I go on Facebook sometimes, looking for inspiring quotes and images to share on my blog. I have a lot of religious friends, so it usually works out pretty well. But I also have a lot of political friends who post news and articles about the government, and not all of it is good news.
The trouble with politics is that you never know who you can trust. Which news sources are telling the truth? How heavily slanted is their bias for or against whomever their talking about? And the politicians! They all make promises, but can any of them actually fulfill those promises? How many of them don't even try?
I wonder what things would be like if there were no "government." What if, whenever there was a decision to be made, whoever cared went to the Town Hall, shared their opinions, listened to other peoples' opinions, and took a vote? What if the so-called "government" was literally "of the people and by the people?" I don't have strong opinions on much of what goes on, but I really would like it if I at least felt like my voice was being heard.
What we have now seems to be an army of lawyers arguing in legalese, setting up and slipping through legal obstacles and loopholes of increasing complexity, while playing a political game that essentially amounts to a popularity contest. Those people may be much smarter, or at least more clever, than I am, but I'm not sure if I trust them to make decisions that'll effect my life.
So who can we trust? When everyone who is in office, or who's trying to get into office, or who's talking about anyone who is in or are trying to get into office, are liars, who can you trust?
Thankfully, we don't need to trust any of them. We only need to trust God.
Forget the "end of the day." At the End of Days, there's really only one Government, and it's not a Democracy, or a Republic, or anything like that. It's a Monarchy. And the Monarch is God. He made the laws. He is the judge. He enforces His laws through a system of rewards and punishments, both in mortality and afterward. And if we follow Him, regardless of what a few thousand knuckleheads do or don't do in Washington, things will all work out in the end.
But here's a good question: Why would I, who "would really like it if I at least felt like my voice was being heard," be satisfied with a Government in which I had absolutely no say at all in what the laws are? Wouldn't I like to vote on some of God's laws? Or at least be able to vote for lesser punishments for those who are guilty of certain sins (like the ones I'm having a hard time giving up)? Why should I accept the rules and authority of someone who won't let me have a say on what the rules should be?
A big part of the reason boils down to trust. I trust Him. I know He's wiser than I am. I know He's a good person. I know His rules make sense to Him, and they'll all make sense to me later on. In the meantime, it's all about trust.
If that's not enough for you; if you don't want to trust God, well, you don't actually have to. You can quite literally do whatever you want to do. But sooner or later, one way or another, you will have to acknowledge God's power. He's the boss, even if for no other reason than the fact that He says He's the boss and He has the muscle to back that up. In that sense, He's a lot like other monarchs. You don't have to like it - it's just the way it is. But luckily, this Monarch cares whether you like it or not. Even better, He cares about your happiness; your Eternal Happiness. And He designed His set of rules and laws, rewards and punishments, so as to encourage all of us to follow the path that will lead us to the greatest and most lasting amount of joy possible.
I sometimes lose sight of that. Sometimes, I know I should do A, but I really want to do B. I think B will bring me more happiness than A, even though God told me otherwise. Still, the choice is mine, and the natural consequences follow. Whether I'm happy or not is based entirely on my choices, and in that sense, I still have a great deal of freedom, despite living under a monarchy. Also, I suspect that for most of God's rules, they aren't just laws that He made up - they're laws of nature or physics or whatever, that He understands and is kind enough to warn us about. I mean, either He twisted the laws of medicine to manipulate us into obeying the Word of Wisdom (and punish those who don't), or He knows medicine well enough to know what's not good for us, and He's nice enough to tell us what to avoid. You can guess which one I think is more likely. Maybe His other laws are like that, too.
It's time that I trusted God enough to obey all His commandments, not just the ones I like and understand. When it really boils down to it, I'm not sure if there's any one person that I'd rather trust.
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