A Miraculous Natural Wonder

I studied my psychology textbook today, and at the end of today's readings, there was a message in the textbook that I thought was pretty nice. It basically offered an olive branch to theists who might have been a bit put off by the discussion of genetic variation and natural selection that had taken place a few paragraphs earlier. Essentially, the textbook argued that the universe isn't any less miraculous for our increasing understanding of it. The natural wonders of the world are no less wonderful for our understanding of how they're formed. When I studied Historical Geology, learning how some mountains were formed didn't make them any less majestic. And life is made no less miraculous by our understanding of how it evolved.

The textbook also left some room for my dominoes theory. It said that we can trace our understanding back to the Big Bang, but no further. It said that there are several factors that had to go exactly right for this universe to even resemble one that could support life as we know it. Now, those factors could have gone right by random chance, or they could have gone just right by God setting up the dominoes exactly that way. As far as I know, science doesn't say which explanation is more likely. It's entirely possible that the existence of God is the most likely explanation for the universe being the way it is, even if all He did was set up the dominoes, knock down the first one, and let the dominoes fall from there.

But whatever explanations we have for the universe, the Earth, life, and people all being the way they are, they're all amazing. Thunderstorms are awe-inspiring, whether they're created by God or by natural weather patterns. Rainbows are beautiful, whether they're a sign from God or a refraction of various wavelengths of light. Whatever natural or divine forces shaped the world we live in, it's an incredible world, one that even the staunchest scientist could consider miraculous.

The world is a miraculous, natural wonder, no matter which of those adjectives you choose to emphasize.

Family from Afar

Today, our family had a picnic together, and we all had a good time, even though not all of our family could make it. Even without some of our family members at the picnic, the rest of us were able to feel a sense of togetherness and belonging.

I imagine that this will continue to be true, even as we are (hopefully temporarily) separated by death. Some of us will die before others do. We won't all pass through the veil at the same time. There will be family on both sides of the veil who will have to make do without the family on the other side. Still, as long as there are multiple family members on each side, no one will have to be or feel alone, and even when there is only one person on a side, it won't stay that way forever. We will be able to connect with at least some of our family members, even if other family members are out of reach.

I'm grateful to know that we can still have family connections, despite separations, and that we will all be together again soon enough. Death is temporary, but family is forever. Not everyone could be at the family picnic today, but I know that our family will be together again soon enough.

A Simple Way to Show You Care

During our Stake Conference this evening, one of the speakers shared a video telling the story of a man who had been in a very dark place until his family helped him to see and feel the light again. And what I loved most about the video is that the man's family hadn't said or done anything profound or insightful. All they did was spent quality time with him and let him know they cared. They were just there for him. They talked to each other, not about light or darkness, but about things that he and they were interested in. It really doesn't take all that much to have a good, uplifting relationship with someone. You don't have to know what to do or say. All it really takes is to spend time with them and maybe chat with them.

I have a relationship that I would like to strengthen. Next chance I get (assuming I remember), I'm going to try to schedule some time to be with them, not necessarily to do or talk about anything specific, but just to spend some time with them. Sometimes, some time is all it takes.

Pure in Heart

Today, Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions, a YouTube channel I follow, posted a video about the trope of characters who are Pure in Heart, and the thing is, apart from newborns and fictional characters, I'm not sure anybody is or can be that pure. Sure, people can be good, but nobody is perfect. We all have some darkness in our hearts. Everyone gets tempted, and everyone occasionally gives in to temptation. None of us are completely pure in heart.

Yet, I imagine that we might become pure in heart. Through the power of the Atonement, we can be cleansed, sanctified, and perhaps even purified. And, through our righteousness and our presence in the Celestial Kingdom, we can remain pure and free from temptation, for if only the righteous are allowed to enter the Celestial Kingdom, there will be no impure being there to tempt us.

Very few people on Earth are pure in heart, and no one who lives long remains pure, but through our faith and faithfulness and the grace and Atonement of Christ, we can become pure in heart and remain perfectly pure forever.

To Stomp on a Hedgehog

Twitter user Jess Tholmer once wrote, "you can never ban abortion, you can only ban safe abortions." But frankly, there's a part of me that's okay with that.

If a person decided to stomp on a hedgehog, I think there would be a certain amount of justice if that person's foot got injured by hedgehog quills. Animals have a right to defend themselves. People have a right to defend themselves. If a mugger tried to stab you dead in an alley, you would be completely justified in stabbing them back, or perhaps putting them at risk of accidentally stabbing themselves.

Granted, my philosophy relies on the idea that fetuses are human, or at least that they deserve at least as much moral consideration as animals. Yet, I don't think that's a bold claim to make. If a pregnant woman is murdered, it counts as a double-homicide. Killing a woman and her unborn child is counted as killing two people, not one person and a clump of cells.

And yet, even if we take it as a given that abortion is murder, I'm not completely certain that banning safe abortions is a morally justified decision. If the goal is to reduce human suffering, and if the mother is determined to kill the child one way or another, then wouldn't the most moral decision be to make the procedure as painless as possible, for both the mother and the child? What good does it do to jam a woman's foot full of quills if the hedgehog is going to get stomped to death either way? Wouldn't it be better to give the woman heavy, spiked, quill-proof boots, so she can remain uninjured and the hedgehog's death can be quick?

Ultimately, I'm still against abortion. I still consider it murder. It is an unprovoked, unjustified ending of an innocent, human life. And, even given the desire to reduce human suffering as much as possible, I'm not sure I mind giving the innocent one more layer of protection against their would-be killers. Then again, if a person is so desperate to escape a pregnancy that they'd literally stab themselves to do it, then that person needs help, not a knife in the gut. We should help the people whose situations are so unfortunate that they're willing to consider abortion. Still, even so, I'd rather pay for counselling than safe abortions. If a person wants to stomp on a hedgehog, I'd rather give them counseling than quill-proof boots.

If a person wants an abortion, they clearly need help, but rather than help them do the deed, I'd rather help them not want to.

Masters of Our Own Fates

We are each the masters of our own fates. At least, we are if we choose to be. Some people believe that our lives are determined entirely by the circumstances of our birth. Where we are born, when, how, and to whom all shape our lives significantly, as does our upbringing, but as soon as we become capable of making decisions, we begin to become capable of shaping our destinies.

While our births determine our starting positions, our choices determine where we go from there. Every choice we make is a step in one direction or another. After a lifetime, followed by an eternity, of making choices, we ultimately determine where we end up, regardless of where we started.

Granted, some steps are smaller than others and some choices are harder to make than others, and our starting point can have a profound effect on where we ultimately end up, whether by encouraging us to stay close or by driving us to get far away. Still, we ultimately choose where we end up by choosing which direction we go in from wherever we started. We may be born on a beach, but if we choose to walk inland and uphill, we may ultimately end up on a mountaintop.

They say that fate isn't something we can control, that fate is just something that randomly happens to us, influenced by forces beyond our control. But some of the forces that influence fate are entirely within our control. Every choice we make has an influence on our ultimate fate. Destiny is our decision. If we can master ourselves and our own choices, we can be the masters or our own fates.

Different Paths

We all must walk different paths in life. There are many reasons for this.

For one thing, we all start in different places, thus the directions we follow to get where we're going will need to be different, at least at the start.

For another thing, people have different capabilities. A person who is driving might have a different route than a person who is riding a bike. A person who takes buses and trains will have a different route than a person who travels on foot.

Some people have different destinations in mind. If you're going to the local library, then your path will differ greatly from someone who's going to the grocery store.

And people have different preferences. Some people would take the fastest route, while others might prefer a more scenic route.

Some people may want or need to make stops along the way, and they may make different stops, even than those who are. for the most part, on the same path.

Every person on Earth is walking a different path than every other person on Earth. Even those who try to follow the same path as others will find that they need to make different detours than those of the people they're following. Meanwhile, other people are on different paths altogether.

When navigating our paths in life, it's impossible to follow anyone else's footprints exactly. Rather, it's best to learn how to navigate for ourselves, to learn how to determine where we want to go and what path we need to follow to get there. We all need to learn how to be our own pathfinders, because, whether we want to be or not, we are all on different paths.

The Staggering Gift of Agency

I've been thinking about the staggering gift of agency. We have been given the gift of agency, the ability to make choices. It is our responsibility to make choices, and those choices are ours to make. No one can make them for us. The amount of freedom we have to make our own decisions is both comforting and discomforting to me. I'm grateful to have freedom, but with that freedom comes the responsibility to make decisions, and decision-making can be hard. Thankfully, I have people who believe in me and in my ability to make good decisions, and that makes my decision-making a little easier.

The ability and responsibility to make choices can be overwhelming, but with the right amount of support, it is possible to responsibly bear the burden of this staggering gift.

Us VS The Problem

I've heard that the best way for two people to resolve a conflict is together. If two people have a problem with each other, they should try not to see the conflict as the two of them being against each other, but as the two of them working together against the problem. If you and I have a problem with each other, we shouldn't fight against each other; we should work together to solve, or at least minimize, the problem. Rather than seeing anyone as an adversary, I'd rather see people as potential allies against whatever problems we may have, even the problems we have are with each other.

People aren't perfect, and we're bound to make mistakes and decisions that create problems for each other, but that doesn't mean the we, ourselves, become problems for each other. Rather than seeing each other as sources of problems, we can see each other as potential sources for solutions. We can work with each other, rather than against each other, to find solutions to the true problems.

Rewards for Righteousness

This afternoon, I watched a video about motivation and how some motivating factors can accidentally be counterproductive. For example, if someone is offered a reward in return for doing a certain kind of behavior, that might encourage them to develop that kind of behavior, but they might only be motivated to do it so long as there's a sufficient reward involved. If the rewards stop coming or start failing to satisfy, the behavior may stop as well.

That may be part of the reason why the blessing of being righteous don't always come within this lifetime. If they did, people might act righteous, but only for the reward, which kind of undermines the whole idea of becoming righteous. God wants us to choose to be righteous because we're righteous people, not because we are being or will be rewarded for it.

Perhaps that's why most of the rewards of righteousness and punishments for wickedness don't happen in this life. Rewards and punishments can be somewhat motivating, but they shouldn't be our only motivators. We should be righteous for the sake of being righteous, not for the sake of a reward.

Walking with God

In our family scripture study this evening, we discussed the significance of the meaning of the Savior's invitation to walk with Him. God doesn't require us to go alone. God offers to work with us and walk with us as we travel down the gospel path. Naturally, the path is still difficult. Even with God's help, keeping the commandments can be a great challenge. But the promise we've been given is that God will be there with us to help us on our way. Granted, in order to walk with God, we have to try to stay near Him. That's part of following the path. But as long as we stay as near to God as we can get, He will help us stay on the path so we can draw closer.

It's comforting to know that God will walk with us so long as we walk with Him and that He will help us along the path He asks us to follow. We don't have to walk alone. So long as we have faith in God and follow Him in faith, we can walk with God, and God will walk with us.

Family Support

I'm thankful for the support I get from my family. Without going into too many details, I went through a small rough patch recently, but a member of my family helped me handle it better than I would have on my own. I'm grateful that I have a family whose members lend each other their support.

I know that not everyone has a family that supportive, and that's why I'm glad to know that one's "family" isn't always just the people they're related to. "Found families" and close friends can fill that role when blood family doesn't.

And, of course, if nothing else, we all have a Heavenly Father who, at the very least, can give us a listening ear and shoulder to cry on.

I'm grateful that, between my blood family, my friends, and my Heavenly Father, I have several members of my family that I can count on for support.

To Talk and Make Adjustments

Tonight, I had a really good experience with D&D. The previous two weeks had been a bit of a struggle, and some of the players left the session feeling bored, confused, or frustrated. Thankfully, after talking it out and making some adjustments, we were able to have a good game together tonight, and I can with some confidence say that a good time was had by all.

And frankly, I think that's the key to any good relationship. We need to talk with each other, truly listen to each other, try to understand each others' wants and needs, and make adjustments when necessary. If we can do that, we can overcome our differences and learn to work together.

I think that everyone had a good time tonight, and I think that a big part of the reason for that was that we talked to each other and made adjustments. As long as we keep doing that, I'm sure we'll have fun gaming together for a long time to come.

10,000 Reviews Can Be Wrong

This afternoon, I saw a commercial that said that 10,000 reviews can't be wrong, then went on share some of the positive reviews they had gotten and why we should use their product or service, whatever it was. But while the rest of the commercial was playing, what I was thinking about was how fallible humans can be and how any number of humans can be wrong about any number of things. No one is perfect, and that includes not having perfect perception. We can see and hear things wrong and incorrectly interpret what we think we've seen and heard. For instance, there are 1.9 Billion Muslims in the world, according to a quick Google search, and 1.34 Billion Catholics. If the Muslims have the correct religion, then 1.34 Billion Catholics are wrong in their deeply held religious beliefs, and if the Catholics are right, that means that 1.9 Billion Muslims are wrong, and I have it on good authority that they're both wrong. At least 3.24 Billion people believe that their religion is the correct one and are wrong. In fact, no matter which religion is true, the vast majority of Earth's population is wrong about religion.

This is concerning to me. Naturally, I have faith in my religious beliefs, but statistically, it's highly probably that I, by random chance, have fallen into the vast majority of the population who believe that they're right, but are wrong. Fortunately, I can fall back on core principles that are held in common across many religions. There is a God out there (perhaps more than one), and He (or She or whatever) hears and answers our prayers. I can also, with some certainty, believe that God wants us to be good, or at least, it is good to be good. Most basic moral principles apply across most beliefs and cultures, and many people believe that, as long as we are basically good and try to be about as good as we know how to be, then we can trust God (or the Gods) to take care of the rest.

And if we're all wrong about that, which I suppose is possible, it's probably still good to believe it anyway. Society is better off believing that it's worthwhile to be good than believing that morality doesn't matter.

I believe in God, and while that belief has been shaken somewhat, I plan to hold on to that belief and to try to be about as good as I know how to be. If God is also Good, that'll probably count for something. And if I'm wrong, oh well. At least some people's lives will have been improved by my belief (wrong or not) that God wants me to be Good.

Make Time For Family

This afternoon, after doing a good amount of schoolwork, I had an opportunity to sit back, relax, and just enjoy some YouTube and video games for a while, and for a while, I did. But then my brother asked if I wanted to go for a walk with him. At the time, I was in the middle of a relatively challenging dungeon and in the middle of a YouTube video, but I decided that it was more important to pause both and go on the walk anyway, and I'm glad I made that decision. As important as recreation and relaxation sometimes are, it's also important to make time for family.

This afternoon, I had a chance to pause what I was doing and make time to walk and talk with my brother, and I'm glad I did.

Imbued with Meaning

I've recently gained a greater interest in a song titled A Little Heart, written by a YouTuber who writes and performs songs based on video games. Since this song was written to commemorate the release of Kingdom Hearts 3, the song was full of references to Disney songs, so the lyrics themselves don't necessarily make a whole lot of sense. However, the relative lack of meaning in the lyrics allowed me to interpret the lyrics fairly liberally and imbue them with my own meaning. As such, this song has become surprisingly meaningful for me, mostly because I chose what meaning it has.

The same can be true of some parables. While many parables have clearly explained interpretations, others aren't as clearly explained, allowing us to interpret these parables however we'd like, in whatever way is most meaningful to us. With no objective meaning, we can imbue the parables with whatever meaning the Spirit impresses on our minds. This way, many of the parables can mean whatever we need them to mean, just like how A Little Heart now has special meaning for me.

So, when we read parables, especially parables with no clear interpretation, we should try to keep our hearts open to whatever impressions He sends our way. These stories are flexible. Many of them can be imbued with whatever meanings are especially meaningful to and needed by us.

Old Habits

Old habits, apparently, die hard. Here I am, half an hour before midnight, blogging at the last minute, again. Fortunately, I know how to get myself out of this situation. After I write a quick blog post about blogging (this one), I'll brush my teeth, go to bed, and try to make sure I blog earlier tomorrow. That's all I really can do. It may be that the only way to overcome old habits, like blogging near midnight, is to overwrite them with new habits, like blogging in the middle of the day, and forming new habits takes time, diligence, and fighting through the occasional relapse. Today may not have been a good day for me, but tomorrow will be better, and so long as I keep trying to improve, I'm sure I will.

Old habits don't die quickly or easily. They die as knew habits are formed to replace them, but only when the new habits are maintained long enough to become "old habits." Until then, I guess I'll just have to keep working on it.

"Earning" Blessings

Sometimes, to help myself feel better about the various acts of service I am frequently called upon to do, I think about the blessings I am earning for doing so, and how I might invoke those blessings when asking God for favors. I picture it like little crystals. When I do something good, I earn a crystal. The more good I do and the harder it is to do so, the more crystals I earn and the larger those crystals are. Then, when I pray, I can spend those crystals to make it more likely that I'll get the blessings I prayed for.

Of course, I know that's not how this really works. We get blessings for being good people, not for doing good things, and the blessings always take the form of what we most need, no matter what we pray for or how many brownie points we spend asking for it. Still, it's nice to have a(n admittedly inaccurate) way to visualize the good that comes from doing good. It's motivating. And it feels nice to ask God for blessings with the confidence that I've kind of earned them, rather than merely asking for a favor that I have little way of paying back. This way, I can "earn" the blessings I want, even though I know that that's not really how any of this actually works.

I know that I don't actually "earn" blessings and that I can't really call in favors or anything like that, but still, it's a nice thing to pretend about, especially if it helps me stay motivated to keep being good and doing service.

Happiness

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God." - Joseph Smith

I'm glad that the importance of happiness is one of our core beliefs. I'm grateful to know that we're allowed and even encouraged to be happy. A lot of religions are willing to sacrifice mortal happiness for the promise of future happiness, but I'm glad that we don't have to choose. We can have happiness in this life and the next, and I really appreciate that.

The path to happiness isn't always easy, but I'm glad that this happiness is available to those who are willing to seek it.

Attitude is Everything

As I've been reading about Stoicism and observing life in general, I'm coming to realize that one's attitude is everything. Our attitudes flavor our experiences by influencing how we interpret what happens and how we ultimately end up feeling about the situation.

Case in point, I recently played a board game with my family and I got frustrated because I was determined to accomplish a specific game objective, and my efforts kept getting frustrated. Now, I could have taken that situation is stride. It was just a game. It didn't matter. It might even seem funny to me once enough time has passed. Yet, in the moment, I allowed my emotions to be negatively affected by the outcome of the game. As my efforts were being frustrated, I allowed myself to become frustrated as well. 

Fortunately, the game ended before I did anything I would later regret, so I suppose this situation isn't worth worrying about, but it is still worth learning from. I came at the game with a certain attitude, including a strong desire to accomplish my game objectives, and that affected how I emotionally responded to how the game played out. Perhaps if I had had a more flexible, resilient, and frankly Stoic attitude, I could have responded to my misfortune with a greater level of grace. That's something I should work on, and I think it's a lesson many other people could stand to learn as well.

All of us occasionally face unfortunate circumstances, but our attitudes can help us determine whether those circumstances are ultimately good or bad, funny or frustrating, trivial or troublesome.

I came at a game with a less-than-positive attitude recently, and it was an unpleasant experience. I hope that I and others can learn from my mistake.

"He Had Not Respect"

So, there's a part of Genesis chapter 4 that really stuck with me when I read it last night.

5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

This really bothered me. Without really getting into what exactly Cain offered God, the fact remains that Cain made God an offering, and God had no respect for it. Now, maybe Cain should have made a better offering, but this strikes me as the kind of situation where a child scribbles up a drawing out of crayon and the father, instead of taping it to a fridge like a normal parent, reviews the drawing like an art critic and tells the kid that his linework was shoddy. And I'm sitting here thinking "Of course the linework was bad. People are imperfect, the way you made them. At least Cain offered something. Respond with some positive reinforcement, and he might improve."

And maybe that's what God was trying to do when He said, effectively, "Yeah, this offering wasn't good enough, but if you give me an offering that is, I'll accept it," but that still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. How do we know how good is "good enough"? Are we supposed to keep making God better and better offerings, making greater and greater sacrifices, until God eventually rewards us with a pat on the head? I believe that even small steps in the right direction should be encouraged with proportionally small rewards rather than not getting any reward because they weren't good enough. And I kinda feel like, if Cain had been given that kind of encouragement, maybe he wouldn't have killed his brother out of jealousy.

Now, one argument is that God already gives us blessings aplenty and we are deep in the red in terms of what sorts of offerings and sacrifices we owe God. But that completely misses my point. We may, in fact, owe God all our belongings, service, and everything we can offer, but owing such a debt doesn't automatically instill in a person a motivation to pay it. If the purpose of mortality is to progress toward perfection, then God would do well to use every tool at His disposal, including positive reinforcement, to encourage any amount of progress, however small.

Granted, this entire rant of mine may be completely unfounded. No thanks to the imprecise nature of wording, especially wording that was written by someone in a different culture and run through a few rounds of translations, it's possible that many of the most important details of this story were changed or omitted. I hope that's the case. I hope God still rewards small efforts and doesn't criticize His children for their God-given imperfections. It just bothers me that such a charitable interpretation isn't well supported by the text.

It bothers me that God "had not respect" for Cain's offering, when it seems like it would have been better for God to appreciate the offering at least a little.

Interpretations and Applications

As we read the scriptures tonight, we found that they were so lacking in detail as to leave many key ideas and circumstances up to interpretation, but frankly, I think that suits me just fine. While it may be interesting to learn the exact details of what happened in these Bible stories, it's far more important to determine what lessons we can learn from these stories. It could be that Cain's offering of "the fruit of the ground" was rejected because it was a fruit sacrifice rather than an animal sacrifice, or it could have been rejected because the fruit was taken from off the ground and was therefore of lower quality. There are different lessons we could learn from either interpretation, which may be partly why it was left up to interpretation in the first place. Some people will come away from this story with a lesson on God's exacting standards and the importance of keeping His commandments to the letter. Other people will come away from the story with the assurance that God will accept (only) the best that we can offer Him, whatever that happens to be. Both are important lessons and valid applications of vital, eternal truths.

Naturally, these are only two possible interpretations and applications of this particular story. The scriptures are full of countless stories that can be interpreted in an immeasurable number of ways and with a myriad of possible applications. Perhaps that's partly how the scriptures (and each General Conference, for that matter) are bound to have a lesson for everyone. These stories and lessons give us an inspired framework, and it's up to us to determine, through the guidance of the Spirit, how we might interpret and apply them.

Influencing Joy

Today, I've been thinking about joy and the things that do or do not bring me joy, but toward the end of the day, I came to the realization that I may have more choice over my joy than I had thought. I can choose to try to find more joy in things I already enjoy and to find the joy in things I don't yet enjoy. And for the things I can't find joy in, I can at least try not to let them diminish the joy I find in other things. For example, I'm not fond of most pets or the noise and messes they make. Yet, I may be able to find something to enjoy about pets, and even if I can't, I can at least try not to let the pets bother me so much that I stop enjoying other things. My joy is and will continue to be influenced by external factors, but I can have some control over what and how much influence those factors have. With enough emotional discipline, I can hopefully find joy in almost everything and make sure nothing can diminish my joy.

The Purpose of Pain

This evening, in family scripture study, we read a talk that shared this quote from Elder David A. Bednar: "guilt is to our spirit what pain is to our body—a warning of danger and a protection from additional damage." Pain is unpleasant, especially with the knowledge that the Savior suffered our pain as well, but pain serves an important function. It warns us against things that are harmful and dissuades us from repeating whatever action caused the pain in the first place. Anyone who has hit their thumb with a hammer knows to place their next hammer stroke more carefully, hopefully preventing further harm.

Similarly, anyone who has felt guilt also feels dissuaded from doing whatever it was that made them feel guilty. Just as physical pain helps prevent further physical harm, spiritual pain helps prevent further spiritual harm. Our guilt at having done something wrong helps us not want to repeat the same mistake.

Guilt and pain are not pleasant feelings, but they are important to our physical and spiritual development. We need to feel physical pain to know what physical dangers to avoid, and we need to feel spiritual pain to know what spiritual dangers to avoid. Though unpleasant, guilt and pain play important roles in our mortal and eternal progression, and I'm grateful they each accomplish their purpose as well as they do.

The Flowers at My Feet

A year ago, I shared an image with the comment "Don't set your heart so much on the mountain in the distance that you cannot enjoy the nearby tree or the flowers at your feet." I think that that advice still stands. All my life, I've been working toward a particular mountain, and I've recently gotten closer to that mountain than I ever have before, but it still feels like it's an eternity away, perpetually out of reach. Meanwhile, my current circumstances are almost embarrassingly good. I'm enjoying good fortune that I know others don't. I'm grateful that I've been blessed with a good life with good people in it. So, while I keep walking toward that mountain, I'm going to appreciate the flowers around me and stop by that nearby tree on the way.

It's important to have long-term goals, but it's also important to appreciate life even while pursuing them. I'll get to that mountain when I get there. In the meantime, I'm going to take the time to enjoy the flowers at my feet.

Without Power

We recently had a power outage at my place, but honestly, it wan't a big deal. We were still able to use our battery-powered devices to get around and even communicate with others. Granted, our batteries weren't going to last forever without power, but they were still very helpful for the time being.

Similarly, we can, at times, draw power from God. But at times when God's power and guidance aren't forthcoming, that's when He trusts us to get by on our own. Naturally, we won't be able to get by on our own forever, but we may be more capable than we realize, and God wants us to grow independent. We still need God, but I imagine that won't be true forever. When we have worlds of our own, we'll likely have to get by on our own power. Perhaps having to get by on our own down here is practice for that.

I'm grateful that we usually have access to God's guidance and power, but in another way, I think I'm also grateful that God sometimes trusts us to be able to get by without it.

A Narrow Focus

The scriptures we've been reading this week have had a pretty narrow focus on the Creation, and have been mostly spent comparing and contrasting three very similar accounts of the same series of events. This is good for a deep dive and detailed analysis of the texts, but we haven't really branched out to find a wider range of insights.

For instance, a Sunday School lesson covering the topic of the Sabbath Day could address the origin of the Sabbath, what the word "Sabbath" means, why the Sabbath changed from Saturday to Sunday, why we should keep the Sabbath Day holy, and how we can do so. However, if the teacher limits themselves to using only the scripture references in this section of the Come, Follow Me manual, then they can really only cover the origin of the Sabbath and not a lot else. This is alright, if we want to consider the Sabbath in the context of the Creation, such as by wondering why God, an immortal and thus tireless being, decided to rest after His labors when He didn't physically need to, but there's little else we can learn about the Sabbath, going only by these scriptural references.

In some cases, it's good to have a narrow focus. In other cases, it may be better to branch out and use the manual as a starting point for our own scriptural exploration. The manual itself may not have very many unique insights, but the scriptures have plenty of insights we can find. We just may have to broaden our focus to find them.

Practical Application

I sometimes read the scriptures from the perspective of the question of what the practical application is. Why is it important for me to know this? How am I to use this information? What difference is this knowledge supposed to make in my life?

The answer to these questions is, at times, "It's not," "You're not," and "None," as it was with the ancient prophet who was shown countless worlds and then told that he only really needed to focus on this one. Sometimes, insights are more "interesting" than they are practical. But of course, different people need different messages at different times, so the scriptures record countless messages, knowing that, whoever you are, and wherever you are at this point in your life, there's something in this book that applies to your situation, whatever it may be.

I don't know the practical application of what we read in scripture study tonight. Perhaps there is currently no way for me to practically apply what we read in the scriptures tonight. Maybe God has other things He wants me to focus on right now instead. All we can do is read the many messages God has shared with us and listen for the Holy Spirit to tell us how (and if) we should apply them.

Not all messages apply to all people at all times. Discernment is needed to determine which message(s) we should apply at any given time, and how we should apply them.

Overanalyzing "Above"

So, I had some stuff on my mind tonight, and I thought I might blog about it, but I also felt like unwinding, like I usually do at night, only to suddenly realize that I hadn't actually blogged about what I had had on my mind. Oops.

We're learning about the Creation this week, and part of our scripture study has involved overanalyzing the various accounts of the Creation. I say "overanalyzing" because we literally spent over half an hour discussing what it meant that there was water "above" the firmament/heavens/expanse, rather than "in" it. I don't remember if any consensus was reached, but I mostly chalk it up to imprecise language. Most prophets weren't English Majors (if they even spoke the English language at all), so maybe they didn't get too hung up on which preposition they used.

And maybe we shouldn't either. Yes, it's good to look closely at scripture, and if you can gain any insights from such a thorough examination, all the better, but if something doesn't make sense, like water, which I assume means humidity and clouds, somehow being "above" the firmament, which I take to mean the sky, then it's probably safer to assume that it doesn't matter than to wonder why Moses might have mentioned comets or ice planets when writing about the creation of the Earth. No, the water was not "above" the firmament, in that the clouds were not "above" the sky, but maybe people look at the sky differently in other cultures, or maybe Moses was referring to atmospheric layers centuries before anyone would discover them, or maybe whether the water was "above" or "in" the firmament isn't really important enough to argue about for half an hour (or write about hours later) when we could be focusing on other things instead.

We could have talked about our favorite aspects of Creation or perhaps drawn some insight from the example of taking life or long-term projects "one day at a time." We could have observed the themes of opposites and divisions, with light being separated from darkness, earth separated from seas, and waters being separated from each other (regardless of their position in relation to the firmament). We could have talked about how the world just works and how blessed we are to live on it. But instead we argued about where, exactly, the water was and how (or if) the dinosaurs and/or evolution factor into all of this.

This wasn't our finest scripture study session, but thankfully, now that I've blogged about it like I had thought I had, I've come up with a few examples of the kinds of questions I wish I had asked instead. The exact wording of the scripture probably didn't matter; in the future, I'll try to focus more on questions that do.

Service > Church

This morning, before getting ready for church, I helped a family member of mine clean up a mess that their pet had made. Thankfully, that didn't make me late for church, but even if it had, I figure that doing service is probably more important than getting to church on time.

Naturally, going to church is important, but there's little point in learning about Christ if we're not also going to act Christlike by performing Christlike service. Hearing and learning are good, but doing is better. In fact, I'd argue that a person who serves others freely, despite never having heard of Christ is probably more Christlike than someone who attends church religiously but who rarely serves others, more like Pharisees than true Christians.

Jesus wants us to learn of Him and do His works, but of those two, I believe the latter is more important than the former.

A Rough Start

I've recently started playing more Mario Kart. In that game, if you start holding the acceleration button down at the right time during the countdown at the start of the race, you can get a speed boost to help you get started; however, you have to time it right. Start too late, and the speed boost won't be as powerful as it could have been. Start too early, and the "speed boost" will instead cause your engine to stall out, making you wait a moment before being allowed to accelerate the normal way.

Yet, in my experience, the beginning of the race doesn't matter a whole awful lot. Mario Kart also has items. These items have a negative feedback loop with the character's current performance in a race. When you pick up an item box, the item you get is "randomly selected" based on your position. If you're already winning, you'll get an item that's pretty weak and mostly useless. But if you're behind, you're likely to get better items that will help you close the distance and perhaps even advance a place or two in the race.

Besides, even without the items giving the racers in the back more help than the racers in the front get, racing skill can generally overcome a rough start. There are several tricks that can give you a momentary burst of speed if you can pull them off without driving yourself off the road, and even staying on the road can sometimes be a challenge which, if accomplished, can help a racer perform well. Stumbling at the starting line isn't so big a deal when you can make up for that stumble by racing well across the rest of the race.

I say all this because January 1st, 2022 may not have gone great for everyone. I'm sure that some people's year may be off to a rough start. However, that doesn't mean that the entire year is doomed. Luck usually balances itself out, forming a neat bell curve with good and bad luck fairly evenly balanced on both sides of the median, and of course, our personal decision to dust ourselves off and move forward persistently can overcome the struggle of having a bad day. Even if today didn't go the way we wanted it to, we can put in the work to make sure future days go better. With enough diligence and the right attitude, we can make sure 2022 is a decent year, no matter how it started.

So, some people's start-of-the-race speed boost didn't have as much umph as they were hoping for, or even flooded their engines and caused them to stall. The race isn't over yet. In fact, it's barely gotten started. We still have a full three laps (or 364 days) ahead of us. Those laps (or days) can still go well for us, whether or not the first one got off to a rough start.