A New Chapter

I have started writing this blog post half a dozen times. I keep struggling with knowing how to start it. I'm still not sure how I want to do it, but I am hoping that if I just keep typing then, somehow, something coherent will come out of it. I don't know. Maybe I will end up deleting all of this. Maybe I will end up deleting the entire blog post. Or maybe I won't. I guess I'll know in a few minutes when I finish writing this.

I guess I should start with the beginning. Well, maybe not the very beginning, but at least the beginning of this story. It starts when I was nearly eight years old and I had a decision to make. The decision was whether or not I wanted to be baptised and confirmed as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After I made the decision to be baptised, I was then asked to make another decision: who would do the baptising.

For many young Latter-day Saints, this is an easy decision; they ask their fathers to do it. I certainly could have asked my father. He had the Priesthood authority to do so and had baptised almost all of my older brothers. But there's the kicker: almost. You see, my oldest brother, Tom, was a Priest in our church, which means he was able to perform baptisms. (Confirmations, however, have to be performed by someone who is an Elder or a High Priest.) My brother Adam, who is two years older than me, was born eight years to the day after my brother Tom was born, and so Tom baptised Adam. For whatever reason, I decided I wanted my oldest brother to baptise me, as well. My father, who was an Elder in the church at the time, performed my confirmation.

Four years later, I was given the opportunity to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and be ordained to the office of a Deacon. Two years later, I was ordained as a Teacher, and then two years after that, I followed the examples of many of my brothers and was ordained as a Priest. (I suppose this is where I pause to explain that, in the LDS church, we have a lay priesthood; young men between the ages of 12 and 18 are part of the Aaronic Priesthood; men over the age of 18 are part of the Melchizedek Priesthood.)

After I had turned 18 and graduated from high school, I was given the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordained as an Elder. And here's an interesting quirk: every man in the church who is part of the Melchizedek Priesthood can trace his "line of authority" going back all the way to Jesus Christ Himself. For my brothers, when my father ordained them, he was an Elder, and so their line of authority followed that specific line. For me, though, Dad had been ordained as a High Priest a year or so earlier and so my line of authority follows that line, instead.

About a week ago or so, I got a text message from a member of my Stake Presidency (the ecclesiastical body that oversees our stake, or group of 10 congregations) asking if he could meet with me and my wife. He asked me if I would accept a call to serve on the High Council, which the body of High Priests who support the Stake Presidency by providing support, instruction, and training to the wards and branches (congregations) and auxiliary organisations in the church locally. I willingly accepted this call, knowing that it meant a few things:

First and foremost, I would need to be ordained as a High Priest. Second of all, I would need to transition out of my responsibility as Cubmaster and take on a supporting role in our Cub Scout program. Third, I would be giving up singing in my ward choir because I will be gone on different assignments on many Sundays.

I was asked if I had someone I would like to ordain me. My initial response was, "Well, I wish I could have my dad do it, but he passed away about a year ago, so I would like to ask my oldest brother, Tom, to do it." I was given permission to do so and then made a couple of phone calls. First I called my mom and told her about this new calling. We talked for about half an hour or so and then I called Tom. The conversation went something like this: "Hey, bro, what are the chances you could make a trip to Champaign in the next week or so to ordain your baby brother as a High Priest? I've been asked to serve on the High Council." He quickly checked his schedule, determined he could, and made the arrangements.

And so it was that last night he came to our house from Kansas City, Missouri. He took me and Gretchen out to dinner and then he and I stayed up for several hours, talking about just random things: Scouting, church, the Priesthood, funny videos on YouTube, family. Like I said, random stuff. Then this morning he went to church with us. My mother and baby sister drove in from Washington to be there. Gretchen's parents and two siblings in the area came, also. Tom ordained me as a High Priest and then I was set apart as a member of the High Council. Because Dad was the one who ordained Tom, my Priesthood line of authority is almost identical to the Priesthood line I had as an Elder. The only change is the insertion of my brother's name in that line. To bring it all full circle, I also wore the tie that used to be Dad's that I got right before his funeral.

Tom went with me to my first ever meeting with group of High Priests in my ward. (The High Priests meet separately from the members of the Elders Quorum.) My father-in-law, who is also a High Priest, was there, too. I was definitely the youngest person in the group, but I was welcomed warmly and included in the discussions we had. It felt right.

I won't know until this coming Thursday what specific assignments I will be given as a High Councilor. I don't know what the Lord has in store for me. I do know that this was not something I would have ever expected, but I feel confident that it is what God wants me to do, for however long it is He wants me to do it.