Working at Full Capacity

The Daily Messages aren't always messages that I have a comment on, but this one is pretty interesting.

"Our Heavenly Father asks only that we do the best we can—that we work according to our full capacity, however great or small that may be."
—Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Two Principles for Any Economy"

I've probably mentioned before on this blog that God really just wants us to do our best, but what does it mean to "do our best"? Does it mean to live up to our full potential? Unfortunately, we all fall short of that. No, I interpret this concept a little more loosely. Let's see if I can explain it.

Theoretically, as sons and daughters of God, we have infinite potential. We even have the potential to be perfectly sinless, simply by always choosing the right. Supposedly, if we had great wisdom and perfect self-control, we wouldn't even need a Savior, and yet, all of us do. We all fall short of our great potential, even if we do our best not to.

I don't think "doing our best" means living up to our full, prefect, potential. I genuinely think it simply means trying to. God knows we're not perfect. He knows we'll never be perfect as long as we live. We'll just keep making mistakes over and over again. As I understand it, none of us are, or even can be perfect. So, "doing our best" doesn't mean "achieving perfection," at least, not in my opinion.

Though we all have infinite potential, we each have a limited capacity to live up to that potential. We have limited wisdom, limited knowledge, and limited will-power. This means that we, currently, have limited capacity to make good choices. What God expects of us, if I'm right in this, is that we use what limited wisdom and will-power we have to do the best we can, and that will help us increase our capacity to do good by improving our wisdom and will-power. God expects our behavior to improve as our capacity to improve our behavior grows, but He doesn't ask any more than that. I think doing our best means trying to do our best.

I don't know if I explained that very well. Let's try an analogy. A master had two servants, and he commanded them to move a mountain. The first servant lamented "I can't move a mountain! No one can! No one on earth is that unnaturally strong!" The second servant went to work, and started moving that mountain one rock at a time. At first, he could only move the smaller rocks. But the more rocks he moved, the stronger he got. Eventually, he was able to move larger rocks, and then boulders. The first servant shook his head at the second servant, saying "It's no use. I'll never be as strong as the second servant, and even if I were, it wouldn't be enough. He may be able to roll boulders, but he'll never be strong enough to push over the whole mountain." But he didn't have to be. Little by little, using only what limited capacity he had, the second servant moved enough rocks and boulders that the mountain was noticeably smaller, and the servant was significantly stronger.

Then the master came back and said, "Okay, time's up. Stop working." Both servants were disappointed. "But I'm not done yet," the second servant said. "I haven't finished moving the mountain yet. I'm not ready." The master responded, "I think you're missing the point. Sure, it'd have been great if your were able to move the whole mountain by now - that's why I gave you such a lofty goal - but look at how much of the mountain you were able to remove! And if that's not impressive enough, look at how much stronger you are now for having tried to move the mountain. Yeah, I still want the whole mountain gone eventually, I'll let you get back to that in a minute - take all the time you need - but the point of this phase of the work is Progress, and you've made a significant amount of progress here, not just in getting the mountain moved, but in increasing your capacity to move mountains. Well done."

Yes, God wants us to become perfect, and if we're faithful, we eventually will. But if I'm right in this, what He wants us to accomplish in this life is progress - Progress toward the goal of perfection, and progress in our capacity to pursue that goal. Luckily, those two things go hand in hand, like moving rocks and becoming stronger. We can do it. Start with what you can do, and work your way up as your strength increases. Little by little, rock by rock, using only what limited capacity we have, we can reach our full potential.