Don’t be afraid of who you are

“We need a member of the audience onstage…Ah! Mrs. Fry, would you please join us up here?” My comfortable seat watching my son’s high school play suddenly became the focus of attention. I gulped. Surely someone else could do this, right? “No,” I declined, “thanks all the same.” Some rustling backstage ensued, giving direction to the uncertain actor eyeing me. He tried again. “No, we really, really need you onstage.” Suddenly I decoded the message my son was trying to give me from backstage. He had assured the other performers that I would be an easy assistant. They had planned on me. I sheepishly accepted and went onstage for an adventure.

How often have I let my comfortable situation prevent me from serving others or personal growth? An insightful podcaster on Exodus noted that when Moses was invited to help his enslaved brothers in Egypt, he expressed self-doubt multiple times (Follow Him, Anthony Rivera Jr., Exodus 1-6 part 1). At least six times in the scripture, Moses says things like, “I’m not your guy,” “I don’t speak so well,” “Nobody’s listening to us,” “I’m not qualified,” and so on. And through it all, the Lord reassures Moses, telling him what will happen, giving him the tools he needs, even giving him an assistant—his brother Aaron.

All the while the Lord continues to teach Moses how to become the great leader that is needed. At first, Aaron plays a larger role in the interactions with Pharoah, but as the plagues intensify, Moses becomes the main representative. Finally, with thousands of people trapped between an advancing army and the Red Sea, it is Moses, not Aaron, who stretches his hand over the sea and uses the power of God to part the waters.

Today, thousands of years later, Moses is revered the world over as one of the great prophet-leaders of all time, who performed miracles and accomplished amazing tasks that have inspired cinematic retelling. We look back and easily see the greatness. But Moses didn’t start out that way.

For me, the key is found in Exodus 3:7. “Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them.” Moses obeyed. He returned to Egypt. He met up with Aaron. He spoke to Pharoah. Okay, Moses complained a bit at first, but he kept moving forward. He knew the voice of the Lord, and he submitted. He became who he was meant to be.

Recently, I learned about a remarkable young nun who inspired the world with her efforts to show Christlike love. Thérèse Martin was born and lived in a quiet corner of France, dying in 1897 at the young age of 24. But her quiet life, shared in her memoirs after her death, moved so many that only 24 years after her death, Thérèse was sainted. (Mother Teresa chose to be this young woman’s namesake.)

St. Thérèse’s life was ordinary, but she filled it with opportunities to show love: “Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by …every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.” She smiled. She was cheerful; “for the love of God and my Sisters (so charitable toward me), I take care to appear happy and especially to be so.” She sought out and befriended a fellow nun whom she found difficult to get along with, treating her “as if I loved her best of all.” Full of laughter even on her deathbed, her memoirs revealed that this was a time of physical agony and spiritual struggle. Yet she reached out to serve others even then. Her little actions—her “little way,” as she called them—have led millions to cross their own Red Seas on dry land.

And what of us? When we hear the voice of the Lord, what will we do? When you feel, deep within you, that call to get out of your comfort zone and do something more, something right, something hard, how will you respond? The consequences of your choices will surely be greater than you think.

Kristin Fry is savoring the springtime sun and looking forward to celebrating the Risen Son. Kristin is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.