Hymns I wish were in our hymnal

First off, my deepest apologies for dropping off the face of the planet for a year. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, 2016 was a pretty terrible year for me, and I was so busy keeping myself afloat that there wasn't really time for blogging. I'm back on my feet, so here I am.

Without further ado...

I love music. I've always said that I have three dream callings in the church - gospel doctrine teacher, seminary teacher, and ward music chair. A little over a year ago, I got called as ward music chair, so only two more dream callings to go. :-)

I used to collect hymnals. (I've lost most of them over the years, sadly.) There are so many really wonderful hymns that aren't in our LDS hymnal. For a while on Facebook, I had a Sunday feature where I would highlight some of them for my friends so they could see what's out there. I haven't done it in a few years. However, I still have a love of hymns.

Here are a few of my favorites that aren't in our hymnal.

1. Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
This is probably my very favorite hymn of all time. The music is beautiful, and the words are comforting and uplifting. It's a well-known hymn tune called Hyfrydol. You'll probably recognize it as the tune that "In Humility, Our Savior" is set to.

2. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
I was first introduced to this hymn in the MTC when I joined the choir and we sang it for some occasion or other. (Fireside? Sacrament meeting? I don't remember.) It resonated with me instantly. The sacrament hymn selection in our hymnal is kind of small, and this would be a lovely addition.

3. Shall We Gather at the River?
I first heard this hymn when I was rehearsing for a choir tour the summer between high school and college. In addition to the music we were traveling to debut, we practiced this one so that we could use it at another occasion on the trip. The other occasion fell through, so we never got to perform the song, but it stuck with me anyway. I love the hope that the song conveys. "Soon we'll reach the shining river. Soon our pilgrimage will cease."

4. Holy, Holy, Holy
This one will probably never make it into a LDS hymnal because of the line "blessed Trinity" (even though the Book of Mormon is explicitly Trinitarian, though that's a subject for another day), but I love it because it brings out the wonder and majesty of God so beautifully. For what it's worth, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed a version that used the words "blessed Deity" instead.

5. I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
You'll recognize this as the tune to "If You Could Hie to Kolob" (or if you're into Irish folk music and speed the song up to about double speed, "Star of the County Down"). I love the music, and this one has lyrics that are a little more traditionally Christian.

Honorable Mention: Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
No mention of hymns not in the current LDS hymnal would be complete without this one. It's lovely and grace-filled. I hope it gets put back in the next version of the hymnal.

The Gluten-free Bread of Life

My new calling at church has me sitting on the stand a few times per month, so I get to observe things from a different vantage point. Last Sunday, a few minutes before sacrament meeting started, a woman brought a baggie with a piece of corn tortilla up to the priests at the sacrament table. She said that she was gluten free and needed an alternative way to take the sacrament. One of the priests placed the tortilla in a paper cup so that it wouldn't be contaminated by the bread and then put it on a sacrament tray.

I found this whole exchange very moving. It was beautiful to see an accommodation made so that a fellow saint can participate in worshiping with us without doing herself harm. The tortilla wasn't labeled as inferior, different, or non-ideal. When the priest blessed the bread, the tortilla was blessed right along with it. Both the bread and the tortilla became equally representative of the body of Christ.

This got me thinking about spiritual gluten. What things are we doing at church that nourish the majority but harm a few? So often, I hear people say things like "we can't worry about people who don't fit the mold because we have to teach 'the ideal'." That's the spiritual equivalent of telling someone with celiac disease to eat the bread and be happy about it because it's good for 98% of the population. To do this is to spiritually poison some of our fellow saints.

Sometimes we'll do lip service to different circumstances, but it often comes off as condescending and exclusionary. I'm reminded of how Mother's Day is often handled at church. Women without children are patted on the head and told that we matter, but it's immediately followed up with language like "motherhood is the most important thing you can do with your life." (Subtext: "so what you're doing isn't.") Our spiritual corn tortilla apparently isn't good enough. It's not just those without children who are subjected to language like this. Single adults, parents with children who do not practice the faith, people married to non-members, mothers who are employed, fathers who are stay at home parents, and many other people who won't be featured on the cover of the Ensign experience this to varying degrees.

How much better, how much more Zion-like, would our church be if, instead of merely tolerating differences, we blessed the spiritual corn tortillas our fellow saints brought to church? What would it be like if we truly believed that God's hand can be found in the lives of all His people, not just those whose lives look like the general authorities.

It would go something like this: "Brother and Sister Smith, your temple marriage is good and holy, and the ward is here to feed your soul. Sister Jones, your singleness is good and holy, and the ward is here to feed your soul. Brother Johnson, you are doing a wonderful job raising your children alone, and your single parenthood is good and holy. The ward is here to feed your soul. Sister Diaz, your marriage to a non-member is good and holy, and the ward is here to feed your soul."

Blessing and validating the lives of Sister Jones, Brother Johnson, and Sister Diaz does nothing to take away from the lives of Brother and Sister Smith. They are not harmed by the spiritual corn tortillas that others bring, but denigrating spiritual corn tortillas in the name of conformity - because wheat bread is good enough for most people - unnecessarily separates our fellow saints from fully partaking of the wonder that is the gospel.

For, behold, I say unto you, that it mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory—remembering unto the Father my body which was laid down for you, and my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins.

Doctrine and Covenants 27:2

When we remember the body of Christ, it doesn't matter whether that body is represented by bread made from wheat or a tortilla made from corn as long as we have an eye single to God's glory when we eat. The church is often called the body of Christ. As long as we have an eye single to God's glory, the circumstances of our lives don't matter. Don't make our spiritually gluten free saints choose between eating something harmful or going away hungry. Our spiritual corn tortillas should be blessed alongside the bread.

Come, Lord Jesus

Many followers of western Christianity celebrate Advent beginning four Sundays before Christmas. It is a time of spiritual preparation for and anticipation of the coming of Jesus. It’s viewed as a two-fold celebration, both a commemoration of His first coming millennia ago as a humble child in a manger and a hopeful awaiting of His future second coming in power and glory to rule and reign on Earth for a thousand years of peace.

This Advent season has been particularly poignant to me as I’ve been following the news. It seems that there is a new tragedy every day, and much of that tragedy is caused by humans, compounded by other humans heaping upon the tragedy by blaming the victims for their suffering. I’m a fixer of things by nature, and I find myself feeling helpless because I’m powerless to fix things that are so fundamentally broken. I find myself longing for Jesus to come in power, take names, and set things right.

Sacrament Meeting Talk on the Atonement

This post is adapted from a talk I gave a few months ago at church. Several people have asked for a copy of the talk, and I'm finally getting around to writing it up. When I do public speaking, I never write my remarks out verbatim. Instead, I write notes of the main points I want to cover and then speak extemporaneously. As a result, instead of the text of my talk, what follows is an essay based on the same notes I used to give the talk. It will be similar but not identical.

Finding God Alone in the Desert

Fifteen months ago, I moved to Phoenix from the San Francisco Bay Area. I didn't know anyone when I moved, and I didn't have a job. I had a few hundred dollars to my name. It was kind of scary, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

When I arrived, I settled in to my apartment and began to unpack. The first Sunday I was there was General Conference, so I didn't get a chance to go to my new ward yet.

The second Sunday, I checked the church website for the location and meeting time of my ward. I showed up at the appointed hour only to find out that I was 45 minutes late because my ward's meeting time had been changed and the site hadn't been updated yet.

The third Sunday, things started to settle in to the new normal.

For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you

I have gone on record explaining that the scriptures promise priesthood ordination to all followers of Christ, both male and female. God has promised that He will yet reveal "many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God" [1], and I firmly believe that extending the priesthood to all worthy members of the church is one of them. The restoration of the Gospel, which began in a grove of trees and is still ongoing, will not be complete until we have our latter-day Phoebes and our latter-day Junias. With that said, I have not at this point in time chosen to align myself with Ordain Women, mostly because my style is more to skip the middleman and go straight to the source - petitioning God directly.

I have many friends who have joined with Ordain Women, and their stories are heartbreaking. People, both to their face and anonymously on the internet, are calling them vile names, telling them that they are not welcome among God's people, and in some cases, even threatening them with physical harm. All because my friends, by bearing their testimony of the vision of equality the Holy Spirit has granted them, are obeying their baptismal covenant to "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that [they] may be in" [2]. My friends are mourning that reality does not yet match this vision, and instead of their opponents obeying their baptismal covenant to "mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort" [3], they are persecuting my friends in the most un-Christlike manner. My friends are responding by turning the other cheek and showing grace in the face of adversity.

We learn in scripture that in the last days, our daughters shall prophesy. [4] We also learn that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy [5] and that we will be able to determine the validity of someone's actions by the fruits that those actions bear.[6]

Let's look at the fruits: My friends are following the scriptural tradition of the daughters of Zelophehad [7] by asking the prophets to seek revelation from God. They are being patient and kind even to those who mock and scorn them. My friends' opponents are following the scriptural tradition of persecuting the meek and humble followers of Christ [8] and are trying to cast my friends out of their worship spaces.

My friends' actions are the ones bearing good fruit. They are the ones demonstrating a testimony of Jesus by showing love.[9] Since their actions demonstrate their testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy, I would like to cheer them with these words spoken by our Savior when He preached the sermon on the mount:

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.[10]

May God soften the hearts of your persecutors, and may God rain down revelation on us all.

--
[1] 9th Article of Faith
[2] Mosiah 18:9
[3] Ibid.
[4] Joel 2:28
[5] Revelation 19:10
[6] Matthew 7:20
[7] See Numbers 27
[8] See Alma 32:1-3 for a description of the Zoramite persecutors casting the meek and humble out of the houses of worship.
[9] John 13:35
[10] Matthew 5:10-12

Surely He Has Borne Our Joy?

One of the most beautiful truths of the Gospel is that Jesus carried our pains and sorrows.

The prophet Isaiah penned the familiar words "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." [1] Many composers have put these words to music, probably most famously G.F. Handel as part of the oratorio Messiah.

This sentiment is also beautifully expressed by the prophet Alma. 

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. [2]

I've been thinking recently about whether the converse is true as well. If He carried our pain and sorrows, does He carry our joy as well?

I think He does. I went searching in the scriptures for support for this idea, and I didn't find anything directly on point. I found several passages that refer to God's joy over repentant sinners, but nothing about joy over our joys.

But I still think it's true. Jesus loves us and wants us to be happy. When people I love are happy, I feel happy, too. If I, as an imperfect person, feel that way, then how much more would our perfect and loving Savior feel?

The scriptures teach that joy is the purpose of our existence. [3] So I think when we achieve that, we make God happy.

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[1] Isaiah 53:3
[2] Alma 7:11-12
[3] See e.g. 2 Nephi 2:25

To Hear My Soul's Complaint

One popular LDS hymn is I Know that My Redeemer Lives. I'm not particularly a fan of that hymn because I find the music to be dull and a bit repetitive, and it kind of plods along. (Give me something upbeat and brassy like Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.) But I was thinking about it as I was driving home from work yesterday, and something stuck out to me.

In verse 2, there's the line "He lives to hear my soul's complaint." When I was a teenager, this struck me as odd, since the scriptures seemed to have a pretty negative view of complaining (calling it "murmuring" and asserting that it was unrighteous and faithless). I had an epiphany yesterday.

In legal terms, a complaint is the first document filed in a lawsuit. It's a list of the plaintiff's grievances, along with factual allegations to support those grievances. After listing the grievances, there's a section entitled "prayer for relief", which is a request for the court to do something about the problem.

I like that imagery of God. God, being sovereign and omnipotent, has subject matter jurisdiction over our problems and personal jurisdiction over our adversaries. And He wants to hear our troubles. In fact, we have been instructed to cast our burdens on the Lord. (See Psalm 55:2, Matthew 11:28-30.) We can tell Him our concerns and pray for relief, and He has the power to grant the requested relief. And if it's a proper request, He will grant it.

Christ is Risen

Happy Easter! This post is a rerun of one from last April. I recycle!

That first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb of Jesus at sunrise and found the tomb empty.

But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
John 20:11-17

There are many people Christ could have chosen to appear to first. He could have appeared to the leaders of the government or the synagogue. (Honestly, that would have been awesome. Talk about taunting them with the whole "you killed me but I came back to life" thing. But obviously, Jesus is way more humble than that and not prone to gloating.) He could have appeared to the apostles. Instead, He chose to appear to Mary Magdalene.

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
Mark 16:9

Society at that time was heavily patriarchal, so it is definitely worth noting that Christ chose a woman to be the first person to see Him after His resurrection. I also find it interesting that Mark notes that Christ had cast seven devils out of Mary. The number seven is often used in the Bible to indicate totality or completeness. Mary had been seriously afflicted (either by demonic possession as the text indicates, or perhaps by mental illness, since people in ancient times often attributed mental illness to possession), and Christ healed her. Another interesting point, which I only noticed a few days ago, is that Christ appeared to Mary even before he went to see God the Father.

The first living being to witness the resurrection was not a king or a priest. The first living being to witness the resurrection was a humble woman who had been healed by Christ and who sought Him out early in the morning while others were presumably asleep.

I Don't Believe in Heavenly Mother

As requested, here's my post on why I don't believe in Heavenly Mother.

Several years ago, near the start of my feminist awakening, I felt a yearning to get to know Heavenly Mother. I did the standard thing we do in the church when seeking revelation. I studied the scriptures, I pondered, and I prayed for guidance. The response - chirping crickets and a rolling tumbleweed. Nothing. So I kept at it.

Saved by Grace

Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah.
2 Nephi 2:8

Last night, I attended the adult session of stake conference. The visiting general authority concluded the meeting with a sermon on grace. He said that in the church, we don't preach grace enough. I agree. I wish we heard more about grace; it's the central point of the Gospel. More than that, it is the Gospel. We can't save ourselves. Only God can do that.

When grace is mentioned at church, 2 Nephi 25:23 is the most often quoted scripture, focusing on the phrase "it is by grace we are saved after all we can do." Most often, people interpret this as chronological, i.e. once we have exhausted everything in our power, only then will grace step in and make up the difference. I think this is a misreading of that scripture that misses the majesty of the Atonement. I think there are two plausible readings of that verse that show just how expansive grace is. We truly have a merciful God.

The first interpretation is that the word "after" is being used roughly as a synonym for "despite". Meaning that even if we do everything to the best of our abilities and exhaust ourselves in attempting to attain perfection, we can't do it, and it's grace that saves us.

The second interpretation hinges on just what the phrase "all we can do" really means. Instead of being a directive to exhaust ourselves in a futile quest to work our way into heaven, it's an invitation to partake of God's mercy. All we can do is repent. All we can do is come to Christ and drop our burdens at His feet. When we do that, we are saved by grace.

God promises that "my grace is sufficient for all [people] that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." (Ether 12:27) That's all we can do - humble ourselves before God and have faith in Him. His grace is sufficient.

Merry Christmas

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given:. . .and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a great one.

If the Savior Stood Beside Me

There's a relatively new primary song entitled If the Savior Stood Beside Me. The song starts out "If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?" The point of this song, I'm sure, is a thought experiment wherein if the answer to that question is no, then we shouldn't be doing it at all. I engaged in that thought experiment this morning while getting ready for work, and the answer to the question is, in nearly all cases, no. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

If the Savior stood beside me, I wouldn't clean my apartment. I wouldn't cook dinner. I wouldn't go to work or run errands. I wouldn't even read my scriptures. I would sit down, be quiet, and listen to what He has to say to me. The many worthy pursuits of my life would pause for something more important, but that doesn't mean that I should stop going to work, taking care of the necessities of life, or reading my scriptures. It means we should be mindful of the appropriate time and place for doing the various activities in life. After all, "to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1

Living Water

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
John 7:38

After yesterday's downer, I promised a more upbeat post on the fantastic Saturday session of the mid-singles conference. So, here it is.

I arrived and mingled for a while. I met a guy who is in his last semester of law school, so we talked about law school for a bit. (There's something about the legal profession that creates an instant kinship when two people meet. I don't know why, but there it is.) I gave him a pep talk about the bar exam because he's a bit worried about it. Then we exchanged business cards. Then I ran into one of my friends who I hadn't seen in a while, and we took a seat in preparation for the keynote address.

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

[There is] one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Ephesians 4:5-6

I attended a mid-singles conference this weekend in the Bay Area. It spanned three days, with social activities on Friday night, spiritual/educational lectures on Saturday, and a church service on Sunday. Saturday was fantastic, and my report on that can be found here. Today's church service, however, wounded my soul deeply.

The keynote speaker for today's service was Julie Beck, the general president of the Relief Society. When President Beck got up to speak, I was hoping that what had been a wonderful Christ centered conference would be concluded with yet another message focusing on the Savior. Sadly, this was not the case.

As we are, God once was

There's a poetic couplet in the church (by Lorenzo Snow, I think) that I heard a lot as a teenager but that I don't hear much now. It goes "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become."

Its applicability/accuracy has been questioned. [1] But, as a thought experiment, I'm going to take it and see where it goes.

As a teenager, I picked up the implication that the couplet referred to our Father in Heaven. After all, at church, when we say God, we almost always are referring to the Father. I think, however, that the couplet takes on a more enlightening meaning if we interpret it instead to refer to Jesus Christ.

The scriptures suddenly made more sense to me when I had the epiphany about 10 years ago that "God" is not the name of the Father. It is a title that is properly applied to either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. For example, Matthew refers to Christ as "God with us" when writing about the birth of Christ [2], and Christ refers to Himself as God when discussing His sufferings for our sins. [3]

So, since Christ can properly be referred to as God, the couplet can be interpreted as follows:

As man is, God once was;

Jesus was born as an infant. He grew into a child, then a man. He lived as one of us, subject to the pains and sorrows of life. He had friends and family. He had enemies. He wept. And finally, He died.

As God is, man may become.

Christ was risen from the dead, never to die again. He dwells in a glorious realm, free from toil and strife. He can be forever with His loved ones. This can be our eternal reward as well.

---
[1] When Gordon B. Hinckley was interviewed on Larry King Live and asked about that couplet, he downplayed its doctrinal significance.
[2] Matthew 1:23 "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-18 "For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent...Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore..."

Timing

Every now and then I feel like I've taken too long to get started on my life. (I know that most of why my start on life was delayed was due to forces outside my control and the rest of the delay was because I served a mission, but melancholy doesn't respond to logic.) When my parents were my age, they owned a house and had two kids, my dad was established in his career, and the only debt they had was their mortgage. I just barely finished school, I'm in limbo in a dead-end job because nobody is hiring lawyers, I still rent, and I have massive student loan debt.

I had an epiphany last weekend, though. One of the speakers at General Conference (I don't remember who) was talking about the life of Christ. The thought came to me that Jesus didn't start His ministry until He was 30. So, the next time my melancholy or some busybody gives me grief for not being with the program, I'll just say that I'm following the example of the Savior!

Who are the sons of perdition?

...and are there any daughters of perdition?

I was reading section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants recently and a few questions occurred to me. I was always taught that the telestial kingdom is where all the bad people go, but that it's still a kingdom of glory and a pretty good place (just not as good as the others). I was also taught that those who go to outer darkness would be very few. Speculation abounded as to just what would be required to go there, and most people seemed to think that the only thing that would qualify is having a sure knowledge (like a personal visitation or something) of the Savior and then completely turning against that knowledge.

That definition was comforting on one hand, removing much of the fear of ever messing up so badly as to end up in eternal torment. On the other hand, it always sat wrong with me that basically that definition would mean that someone as totally evil as Hitler would end up with the same eternal fate as a liar or thief. I mean, yeah, they're both sinners, but there's a huge chasm in the magnitude of those sins.

As I was reading the definition of those in the telestial kingdom, I was struck by something. The people who go there are the unrepentant liars and adulterers, etc. Murderers aren't listed among those who inherit telestial glory. So, where do unrepentant murderers go?[1]

Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8

Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with the beatitudes - a list of nine types of people who are blessed, and what they're blessed with. While they're all great, my favorite is "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

I looked pure up in the dictionary, and there was one definition that stuck out to me. "Free from inappropriate elements." We all sin, so our hearts become impure. However, through the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, we can be purified. So, even though we are not pure on our own, we can become pure in heart and we can see God.

While it's certainly possible that some people will have actual visions of deity, I think a more common fulfillment of this scripture is that those who have a pure heart will see divinity all around them.

God's fingerprints are all over creation. The tiny dandelion poking up through the cracks in the driveway, the majestic eagle flying overhead, the stars in the heavens. In addition, the Holy Spirit can be our constant companion. We can literally walk with God throughout our day.



Go see God today!

The Bar of Judgment

The scriptures often refer to judgment as the "bar of God" or talk about the "judgment bar". Well, I took the bar exam last week, and the metaphor makes so much more sense. The merits of my education were being judged and my worthiness to be an attorney was being weighed. Had I learned properly to "think like a lawyer"? Do I know enough?

There is one big difference between California's bar exam and God's bar exam, though. Grace. California's bar examiners don't care what I had to go through to get to where I am, and they're disinclined to cut anyone any slack. God, on the other hand, is merciful and loving. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows and has power to save us. And all we have to do is come to Him.

Moroni gives a great description of this in his final chapter.

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.
Moroni 10:32, 34

The judgment day is described as a good thing. Standing before God is the "pleasing bar". It's not pleasing because of our own efforts. It's pleasing because of God's grace. And God is willing to cut us a lot more slack than some anonymous bar examiner.