Consecration is the giving of one’s time, talents, and means to care for those in need—whether spiritually or temporally—and in building the Lord’s kingdom. – Spencer W. Kimball
I remember being in a leadership training meeting at the Bountiful Regional Center in which James E. Faust, 2nd Counselor to President Hinckley in the First Presidency, was the presiding authority. I don’t recall what year it was but I am guessing it was between 2000 and 2005.
Towards the end of the meeting President Faust opened up the floor to questions. One brave young brother asked President Faust if he thought the Church would ever require its members to live the law of consecration.
President Faust replied there was no way he could answer whether the Lord would require the saints to live the law of consecration in the future. He then added, with a twinkle in his eye, “Of course, there is nothing keeping you from living it right now!”
I don’t remember President Faust expounding further on the topic but his answer changed everything for me. I found it both obvious yet incredibly profound.
Obvious, because as we learn in Doctrine and Covenants 58; 27-28, we should not wait to be commanded in all things, but we should be “anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of [our] own free will….” The Lord concludes that “the power is in [us].” Everything about this scripture rings true to me when thinking about the law of consecration.
However, I found the answer profound because I had never thought of the law of consecration in that light before. Like the questioner, I had fallen into the trap of thinking of the law of consecration as a hypothetical standard that we might (but hopefully not) be required to live at some unknown future date. Now a prophet, seer, and revelator was telling me that I should consider living it right now.
President Faust’s answer changed everything for me. Consecration was no longer simply a theoretical concept but a living Celestial principle that I should be striving to live more fully every day.
I didn’t hear much that President Faust said from that point forward because my mind was swimming thinking about how one would go about living the law of consecration without direction from the Church. I immediately identified a couple of obstacles in addition to the basic human condition of selfishness that makes consecration difficult for everyone.
The first obstacle I identified was how to determine what “enough” was. Since the law of consecration requires sacrifice of your surplus, the first step in living the law has to be determining what surplus means to you.
All I knew for sure is that at that time we didn’t have any surplus. My wife and I had four children, she was a stay-at-home mom, and I was just starting a new career. Things were definitely tight. But we did have hope that things would be better in the future.
The second obstacle I identified was how saving and investing for the future fit into the picture. I believe strongly that saving enough to meet your needs when you can no longer work is an important goal for everyone, and any surplus we did have was reserved for this. Can you save some surplus for the future and still live the law of consecration? That was an important question for me.
The questions came to my mind almost immediately but it took years until I found answers that made sense to me. There are no wrong or right answers but in the next several posts I will share some of the things that I have learned.
Speaking on consecration, Marion G. Romney, 2nd counselor to President Spencer W. Kimball in the First Presidency, stated:
What prohibits us from giving as much in fast offerings as we would have given in surpluses under the United Order? Nothing but our own limitations (in Conference Report, Apr. 1966, 100; or Improvement Era, June 1966, 537).
After being taught an important lesson about consecration by President Faust many years ago I believe it is essential to start now to try to overcome those limitations, and not wait until some future time when we might be commanded to do so.