Sustained
 |
| Lifted Together by Kate Lee |
Words matter. They are how we connect and have the power to open our minds. Several times in my recent study of Psalms, I stopped to look up a Hebrew word behind the English text. Psalm 3:5 says "for the Lord sustained me," and Psalm 145:14 says "the Lord upholds all who fall."1 Both sustain and uphold come from the Hebrew word סָמַךְ or camak (saw-mak).2 Psalm 18:35 says "your right hand supported me," and Psalm 119:117 says "Hold me up that I may be safe."3 Support and hold me up both originate from the Hebrew word סָעַד or ca'ad (saw-ad).4 At their roots, both Hebrew words carry a sense of maintaining, holding up, or strengthening.
Centuries later, we use that same English word, sustain, for something we do in church every week without a second thought. When someone is called to serve, we raise our right hand to sustain them. It is tempting to treat this as pew aerobics, raise a hand, then move on to the next item of business. But that is not what the word is doing.
I was reminded of this sustain study as I listened again to and studied Elder Kearon's April 2026 conference talk, "About His Business." He said:
"With those raised hands and encouraging smiles, we were participating in common consent, where we can choose to sustain, by the raising of the right hand, those called to serve. Common consent is not a mere formality but a beautiful mix of our agency, unity, and faith. It is a voluntary, personal commitment to support, uphold, and help the Lord's called servants in their responsibility. ... We sustain each other with our prayers, our love, our patience, and our faith."5
One religious educator clarified sustaining when he said, "[Raising our hand] is not sustaining somebody. This is saying that you will sustain them, but sustaining them will be for the duration."6 Earlier this year, Elaine S. Dalton put it this way: "Sustaining is different [than raising our hand]. Teneo is a Latin verb, so sustain, this teneo is to hold up. Almost literally [as] Aaron and Hur did for Moses."7 President Henry B. Eyring made the same distinction: raising a hand to sustain someone is a promise made with God that you will sustain them going forward.8
Three languages, Hebrew camak and ca'ad, Latin teneo, English sustain, all pointing to the same idea: to hold something up so it does not fall. To be present. To show up and support. Aaron and Hur did not raise their hands once and walk away. When Moses' arms grew tired in the battle against Amalek, they physically held his hands up until sunset.9 This is the picture behind raising our hand in our meetings. The calling has already been extended. What we are signifying is not approval of a decision; it is a promise to keep holding up the person who received it, for as long as they serve.
Elder Kearon points to what this holding up actually looks like in practice. Reflecting on his own years of serving alongside people very different from himself, he said:
"I came to understand why everyone serves one another in a ward or branch: it affords us all the opportunity to pursue Christ and His virtues, such as charity, humility, meekness, forgiveness, and love, with people who may be very different to us. I clearly saw how faith is fortified and the body of Christ bonded together. I could see the Lord working through imperfect servants, very much including myself, who were striving to discern His will for those they were serving."10
Sustaining, in other words, is not one person holding another up from a place of strength. It is imperfect people holding each other up together and being strengthened by the holding.
Kearon admits to feeling that same surprise from the other side, watching people around him get called. He said:
"I also had the opportunity to sustain many others, happily trying to support them as we all learned to serve together. Often the calling was an obvious fit to the person's gifts and talents. Occasionally I thought, 'Hmm, interesting choice,' though never more than when I was that choice."11
Camille N. Johnson recently described that same feeling from the inside. Reflecting on being called first as Primary General President and then as Relief Society General President, she wrote:
"From an outsider's perspective, I didn't have a resume that qualified me to serve as the Primary General President. When I was called in April 2021, I had never been a Primary president before. And then the following November, President Russell M. Nelson asked to meet with me and told me that the Lord had a change in the assignment for me. It was then that he extended the call for me to serve as the Relief Society General President, and I had never been a Relief Society president before. ... The Lord doesn't call people because they have all the qualifications or because they already know how to do the job or the assignment. He calls us because it's a process of polishing and refinement."12
I have experienced this feeling myself many times over the last thirty-six years and in many callings. In every one of those callings, I felt strength greater than my own. I have come to realize that is what being sustained feels like. At times when my burden became heavy, God provided people to hold up my arms. Elder Kearon teaches, "Every calling, whatever it may be, is 'His business' when embraced with a humble and willing heart and a desire to lift and comfort His children and share His good news. We are not merely filling an assignment when we respond to an inspired call but joining the Saviour of the world in His infinite, redeeming work. He needs you, and He needs me. Life is better—everything is better—when we are about His business."13
Who is the Spirit asking you to lift today? Where do you need to show up?
Comments