Trials and Faith

You know who else has a good voice for Mormon Messages? President Eyring. If you're wearing make-up right now, get a tissue ready because this video is probably going to make you cry.





This is the latest Mormon Messages video. It actually appeared a week or two ago, but it took me a while to decide to write a blog post about it. And even then, I got interrupted by other thoughts once or twice while I was writing this and ended up writing about other things first.

This is a touching video about facing hard trials and using faith in Jesus Christ to get through them. In this video, we see the stories of three people who are facing trials and who learn to seek healing through faith in the Lord and through service. But in the beauty of the stories and the music, I only half-heard President Eyring's words.

Here is the text of the video, taken from President Henry B. Eyring's April 2012 talk, Mountains to Climb:

        Many of you are now passing through physical, mental, and emotional trials that could cause you to cry out... “When I have tried all my life to be good, why has this happened to me?”
        Now, I wish to encourage those who are in the midst of hard trials, who feel their faith may be fading under the onslaught of troubles.
        There seems to me no better answer to the question of why trials come and what we are to do than the words of the Lord Himself, who passed through trials for us more terrible than we can imagine.
        You may have seen the need for that foundation, as I have, at the bedside of someone ready to give up the fight to endure to the end. If the foundation of faith is not embedded in our hearts, the power to endure will crumble.
        Moroni, the son of Mormon in the Book of Mormon, told us how... He teaches the simple and sweet truth that acting on even a twig of faith allows God to grow it.
        That particle of faith most precious and which you should protect and use to whatever extent you can is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
        You and I have faith that the way to rise through and above trials is to believe that there is a “balm in Gilead” and that the Lord has promised, “I will not … forsake thee.”
        That curing does not come automatically through the passage of time, but it does take time. Getting older does not do it alone. It is serving God and others persistently with full heart and soul that turns testimony of truth into unbreakable spiritual strength.
        If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing. In all conditions, we can choose the right with the guidance of the Spirit. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ to shape and guide our lives if we choose it.
        We never need to feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord’s service because we never are. We can feel the love of God. The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word.

        His love is unfailing. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

If you have the time, I'd recommend reading his message in full, or perhaps, watching it. It's a 20 minute video. I'll embed it below.

I'd like to close with a quote from Elder F. Enzio Busche: "In your life there have to be challenges. They will either bring your closer to God and therefore make you stronger, or they can destroy you. But you make the decision of which road you take."

May we all choose to take the road that leads to greater faith in the Savior, whatever trials may come.

Black and White in Green Tights

I only have 40 minutes, but a thought occurred to me as I was trying to write a blog post. There's a concept that I struggle with because it seems to dang convenient. It's too simple to be true. Yet, here it is in the scriptures; Moroni 7:12-13:

Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil;  for the devil as an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually. But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.

There's probably a better scripture that talks about this, but I don't have time to find it. Basically, I find it hard to believe that Satan would never condone any good, even for the greater evil, and God would never allow any evil, even for the greater good.

I wonder what God thinks about Robin Hood. As you know, one of the ten commandments is Thou Shalt Not Steal. Yet, Robin Hood doesn't keep what he steals for himself. He gives it to the poor. Does that make what he does a good thing, even though it's technically a sin? It couldn't. "The Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance." (Alma 45:16) Therefore, Robin Hood's stealing is sinful and must have been inspired by the devil.

But how could Satan allow that? He must know that Robin Hood is only going to take Prince John's riches and give it to the poor. Charity is a good thing, right? Is Satan okay with enabling Robin Hood to show Christ-like acts of love and selflessness? Wouldn't it be better to tell Robin Hood "You're poor. Everyone's poor. Life is miserable. Prince John has money. God must love Prince John more than you. Life is unfair. God is unfair. Hate him,"? Or is Satan trying (unsuccessfully) to win Robin Hood over with envy and greed? Perhaps Satan is trying to turn Robin Hood into a regular thief who keeps what he steals. "After all, you're poor, too. And you did all that work to steal it back from Prince John. It must be okay for you to keep at least some of the money."

But he doesn't. He gives it all away. Doesn't he? I'm mostly going off the Disney version, so maybe he does keep some and I just don't know it. But the BULK of it, he gives to the poor. That is a good act, therefore, it must have been inspired by God. Is God basically saying, "I really wish you hadn't stolen that. It's against the commandments, you know. But now that you have it, here's something good you can do with it..."? Can good be done with wrongfully gained money? The church doesn't accept tithing from lotto winnings (or so I've heard), because we believe it's wrong to play the lotto. Should Friar Tuck accept donations of Prince John's stolen gold?

This is a complicated moral issue and I've run out of time to discuss it. Basically, I tend to believe there's some grey area, including things that are kinda right and kinda wrong. But God has stated very clearly that any wrong is wrong. Does that mean that Robin Hood needs to repent and stop stealing from Prince John, despite the good he does with the stolen money? What are your thoughts on this? I'd love to start a discussion of some kind. It may help to clear things up.

In the Service of Hummingbirds

As I was studying a message by President Eyring, which I plan to share later, I decided to take a brief pause and get a bowl of cereal. Then Mom told me that our hummingbird feeder was out of food and she asked me if I could refill it. I felt that I was busy, that I needed to work on my blog post, that the hummingbirds could wait. As I prayed over my breakfast cereal, I asked God to bless the hummingbirds that they wouldn't get too hungry while I worked on my blog. When the prayer was over, I heard a voice in my head saying "I'll bless them through you." So I got up and filled the feeder.

I don't know who may need to hear a message on service today; possibly me more than any of you, but a vaguely recall the idea of service coming up in my mind earlier this morning. Maybe God's trying to tell me something. Maybe He wants to tell all of us something.

I have a few favorite quotes and sayings about service. One of them comes from President Spencer W. Kimball, "God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs." The idea is that if God frequently blesses us through the service of others, it would make sense for Him to want to bless others through us. But however righteous His motivations may be, He will never take away our agency. It doesn't matter how badly others may need our help or how much they deserve it, God will not force us to help them. We need to make that choice ourselves.

Another good service message came from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf in April 2010. A statue of Jesus Christ had been destroyed in World War II. Most of the statue was able to be restored, but the hands were irreparable. Rather than having a sculptor make new hands for the statue, the townspeople left the statue hands-free, but placed a sign under it, reading: "You are my hands." Christ is not on Earth personally. At least, not anymore. In His stead, He asks us to serve others as He would serve them. He asks us to be His hands, so to speak, in uplifting others and blessing them. True, we cannot do all the things that Christ could do when He was here, but we can do all the things that we can do, and that is what He truly asks of us.

Having talked about God and Jesus Christ, and how they want us to serve others, it's only fair that I also throw in a paragraph about the Holy Ghost. He doesn't have hands, either. He's just a spirit. He can comfort and inspire others Himself, but He's very limited in the kinds of things He can do. Mostly, though, He tries to inspire us. It was through Him that I got the message about blessing hummingbirds. It was through Him that the subject of service came up in the first place (even though I nearly ignored it). In fact, it's through Him that I get all of the messages I share. In my opinion, the Holy Spirit rarely gets as much credit as He deserves for all He does. But He doesn't want 'credit,' does He? Jesus didn't. Jesus said that all the glory should go to the Father. All Jesus wants, and (my guess) all the Spirit wants is for us to listen to Them. And not just to listen, but to do what They ask.

They, meaning the entire Godhead, want us to serve others. It's through us that They bless others. We are Their hands. They encourage us to act. And then They bless us for doing so. It's not always easy to serve others, but it isn't always hard, either. If you look for opportunities to serve, They'll help you find them, and if you take advantage of those opportunities, They'll make it worth your while.

Can't Rush Inspiration

I'm running out of time and I haven't found anything new and inspiring that I'd like to share. It's not because of anything I've done or haven't done this time, at least, I don't think it is. It's more because of the fact that I'm rushed.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, my ASL class starts at 9:45. Normally, I can leave home at 9 and get there in time for class. However, there is also an ASL Tutoring/Study Group that meets before at 8:30, meaning that I have to leave no later than 8:00. Meaning that I don't have time to wait to find something meaningful. I did a quick search on LDS.org, but I didn't find anything particularly noteworthy within the first half-hour, so I came over and started typing here, hoping that something would come to me. It has.

You can't rush inspiration.

You can try, of course. God lets us try to do whatever we want. That's using our agency. But that doesn't mean that whatever we try is going to work out. That's God using His wisdom.

Elder F. Enzio Busche once said, "Divine light develops in places of peace and quiet."

You know, it's interesting. I rushed around, actively looking for inspiring messages for over half an hour, but couldn't find anything, then, to fetch that quote, I turned on this video, and after less than five minutes of just sitting still, listening to the nice music and good advice, and just taking it easy for a second or two, I felt the spirit.

So what's the difference? A half-hour of rush, and I get nothing; five minutes of listening, and I feel the Spirit. During that first half-hour I was actively seeking inspiration. There's a scripture: "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." 1 Nephi 10:19.

I was seeking diligently, wasn't I?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what diligence means.

"Diligence," according to Preach My Gospel, "is steady, consistent, earnest, and energetic effort in doing the Lord's work." Not necessarily speedy, but steady. Not quick, but consistent.

We've all heard that the Holy Spirit tends to be subtle. If we're distracted or not really paying attention, we'll probably miss what He tries to say to us. I was actively seeking for something inspiring, but I was so busy looking for a good talk to share that I wasn't listening to the Spirit. It was only when I slowed down that I was able to receive inspiration.

We're all busy. We rush around constantly. We have to in order to keep up with everyone else. But if you have a few seconds to spare, if you can take a few seconds to close your eyes, breathe deeply, and tell Heavenly Father "Good morning," I'm sure you'll feel something.

Waiting for Marshmallows

I think they like turning President Uchtdorf's talks into Mormon Messages because people really like his accent. His messages are great, too, of course. Deep, profound, inspiring. But his voice is amazing and so are his stories. In April 2010, he shared a story about young children and marshmallows. I'll post the video here.



I sure hope this isn't illegal. These videos are available to everyone for free, so it shouldn't be a problem that I'm sharing them, right?

This video is great, but to cut it down to size, they had to remove a paragraph that I would rather they had left in. It goes between "Only 30 percent were able to wait," and "What started as a simple experiment..." Here's the missing paragraph:

It was a mildly interesting experiment, and the professor moved on to other areas of research, for, in his own words, “there are only so many things you can do with kids trying not to eat marshmallows.” But as time went on, he kept track of the children and began to notice an interesting correlation: the children who could not wait struggled later in life and had more behavioral problems, while those who waited tended to be more positive and better motivated, have higher grades and incomes, and have healthier relationships.

President Uchtdorf went on to say that,

Waiting can be hard. Children know it, and so do adults. We live in a world offering fast food, instant messaging, on-demand movies, and immediate answers to the most trivial or profound questions. We don’t like to wait... Nevertheless, without patience, we cannot please God; we cannot become perfect... As parents, we know how unwise it would be to indulge our children’s every desire. But children are not the only ones who spoil when showered with immediate gratification. Our Heavenly Father knows what good parents come to understand over time: if children are ever going to mature and reach their potential, they must learn to wait.

I have frequently thought that we must be very much like children in God's eyes. We have a lot to learn and a lot of progress to make before we can become like Him, just as children have a lot to learn before they can act like adults. Children, when they think no one is watching them, have a hard time not eating marshmallows, and we, when we think we're alone, sometimes have a hard time choosing the right. Instant gratification is a temptation that's difficult to resist (That's why Satan uses it.), but God knows that discipline and delayed gratification bring greater rewards.

We can see that in the lives of the children who waited. They had better grades and incomes, better attitudes and more motivation, even better relationships. Perhaps their ability to wait lead to the discipline they used to obtain the greater blessings, or perhaps the ability to wait was one of the greater blessings they obtained through their discipline. Either way, both qualities - discipline and patience - can help us earn the greater blessings prepared for us and improve the overall quality of our lives.

Patience and discipline are rare qualities these days. They take a long time to obtain and are no fun to use. In our society, where Christ-like Attributes are hard to come by, discipline is especially unpopular. Yet, it's also one of those 'gateway' virtues. Like faith, the more discipline we have, the more success we'll have at developing other virtues and reaching other worthy goals. (At least, that's what seems logical to me.)

Not everyone has the will-power to wait for marshmallows, but you might try to develop that trait. You may like the results.

Why I Was Stuck

It was during our evening scripture reading that I learned why I couldn't blog anything good yesterday morning. The answer is in Mosiah chapter 7, verse 29: For behold, the Lord hath said: I will not succor my people in the day of their transgression; but I will hedge up their ways that they prosper not; and their doings shall be as a stumbling block before them.

I've written a few times that light and darkness can't occupy the same space at the same time, and that certain thoughts, words and actions drive away the Spirit. Without going into details, that's what happened last morning. It's through the Spirit that we get revelation and inspiration. It's through the Spirit that I find the right message to share and the right words to type when I blog. If anything I say, do, think or fail to do causes me to lose the Spirit, I can't blog well. I'll still Blog anyway, because I've made a commitment to Blog, but my Blog post will be crap (Unless, even though I'm left to myself without any help from God, I manage to write something half-decent anyway).

My point is, don't lose the Spirit. If something you want to say would offend the Spirit, don't say it. I don't care how witty or how true it may be, if it's unkind or vulgar or offensive to the Spirit in any way, just don't say it. If something you want to do would offend the Spirit, don't do it. It doesn't matter if it's the popular thing to do, or if people think it's the right thing to do, or even if you don't know why God doesn't want you to do it. Just don't do it. And if something you find yourself thinking is offensive to the Spirit, don't think about that. It isn't harmless just because it's 'just a thought.' God doesn't warn us to avoid things because they're harmless. If a thought drives the Spirit away, don't linger on that that thought. Think about something else. Think of the Savior, if you can. Think about temples. Think of your family. Try to focus on any good thing you can think of. The Spirit will be with you. Whenever you try hard to resist temptation, the Spirit will be with you.

I forgot that last morning. I forgot why it's so important to uphold high standards. God reminded me. And now I'm glad he did.

I'm like the currant bush. I want to "grow" in ways that God knows are wrong for me. And when He sees that my thoughts and actions are taking me in the wrong direction, He takes out the pruning sheers. I need that correction. It hurts, (it probably literally hurts "like hell") but I need it. And if I ever learn to grow like a currant bush, it'll have been worth all the pruning.

God knows what He wants all of us to be, and it's only by upholding high standards that we can reach that potential. We have to watch ourselves; our words, our thoughts and our deeds. Only then will we be able to become like Him.

Stuck

I wanted to sleep in this morning. Didn't we all? I could have gotten away with it, too. I don't have any classes today. Nothing totally urgent. I have to do laundry today, but I can't start that until 10. I have some chores to do, but those can wait a few hours. Even my morning blog could have waited, since "morning," in my mind, is any time before noon. I wouldn't have slept in that long! But I couldn't sleep in at all. I woke up before I had to and couldn't get back to sleep. Then I logged onto LDS.org and wandered around aimlessly for and hour or so. I looked for another Light talk, but I didn't find anything particularly interesting. Maybe I'm too tired to get inspired right now.

Yesterday, a fellow institute student taught the Gospel and the Productive Life class, rather than our usual instructor. Maybe that's why it stuck out. He talked about adversity: how we all face it, why God let's it happen, how facing it can make us better, stronger people. It was a good lesson.

I'm going to have to teach a lesson in that class eventually, too. My subject will be avoiding bad media. Part of my message will be that we can use media for good instead, and that too much media of any kind, bad or good, can be bad. I plan on sharing the same video I shared for Virtual Reality vs Spirituality. It's basically the same message all over again, just in a different setting.

I still have LDS.org open in another tab. Still looking for something I can share. Not much luck so far. I'm just having an off day, aren't I?

I'm going to give up on this for now, but I plan to come back and blog something inspirational later today. I'll come up with something.

It's Thursday!

This morning, I forgot it was Thursday. The days of the week have been all mixed up because of President's day. Monday was a Saturday, Tuesday was a Monday, Wednesday was a Tuesday, and I'm not even sure what I think today is, but I wasn't expecting a Thursday this soon.

Thursdays are important to our family. A long time ago, the garbage trucks would take our trash on Fridays, so when Mom came home on Thursday evenings, she'd notice all the garbage bins lined up on the streets, and she'd remind my brothers and I what day it was. Then we would all shout, "It's Thursday!" and we'd run around the house, collecting garbage, and rolling the bins out to the street. But while I was on my mission, they changed the garbage schedule. Now the garbage trucks come on Thursday mornings, so the call of "It's Thursday!" comes earlier in the day, and with more urgency.

It's strange that taking out the trash will be one of the joyful memories of my youth.

There's a parable in this somewhere. "Taking out the trash," could very easily be an analogy for repentance. In the olden days of Garbage on Fridays, the bins on the street might be analogous to prophets, warning us to "Repent, for the day draweth nigh!" But these days, we hardly get that warning anymore, even though we still have prophets. Well, I do pass though areas with garbage bins on my way to school on Wednesdays. Maybe that's my 'prophetic warning.' That's an upsetting analogy, because I usually just bike on by without thinking about them. Well, I think about them, but my thoughts are usually, "These garbage bins are in my way." I hope we don't think that way about prophets and commandments.

We live in the Last Days. If "The End [was] Near!" several years ago, it's certainly nearer now. Now, the garbage trucks come on Thursdays, and we need to be ready for them a day early. It's also said that "the day or the hour no man knoweth," so the day may come on a Thursday or a Friday, or a Monday or a Sunday for all we know. All that we know about the Day of the Lord is what we've been commanded to do to prepare for it; Take Out the Trash.

We all have garbage in our lives. For some, it may be a bad habit, for some, unworthy thoughts, only you and God know what's in your life that needs to be taken out. (Well, okay, Satan knows, too, but that's because he had a hand in putting it there.) Anyhow, I have no idea what trash needs to be taken out of your life, but I know what trash needs to be taken out of mine.

The Savior will be coming soon, either to take our burdensome trash off our hands, or to shake His head sadly at those of us who are still holding onto ours. And we don't know how soon He'll come. It's time for us to throw our garbage into the garbage bins, roll it out to the street, and give it to the Lord. He wants to take it off our hands and out of our lives forever.

And while we're at it, I may throw in a parable for recycling as well.

In our neighborhood, the garbage and recycling trucks come on the same day. The recyclables are taken to a recycling center where useful things can be made out of them. So while we're taking all the garbage out of our lives, perhaps we should keep an eye out for useful things, too: Talents, Virtues, Christ-like Attributes, and offer those to the Lord as well. They may not seem like much to us: old newspapers, milk jugs, and tin and aluminum cans, but let's put them in the Lord's hands and see what He can do with them. The positive things in our lives may be more useful than we think.

The only other thing that's taken on Thursdays is yard waste, but I can't think of an analogy for that. Not off the top of my head. We almost never have yard waste to take out anyway.

Jesus wants to take the garbage out of our lives and put our recyclables to good use, but to do either of those things, He needs us to act first. We need to sort out the garbage and recycling and offer them both to Him. Only then can He take our garbage away from us and turn the rest of us into something good. And for our own sakes, if no one else's, we had better do it soon. We don't want to be caught off-guard when the garbage trucks of eternity come.

Earthly Father, Heavenly Father

Another Mormon Messages video morning. This time, I watched the newest one: Earthly Father, Heavenly Father. It reminded me of my Father's Day post from some years back. Time for a review.





This video gives me perspective on how our Heavenly Father might feel, being our "Dad." He loves us. He provides for us. I'm sure we frustrate Him sometimes, but He's patient with us.

I'm not a father yet, and won't be for years, but I have nieces and a nephew. It's fun to spend time with them, to listen to what's going on in their lives, to teach them songs they can play on the piano, to be their uncle.

I know being an uncle is nothing like being a father, but being a father isn't exactly like being Heavenly Father either. It's just an analogy, just to give us a little bit of perspective. I know that Heavenly Father loves me, and I know that He must see me as a child most of the time, making dozens of childish mistakes, but I'm His child. And maybe He's proud of me just for that. And for at least trying to do what He asks, regardless of how often I fail.

Those of you who are parents probably understand this a lot more than I do. I hope you enjoy the video.

Revelation or Review

The quotes in yesterday's video came from a talk called Waiting on the Road to Damascus. In this talk, President Uchtdorf talk about how some people may be waiting for some glorious manifestation of the truthfulness of the gospel before they act on the principles that the gospel teaches. President Uchtdorf reminds us that testimonies often come little-by-little, and they come while we act upon the truths that have been shared with us. He advises us to listen for and heed the promptings of the Spirit, teaching "If we ignore or block out the promptings of the Spirit for whatever reason, they become less noticeable until we cannot hear them at all." He also talks about serving others, and finally, sharing our beliefs with others.

It strikes me as odd how much of the  gospel is subtle. Inspiration comes through a still, small voice, not a loud, clear one. Prayers are more often answered through the service of other than through miracles. And when we ask questions in prayer, God shows us the answer in something we read in the scriptures or hear at church, rather than just telling us Himself. Sometimes God is so subtle that even those who want to follow Him have no idea what He wants them to do. "The promptings of the Spirit... become less noticeable until we cannot hear them at all."

Yet, God doesn't want any of us to be hopelessly lost. He wants all of us to return to Him. That must mean that He wants all of us to know how to return to Him. If we don't know the way, we can't follow it. Then again, maybe God already gives us all the help we need. He's given each of us the Light of Christ, which is like a conscience in that it helps us recognize right from wrong. He gave us scriptures; almost everyone has access to the Bible. For the next step on the journey to return, He counts on members of His church to share the gospel, so everyone can have a chance to be baptized and follow the path to Eternal Life.

Maybe we members of the church, wondering exactly what God would like us to do, already know enough. We all know the Seminary answers for increasing our testimony and feeling the Spirit more: read your scriptures, say your prayers, go to church, etc. Are we doing all that, or is there more we can do?

And God has given us plenty of other guidelines, too. For example, let's say that there's a member of our circle (a family member, a friend, a coworker, whatever) who's doing things we know they shouldn't do, and it's keeping them from being happy. We want to help them, but is it really our place to say anything? And if we do say something, what should we say? This sounds like a job for direct revelation, but is it? What teachings have we already heard that may apply here?

We've heard that everyone has their own stewardship, that people can receive heavenly guidance for themselves and the people under them, but for no one else. Then, we've also heard that "it becometh every man that hath been warned to warn his neighbor." The Savior has taught that we should be meek and mild, but we've also heard that reproof, when necessary should be given with sharpness, showing an increase of love afterward. So what, exactly, should we say? At times, saints are called upon to simply open their mouths and say whatever the Spirit inspires, yet at other times, preparation is wise.

We've been given so much guidance, and some of it seems to contradict the other guidance we've been given. I think the principle that's most applicable to getting answers to questions and concerns is to study it out in our minds, to try to find an answer that God may have already given you, to decide on a course of action, and then to ask God for confirmation. If He says Yes, follow your plan. If He says No, revise your plan and ask again. If He says nothing, it may be that our idea is good enough and God wants us to go forward and have faith in ourselves.

God has given us a lot of guidance, yet we always seem to need more. We are daily faced with challenges and decisions that maybe no one has ever faced before, and maybe we do need new revelation to know how to handle the situations we're facing. Then again, maybe we don't. Maybe we've already received enough guidance that the answers to whatever problems we're facing now are in there somewhere. We just have to review what we've learned and find the message that applies.

I'll admit, it seems a lot easier and more reliable to get direct, specific, personal revelation, but God didn't mean for life to be easy. This is meant to be a learning experience, and if the teacher is always whispering answers into the student's ear, the student isn't going to learn anything. God gave us the textbooks, and He gives lectures every once in a while, but when the tests of life come, the Teacher often say nothing, but by His silence, says "Show me what you've learned."

Quick-Share Inspiration

This morning, I watched this video:





I think it's wonderful that this young woman took the time to photograph things of beauty and text them with matching scriptures attached. It's such a clever idea, and it wouldn't take long for someone with a smartphone. I also like the quote from President Uchtdorf. I wish I had time to find the talk and read the whole thing, but I have to leave in half an hour and I haven't had breakfast yet. =S

It's amazing how busy we are sometimes. I've heard a saying somewhere that 'If we're too busy to read our scriptures, we're busier than God ever intended us to be.' This young woman may be just out for a casual bike ride, or maybe she's going somewhere. Either way, she still takes the time to stop and share uplifting messages with others.

Not all of us can do exactly that. Not all of us have smartphones yet. But we can all do things like that. We can pause sometime in our busy lives to notice something inspiring, then later, when we're talking with someone, we can share with them what we've seen. It doesn't have to be much. "This morning, I saw this, and it made me think of this." As long as it's uplifting, even barely uplifting, it will do some good. And as I mentioned in earlier blog posts, when we do something that uplifts another a little bit, it could make a big difference for them, and whenever we do good, it spreads.

I made a commitment to blog every morning. (Those of you that have read my blog in the distant past may be rolling your eyes right now, but this time it's different.) Every time, I plan on sharing something uplifting. Sometimes I fail, but most of the time I can find something I can share that may uplift and inspire others. So far, it's been making me feel like I actually can do some good in this world. It's an encouraging feeling. I even feel the Spirit when I blog. Sharing uplifting messages is a very positive thing for me, and it probably does some good for others, too.

You might try it sometimes. Not necessarily blogging, but adding something uplifting to your daily routine. If you see an uplifting picture on Facebook, you can share it as well as like it. Things like that. It'll only take a few seconds, and it may make a difference for someone. It'll certainly make a difference for you.

Light and Darkness - Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light

 This is another talk that I'm sure I've shared before. In this talk, Elder Robert D. Hales talks about a pear-shaped generator he attached to his bike, that generated light for him, as long as he kept pedaling. But before that, he talked about the 2002 Winter Olympics being held in Salt Lake City, helping to bring the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints "out of obscurity."

But the section that relates to my topic, Light and Darkness, is found farther down the article, under the heading: Darkness and Light. He says:

As children, we learned how to keep darkness away by turning on a light. Sometimes, when our parents went away for the evening, we would turn on every light in the house! We understood the physical law that is also a spiritual law: light and darkness cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

Light dispels darkness. When light is present, darkness is vanquished and must depart. More importantly, darkness cannot conquer light unless the light is diminished or departs. When the spiritual light of the Holy Ghost is present, the darkness of Satan departs.

These two paragraphs, the last paragraph especially, show that Light and Darkness are always at war with each other, and that "unless the light is diminished or departs," the light always wins. This should be encouraging; as long as we keep the Holy Ghost with us, Satan can't touch us. But while, theoretically, that plan is sound, in practicality, it's not that easy. As in the bike-light generator analogy that I barely mentioned above, keeping the Spirit with us takes constant effort, and if there's one thing I know about the average human, we're not good at making efforts, let alone constant effort.

Elder Hales wisely warns, "in this world, the darkness is never far away. In fact, it is always just around the corner, waiting for an opportunity to come in. ...

It is as predictable as any physical law: if we let the light of the Spirit flicker or fade by failing to keep the commandments or by not partaking of the sacrament or praying or studying the scriptures, the darkness of the adversary will surely come in. “That wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience.” (D&C 93:39)

Satan knows that if he can trick us into disobedience to God's laws, we'll lose the spiritual light that otherwise would have been a guide and protector to us. And the worst part is that he has already done that. All of us, at some point in our lives, have been tricked into disobeying some commandment or another, and all of us have felt the following loss of light. It felt miserable. And for some of us, still laboring in sin, it still feels miserable. But there's a way to escape that misery, a way to come back into the light of the lord. The way is repentance.

Repentance isn't easy. I don't think it was meant to be. I think God wants us to have to struggle to come out of the darkness and into the light, because He knows that our struggles make us stronger, and He wants us to eventually be as strong and as wise as He is.

The battle between light and darkness is hard fought, and all of us have been wounded in the conflict, but through our repentance and His Atonement, Christ offers us healing and help. He wants all of us to come "out of darkness and into His marvelous light," (1 Peter 2:9) or in other words, to "cast off the works of darkness, and... put on the armor of light" (Romans 13:12). Satan wants us to lose our souls, but God wants us to win, and we all know which of the two is stronger.

Light and Darkness - Walk in the Light

This probably isn't going to be the only Blog Post I write about Light and Darkness but I found a good talk by President Henry B. Eyring called Walk in the Light, and I figured this was a good place to start.

I think that I may have shared parts of this talk with you before, maybe when I was talking about examples of righteousness. In this talk, President Eyring gives a really awesome quote that would have done perfectly with that message.

When you walk in the light, you will feel at that moment some of the warmth and the happiness that will finally be yours when you are welcomed home again with the hundreds and perhaps thousands of others whom you will bring with you, who have walked in the light because you did.

Or might I have shared that in How to Change a Life? Or maybe I intended to, but never got around to it? Anyway, it's an awesome quote.

Yet, as good as that is, that's not what I was intending to focus on for this blog post. Long before he gave that quote, President Eyring said:

Every child of Heavenly Father born in the world is given at birth, as a free gift, the Light of Christ. You have felt that. It is the sense of what is right and what is wrong and what is true and what is false. That has been with you since your journey in life began. The fact that you were baptized and received the Holy Ghost is evidence that you chose to walk in the Light of Christ. 

When you were confirmed a member of the Church, you were given the right to have the Holy Ghost as your companion. The Holy Ghost is a powerful source of light to recognize truth, to follow and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to find your way back to God after this life. 

But the spirit who led the rebellion in the world before still opposes the plan and wants you to be miserable. He wants you never to find your way home again. That enemy of your soul knows you and your goodness. He knows that if he can turn you away from walking in the light, he can both capture you and stop you from helping others along the journey...

You make choices every day and almost every hour that keep you walking in the light or moving away toward darkness.

This confirms much of what I wanted to say about light and darkness. We all have some light in us, that light is meant to be a guiding influence in our lives, the Holy Ghost is a great source of light, Satan tries to pull us away from the light, but in the end, it's our choice who we follow, and every decision we make takes us either closer to or farther from the light.

This isn't all that I would like to say about light and darkness, and I'd love to break this all down and say it more clearly, but I have to get this blog post up in the next half hour, so I don't have enough time make this blog post just the way I'd like it. But I'll do what I can.

Essentially, there is a path of light. The specific details of this 'path of light' may be different for each of us, for example, one person may be inspired to become a doctor, and another might be inspired to become a firefighter. They both save lives, but in different ways. And we're not all doctors and firefighters. When we each follow God's plan for us, we're lead to different places in different ways, but all of us are lead to do good. Which leads me to my next point.

Even though the details of our paths may be different, the basics of our paths are the same. God wants all of us to do good and be righteous, and influence others to do good and be righteous. God wants all of us to keep the commandments, no matter what our individual callings are.

Another thing that's universally true is that the Holy Ghost wants to help us follow the path of light, so he nudges us and whispers in our ears. He respects our decisions, and He won't keep bothering us if we insist that we don't want His help, but if we do want His help, and follow His directions, He'll lead us down the right path and give us opportunities to do a lot of good.

On the other hand, the evil spirit doesn't want us to follow, or even find that path of light. He constantly nudges us and whispers in our ears things that he thinks will tempt us to follow other paths. All too often, he's successful at leading others astray, and misery always follows.

As President Eyring said, "Such choices are not always easy to see clearly." We need to be careful to make sure that we're following the light. A good way to judge whether we're walking in light or darkness is how we feel on the inside. The Holy Ghost, the messenger of light, tends to bring with Him feelings of peace and comfort. If you're not sure what the Spirit feels like, try this: Do something you know is good, and carefully examine your feelings afterward. Do this repeatedly and soon you'll have a pretty good idea what the Spirit feels like. Follow that, and you're well on your way to walking in the light.

Time's up. Not too bad for a start. More to follow.

No Prompt Today. =(

I don't have a prompt for today's blog post. I watched several Mormon Messages videos and skimmed through a few General Conference talks, but nothing really stood out to me in a way that encouraged me to share it. Maybe something will come to me as I type.

I've been thinking about the Armor of God (the spiritual armor, not the blog). How one puts it on, how it helps, how one maintains it. It does require maintenance. With physical armor, you put it on once and unless you take it off, or unless it falls off somehow, you'll be wearing it for the rest of your life. Spiritual armor isn't so permanent. Putting it on is a process, and you've got to continue the process even when you think you're done, or you'll lose the protection.

Armor might be a bad analogy for this. Fire is better, since you have to constantly supply it with firewood. The fire analogy has been used for testimony many times. But fires don't protect you from anything, except maybe wild animals that might be afraid of it. Hey...

I don't know about the 'wild animals' part, but there's something vaguely familiar about the thought of the enemies of the light having a sort of fear or at least aversion to light (light here being used to mean righteousness). Isn't there a saying: "Satan trembles when he see the weakest saint upon his knees"?

Right now, I want to write about light and darkness. I want to write about how we can generate light to repel darkness. I want to write that those who have grown to be comfortable in darkness will be uncomfortable in light, and those comfortable with light are uncomfortable in darkness. That the world is filling with darkness, but that heaven remains full of light. If we want to be comfortable when we go there, we'll need to fill ourselves with light first. There are varying degrees of light and darkness and no person on earth is totally light or totally dark. There is both light and darkness in all of us, thus there is hope for even those that are in darkness and room for improvement for those that are in the light.

I also want to talk about the Spirit as being attracted by light and repelled by darkness. Similarly, but on the other end of the spectrum, the devil is attracted by darkness and can be repelled by light. Thus, by "cast[ing] off the works of darkness and put[ting] on the armor of light," we can attract the Spirit, repel the devil, and thus protect ourselves from temptation. Also, I want to point out that having that kind of light take constant effort, that we need to continually grow that light, or it will diminish.

I want to encourage us to generate more light. I want to write something inspiring, informative, uplifting, and good. But it will take time. I'll need to find good resources: Conference Talks to quote from, scriptures to cite, things like that. I know there are hundreds of messages on this topic (if it can be considered just one topic). I just need to find them. I could do what I can with my own reasoning and speculation, but it would feel so much better to be able to back the message up with quotes. I want to be sure that I get my facts straight, to be sure that what I tell you is true. I could really use a review in this message myself. It'll really beneficial to me to read what the General Authorities say about light and darkness.

I'm going to have to do some research and get back to you. I'm sorry that this blog post has no real message. Maybe you can pick up a little, inspiring snippet from those paragraphs I wrote about what I want to write later. When I actually manage to write about light and darkness, that blog post will be much better. And I got the idea from writing this post, so at least it hasn't been a total waste.

Anyhow, I have research to do. And homework. I have a short essay due on... Tuesday? That may take priority. =/ Anyhow, I've got to move on. I'll post something good tomorrow morning. Maybe about light and darkness, maybe not. I want to make sure I do that topic justice when I do it. But I will do it, and hopefully soon. It's a really interesting topic. I look forward to researching it.

Virtual Reality vs Spirituality

Another Mormon Message I haven't seen before. Not quite as dramatic as the last one, but still good, and very applicable. The message comes to us from Elder David A. Bednar, and the message is titled Things As They Really Are. That's kind of a vague title. Personally, I would change it to Virtual Reality vs Spirituality. Hold on, I can probably embed this one, too.




These things are working, right?

Anyhow, for the first half of this video, I'll admit I was kind of only half listening. This was all stuff we've heard before. When is he going to say something new? Exactly two minutes into the video.

I offer two questions for consideration in your personal pondering and prayerful study. Question number one: Does the use of various technologies and media invite or impede the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in your life? Question number two: Does the time you spend using various technologies and media enlarge or restrict your capacity to live, to love, and to serve, in meaningful ways?

I'd like to delve into both of these questions, but I'd also like to leave for school in a little less than an hour. I'll see what I can do.

Question One: Does it invite or impede the Holy Ghost?
My first thought was that technology impedes the Holy Ghost. If we're paying attention to what the electronic boxes are telling us, we're probably not paying attention to the Spirit. The short version of the story is that too much technology is bad. Right? Wrong.

As Elder Bednar said just before asking the questions, "Please understand, I am not suggesting all technology is inherently bad; it is not." Electronic devices are not inherently bad, and the Spirit is not automatically offended every time we connect to the internet. But some uses of technology is offensive to the Spirit, and giving too much attention and devotion to even the harmless uses of technology can lessen our sensitivity to the Spirit. It's not that technology is bad; it's that we use it wrong. Some might argue that the internet is evil, that it was invented by the devil for the selling and distribution of pornography. There may be other enthusiasts who say that is a divine gift, that it was given to us from God for the sharing and strengthening of testimonies.

It's all in how we use it. Some use it for good and invite the Spirit by doing so; some use it for evil and thus drive away the Spirit. Naturally, God wants us to use technology for good.

Question Two: Does it enlarge or restrict your capacity to live, to love, and to serve?
Again, my first thought was in the negative. I was thinking that every hour we spend on the internet is an hour we didn't spend playing board games with our families or serving in a soup kitchen. Every conversation we have through texts and emails is a conversation we didn't have face to face and heart to heart. Again, I was thinking that technology was bad, and once again, I was wrong.

Let's continue that correcting quote from Elder Bednar. "Please understand, I am not suggesting all technology is inherently bad; it is not. Nor am I saying we should not use its many capabilities in appropriate ways to learn, to communicate, to lift and brighten lives, and to build the church."

There are good ways to use technology. Not just neutral, but good. We can use it not only "to learn, to communicate," which are both usually good things, but also "to lift and brighten lives," which is always a good thing. We can do a great deal of good through technology. Yet, there are also many cases in which we can to even more good face to face and heart to heart.

It's all in how much we use it. Some people go online and do some good electronically; some people go outside and do some good personally. I believe that for most people, God wants us to do both.

If we spend all our time doing good through thechnology, we miss many opportunities to do good in person (and vice versa, but I doubt anyone has that problem. Actually, I doubt that anyone has either problem because it's virtually impossible to spend all your time doing good, online or in person. But I think you know what I mean).

The true short version of the story is that God wants us to do as much good as we can through every method He has made available to us, including, but not limited to, technology. By posting this message, I hope to do at least some good electronically, but now I'm going to go outside and see if I can do some more good in person.

How to Always Have His Spirit

In considering the concept of being ready and preparing to be ready to do whatever God needs us to do when the moment comes, I thought about the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost has been given to us to guide us, and if we follow its direction, we'll be lead to do things that make us more righteous and worthy, and thus more ready to serve. Also, we'll gain practice in following the promptings of the Spirit, so when it gives us special directions in unique circumstances, we're more likely to be able to understand and follow those directions than we would be if following the Spirit is a new experience for us.

Elder David A. Bednar gave a good talk about the Spirit in April 2006. In that talk, he told us that even though we've been promised that we "may always have His spirit to be with [us]," there are things that we sometimes do that cause us to withdraw from the Spirit (or vice versa. I'm not sure which). I think it's important to remember that the promise is that we may always have His spirit to be with us. We may  have it, in the sense that we're allowed to have it (as in 'you may have a cookie'), and we may have it in the sense that we might always have it to be with us; it's possible that we'll always have the Spirit as our guide. But it is in no way promised that we will always have his Spirit to be with us. As Elder Bednar taught, whether we have the Spirit with us or not depends a lot on our choices.

For example, whether we currently have the Spirit with us or not, we can do good things that will invite the Spirit to be with us. Also, whether we currently have the Spirit or not, we could do things that would drive away the Spirit. The Spirit won't stay when we make it uncomfortable. If we partake in bad media, or if we harbor evil thoughts, the Spirit will warn us against those things, but if we don't heed those warnings, the Spirit will leave us. Alternatively, if we heed the warnings and shun temptation, we'll find that we have the Spirit with us in greater abundance.

The Spirit is a strengthening force. When we have the Spirit with us, we will have the courage to do things that we otherwise might have been to shy to do, like reaching out to help someone. Also, as noted before, the Spirit is a guiding influence, giving us direction on exactly what we can do to help. And when we need help, the Spirit can be a comforter, helping us feel peace, hope, and love.

Since the Spirit it such a valuable influence, and since it won't always stay with us if we do things that drive it away, it's important to know what kinds of things offend the Spirit, so we can avoid them, and what things invite the Spirit, so we can seek them. To this end, Elder Bednar shared some very useful counsel.

The standard is clear. If something we think, see, hear, or do distances us from the Holy Ghost, then we should stop thinking, seeing, hearing, or doing that thing. If that which is intended to entertain, for example, alienates us from the Holy Spirit, then certainly that type of entertainment is not for us. Because the Spirit cannot abide that which is vulgar, crude, or immodest, then clearly such things are not for us. Because we estrange the Spirit of the Lord when we engage in activities we know we should shun, then such things definitely are not for us.

Things that help us invite the Spirit include: meaningful personal and family prayer, feasting on the words of Christ, faithfully keeping commandments and honoring covenants, developing Christlike attributes, and serving others. The full list is so long that it probably can't be written, but it can all be summed up in the phrase "doing good things."

We invite the Spirit when we do things that are good. We repel the Spirit when we do things that are bad. The choice is always ours to make. The presence of the Spirit is an extra incentive to do good things, and a friend to encourage us to keep doing good things. Having the Spirit with us can be a big help, and when perilous times come, we'll need all the help we can get. So we should act now to develop good habits to attract the Spirit, and gain practice and experience in following the Spirit. Like the young man in video, we never know when we might need it.

When Lightning Strikes

Apparently, I haven't yet seen all of those Mormon Messages videos. I just saw one this morning that I'm sure I've never seen before. If I have seen it before, I must not have been really watching. Hold on, I think I can embed it.




Did that work? Is it working?

In any case, the title of the video is Sanctify Yourselves, and certainly that is its message, but first it tells you why you would want to do that. This message is directed specifically at the Priesthood (as are most messages of correction from the Twelve), but what Elder Holland said near the end about holding the future in your hands could easily apply to anyone, and the requirement to stay worthy to call down the powers of heaven does not only apply to men.

I cried during this video. I felt that, if I had been in this young man's position, I would have been so worried that I wasn't worthy enough. More than that, I would have been panicked. I might have told God that I had never asked for that kind of responsibility, that I wasn't up to that kind of challenge, that He couldn't ask ask that much of me, or rather that He could, but that I couldn't deliver.

The moral of this story seems to be that you never know when lightning will strike. You never know when your next trial (or, to put a positive twist on it, your next opportunity) will come, so we need to prepare now to be ready for it.

How many times have we heard this before, Brethren? (Actually, I don't know if any Priesthood holders read this blog, so I may just be talking to myself here.) We've been frequently, even regularly reminded that we need to be righteous, worthy, and ready to respond. You remember that scripture, "In the last days, perilous times shall come"? Which days are we in again? And has anything perilous been happening recently? Let alone the moral degradation of society, I'm not in a position to comment on that, but there have been plenty of natural disasters to go around. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, storms. More people than little league football players are going to need healing before all this is over. Will we be ready to provide it? Will we be worthy? Will I?

This is a personal issue, and it can only be answered individually. This is a cause for self-reflection and an increase in personal commitment. I've said before that I use paladins as my role-models. One of the qualities I envy in paladins is their constant commitment. They're always on their best behavior. They always maintain their standards, and they never break their commitments. It must be exhausting for them, but there are certain benefits to it: they're always ready to answer the call, to call down the powers of heaven, to aid their fellow man.

We could use a few paladins right about now. And if we don't need them yet, we'll certainly need them soon. We're going to need their courage, their faithfulness, their ability to heal. But thankfully, in this case, we don't need paladins, per se. We'd be just as well served by faithful disciples of Christ.

In either case, one doesn't become a paladin or a disciple overnight. It takes prior effort. If I'm going to become a paladin, or a disciple whose qualities are on par with those of a paladin, I had better start developing those qualities now. We're already in the Last Days, we've already seen some perilous times, and certainly we're already in the most strongly contested part of the battle for mortal souls. We haven't a moment to lose. The time for disciples is now.

Riding the Bicycle

I just listened to President Uchtdorf's talk Of Regrets and Resolutions. In that talk, he said several things that I needed to hear. Actually, I probably need to hear them again, but I don't have time. I'm leaving for school in less than an hour (an hour earlier than normal), and I really need to post at least something on my blog before I go.

President Uchtdorf shared a usual experience that he and his wife had when riding their bicycles.

My wife, Harriet, and I love riding our bicycles. It is wonderful to get out and enjoy the beauties of nature. We have certain routes we like to bike, but we don’t pay too much attention to how far we go or how fast we travel in comparison with other riders.

However, occasionally I think we should be a bit more competitive. I even think we could get a better time or ride at a higher speed if only we pushed ourselves a little more. And then sometimes I even make the big mistake of mentioning this idea to my wonderful wife.

Her typical reaction to my suggestions of this nature is always very kind, very clear, and very direct. She smiles and says, “Dieter, it’s not a race; it’s a journey. Enjoy the moment.”

When thinking of Harriet Uchtdorf's quote in context of the other blog posts I've written, I wonder if what she said about bike-riding could be said about Eternal Progression as well.

Thinking about what I've posted recently, the primary concern seems to be the constant need for improvement. We have so many sins to resolve, so many bad habits to quit, so many Christlike qualities to develop. Even if we forget about the mortal world and focus only on the eternal things, life seems to give us an unending supply of things to do.

And of course, all those things are important to do. We have to resolve all our past transgressions, kick all our bad habits, and develop every Christlike quality if we're ever going to become perfect. I occasionally get impatient with myself for not kicking bad habits quickly enough. Perhaps I would do well to remember what Harriet Uchtdorf said, "it's not a race; it's a journey."

One thing that I try to remember about Eternal Progression is that, in our mortal perspective, it'll take an eternity to complete. No one can do it all in one lifetime, but fortunately, this one lifetime isn't all we have. Because of Christ, we'll all be resurrected, so we can continue living and progressing after we die. It's not a race. We don't have to get there faster than anyone else. We don't even have to do it quickly. We just have to do it persistently. And all we have to do in this life is get ourselves on the right path, and show, by our actions, that we're willing to follow that path forever.

But something that is very important to remember about this journey is that, even though there is no deadline for reaching the destination, We Must Never Stop. We're still on bicycles. If you're riding your bike and stop pedaling, you might coast for a while, if you already have momentum or if you're going downhill at the moment, but gradually, you're going to slow down, and when you feel yourself slowing down, you'd better start pedaling again or you'll crash.

It's the same with Eternal Progression. We don't have to burn rubber or anything, we can take the time to "Enjoy the moment," as Sister Uchtdorf said, but if we ever stop progressing, we may find the resulting crash a very painful experience, and we may find it very hard to start biking again.

There is a balance. There has to be. Somewhere between making good progress toward our Eternal goals and not stressing out too much about how we're nowhere near perfect yet, there has to be some "perfect speed" which is slow enough that we can find joy in the journey, but also fast enough that we can be satisfied with our progress. Maybe that speed is different for every person. Some of us, undoubtably, need to speed up, and some of us may be surprised to learn that we might do well to slow down. Only God knows for sure.

If there's one thing I've learned this morning, it's that we need to keep biking - uphill, downhill, forever - but while we bike, it's important to find joy in the journey and to enjoy the ride.

Buying the Bicycle

I just spent the morning reading Believing Christ. Unfortunately, I didn't find the exact section I was looking for, but I did find some sections that teach the concept that I wanted to share. In the first chapter, Robinson talks about what he calls the Great Dilemma. It's basically that God wants us to be perfect, but none of us can reach that standard, at least, not within our lifetimes. Chapter two talks about the solution to that dilemma.

He shares a story about his young daughter, who desperately wanted a bicycle. They couldn't really afford a bike, so he said something vague about saving her pennies, and left it at that. Several weeks later, his daughter came to him and said that she had done what he had asked of her, and they went shopping for a bike. Eventually, they found the bike that was perfect for her. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the price. The bike cost about a hundred dollars. Her savings? Sixty-one cents. She was devastated. Seeing her despair, her dad made her a new deal: "You give me everything you've got, the whole sixty-one cents, and a hug and a kiss, and this bike is yours."

Like the girl, it's practically impossible for us to achieve perfection on our own. Sure, it's theoretically possible for us to keep all the commandments perfectly, just as it's theoretically possible for her to save up enough to buy the bike, but realistically? We need help. That's where the Savior comes in. He asks us to do our best, give Him the whole sixty-one cents, or however much or little we are able to do, and He'll pay the difference.

To be honest, we're nowhere near perfect, but that doesn't really matter. All that matters is that we try to do what God asks of us and that we make sure to trust God for the rest. He does want us to achieve perfection eventually, but in the meantime, He knows that we're only human. He loves us and He's willing to make up for our imperfections. And as far as I'm concerned, that's really good news.

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

I started my studies this morning looking for what God expects of us. On LDS.org, I searched for the word 'Perfect', hoping to find a talk or article that said that God doesn't expect us to be perfect or "It's impossible to be perfect in this life, so here's what we should do instead: ..." Unfortunately, what I found was the most difficult commandment ever given to us, "Be ye therefore perfect," and several articles stating that perfection, though a distant goal, should be constantly strived for.

One article, Perfection Pending by Elder Russell M. Nelson, pointed out that the word "Perfect" in the commandment "Be ye therefore perfect" may not mean what we think it means. It was translated from the Greek word Teleios, which means "complete." According to Elder Nelson, Teleios is the source of the prefix Tele- which we use every day and which involves distance. Elder Nelson goes on to explain that perfection is a distant goal, on that cannot be fully achieved in mortality.

Elder Nelson also points out that Jesus said "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," during His mortal ministry, but when preaching to the Nephites after His resurrection, He said "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (Emphasis added.) It would seem that the completeness that Jesus commanded us to (eventually) reach includes the state of being resurrected, and thus this Perfection is impossible to gain in mortality.

Yet, Christ gave that commandment to mortals. I think that, even though we can't fully keep that commandment yet, there is something we can do about it, and that's what Christ expects of us.

There's another notable place in the scriptures in which the concept of perfection is used. In this case, the subject is brought up by Moroni, the Nephite prophet. He said "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;"

Interesting... In copying that scripture down, I noticed that both the word "perfected" as in "Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him" and the word "perfect" as in "by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ" have separate footnotes, and those footnotes don't go to the same place. I wonder what that means. Unfortunately, all those footnotes take me to verses from the Pauline Epistles, and I can't wrap my head around them right now.

Overall, the idea of becoming perfect seems to be a long-term goal or a process. The reaching of the goal or completion of the process is impossible in this life, BUT God expects us to begin the process and take steps toward the goal right now, and part of that is, as Moroni said, to come unto Christ and deny ourselves of all ungodliness. Coming unto Christ involves Faith and Humility. Denying ourselves of ungodliness involves Repentance and Self-Mastery.

Self-Mastery itself is a long-term goal, so we shouldn't feel bad if we don't reach it in mortality. We can make progress toward it, and I'm sure we're expected to, but total self-mastery is, if I'm not mistaken, impossible for mortals like us.

Repentance is an ongoing process. As long as we keep making mistakes, we'll keep having things to repent of, and until we achieve total self-mastery and an absolute knowledge of what we should do, we'll continually be making mistakes.

Faith and Humility aren't so much goals or processes as they are qualities that can be had in varying degrees. We can set goals to increase our faith and humility, and increasing our faith and humility is a process, but no matter how much faith and humility we have, I believe we can always have more.

So in conclusion, God has high expectations of us that He wants us to reach eventually. In the meantime, He wants us to get the ball rolling and take steps toward the goals. He knows we won't reach the goals in mortality. We won't even get close. But if we come unto Christ, through faith and repentance (things we actually can do), we can be made perfect in Christ.

As I recall, Stephen E. Robinson wrote some good things about this in his book, Believing Christ. I'll try to find them and report them tomorrow.

Faith in Christ, Doubt in Self

There's a bunch of new Bible videos, produced by the church. I've seen a few of them, but personally, there's another church-made bible video that I like better: Finding Faith in Christ. I've shared it many times on my mission. It's simple, touching, 30 minute video all about Jesus Christ, His teachings, the miracles He performed, including the ultimate miracle, the Atonement and Resurrection. since it's only half an hour long, I had plenty of time to watch it before blogging. When I watched it this morning, I line stuck out to me that I hadn't noticed before. In the movie, Thomas said "Without faith... even seeing is not enough."

I haven't seen much personally. I've helped give Priesthood blessings. I've received Priesthood blessings. But I haven't witnessed any healings that were obviously miraculous. At least, I don't think I have. Maybe they were clearly miraculous, but I lacked the faith to see them as miracles. Without faith, even seeing is not enough.

I wonder what else I don't see. People say that nature is a miracle. Every sunrise is a miracle all on its own. The birth of every new creature, and life itself are both miracles. I think I believe that. Sure, there's plenty of science to explain how it all happens, but I don't have much faith in science either. God makes more sense to me than science, but even though that's true, there's a lot about God and Jesus that I don't fully understand.

Stephen E. Robinson wrote a book called Believing Christ. Not "Believing in Christ," mind you. Believing Christ. I believe in Christ. I believe that He's the son of God, the Creator and Savior of the world. But I'm not sure I believe in Him as my Savior. I'm sure He'd love to save me, and I'm even sure He can, but I'm not sure He will. When it comes to deciding who will be saved and who won't, He leaves that up to us. He lets us choose whether we'll come to Him and be saved or whether we'll remain in our sins. Come to think of it, it's not so much that I don't have faith in Jesus. It's that I don't have faith in me. I don't trust myself to make the right decisions, decisions that I'll need to make in order to be saved.

But that leads me back to a lack of faith in God. Faith in God includes faith in His methods. He knows whether He can trust us, and if He trusts us to make decisions, He must have faith that we can make the right decisions. And sure, theoretically, I can make the right decisions. I'm just not sure that I will. It's like asking a kid whether he wants to go to church or stay home and play video games. He can make the better choice, but he probably won't.

That's where I feel I am. In order to be saved, we have to give up our sins, and I'm not sure I have the will-power to do that. I can make baby steps in the right direction. I have that much faith in myself. But I frequently backslide, too. Does the backsliding counteract the baby steps? Is it one step forward, two steps back, or two steps forward, one step back? Or is the forward steps to back steps ratio one to one? Am I making any real progress toward being saved?

Why am I talking about this in such a public place? Why don't I Command-A, Delete, and write something else? Why am I so sure that I'm going to publish this blog post anyway, with all my naked insecurities, never knowing who all may read it? Is it that I just don't care who reads it? Is it that somewhere in the back of my mind, I don't think anyone will read it, even though I personally know at least two people who will? Maybe it's that I don't think many people will read this blog post, and I trust the few people who will. Some people would worry about appearing weak, but heck, we're ALL weak. And either we can hide our weaknesses from each other until everyone believes that they're the only weak one in the world, or we can share our weaknesses and try to strengthen each other.

I have considered making a new blog. An anonymous blog, where I can share in greater detail exactly what I struggle with and why I feel so weak so frequently. Perhaps someone with the same problem will stumble upon the blog and I can help them. Or I can keep blogging here, try to stay vague, and hopefully help the people I know (and whoever else happens upon this blog) in some small, non-specific way. That's a good method, though, isn't it? If I stay vague, everyone who reads this can adapt it to themselves, and apply it to their own lives, even if their problems are very different than mine. Which way would do the most good?

But getting back to the point, if I trust God, I have to trust His judgement, even when He says that He can trust me. I'm sure I said that before. Maybe even yesterday. Or maybe I can trust Him enough to get over the belief that He can't trust me any more than I can trust myself, and still trust Him enough to believe that He can make things right anyway. Maybe He has a plan B that'll work as long as I keep trying to be righteous, regardless of whether I ultimately succeed or not. That way, I can still try to rid myself of sin, but I won't have to feel hopeless just because I fail. That sounds pretty good to me. But merely sounding good doesn't make something true.

I'll have to do some more research on this subject. I'll get back to you tomorrow.

The Ladder of St. Augustine

In my studies this morning, I stumbled upon a quote from The Ladder of St. Augustine, a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I'm certain that the quote will sound familiar to you as soon as you've read it:

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

This stanza shares some wise counsel regarding persistence and diligence, but that's not the only gem of wisdom I found when I read the complete text. Here are my highlights:

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!

This, the first stanza of the poem, takes some creative license with where one is allowed to place commas and separations between lines. I assure you that the rest of the poem is much easier to read. Stated simply, (and badly paraphrased,) this stanza says:

Saint Augustine, you have told us that if we tread beneath our feet all our past deeds of shame, we can frame a ladder out of our vices.

Much less poetic, but a bit easier to understand. It means (if my interpretation is worth anything) that if we put our past behind us, if we change ourselves, if we overcome our vices, that struggle and triumph will allow us to rise.

The mighty pyramids of stone,
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.

The distant mountains, that uprear
Their solid bastions to the skies,
Are crossed with pathways, that appear
As we to higher levels rise.

Mountains of often seen as great obstacles that are difficult to overcome, but offer great heights to those that meet the challenge. I never would have thought to include pyramids in that analogy, but Longfellow did. He also shared a new perspective on the mountains in the 'Obstacles with Opportunity' analogy, that once we've climbed a bit and gained a little perspective, we realize that the mountains are covered in natural pathways, that even though the mountains had seemed to be barriers, they were actually meant to be climbed. The pyramids, too, "when nearer seen, and better known," are covered in stairs that are easy enough to climb, if you take them step by step. But the last two stanzas are my favorite:

Standing on what too long we bore
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern - unseen before -
A path to higher destinies,

Nor doom the irrevocable Past
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
To something nobler we attain.

In this poem, Longfellow proves wiser than many. He shows that he understands that though the Past is unchangeable and filled with faults, flaws, and failures that we would love to change, even a pile of problems gives us something we can build on. If, out of the ashes of our mistakes, we learn wisdom, and if we use that wisdom to gain great heights, then it can be said that, in the long run, those challenges that we struggle with turn out to be good for us.

I, personally, hate my faults and weaknesses. I don't think they're making me stronger or better. They're making me weaker. Perhaps I could become stronger or wiser by overcoming them. But, standing at the bottom of the mountain, that seems like an impossible task. I'm sure St. Augustine and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were higher up their mountains than I am up mine now when they said what I just quoted. Their perspective is better than mine.

Still, I have the perspective of faith. I've been told that challenges produce champions, that obstacles are opportunities, and that trials can result in triumphs, and I believe that it's true for other people. But is it true for me? Can my challenges make me a champion? Are my obstacles really opportunities? Can I face my trials and come out triumphant, like so many others have done? Can I be as strong and as good as I encourage my readers to be? Or am I a failure and a hypocrite, whose only real success in life is encouraging others to be better than me?

What I still need to recognize (among so many other things) is that one's perspective goes hand-in-hand with their attitude, which, as a wrote a few days ago, is of vital importance. Life by the yard is hard, but by the inch is a cinch. I can't imagine climbing up a flight of stairs as tall as a pyramid or the Empire State Building, but I know I could climb one flight of stairs with ease. Why not start with that? And once I've climbed one flight of stairs, I'll go climb another, and then another. It'll add up over time. As long as I keep moving forward and try not to regress, I may eventually find, to my great surprise, that I've climbed higher than I ever thought I could, higher than I now think that I'll ever be able to climb. It all starts with just a couple of steps. I can do that much. And if I can keep that perspective, perhaps I can do more than I currently think I can.

Commandments at the Beach

I'm not sure what to write this time. The videos I watched this morning, Stay Within the Lines and We Are All Enlisted, I watched mostly for my own benefit. But I'll ramble on for a while, and you can judge whether or not my ramblings can help you.

Elder Holland spoke of lines of worthiness in which we must stay. In typing that, I felt a little bit of what some of you may feel in reading it: restriction. I felt like I was describing a fenced field which we are not allowed to leave. What comfort me are the many other analogies of commandments that I've heard over the years. One of those analogies admit that, in a way, commandments are like fences.

In San Francisco, just to the West of the North side of the bridge, there's a beach. The name of this beach is Rodeo Beach. (I've always heard it pronounced Row DAY Oh rather than Row DEE Oh, but I'm not sure it matters.) Rodeo is mostly a pebbly beach with some kind of estuary or saltwater lake behind it. On either side of the beach, there are cliffs with trails leading up and around, offering wonderful views of the ocean and the surrounding nature. Most of those trails, when they get near to the cliff, have fences.

Commandments are like those fences. They seem to be holding us back, but they're really not. It's easy enough to cross those fences, if you want to, just as it's easy to break the commandments (in fact, it's sometimes hard to KEEP the commandments). But the fences, and the commandments, aren't really there to restrict us, they're there to keep us safe. They're there to keep us from falling off the cliff by accident. They're there to force us to make a choice. Will we stay on the Lord's side, the safe side, or will we cross over the line and take our chances with our own judgement?

Another analogy. Rodeo Beach doesn't have this problem, but some beaches do: whirlpools. A sign reads "Danger! Whirlpool. No Swimming." But this sign is not a fence. We're still free to do whatever we want, unimpeded. We can walk up and down the beach. We can gather seashells, make a sand castle, feed the seagulls. We can even go swimming, if we want. There's no one to stop us. But if we choose to swim, we may get caught in a whirlpool, and once we're stuck in there, we'll have a hard time getting out. I stole this analogy from the Gospel Principles manual.

Commandments are like the No Swimming sign. God can warn us that there are dangerous things around, and He can tell us what to do to avoid them, but the choice is still ours to make. Do we want to have thrilling fun, and risk the consequences, or do we want to have the kind of fun that keeps us safe? I haven't gone swimming at a beach in years, but I still like going. I especially enjoy hiking along the cliff trails, but I stay on the safe side of the fences.

The world is full of choices, but some of the choices we can make carry dangerous, painful consequences. God would rather that we didn't have to suffer those consequences, so He'd rather that we all made safer choices, so He tells us about the cliffs and the whirlpools and He warns us not to go near them, not because He wants to control us, but because He wants to keep us safe.

In the past, I have ignored a No Swimming sign and I have gotten myself stuck in a whirlpool, so to speak, and I can tell you from personal experience that you don't want to go there. It's better to keep the commandments. It's better to make sure you stay safe.

Examples of Righteousness

This morning I read President Monson's April 2008 talk, Examples of Righteousness. He talked about how young men in the church look up to their Priesthood leaders, and how those leaders should set a good example to the young men they influence. He also talked about parents being good examples to their children. He quoted Brigham Young: “We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do. We should set them an example that we wish them to imitate.” I don't have children yet, but regardless of that, I should still be trying to be the kind of man that I want my future children to be. I have a long way to go.

As I thought about inspiring examples, I thought about Paladins. The image of a Paladin helps inspire me to be more righteous and faithful, courageous and selfless. As I've read about Paladins, I've learned that being an example of righteousness is part of their job (according to the author, Elizabeth Moon). In the fantasy world in which they live, they are meant to inspire others. I'm confident that, as a very small part in God's eternal plan, they were meant to inspire me. Pillars of truth and strength, powerful servants of the Lord, standing boldly against sin and evil wherever it is found. Fictional Paladins were meant to be an example to me, so that if I succeed in following their example, I can someday be an example to others.

As I wrote about in my last post, our actions can have a ripple effect that spreads over areas too wide for us to guess. Elizabeth Moon could never have guessed that I would eventually read The Deed of Paksenarion, and be inspired to be a more faithful soldier of God. She could never have known that, emboldened by her novel, I would become a better person and then go on to influence others. It is literally impossible for her to estimate how much good she did by writing such an epic novel. In a similar manner, I must admit that it's possible that, decades from now, someone may stumble upon this blog, and in some way become a better person because of it. I highly doubt that that will ever happen, through the sheer improbability of it, but like Elizabeth Moon, I can never know for sure.

And neither can you. Sometime today, you're going to do something that will affect someone more than you know. How do I know that? Because things like that happen all the time. Perhaps you hold the elevator door open for someone, and it makes their whole morning seem brighter. Or even if the person for whom you held the door open wasn't remarkably affected, perhaps someone down the hall saw your act of kindness and decided to follow suit. The point is that there are hundreds, if not thousands of people on which we have some small influence occasionally, and most of that influence goes beyond the range of our perception. As we do good, we inspire others to do good, who in turn inspire others, and so on. So when we do good, we have no idea how much good we are doing.

The same, unfortunately, is true in reverse. When we do things that are wrong, we accidentally lead others down the same path, whether we know it or not. That's part of the reason (along with the concern for our own personal salvation), we should be careful that we're doing good as much as we can. Paladins try to do good always, and that's part of what inspires me.

But, of course, the greatest example of personal righteousness is the Savior, the one person who, while living on the Earth, knew exactly how much good He was doing. Doing good and influencing others for good were His purpose in life. He knew that He was meant to be an example to those He taught, and that they would be an example to those they taught. He told them "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." - Matthew 5: 14-16

We may not know how much influence we have on others, but it's important for us to remember that that influence exists. We set an example for others to follow, so it's important that we follow President Monson's counsel and make sure we're being examples of righteousness. I know we can't be examples of righteousness all the time. We all fail occasionally. But those are the times when we can be examples of repentance, and then examples of righteousness. I hope that someday, for someone, I will have the courage to share my example of repentance, but for now, I'll use whatever influence I have, whatever influence this blog gives me, to try to be an example of righteousness, of learning and self-reflection, of taking the time to think about things that matter.

I'm sure this blog post has influenced you. I hope it was an influence for good. If it was, pay it forward. You never know how much good it'll do.

How To Change A Life

The little things can make a big difference. A 5-minute video and a few paragraphs of reflection, it doesn't seem like much, but it lifted my spirits a little just now, and a good attitude can make a big difference.

It works for good things and bad things. A compliment can go a long way in affecting someone else's mood, but so can an insult. A short phrase, mentioned in passing, could change someone's outlook on the day, and (though I may be stretching this) that could change their life. I once had an idea for a movie where one person, for no real reason, says or does something mean to a random stranger. That throws the random stranger into a bad mood, and he says or does something even more mean to someone else. The process continues until someone does something tragic, like a shooting, very negatively affecting the person that started the cycle. The cycle-starter feels miserable. Then the scene transitions back to where the first person does something mean to the stranger, only this time, he does something nice instead. This leads us into a montage where everyone in the movie, when they would have done something mean, they do something nice instead, bringing us back to the last person in the cycle, the shooter, who throws his guns into the river instead. The shooting never happened.

Now, Hollywood would probably end the movie before the What-If-Everyone-Had-Been-Nice montage, but it's important to me that we remember that for every negative, there's a positive. If kicking someone when they're down could really hurt them, then lifting them when their down could really help them. That's my logic, anyway.

A short, 5-minute video and a few paragraphs of self-reflection don't seem like they could change my day, let alone my life, but they can change my attitude for a few hours, they can make my day go better, they can help me feel the Spirit once or twice before I start my day. And that can really change my life.

"Blog."

In a moment of frustration, I cried to God, asking "What do you want me to do?" The answer I got back was "Blog."

I remember a time when I would watch, listen to, and read General Conference talks, and blog about what I learned. I felt the spirit so strongly at those times. I truly felt that God was speaking to me, and perhaps also to others through me. I've been struggling a bit lately. I feel like I need more guidance, more strength, more help from God. God knows the best way to help me, and He's asked me to blog.

I went to LDS.org and watched some Mormon Messages videos. I had forgotten how uplifting and inspiring those are. One in particular, David A. Bednar's Discerning Light reminded me that God doesn't like to make Himself obvious. He only uses His power when He has to, and even then, He only uses as much as He needs, no more. He doesn't shake the Earth for us when He knows we can feel His influence through the Still Small Voice. I sometimes doubt whether I have all the help that I need to do what God asks me to do. I frequently ask for miracles, claiming that anything short of a miracle wouldn't be enough to help me. But God must know better than I do. He's known me since before I was born. He knows me better than I know myself. He knows how much help I need, even if I don't. I need to trust Him, even when He says that He can trust me. He seems to think that I don't need a miraculous amount of help, that a few promptings of the Holy Spirit would be enough. I sure hope He's right.