In his most recent talk to the women of the church, President Eyring said something that made me pause for thought: "Those who do not see their weaknesses do not progress."
This makes a certain amount of sense. After all, if you don't know what the problem is, you can't fix it. But I'm not sure how to reconcile this teaching with the concept of eternal progression. God is perfect. God has no weaknesses to see. Yet, God is progressing. Then, was President Eyring's claim incorrect? Does it apply only to humans? Or am I misunderstanding the definition of "progress," "perfection," and/or "weakness"?
The word that was translated as "perfect" in some translation of the Bible was translated as "complete" in others. Can a thing be "complete" but still have weaknesses? More to the point, does God have any weaknesses? What is the definition of "weakness" (specifically, as President Eyring meant it to be defined)?
Is it possible that God is not progressing? One who has no weaknesses, and thus "do[es] not see their [non-existent] weaknesses]," cannot overcome them, and thus cannot progress. Perhaps God has the same problem King Louis of Disney's animated classic The Jungle Book claimed to have: He reached the top and had to stop.
Yet, if that is true, the inability to improve upon perfection could be considered a weakness or a limitation, and if one could overcome that inability, they would be making progress, so a situation in which progress is impossible is theoretically impossible.
I'm probably putting way too much thought into this. President Eyring was speaking to people, and for people, his statement is true. If a person, who certainly has plenty of weaknesses, fails to recognise any of those weaknesses, he or she cannot actively work on overcoming them, which is probably pretty close to what President Eyring meant. I'd be surprised if President Eyring meant for his statement to be taken literally and over-analyzed. Perhaps I ought to listen more to the main themes of Conference messages rather than latching onto a single thought or phrase and reading far too much into it.
1 comment:
There's a really neat book I like called "Weakness is Not Sin" that goes into excellent depth about this issue. From reading it I learned that "weakness" can be defined in many ways. It can be limitation; ignorance; physical, emotional, mental hurts that have healed but have left marks; a missing skill; a deformity; a handicap; a way of coping with difficulty that is sub-optimal.
Different weaknesses must be dealt with different ways. Some we cope with. Some we learn new skills. Some we eliminate through practice or gaining more experience. Some we can transcend through miraculous intervention.
Still, all need our awareness.
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