“And you shall fall down and worship the Father in my name.” (D&C 18:40). Some of us may be under the impression that if we are to truly begin worshipping the Father in earnest, we need to more or less get past the falling down phase of our development. Or else, we feel that we have to get through some minimum probationary period of walking on the straight and narrow with no falls before we will allow ourselves to consider worshipping again. But in the verse quoted above, there are no commas or periods or dashes or caesuras of any kind separating the verb phrases “you shall fall down” and “worship the Father in my name”. All of us sin and fall short of the glory of God. Not just once or twice, not just when we were young and stupid, but pretty much constantly. If we were to place a moratorium on worship every time we fell down in our efforts to pursue a righteous life, we would never get any worshipping done. Choosing to turn towards Christ and worship the Father in His name in the very act of us falling down does not make us hypocrites. It means that we are choosing to pray without ceasing, to not procrastinate the day of our repentance, to look unto the Lord with every thought. We can and ought to worship just as readily at the bottom of the pit as at the top of the mountain, in the gutter and on the gospel path, in the temple and in the great and spacious building. Whether we make the conscious effort to worship the Father in the name of Christ in the pews of the chapel or off in a far country while we attempt to stave off hunger by eating slop from the pigs’ trough, it matters not to our Father so long as we are turning towards Him no matter what circumstances we may find ourselves in. I hope we can all learn to worship the Father when we fall down and when we rise up, so that no matter what weaknesses or illnesses or doubts or fears or streaks of stubbornness, pride, or selfishness happen to be tripping us up, we will never cease in our worship.
