is in trouble and struggling with something (i.e. like the Honor Code mentioned above) or with any other type of sin, how eager are we to go and help them out? When the sheep strayed from the flock, im sure it wasn't out of sheer stupidity or willful disobedience to the shepherd, perhaps it's because they saw no danger in going to what they thought was greener pastures. But in any case, because we care for the welfare of that sheep or, in this case a friend, we go out and try to save that person. We leave our comfort zone and go on the rescue, something recently emphasized by the church.  

I would hope that no one if they saw somebody drowning would go, "Oh thats too bad, i would help but it's their life. They got into that position themselves, so it's not my job to go in and save them." (If someone did, i'd wholeheartedly smack them in the face) If we're of the responsible type, we'd jump in and try to save them because the physical danger is obvious. But if someone is in spiritual danger, is it evident at all? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Apply the drowning scenario to someone in spiritual trouble and imagine...we're all in this life together, and we should bring each other back with us as well.

Years ago in a BYU devotional, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland talked about "A Faithful Friend is a Strong Defense". Some of the things he said have floored me. I'll sample some of his quotes from it here, then give a good wrapping up on it. It was given back in September 1982, but all of it applies today:

"Last Saturday David McNeice, Jr., was buried. He was twenty-two. He had been married just three weeks. One week ago today he was standing in the Washington Street Station waiting for a Boston subway train to arrive when another man, screaming, abusive, and obviously drunk, entered the station, walked to the edge of the platform, and fell on to the tracks. Instantly--and I assume instinctively--twenty-two-year-old, newly married, responsible David McNeice jumped down on the track to help. At that instant, the train came out of the tunnel. McNeice frantically waved his arms, and then, as one observer described it to the press, "It was over so quickly." Not surprisingly, the drunken, abusive, fallen man survived the experience quite nicely. As they buried David McNeice, everyone who knew this young couple called it so needlessly, selfishly senseless.
What does this have to do with the first day of school at BYU [ID]? Well, nothing really--then again maybe everything....

..... In the kind of Christian community we anxiously pursue, we must not even look like what we do not think or believe. And we must never look as if we did not care. That is why we make gentle reminders about dress and grooming. Every year at the start of school I see just a few, a very few, who have "grubby" or immodest clothing or hair that is not trimmed or groomed, and I think, "We have failed to help them understand what we are about at BYU." It is a part, however small, of the mission we have, the witness we bear, the colony we're creating. It is part of governing ourselves once correct principles have been taught and understood. And it is important in far more significant ways than dress and grooming, in far more private arenas of our lives....

....This reminder is, of course, directly applicable to all of us--beginning with the president of the university. If I robbed a bank this afternoon, or, worse yet for you, embezzled the university's operating funds, would I be the only one punished? I might be the only one to get a jail sentence, but you would be the ones punished. You and my wife and my children and my colleagues--all of you would bear part of that shame and burden. BYU and the LDS Church would be severely punished, at least in the public mind, for many years to come. That's unfair, you say, but what is fair about the death of David McNeice, Jr.? You see we are all, in a sense, waiting at the same station together. We each have our own hopes and plans and dreams. But by virtue of our enrolling at BYU we have stated our basic agreement as to which train we will ride and what special rules of conduct we will obey as passengers. Of course, one drunk can stagger into our station and right off the platform, bringing needless, heartrending--and unfair--tragedy to his "friends" (never his "enemies"--his enemies would have left him on the track) almost before the trip has even begun. But the risk David McNeice took is a risk we must run in a Christian community....

 I ask you to care for each other the way the David McNeices of the world care. Don't play the part of the drunk. Leave BYU [-ID] months or years from now better than you found it. Study hard. Make every semester count. Like little Annie Greenwood, give the best that lies within you. It is no easy task or convenient colonial duty. It will require much from you, and faithful friends will be a strong defense, I love you and welcome you back to school. "Ye are my friends," Jesus said to his disciples, and with his own life gave them the love than which, he said, there is no greater. "Ye are my friends," he said, "if ye do whatsoever I command you. . . . These things I command you, that ye love one another" (John 15:14, 17).

We're all in this together. If someone is struggling, even with the Honor Code or some sin in their life, please help them out. Don't just let them wander from the fold, drown spiritually, or in the story let them stagger down on the tracks of an approaching train. To get where we want to be, it has to include everybody. By doing so, the joy you'll have of seeing them in heaven with you will be great.