Welcome.

Presently in my spare time, I am making my way through a little 125-page book by author, Emily Freeman. It’s full of precious gems.

I especially loved this story Freeman shared: her son was “seven hundred and twenty days” into his mission and was nearing the end of his time as a full-time servant of the Lord. One day he emailed home with a picture of his undeniably worn-out mission shoes with this question: “Should I throw these out?” Freeman’s response was, “No…Bring them home.” Her son did, and Freeman said she keeps “those shoes in the room where [she writes] as a reminder that [she wants] to look like that when [her] work is through.” (Freeman, E., “Grace to Become,” 2022, pg. 66-67)

Freeman admitted that she wants to experience “all of it” – the highs, the lows, the good, the bad. She expressed an eager desire to have the Savior’s grace do “its work in [her] and for “the sum of every encounter “to leave” a mark on [her] soul.” (Freeman, E., “Grace to Become,” 2022, pg. 67).

Moreover, she said when she dies, she wants these four words written on her tombstone: “Wasted and Worn Out.”

I love her zeal and commitment in this, her life mission, and I like that she displays worn out shoes to daily prompt and encourage her! Though Freeman’s focus in sharing this story was more about the rescuing and exalting grace of Jesus lifting her and about all of her life experiences marking her, she seems deeply committed to shoulder her part with all her believing, trusting, and trying heart, and I love it.

Wasted and worn out.

What a telling little phrase to describe a committed, Christian life.

Good judgement is, of course, warranted, for scripture teaches that we should not “run faster than [we] have strength.” (Mosiah 4:27) In the same breath, we have the sacred and unrivaled privilege of wasting and wearing out.

It really is a grand honor.

In this church, we have so many examples of truly incredible people who seek (and who have sought) to waste and wear out their lives in the service of the Lord. President Kimball was one such man. Serving as counselor to President Kimball, who was then president of the church, Elder Gordon Hinckley once tried to convince President Kimball to slow down.

President Kimball’s response in his advanced years? “Gordon, my life is like my shoes, to be worn out in service.” (Church News, Pres. Kimball Was a Man Who Knew the Lord, 17 November 1985, 14).  

What a man!

What a Christian.

Unto all the world: Wasted and worn out. I think I can do better.