A Change of Being

My new favorite book is Chronicles of Everfall: Shadow of the Conqueror by Shad M. Brooks. The main and nearly titular character of this book is Daylen Namaran, better known as Dayless the Conqueror, whose tyrannical, bloody rule of the Dawn Empire made him the most infamous man in the world. He was overthrown and thought killed, but he survived in hiding and plotted his revenge, but given enough time to reflect on his life, he realized what terrible things he had done, and he came to feel great remorse. In time, he decided to turn his life around. He adopted a new identity, and went about doing good, hoping to permanently make his new identity his true identity.

Over the course of the book, Daylen explores how he is and is not a very different person than he had been, and the scriptures explore this idea as well. When Saul converted to Christianity, he took on a new name, and he wasn't the only one. Through repentance and conversion, we all become different, better people over time. Of course, the past can still haunt us. We still need to make amends to the extent that we can. But when we truly repent, it's almost as though we completely change identities. Tad. R. Callister spoke of this transformation in his General Conference talk on The Atonement of Jesus Christ:

When we repent, we are “born of God.” We become, as the scriptures say, “new creatures” in Christ. With perfect honesty we can now say, “I am not the man or woman who committed those past sins. I am a new and transformed being.”

Now, this doesn't completely let us off the hook. We still have to try to undo what we've done and/or make up for it, but the idea that we can effectively become different people  is both intriguing and appealing to me. Normally, when I think of the transforming and cleansing power of  The Atonement of Jesus Christ, I think of those powers as being completely separate. We are cleansed from our sins, but retain our identity, and we are transformed from mortal beings to immortal beings. I hadn't considered the possibility that these two powers could work together to turn us into new, sinless, eternal beings, but now that's something I greatly look forward to. My sins are nowhere near as great as those of Dayless the Conqueror, but I too wouldn't mind a chance to reinvent myself and become a new person, without the burdens of the poor choices I've made, and I can. Through repentance, we can all become "new and transformed beings." We just need to repent thoroughly enough and change drastically enough that we can properly be considered new people.

Prepping for the Second Coming

In his talk titled Preparing for the Lord's Return, Elder D. Todd Christofferson spoke of the Millennium, the time following Jesus' Second Coming in which just about every problem of mortality will be solved:

When He comes, oppression and injustice will not only diminish; they will cease:
...
Poverty and suffering will not only decline; they will vanish:
...
Even the pain and sorrow of death will be done away:

And so on. All in all, it sounds like a wonderful time to be alive, if we live long enough to see it.

The only downside to the Millennium is that it is preceded by a period of natural, man-made, and supernatural disasters in which all of the wicked, and even many of the righteous, will be destroyed. To survive that period of time, we need to prepare ourselves both spiritually and physically.

Our spiritual preparation is accomplished using the same methods we've all heard countless times: Reading scriptures, praying, repenting, giving service, etc. Basically, we prepare ourselves for the Millennium the same way we prepare for the Celestial Kingdom. We need to live as righteously as we can and repent every time we fall short.

Our physical preparation involves the same sorts of preparations we'd make for any other natural disasters. We make sure we have access to a reliable store of food and water. We prepare whatever we need in case we need to live without electricity. We make sure we have plans for responding to whatever natural disasters are common for our area, or could possibly happen in them. For example, living in a valley not far from a tectonic fault, it would be wise for me to have plans in case of floods or earthquakes, and since it's often dry here, it would be good to have a plan in case of fire as well.

If we prepare as well as we can, we can increase our chances of living to see the Millennium. Of course, our survival isn't guaranteed. Many good, prepared people will die during the Second Coming, and countless people, good and bad, will die of old age between now and then. Still, just in case the Second Coming happens during our lifetime, we would do well to be prepared to survive it.

Homefront

In his talk, Great Love for Our Father's Children, Elder Quentin L. Cook said "The war for the souls of all, but particularly children, is often in the home." This stood out to me because the home is a place where people are supposed to feel safe, yet it's a place where we frequently face spiritual danger. That's why we need to be careful to make sure that our homes are places where the Holy Spirit can dwell, so He can grant us His spiritual protection. We can make our homes places of safety, despite the adversary's frequent attacks. It's important to protect our homes from Satan's influence, especially since it's one of the places where he's most likely to strike.

Sharing Out of Love

In his talk titled Great Love for Our Father's Children, Elder Quentin L. Cook shared a line from his Patriarchal Blessing: "I bless you with great love for your fellowmen, for thou shalt be called to carry the gospel to the world … to win souls unto Christ." He then said, "I understood even at that early age that sharing the gospel was based on a great love for all our Heavenly Father’s children."

This is because the Gospel is, or at least can be, a great blessing in a person's life. Those who know of the Gospel know of the power of forgiveness and what they must do to access that power. We know how to find peace in this life and eternal joy in the life to come. For those who are interested in gaining super and/or magic powers, the Gospel path provides a way to gain the greatest powers an omnipotent God can bestow. And for those who love their family, the Gospel provides a way for them to remain together forever. Basically, living the Gospel is the best, and in some cases the only way, to get the greatest blessings one can possibly imagine, making the Gospel itself a tremendous blessing.

Naturally, we all want this blessing for ourselves for any number of reasons, but if we're sufficiently compassionate, we also want this blessing for others, so they can enjoy the many blessings of the Gospel as well. If we love others, we want them to be happy, and the Gospel path is the path to true, eternal happiness. So, if we love others, we would want them to find true happiness by following the Gospel path.

Unfortunately, one can't follow a path if they can't find it, and they're not as likely to find the Gospel path unless we share it with them. That's the tricky part. Most people don't often want to talk about religion, especially if anyone tries to get "preachy" with them. However, despite whatever awkwardness such conversations may cause, we should try to share the Gospel with anyone who's willing to listen, or at least willing to tolerate hearing us talk about it. It truly is a great blessing, and we should love others enough to want to share that blessing with them, even if it's awkward.

Of course, we should be careful not to burn any bridges in our eagerness to cross them. We don't want to scare anyone away from the subject of religion as a result of our efforts to share ours. Remember: light guides, but it never compels. If people don't want to talk about it, we should back off and wait for the subject to come up again. Still we should try to share the Gospel about as often as the subject comes up. If we think people would benefit from living the Gospel, and of course they would, it would be unkind of us not to share it with them.

So, while sharing the Gospel may be awkward and impractical at times, it is also an act of love. If we love people enough to want what's best for them, then we should love them enough to tell them how they can get it.

Adversity with Others

One of the struggles of mortality is facing adversity together. In theory, facing adversity together can help build camaraderie and bring people closer together. Unfortunately, the opposite is also possible. Adversity can bring out the worst in people and can drive a rift between them. That's why we -  (Oh, who am I fooling?) That's why I need to be careful how I respond to hardship and adversity, especially when others are involved. I love the people in my life, and I don't want to express any frustration toward any of them, even at those times when I feel frustrated and we're together. I need to learn how to control myself so I don't accidentally take any of my frustration out on the people who matter to me, or better yet, so I can let go of that frustration altogether. That's one of the many lessons I need to learn some time in my life. It may not be my highest self-improvement priority at the moment, but it's still something I should work on, especially during those times when I have to face adversity in the company of others.

Should Kharagan Kill the Kobolds?

One of the great things about playing a Paladin in D&D is that it gives me opportunities to consider difficult moral situations with life-and-death consequences (without getting anyone killed in real life). At the moment, my current D&D character, Kharagan, is on the trail of a party of Kobolds (at least, that's what I assume they are) who captured one of his comrades with plans to eat him.

This is already a fairly complex moral situation. The rule of self-defense doesn't strictly apply, since Kharagan isn't really defending himself; however, he is defending an innocent person, so he's justified in taking some form of action. Still, he should try to resolve this peacefully, especially since the Kobolds are just after some food. There is a slim chance that this might end peacefully enough that Kharagan and the Kobolds could form a lasting partnership, as the Kobolds' lair is directly beneath a tavern that Kharagan and his party are opening. Yet, if negotiations fail, would Kharagan be justified in killing several Kobolds to save one human's life?

The Kobolds where the aggressors, but their actions were as justified as any hunter's. Then again, if a hunter caught a wolf, we wouldn't exactly blame the rest of the pack for attacking the hunter. I don't know how helpful this analogy is, but it would seem to justify killing the Kobolds if they don't release Kharagan's friend willingly when offered other food in exchange.

There is another consideration which muddies the waters a little bit, but I don't have time to go over it now. But just given what we have so far, it seems that Kharagan should try to negotiate with the Kobolds, but if that fails, and if killing them is the only way to save his friend, I think that killing the Kobolds may be justified.

Washing out Scarlet

When I first heard Sister Eugene's talk, I was so caught up in her light analogy that I completely missed another point she made later on (or maybe I just wasn't listening; I can't remember). She said that scarlet is colorfast, meaning that once it has dyed a piece of fabric, the color never comes out. Apparently, crimson is the same way. So, when the scriptures say, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," it's a reference to the impossibly great power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Christ's cleansing power is so great, it can wash out that which could not otherwise be washed out. Without the Atonement, our sins would be permanent stains on our souls, but thanks to the Atonement, even the most persistent stains and dyes can be removed, and our souls can be made clean again. That is an amazing blessing, and I thank God that Christ's power to cleanse our souls is more powerful than any dye or stain.

Resetting the Lights

Sister Sharon Eubank's talk, Christ: The Light That Shines in Darkness, begins by sharing a story of an evening when she looked out toward the Salt Lake City Temple. Normally, the lights of the Temple come on immediately at dusk, but on this particular evening, they hadn't, and Sister Eubank couldn't see the spires of the Temple in the place she knew they should be. This experience reminded her of our need for spiritual light, and it made me wonder what we should do when it goes out.

In real life, the Temple Facilities Manager sent his staff out to turn the lights on manually, then they replaced the batteries in the automatic power supply and tested to system to find out what had failed. Similarly, when we find that our spiritual lights have grown dim or gone out, we should manually reset them through prayer, scripture study, etc. and make a thorough examination of our lives to find out what had gone wrong.

Sometimes, reseting the lights takes more than one person's efforts. Sometimes, we need help from ministering brothers or sisters and/or church leaders to help bring the lights back on and repair the mechanisms that are meant to keep them on. There's no shame in this; everyone needs help from time to time. That's part of the reason why this church organization even exists: so we can help each other. This means both helping others when we can and getting help when we should. The Temple Facilities Manager didn't get all the lights back on all by himself, even though, given enough time, he probably could have. He called in the help he needed to get the lights back on as quickly as possible. Just as the Temple Facilities Manager was willing to ask for help when he needed it, so should we.

Knowing that spiritual light is necessary for our spiritual progress, Satan does everything in his power to cut off our access to that light, and sometimes he succeeds, at least partially. When our light dims or goes out, we shouldn't despair; that's just what the adversary wants us to do. Instead, we should try to reset our spiritual light as soon as possible, even calling in help if we feel like we could use it, and thoroughly check ourselves to find out what had gone wrong, how we can fix it, and what we can do to prevent that part from breaking in the future. Of course, this isn't always easy. Satan tries to make it as hard as possible. But no matter how or why the lights have gone out, God always provides a way for us to bring them back on. God will not leave us in darkness forever. Not so long as we keep doing what we can to reset the lights.

On Blessings and Bonfires

Elder Dale G. Renlund began his talk, Abound with Blessings, with a discussion about blessings and how we obtain them. He argued that we cannot "earn" blessings through our works, but we can't simply rely on grace, either. Blessings require both grace and works. To illustrate this, he gave an example of a bonfire. There may be a huge pile of wood in a fire ring, but without a match to light it, it doesn't burn. Similarly, one may strike a match, but unless that match is applied to kindling and firewood, the match will merely burn itself out in a matter of moments. God has graciously provided us with a mountain of firewood and kindling, but He leaves it up to us to strike our matches and apply it to the wood. God offers us great blessings, but we have to secure them ourselves through prayer and righteousness. Our small acts unlock God's great blessings. We can't earn them, but we still have to work for them. Some people rely completely on God's grace, and others rely completely on their own works, but they're both wrong. To receive the greatest blessings God can offer us, we need both grace and works.

Playing Together

One of my favorite Youtubers, probably my absolute favorite Youtuber, sometimes plays video games with his wife, and it's adorable. It's heartwarming to see their interactions with each other, how they help each other, how they tease each other, and how they compliment each other, both on their gameplay and on their banter. I love watching them spending time together, working together, hanging out, and having fun. It's uplifting. In my opinion, that's just what a relationship should be.

People who love each other would do well to spend quality time together. Naturally, that time doesn't need to be spent playing games, but it should be spent in a way that allows them to communicate with each other and interact with each other, especially in a positive way. Watching a movie together isn't much good because there isn't much room for interaction. Playing games against each other isn't much good because it doesn't foster cooperation and unity. Working together, while important, isn't always a positive experience, and it's not good to associate one's relationship with drudgery. That's why I think it's good for couples (or people in any sort of relationship) to play games together on the same team. That can help them experience winning together, losing together, working together, and supporting each other.

I'm glad when I can see people in loving relationships playing together. It's a positive, uplifting experience, both for them and for me.

Getting My Thoughts Together

It is well beyond time for me to get my thoughts together and make an actual plan for the lesson I'm teaching tomorrow.

I'd like to start with Saul, since his story gives us a dramatic example of the main point I want to get across, that everyone can repent and that the Gospel is for everyone. But if I'm going to talk about Saul, it makes sense for me to start with Stephen, since he generally doesn't get the attention he deserves, and his story provides a good starting point for Saul.

Saul's conversion story links up well with Peter's revelation in numerous ways. Of course, both stories address my main point, but Peter's revelation also covers several other important topics, such as how church policies (and all their changes) are directed by revelation, which is directly relevant to my group of 11 and 12 year olds who are now joining our changing Youth program.

There are enough points in these two weeks of lessons that I probably won't have time to cover them all, so I'll prioritize getting to the point I most want to cover, and I'll see how much time I have left after that. I plan to have a robust conversation about how God isn't a respecter of persons, but if we exhaust that topic before we run out of time, we have other topics we can cover as well.

The lesson should go fine. I could feel much more prepared than I do, but still, it should go fine.

Respect and Blessings

As part of the lesson I'm teaching on Sunday, I'm going to address the fact that "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34), and I'm going to start a discussion on what that means and what that doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that He doesn't respect anyone, and it certainly doesn't mean that He treats everyone the same. It means that He treats everyone fairly, if not generously. God is often, though not always, more than fair with His children, but He is always at least fair with them. He never cheats any of us out of what we deserve. Even the parts of mortality that seem most unfair, like the circumstances of one's birth, will be made fair through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We all have the opportunity to achieve our eternal potential. Blessings come, in this life and the next, to those who try to do so. So, God blesses different people in different ways, and He blesses some people more than others, at least at first, but God makes sure that, by the end of the Final Judgment, everyone will get what they deserve, if not better. No one is getting the short end of the stick here. God doesn't show preferential treatment, at least not in the long run. As I said recently, anyone can be redeemed and reach our full potential. However, it is our choices, not our circumstances, that determine whether we live up to that potential. It's not luck or favoritism; it's our choice.

Difficulty Focusing

I had an idea of what to blog about tonight, but I'm getting distracted by too many unblogworthy thoughts, some personal, some political, and some about things that don't actually matter. I'd like to focus on the one blogworthy thought I have, but being tired and having too many other thoughts in mind make that difficult. I should have blogged earlier, like I did yesterday, and I should avoid Facebook, which is almost nothing but distractions. It can be difficult to focus on the things that matter. There are too many other aspects of life that try to pull us in other directions. I really ought to pray more and blog earlier. It's sometimes too difficult to focus on spiritual thoughts this late in the day.

Redemption is for Everyone

I have been asked to substitute teach a Sunday School class this Sunday, so, just as I did when I taught Primary, I'm going to spend at least one or two blog posts planning that lesson, which will cover Acts 6-15. These chapters include a handful of stories whose messages work well together, most notably Saul's conversion and the opening of the Gospel to the Gentiles. One lesson we can draw from each of these stories is the same lesson I drew from the crucifixion of Jesus; "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34). Anyone can repent and be forgiven, including those who crucified their Savior, those who persecuted the church, and those who were previously considered "unclean."

This is a message of hope for each of us and for all mankind. Anyone can repent and become converted, even the most degenerate people who ever lived. So instead of judging others and writing them off as hopeless, we should try to be compassionate and offer them the opportunity to repent, because we know they can.

Of course, it will still be their choice. Even a visit from an angel isn't a sure-fire way to make someone turn their lives around. It worked for Saul and for Alma the Younger, but it didn't work for Laman and Lemuel. If even an angel can fail to change certain hearts, so can we. We can only offer others the opportunity to repent and encourage them to do so. They are ultimately the ones who need to choose how they live their lives. And, admittedly, I remember once hearing that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. However, we have scriptural accounts that people can change suddenly and dramatically, if they have the right motivation. If Saul and Alma the Younger can go from persecuting the church to trying to build it up, so can anyone.

Naturally, conversion stories aren't usually that dramatic or that short. As I wrote yesterday, God grows our knowledge by degrees, thus our testimonies also grow "line upon line," more often than not. This is why patience is also required. We can't expect anyone to change overnight, not even ourselves. Good habits take a while to develop, and old habits die hard. So, while anyone can change, we shouldn't expect it to be quick or easy for anyone.

Still, if one has enough time and/or motivation, change is always possible. Anyone can repent, and God openly welcomes all who do, so we, too, should be open to welcoming all those who are willing to change. As we learned with Saul and the Gentiles over these two weeks, redemption is available to everyone.

Line Upon Line

One of the messages worth learning from this week's Sunday School lesson is that learning in the Gospel (and everywhere else) comes by degrees. No one masters any subject immediately. One has to learn the basics first, which itself can take some time, and then one has to build on those basics one step at a time. Learning is a process, often a slow one, and that's true no matter what subject we're studying. It's tempting to want to understand everything at once, and I supposed God could make that happen, if He really wanted to, but rather than granting us all of the knowledge in the universe all at once, He lets us learn at our own pace, giving us new information only when we're ready for it. It's tedious and sometimes frustrating, but I can see some of the wisdom behind it. Too much information can be overwhelming. It's much gentler to learn things "line upon line."

Blood Doesn't Matter to Justice

I'm reading a book in which one character kills another character, who arguably deserved to die, but then learns that they were probably related to the person they just killed. With this new information, the character says that they probably wouldn't have killed the other character, had they known. However, I (and a third, mostly unrelated character) believe that blood relation should rarely be a factor in matters of morality. If a person deserves to die, then they deserve to die, regardless of whether they're related to another person.

Now, if a parent of one of more young children proves worthy of serious punishment, we may yet show song lenience, if only for the sake of their child(ren). However, in most other moral cases, blood relations probably shouldn't matter much, and people certainly shouldn't escape just punishments because they're related to the judge, jury, and/or executioner. Nepotism isn't just.

Yet, God sometimes spares us the punishments we deserve, and it could be argued that He spares us because we are His children and Jesus, our Savior, is our brother, but I think there's more at play here. After all, God has proven willing to punish some of His children, even severely, when they deserve it. His mercy is extended on the terms of our repentance, not our relationship with Him. Similarly, Jesus saves us because He is our Mediator. He bought our debt, and thus bought the right to forgive that debt on whatever conditions He sets (which condition is also usually repentance). The fact that we're spiritually related to Him might explain His motivation, but it doesn't alter the arrangement. The force of justice is not and should not be swayed by the existence or nonexistence of blood relations.

The Trolley Problem with Morally Ambiguous People

There's a new game coming down the pipes on Kickstarter called Trial by Trolley. In a nutshell, two teams of players set up elaborate variations of the trolley problem, and a separate player, the conductor, has to choose which track to send the trolley down. The game includes a stack of innocent people, who the conductor would want to avoid, like a kitten curled up against a puppy, and another stack of guilty people, who the conductor might be kind of okay with running over, like a pedophile on his way to a playground. The teams lay down the trolley problem by playing innocent people on their track and guilty people on their opponents' track; however, I think there's room in this game for a third category of people, or maybe for abolishing the categories altogether. See, the world isn't all black and white, and neither are the people who live in it. I'm sure there are some people who might be considered guilty or innocent, depending on the context and/or one's perspective.

Take, for example, a police officer. A lot of people would consider police officers to be good people. After all, they help enforce laws that keep people safe. They place themselves between dangerous criminals and the general public. Some people view cops as heroic. Yet, some people have different opinions about police officers. Some people view cops as bullies or as pawns that enforce arbitrary and/or corrupt laws. There are some bad cops, just as there are some good cops, but the ratio of good cops to bad cops is mostly up to personal opinion. Just going off of the knowledge that the person on the track is a police officer, the conductor would have to rely on his or her own biases and whatever statistics he or she may know in order to determine whether a random cop is likely to be good or bad.

The same could be said for the doctors who perform abortions. It's a valuable service, when it's necessary, but when it's unnecessary, it is a terrible evil. The conductor's beliefs will largely determine whether they think an abortionist is ultimately good or bad. To this middle category, we could also add super-powered vigilantes, Robin Hood, and the person who invented kazoos. Arguably, none of these people are evil enough for a morally upright person to want them killed, but if one morally ambiguous person was on one track and another equally ambiguous person was on the other, having to choose between them may or may not be difficult, but it would certainly be interesting.

Naturally, people feel inclined to protect the innocent and punish the guilty (mostly to defend or at least avenge the innocent), and that is the whole point of the game, but there are also many people who don't fit neatly into one category or the other. Many people could be seen as good or bad, depending on one's values and perspective, and it could be difficult to place two such people side-by-side and determine which is the worse of the two. I'm glad I don't have to make that kind of judgment call in real life. Thankfully, God is the ultimate judge of souls, and He has a flawless value system and an infinite perspective. He knows which people deserve to be spared and which people deserve to die, and I'm glad it's Him who has to make those calls, and not me. Answering the trolley problem with morally ambiguous people in real life could be very difficult, but I don't think I'd mind exploring such questions in a game.

The Good in Everyone

Is it wrong to see the potential for good in everyone? I will admit that many people do unspeakably evil things, and I admit that many people who do bad things will choose not to repent; however, that being said, I still think it's a choice that they can make, and it's certainly a choice that should be encouraged. I don't believe that anyone should be demonised or dehumanised. People aren't monsters, even if they've done monstrous things. They're still human, and there's still a potential for good in them.

Besides, those who do bad things usually have understandable reasons for that. Some people are desperate. Some people don't know what they're doing. Some people have different beliefs or value systems. Some people haven't learned how to deal with strong emotions. Some people have mental health challenges. Regardless of their specific circumstances, what many of these people need is help, not punishment.

Granted, those who do evil cannot be allowed to continue. I accept that. There should be detention centers and correction facilities for people who do bad things. But the ultimate goals of those facilities shouldn't be just to punish bad people. Punishment for the sake of punishment seems pointlessly cruel to me. Naturally, ones actions should carry consequences, but those consequences should steer one toward a better course of action, not just punish them for taking the wrong course.

My problem is that this seems to be an unpopular position to take. Acknowledging the humanity of those who do bad things can get one called a "sympathizer," as if having sympathy is some kind of flaw. I acknowledge that sympathy, along with all other virtues, can become a vice if taken too far, but I don't think that acknowledging the humanity of an evil-doer is an example of too much sympathy, especially when one also acknowledges that they must not be allowed to continue doing evil. We can correct people while still acknowledging their humanity, and we can acknowledge both people's humanity and their need for correction. People can be wrong and do wrong without becoming inhuman.

I believe that all human beings have some good in them, even if that good is just the potential to change for the better and become good. I believe that all human beings chose the side of good before they were born and that they can choose good again. No human being is irredeemable. No human being is or can become inhuman. There is a potential for good inside everyone. And if believing that makes me a "sympathizer," so be it. Sympathy is a virtue.

Relying on the Son

In a book I'm reading, Chronicles of Everfall: Shadow of the Conqueror, the magic systems are all based around light. This makes a great deal of sense to me, as, in the real world, almost all energy comes, directly or indirectly, from the sun. With very few exceptions, all plants (and thus all animals) rely on the sun. The sun also powers all our weather and the water cycle. The sun is even responsible for coal and fossil fuels, as their sources are organic creatures that originally got their energy from the sun. Almost all energy on earth, magical or not, came from the light of the sun.

The spiritual parallel here seems fairly obvious to me. I believe that God designed most life on earth to rely on the sun in order to remind all of us of the extent to which our spiritual lives depend on His Son. The earth itself and everything on it was created, directly or indirectly, by Jesus, and it's His power that makes both our mortal and our eternal lives possible. We rely on the Son of God just as much as all living things rely on the sun.

I am grateful for how generous Christ is with His power and how many reminders there are of our reliance on that power. It just goes to show how vital the Savior is to our spiritual welfare, just as light is vital to magic in Everfall and the sun is the source of just about all energy on earth.

Sharing Burdens

People sometimes worry about being a burden on others, but I'm not sure how much they really need to be worried about that. When we ask for help from others, we simultaneously do several spiritually important things. We resist the kind of pride that says that we always have to do everything ourselves. We give others the opportunity to perform service (and reap the blessings of said service). And we lighten the burden any one individual has to bear by splitting that burden up among multiple people.

People are supposed to help each other bear our burdens, but we can't do that unless we are willing to share both our strengths and our burdens with others. Most of us are okay with giving service, and that's great! But we also need to be willing to share our burdens, especially when those burdens are too heavy for us to bear on our own. These shared burdens might create more work for others, but it's the kind of work that builds character and secures spiritual blessings. All things considered, sharing our burdens with others practically does them a favor, as they blessings they earn through doing service always makes that service worthwhile.

So, when we need help from others, let's not be too proud to admit it. We're only human. All humans need help at times. And by asking others to help us, we are giving them opportunities to secure heavenly blessings. Granted, we should help others as much as we can as well, since we don't want to be leaches and we could definitely use some blessings as well, but the bottom line is that we all lighten each others' burdens and secure blessings for ourselves and others when we all agree to share our burdens with each other, so when the need arises, we shouldn't feel too bad about sharing our burdens with others, especially when we're willing to share our strengths with them as well.

Learning from Mistakes

Whenever something doesn't go as well as I would hope, I sometimes think (sometimes obsessively) about what I might have done better. Case in point, last Saturday, I supervised my first day of cleaning the church building. Thankfully, I had a lot of help in preparing for that day, including being given a PDF of an assignment sheet that would be very helpful. Or rather, it would have been helpful, had I remembered to print it out. But of course, I realized that I forgot to print out the helpful assignment sheet, and I kicked myself about it for about half an hour after that. However, each and every misstep we make is, or at least can be, a learning experience. We can learn from our mistakes and use them to make us wiser. Next time, I'll make sure I have one of those assignment sheets with me, and I'll continue to look for other ways to do better, both with in my calling and in other areas of my life. Nobody's perfect. We all make plenty of mistakes. What's important is to learn from our mistakes so we can do better in the future instead of getting hung up on past and present mistakes.

Family Media Time

Today, I had several opportunities to spend time with family, and we spend much of that time watching a movie or playing video games. That was fun and good, and I think it helped us bond at least a little bit, but I think that, while media can give us an excuse to spend time together, it can also reduce the quality of the time we spend together. I think we would have bonded more if we had talked with each other instead of watching movies or playing games. Still, if not for those movies and games, we might not have gotten together at all. I think that enjoying media together as a family is a good thing, despite the fact that other activities might be better. Almost any excuse to spend time with family is a good excuse, even if the time we spend together is mostly spent enjoying media.

Hope for Anyone

I am repeatedly surprised at God's capacity to forgive and for people's capacity to change for the better. I'm currently reading, in two separate books, about two people who have done terrible things, nigh unforgivable things, who were nonetheless miraculously placed on the path of repentance and forgiveness. Their examples of unexpected redemption remind me that there is hope for literally everyone. No matter what, we can repent, we can turn our lives around, and we can be redeemed.I find that absolutely incredible. The Atonement of Jesus Christ truly is infinite. I'm grateful for that, and I'm grateful for the examples, both in fiction and in non-fiction, that remind me of that.

A Non-Paladin-Friendly Campaign

In about a week and a half, the D&D game I play at Comics and Collectibles is going to start a new campaign. (The campaign with Krusk Bloodfist is over, and that character is now officially retired.) In that first session of the new campaign, we are going to make characters, and I will have an important decision to make: Should I make my character a Paladin or not?

At first, it seems like this shouldn't even be a question. Of course I should make this character a Paladin! I should play a Paladin (or any other Lawful/Good character) as often as I can! However, this specific campaign gives me a bit of pause.

From what I've heard about the new campaign, it may turn out to be pretty silly. It will be an Acquisitions Incorporated game, which I've been told means that we'll be running an adventuring company, with a stronger emphasis on running the company than on actually adventuring. The DM also told me that the game will strongly involve what the characters do in their "downtime,"  the time they spend between adventures.

I suppose it's possible for a Paladin to get into an adventuring company that does more company management than actual adventuring. Any strongly Lawful character could see the value in order, including the order of a corporate structure, and everyone needs to earn a living somehow, so working for an adventuring company could work for a Paladin. However, in my mind, a Paladin spends most of his downtime looking for more people to help. When a Paladin isn't adventuring, he is looking for an adventure, or at least a side quest, in which he can do some good. I suppose we could call that "advertising," to keep the corporate theme, but I worry that I may be taking this game too seriously.

Acquisitions Incorporated seems to be a silly concept that's barely more than a shallow gimmick. If I played a Paladin who takes all his actions seriously (as every Paladin should), then I would want to take the game seriously, and I don't think that will match the tone of the game. So, I'm considering playing a sillier character instead, one that's not a Paladin, one that can go with the flow. Or maybe I could play a Paladin who doesn't take things too seriously or who is ridiculously serious, so his seriousness can be played off as a joke.

I don't know. I want to play a serious character and take the game seriously, but maybe that's not the kind of game the others want to play. I want to develop my character's story, not just play a game. But maybe I'm being too serious. After all, games are supposed to be fun, and the last thing I'd want is to make the game less fun for the others. Can I keep the game fun and light-hearted, perhaps even silly, while still playing a dead-serious Paladin? Maybe. Or maybe it'd be easier to just make a different character.

I'm not sure what to do. I want to make a Paladin and play the game for the story, but it may be wiser to make my character another class and just play the game for fun, as the others likely will. Maybe I can find a compromise between the two approaches, or maybe I can somehow find a way to satisfy both. It's not unthinkable that a Paladin could end up in the mire of corporate structure and perhaps be a little less serious than Paladins normally are.

It's worth a chance. I'll play a Paladin, and if he doesn't fit in that campaign, I'll tweak him slightly until he does.

A Cleaning/Learning Experience

This morning, I helped clean the church building as the Brighton Ward Building Cleaning Coordinator for the first time. It was a learning experience. We were a little short-staffed because I counted too many chickens before they hatched. We were not fully equipped because I forgot to bring some of the equipment I had been provided. And I had to deal with a few situations that I hadn't anticipated. However, despite all that, I think it went fairly well. We got the most important jobs done, and I learned some tips that I can use in future weeks. I expect that future weeks will go more smoothly, partly as a result of how bumpy this week was, and that, to me, sounds like a half-decent metaphor for life.

Life can be pretty rough. Sometimes we're put in difficult circumstances. Sometimes we make life harder by making dumb mistakes. And sometimes, just when we start to think we've got things more-or-less figured out, life throws us a curve ball or two. Life can be a challenging experience, but it's an experience that we can learn from. We can learn how to handle difficult circumstances, avoid dumb mistakes, and even predict or learn how to react well to curve balls. And everything we learn about life, we can use to help us get through the rest of our lives. Life is full of experiences we can learn from and experiences where we can use what we've learned.

So, I have a pretty positive outlook on how things worked out today. It didn't go half-badly, and what I learned today should help future cleaning days go even better. All in all, it was a positive experience, partly because it was also a learning experience.

Freedom

While spiritual independence may or may not be a goal worth striving for, depending mostly on the definition of the term, there is another related ideal that is certainly worth striving for: Freedom. In a way, our whole mortal experience is a battle for freedom, as Satan tries to take away our freedom, and God gives us guidelines for how we can retain it. Some people mistakenly believe that following the adversary lets us exercise more freedom and that God's commandments are too restrictive, but they aren't thinking far enough ahead. God is the one who wants to give us as much power and freedom as we can responsibly handle, and the enemy is the one who ultimately wants to bind us down. Every time we choose to follow God rather than Satan, we choose freedom, and the end result is that we'll have more freedom than we can currently imagine. Our freedom to choose is one of our most powerful tools, and it's a large part of the stakes we're fighting for. That's why it's so important to continue to fight for it.

Independence

Today is Independence Day in the United States, the day we commemorate declaring our independence from England. In temporal terms, independence is a good thing, at least in the sense that we don't depend on others. In this way, independence is much like self-reliance, a virtue that our church teaches. However, in spiritual terms, I'm not sure whether independence is desirable or even possible or not.

For at least as long as we are mortal, we will rely on the grace of God and on Christ's Atonement. We rely on God and His servants for direction. We depend on God for just about everything, including sustaining our life from one moment to the next. For now, at least, complete independence and self-reliance seems impossible.

Furthermore, spiritual self-reliance might be a bad thing, depending on how we interpret it. We shouldn't rely on others to strengthen our testimony, so that kind of self-reliance is good and important, but we also shouldn't rely on ourselves instead of relying on God. Even if we can survive without God's help, we couldn't survive spiritually without God's guidance. Our pursuit of self-reliance should not include rejecting God's help.

So, at least for now, complete independence is undesirable, but I don't know whether that will stay true forever. For now, we should and must rely on God, but I wonder whether that will hold true even when we become gods ourselves. Our ultimate goal is to become like God. Will we still need God's guidance after we've done that? Part of me thinks that we will, because as long as we are progressing, God is progressing, too. With such a head start on us, God will always be ahead of us in His spiritual progression, so He will always have guidance and insights to share with us, and it will always be wise for us to continue to learn from Him.

Is that the same thing as depending on Him? Perhaps not, but it's also not really being independent and self-reliant. So, no. While we should certainly learn to provide for ourselves and gain our own, independent testimony, I don't think that means that we'll ever grow to be completely independent from God.

Grateful to Be an American

I'm not sure how much sense it makes to be proud of something I have no control over. In my mind, pride is reserved for accomplishments, and being born in America wasn't an accomplishment. At least, it wasn't an accomplishment of mine. I can be proud of the people who made America as good as it is now and of the people who continue to strive to make it better. I can be proud of America for the good it does in the world. And those who got themselves to America and earned their citizenship can certainly be proud to be Americans, but I don't think I can be. I had no hand in shaping America or in becoming an American, so I don't think it makes much sense for me to be proud to be an American.

I can, however, be grateful to be an American, and I certainly am. There are many other countries I could have been born in, and few (if any) of them are as richly blessed as America is. I'm lucky to be an American, and I wish more people could be so lucky. I wish life was as good in the rest of the world as it is in America.

I can't be proud to be an American because I didn't do anything to deserve that, but I am grateful that I was lucky enough to be born an American.

The Poor Performance Paradox

I am (somehow still) learning that, in this life, we have to be okay with not being good at certain things. In areas where we have little experience, we will have little skill, but the only way we can gain experience is by practicing that skill. We have to be willing to do something poorly in order to get in the practice we need in order to do it well. If we shy away from doing things because we don't do them well, we will never learn how to do them better. I need to learn to accept my lack of skill in certain areas for now and to keep trying to do my best in those areas regardless. I can't let my embarrassing lack of skill prevent me from developing enough skill to stop embarrassing myself. I will get better with practice, but to do so, I need to be willing to perform poorly.

Find a Mountain

A Youtuber I follow recently published a book, and in a Youtube video he posted about it, he spoke of the importance of consistently working toward our dreams, as opposed to just daydreaming about them. I imagine that this would be fairly good advice, if only I had a dream to work toward.

Of course, there is the obvious purpose-of-life dream that I'm working on. I strive for self-improvement, with the ultimate goal of personal perfection and celestial exaltation. But that's more of a long-term goal. I don't have many, if any aspirations that I can achieve in this lifetime. Heck, I haven't even fully nailed down my career goals!

I think my problem is that I don't have any strong desires. I don't want anything badly enough that I'm willing to make every effort to get it. I am content, and I don't know whether that's a good thing because I don't really envy anyone or anything, or whether it's a bad thing because I don't have enough ambition.

When I was growing up, my family had money troubles, and I learned to make do and be satisfied with what we had. It was never much, but it was always enough. Right now, I don't have a whole lot, but I have enough, and I'm satisfied with that, maybe a little too satisfied. There is some virtue to envy, as it can give people the motivation to work hard for what they want. I don't want much more than what I already have.

I should find something I want. I should find a dream to chase. Every man needs a mountain to climb and a goal to strive for, beside any and all spiritual goals. My spiritual goals are important, but they're not enough. I need to find a temporal goal to strive for as well.

The good news is that I'm not completely devoid of wants. I want to want something. I have a desire to have a desire, and that might be part of the solution. Perhaps I can overcome my contentment by making it my goal to find a goal worth striving for. I don't currently have any mountains I want to climb, at least not any temporal ones, so maybe I ought to make it my personal goal to find one.