Of all the talks, Elder Larry R. Lawrence’s, of the Seventy,
was understated and simple, and only after I looked at my notes again did I
realize how powerful his message was. I want to focus on the arrangement of his
talk and how it ties in with the possible/impossible topic of invention.
Elder Lawrence began the body of his message with one of the
Lord’s commandments: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in
heaven is perfect.” Elder Lawrence then remarks about how discipleship isn’t
easy. He uses the story in the Bible of the rich young ruler who was humble
enough to ask the Lord what more he could do, but not humble enough to act on
the Lord’s advice. At this point in the talk, discipleship seems impossible.
Elder Lawrence makes it seem like a gauntlet of hardship and upward drudgery,
with no end in sight, acknowledging that we’ll have to wait for perfection in
the next life. But Elder Lawrence set up the rest of his talk perfectly. As
soon as he had his audience wondering about whether or not they’d be up for the
task, he surprises them with small, simple stories of where they can start.
The seemingly insignificant anecdotes, reminiscent of the
Spirit’s still small voice, act as the “possible” part of his talk. In these
stories, the Holy Ghost whispered to those that had asked these bits of advice:
“stop complaining”; “clean up your language”; “don’t interrupt people”; “keep
the Sabbath day holy”; and in stunning simplicity, “clean up your room.” With
each successive story, Elder Lawrence’s implicit message becomes clearer: the
best place to start is at the beginning. It is possible to walk the strait and
narrow. In contrast to his earlier anecdotes, discipleship becomes a possible
task. With such an arrangement, Elder Lawrence is able to amplify the topic of
invention of possible, and encourage and lift others to the task of
discipleship.
I enjoy your analysis. Not only does his message teach that you must start at the beginning, his talk also models his teaching(which is something we discussed about Socrates' writings). I don't know if this model has a very big effect on how the message is received, but at least it could be considered a crowning feature of the arrangement of the message.
ReplyDeleteI loved that his entire talk seemed like a bunch of stories. I think that not only did his arrangement support his talk, but also his stories. They worked as support to his over-arching message.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree how personal he made this talk and the simple approach he took to the gospel. It was really easy to relate and act on his message, which was probably the goal.
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