I look forward with the hope deep within my soul for a day when we as cities, states, a nation, and a united world can come together to accomplish great things. Of course I am not the first to have this hope; countless men have had this same desire. Many philosophies have even been put forth with methods for achieving this end. What I propose, then, is not something revolutionary or even novel. I cannot pretend to bring a more powerful mind to this discussion. My solution is simple but is also idyllic.
How will we be able to collectively accomplish great things? The answer I give is service. Serve those around you. Fill your life with efforts to help others. The process of turning away from our own needs and turning to help others is the very embodiment of heavenly principles. It requires patience, humility, love, diligence, faith in God's purposes. And this is why it is such a desirable action. A worldwide attitude of service cannot be achieved overnight, and perhaps it cannot be fully achieved in any foreseeable time, but steps can and must be made on an individual basis. It is important to note that we must build ourselves in order to accomplish this. Only then will we be able to build each other. How simple this answer is—service. But it will bring us power.
How fitting it is that we use the word harmony to designate a state in which each of us live together, work together, and serve together as one body. As every individual of the perfect choir sings with their whole heart and thereby creates the unity of the choir, we must each work hard every day. We must become dually minded; first as a soloist and then with a mind to listen for every cry of those around us. By this we make the great harmonies of choir of the world! God did not intend this world to be one of discord, but of harmony.
Do not take these words beyond their mark. I do not suggest that we must eliminate all differences of ends and means among people. Notice that I did not label our ideal as being unison. Yes, we have differences. Yes, we may even disagree on many topics. This is inevitable as long as we are imperfect beings striving toward perfection.
The beauty of harmony is not a single note; the reason music soothes our souls is that it delicately and often powerfully combines many notes of unique pitch, rhythm, and volume in a collage of singular purpose.
Service—looking beyond ourselves and building others—must be the purpose of our human harmony.
God desires that we serve. That is His music. If we play God's music, we avoid the mediocrity that comes with striving toward imperfect purposes. Our lives will turn to be great sweeping melodies of sound that stirs the soul. We become God's orchestra, a band of brothers, the heavenly choir. How much more worthy we become to sing the music of the psalms when we are united to God's purposes.
When prospecting on our opportunity (and even ability) to serve, it is vital that we "consider the lilies." When we seek His kingdom, He clothes us. He will go beyond clothing us in rudimentary rags—He will clothe us with beautiful robes of power and glory. How, then, do we seek His kingdom? The zenith of our earthly efforts to do so must be to serve. God will give us strength in this worthy cause. He begins to quicken our faculties in every way when we turn outward.
Until the day when we are completely focused on helping others, we cannot fulfill our potential. It is up to each one of us to make the effort necessary to get to this point. If your life is not focused on others, get it there. Do it for the sake of us all. Then each of us will be able to look back on life with a recognition that we contributed to something great. We built something. Together.
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