Perspective From the Kennel

I'm not going bike-riding today. As I was making plans yesterday, I hadn't taken into account how hot it's going to be today.

This morning, I found and article by Elder Neil L. Andersen. It's titled The Master's Love. It's about a man Elder Andersen once met while he was at an airport in France. The man was there to pick up his dog.

Through his work, he'd been transfered to Bordeaux, and couldn't take his dog with him right away, so he put his beloved pet in a kennel while he arranged things so his dog could join him in the new city.

As Elder Andersen though about this, he considered how frightening this must be for the dog: To have gone from a comfortable and familiar home with a loving master, to a kennel full of strangers.

He did not realize that his master had a plan for him, that they would soon be reunited, and that in the meantime, his master was paying for his kennel and his food, ensuring that he would be kept in a warm place out of the cold. All that time his master was preparing a place for him at an even finer house in Bordeaux.

Then the dog would be put through an even more frightening experience - air travel.

Again, in my mind I could imagine two men arriving at the kennel one day, taking the dog, and putting him in the crate. Soon the Labrador found himself in the belly of an airplane. Again he must have wondered what was happening. I could imagine his fear.

When  he arrived at the airport and was let out of his crate, he was obviously scared and confused.

Then suddenly the eyes of the black Labrador met the eyes of his master. Immediately, the dog’s behavior changed. His barking stopped and his tail started wagging. He jumped into the arms of his master and they embraced,

Elder Andersen went on to explain what he'd learned from witnessing that experience, but in my opinion, the analogy is obvious.

We once had a home in heaven. God, our Father, was with us, as were Jesus Christ and everyone else. We probably could have spent eternity there and have been fairly happy, but God had other plans. He had an even better future planned for us, but as an essential part in that plan we'd have to spend some time on earth. Earth isn't quite as bad as a kennel for most people, but it's not exactly heaven either, and the worst part about life on earth is the doubt and the fear. We forget sometimes that there's a God in Heaven who loves us. We forget that He has a plan for us. We sometimes forget what we must do to fulfill our part of that plan. And sometimes we can only wonder whether there is a plan at all.

Then an even more frightening experience happens - death. Death, while not so frightening to those who have great faith, is so shrouded in mystery that most people fear it and try to prevent it for as long as they can. But death is another essential part of the plan. As Elder Andersen said:

Someday we will return to stand before our Master. At that moment, if we have lived as we should, we will experience in person His great love, and with the greatest happiness and satisfaction we will hear our Master say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: … enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21).

Like the dog, it's only natural for us to feel confused, afraid, and discouraged. But unlike him, we have been blessed with a way to communicate with our Master and receive comfort and encouragement from Him. We don't have to feel alone. God is preparing great things for us, and His love is always only a prayer away.

Planning a Bike Ride & Discouraging Discouragement

This morning, I felt discouraged. So I went on LDS.org and typed "discouragement" in the search bar, hoping to be lead to a talk or article that would tell me how to counter it. The first one just made me want to cry. Not too helpful, except for the part where the speaker quoted D&C 136:29 "If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful." That's the part that really got me, so I tried it. It worked, sorta.

God asked me what I really wanted to do. I knew He wasn't talking about life or the future, or even Eternal Life. He was talking about today or tomorrow, in the foreseeable future, sometime soon. I told Him that I wanted to go for a run, or a bike ride; that I wanted to go far away (and come back the same day, of course). I wanted to go out farther than I had gone before, to see things I hadn't seen before. And I got to thinking: The American River Bike trail goes all the way to Folsom Lake.

I thought that was an incredible distance for a bike ride, but that it was possible. I looked it up on Google Maps, and sure enough, biking from my house to Folsom Lake would take nearly six hours. I almost gave up on the idea right then. Six hours to get there? More than six hours to get back (since I'll be tired)? That's more than 12 hours. Do I really want to spend the ENTIRE day riding my bike? I don't think I have the stamina for that!

But then I saw that, on the map, the path to Folsom Lake seemed to loop around itself. I zoomed in on that and saw that Google Maps was giving me directions to the tip of a peninsula on the far side of the lake. I took that part out of the trip and told Google Maps that I wanted directions to the point where the American River comes out of Folsom Lake. Three hours. That couldn't be right. You remember I'm biking, right? Yep. And it's only going to take me three hours? Yep. But, wait! I rode my bike to the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, along that same river, but closer, and it took me nearly three hours! Give me directions to the hatchery. Two and a half hours. The map showed it being just shy of Folsom Lake. No kidding. Maybe I actually can make that trip in one day.

"It's still going to take you a lot of time, though," God reminded me. "If you want to make that trip tomorrow, and feel good about it, you'd better do a lot of good work today, first."

So, I started a load of laundry, mowed the lawn, and had a wonderful plate of eggs for breakfast. Not surprisingly, now I feel great. But I still need to blog, so I went back to that discouragement page and found an article with the tag line, "If you want to be happy most of the time, do the things that bring happiness."

That sounds good to me! I read the article, and it is good. Here's a link, and my highlights:

How to Discourage Discouragement - Elder Gene R. Cook of the Seventy

I hope you are not really down on yourself or think you are not worth very much. That is the devil speaking. He is the one who keeps pounding away to make you feel that you are not worth much. That is not the Lord speaking.

Discouragement is a pretty common ailment. We all struggle with that to some degree, but I want to tell you how to remove discouragement.

1. Prayer

You need to pray. If you really want to not be discouraged, one of the best solutions I know of is to pray. Have a prayer in your heart always. To the degree you will learn to pray your way through a day, you will find that Satan and his evil influence will leave, the Spirit of the Lord will come, and you will be on top and be able to go through the trials that come your way.

2. Scriptures

Read in the scriptures prayerfully every day. Do not set aside your scripture study or you will be inviting in the devil, who will try to discourage you.

3. Cleanliness

Be especially careful to keep yourself clean. One thing that can surely discourage you very quickly is to get involved in some kind of sin.

Moroni 10:22: And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despiar; and despair cometh because of iniquity.

In Helaman chapter five, Nephi and Lehi are in a prison. There is a dark cloud hanging over the Lamanites and they are asking, “How do we get rid of this dark cloud?” Discouragement is like a dark cloud when it is hanging over you. How do you get rid of it?

The simple answer in Helaman 5:41 is, “You must repent, and cry unto the voice [meaning unto the Lord, to pray], even until ye shall have faith in Christ, … and when ye shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you.”

The Lord is teaching here that the reason we are down is that we have sinned. And if we will repent and humbly ask the Lord to forgive us, in faith, His sweet Spirit will come back.

4. Testify

Look for opportunities to bear your testimony. If you want to chase discouragement away, find some nonmembers and bear your testimony to them, or maybe just to a friend who’s a little disheartened today.

5. Hymns (My personal favorite)

Use the hymns of the Church. This is a great way to stay above discouragement. I used to think when I was younger that I would sing when I got discouraged. To me, that is a good way to get free of discouragement, but it’s a little late. A better way is to sing all the time. And if you will do that, you won’t go down into one of those troughs. Get in the habit of singing hymns every day.

6. Love and Gratitude

Express love and gratitude to God and men. You can truly express your love to someone and have the Spirit of the Lord come right now, and discouragement will leave. If you are feeling down, go find someone to cheer up. If you are down, go and tell someone how much you love them. I’m thinking of some of your dads and moms who need that from you. Go throw your arms around them.

Remember, too, that if you don’t like the way you are feeling, you need to correct the way you are thinking. When you first have a bad thought come, or a discouraging thought such as, “I’m not worth much,” or “I’m going to flunk this test,” or “People won’t like me,” cast it out immediately.

7. Share spiritual experiences

If you are down, go tell someone about something positive that happened to you yesterday. Share a spiritual experience, and the Spirit will come right away.

The Lord is in all of His creations, and especially in you.

8. Priesthood Blessings

If you are really struggling with discouragement of some depth, seek a priesthood blessing now.

A priesthood blessing has great power in keeping Satan away and gives you strength to turn him away when he does come.

Conclusion

I bear witness to you that if you will adopt a pattern similar to this, it will take the dips out of your lives. I testify that a man can be happy most of his days, most every hour of every day. The key to it is to have the Spirit of the Lord with you, to love people, to give your heart to others, to seek to build them up, to lift and strengthen them. This will bring true happiness and true peace. I testify that there is no other way to receive that happiness and peace except by keeping the commandments of the Lord.

Moses vs Satan

This morning, LDS.org didn't load, but to be fair to their servers, I only tried once. Then I went to youtube and went immediately to the Mormon Channel. After a little browsing, I found this:





This is a powerful video, and not just because the videographers did a good job with the effects and editing. In this video, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland teaches that even when we have spiritually uplifting, empowering moments, the tempter is never far away, and Moses shows the power of his testimony in resisting Satan.

The most instructive part of this video for me was when Elder Holland said that Satan was defeated, "always to come again, we can be sure, but always to be defeated by the God of glory - always." It reminds me of the eternal nature of this struggle. Satan will never stop trying to steal our souls, and God will never stop being stronger than him. God will never stop coming to help us defend ourselves from Satan, when we call for His help, but Satan will never stop coming back and trying again.

This should be encouraging, but it's not. I should be glad that even though Satan continually fights against God, he will always lose. Instead, I'm discouraged because Satan will never grow tired of attacking me, and I do, too frequently, lose. I realize that I only lose because I fail to call on God when I'm tempted, but sometimes it takes a while for me to discover that I'm even being tempted. Satan's not always as direct as he is in this video. I suppose then, Elder Holland's advice is even more applicable: "Don't let your guard down." Thanks for the tip. I'll try to remember it.

But my favorite part of this video is the response one youtuber made to it.

movieguru42:

This same scenario is played out multiple times everyday inside our own hearts and minds. We are tempted and have a choice. We can choose to live as children of God and have hope or to bow down in despair and give up. Even though our experiences defying evil might not be as dramatically visible as was Moses', it doesn't make them any less real.

It's comforting to know that there are people like movieguru42 posting comments like this one online. Somehow, I find the words of a normal, everyday person more encouraging than the words of an Apostle of God. "We can choose to live as children of God" I'm going to try to find a way to send him a message so I can thank him for posting this comment.

I also like that Moses defeated Satan by remembering that he, Moses, is a son of God. He remembered his worth and value and divine potential. He remembered his Heavenly Father, the one being he is supposed to worship. He must have called on the Lord, in his heart at least, and he received the strength and courage to counter Satan and send him away. May we follow Moses' example and repel the tempter every time he attacks.

Elder Oaks - How To Define Yourself

I love it when I say something on my blog, and it's confirmed by something I later learn from the words of the Apostles. I was flipping through the online version of the latest New Era, and I saw an article by Elder Dallin H. Oaks titled How To Define Yourself, and it confirms what President Deiter F. Uchtdorf said in Four Titles and what I said in Identity Crisis - Solved.

Elder Oaks said: The only single quality that should characterize us is that we are a son or daughter of God. That fact transcends all other characteristics, including race, occupation, physical characteristics, honors, or even religious affiliation.

In this article, Elder Oaks also says that if we define ourselves by characteristics that are trivial or temporary, we will be de-emphasizing that which is most important about us. Some people define themselves by their status, their abilities, and/or their physical characteristics, but that's not the most important thing about them, and those things aren't guaranteed to last. The one thing that is most important and that is guaranteed to last forever is that you are a child of God.

Nothing can change that. Not illness or injury, not poverty or defamation, not even sin. God will always be your Father and He will always love you. Period. No matter what.

But while that truth will never change, knowing that truth and living by it can change everything. It can change the way we see ourselves, for starters, and it can also change our actions, our relationships with others, our personalities, and our entire lives. Just as I hope to change myself for the better by seeing myself as a Paladin, we can all change ourselves for the better by defining ourselves, first and foremost, as children of God.

3 Nephi 30

One of the shortest chapters in the Book of Mormon - Probably the shortest - is 3 Nephi chapter 30. It has only two verses:

1 Hearken, O ye Gentiles, and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, which he hath commanded me that I should speak concerning you, for, behold he commandeth me that I should write, saying: 

2 Turn, all ye Gentiles, from your wicked ways; and repent of your evil doings, of your lyings and deceivings, and of your whoredoms, and of your secret abominations, and your idolatries, and of your murders, and your priestcrafts, and your envyings, and your strifes, and from all your wickedness and abominations, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel.

Verse 2 is the one that's interesting. Let's read it piece by piece.

2 Turn, all ye Gentiles, from your wicked ways; and repent of your evil doings,

The message in this part is pretty clear. Christ wants people to keep His commandments, so when people are breaking His commandments, He wants them to stop. This is a call to repentance, and according to this verse, the Gentiles (or people in general) sure have a lot to repent of.

of your lyings and deceivings, and of your whoredoms, and of your secret abominations, and your idolatries, and of your murders, and your priestcrafts, and your envyings, and your strifes, and from all your wickedness and abominations,

I don't know about you, but to me a lot of this stuff sounds pretty serious. To be fair, I don't think anyone on earth is guilty of all these sins, but theoretically, someone could be. And being guilty of even just a handful of these sins could have a person marked as a terrible sinner. Earlier in the Book of Mormon, Alma said to his son, Corianton that if a person commits murder, "it is not easy for him to obtain forgiveness" (Alma 39:6)

But here's the invitation anyway: repent of your evil doings,

and come unto me, and be baptized in my name,

But why? What's the point? When you're guilty of murder, and whoredoms, and secret abominations, is there any point in trying to make it right? Is there any point in trying to repent? Once you've done all that, is there any hope left for you at all?

Yes, there is.

"Repent," says the Savior, "and come unto me, and be baptized in my name,

that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel.

This verse and other passages in the Book of Mormon teach us that there is hope for all of us, even for "the very vilest of sinners" (Mosiah 28:4). And if there's hope for the kind of people who could have done all those things, there must be hope for us, too.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland once said, "Whoever you are and whatever you have done, you can be forgiven" (We Are All Enlisted, October 2011. Emphasis Added). He also said, "It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines" (Laborers in the Vineyard, April 2012. Emphasis Added).

I testify that no matter what sins are in our past or our present, we can "receive a remission of [our] sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." But first, we must "repent of [our] evil doings," and "turn... from [our] wicked ways." Christ can help us do that. It may not be easy, but He has made it possible. We can have our slate wiped clean. We can have our sins washed away. Even the toughest stains of sin can be purged by the blood of the Lamb. He has made salvation possible for all of us, and He invites all the sinners in the world, all of us, to accept the gift of His Atonement, to turn from our wicked ways, and "be numbered with [His] people who are of the house of Israel."

This is a glorious offer. And even more amazing, it is available to us all.

A Logical Reason to Keep the Commandments

Yesterday, I mentioned a logical reason to keep the commandments. Last night, I explored the logic a little further. The thought process went something like this:

Is there a God?
Did God create the world?
Does God know how the world works?
Did He create people?
Does He know how people work?
Does He know what makes people truly happy?
Does He know what makes people unhappy?
Does He want people to be happy?
Can He communicate with us?
Would He tell us what to seek/avoid to be happy?
Has He already told us?
Do we want to be happy?
Should we follow God's instructions?

Logically, the answer to all of those questions is "Yes."

Some people may argue whether God really exists, but as far as I'm concerned, there's more than enough evidence to support it for me to believe that it's true. And think about this: Just about every civilization on earth has had stories and traditions that indicated their belief in some kind of higher power. If (percentage-wise) almost everyone who ever lived on the earth believed there was a God, there must have been a good reason for that. But I'm preaching to the choir here. I'm pretty sure most of you already believe in a God. After that, the rest falls into place.

God created the world, and us. He knows how the human mind works because a) He created us, and b) He's been watching us for a long time. He knows what makes us happy or unhappy because He understands us. He wants us to be happy because He loves us. He can communicate with us, and He has - through prophets, scriptures, and the feelings in our hearts. He has told us what we need to be to be truly happy. So if we want to be truly happy, we should keep God's commandments.

The trouble is that keeping the commandments can be hard, while doing other things that simulate happiness temporarily is easy. That, I'm afraid, is where things fall apart. When the choice is between getting temporary happiness easily now and getting better, more permanent happiness later, after some difficulty, people frequently take the first option. Our Heavenly Father knows is not in our best interest, so He tries to teach us wisdom and patience and self-control and delayed gratification, and fasting helps with a lot of that, but the choice is still ours to make, and it always will be. No matter how difficult we feel it is, we can still make the right decision, and no matter how much help God gives us, we can still make the wrong decision. We need to have wisdom within ourselves. We need to learn patience and self-control. We need to learn that it's better to obtain true happiness after years of effort than it is to get fake happiness whenever we want it.

Logically, it all makes sense, but in practice, it's not that easy.

"...Help Thou Mine Unbelief."

In this second part of my blog post on Elder Holland's most recent General Conference talk, I'll be sharing Elder Holland's commentary on the scriptural account spoken of yesterday, and since I've already sort-of commented on the story itself, I'll now share my comments on Elder Holland's comments, trying to make them more relatable to people like me.

Observation number one regarding this account is that when facing the challenge of faith, the father asserts his strength first and only then acknowledges his limitation. His initial declaration is affirmative and without hesitation: “Lord, I believe.” I would say to all who wish for more faith, remember this man!

We'll talk more about this concept later, but right now, I just want to point out that not only did the father in the story start by declaring his faith, he did so immediately. "Straightway" was the term Mark used. Holland said "without hesitation." May we also be quick to declare the testimonies we have, even if they are limited.

It was of this very incident, this specific miracle, that Jesus said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue—it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know.

I once heard someone say something like, "If faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, I can't imagine how small my faith must be." If that person is reading this blog, let me repeat for emphasis, "The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue—it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know." (Emphasis Added)

Integrity is means being true to your beliefs and acting on them. Even if you have only a basic amount of faith: "I believe that there could be a God out there somewhere," you can act on that belief by looking for God and trying to communicate with Him. When you come to a level of faith where you feel you can say that there is a God and He is basically good, then you can act with integrity to that belief by trying to be good yourself and by trusting God, even when times are hard, because even when bad things are happening, you can remember and hold on to the fact that there is still a God in heaven, and He is still basically good.

I think I have a little bit more faith than that. Or at least, my faith in God is a little bit more specific. It is the integrity to my belief that I occasionally lack. I sometimes forget the logic: God loves me and wants me to be happy. > His commandments are for my benefit and keeping them will ultimately lead to greater happiness than breaking them. > It's in my own best interest to keep God's commandments. I think we all forget that sometimes.

The second observation is a variation of the first. When problems come and questions arise, do not start your quest for faith by saying how much you do not have, leading as it were with your “unbelief.” That is like trying to stuff a turkey through the beak!

Sometimes, I start a thought process with "I don't know a lot about such-and-such, but I do know this," or perhaps I describe myself as not being the fastest, or smartest, or strongest, or wisest person, but I still have some qualities. Do you see the danger there? By starting with the negative aspect of an honest evaluation, we run the risk of focusing on the negative aspect, forgetting that the positive aspect is also true. I do have some many positive qualities, and there are things that I do know. I sometimes doubt them, and I'm starting to wonder if that's because I sometimes put my doubts first, but when I sit myself down and really think about what I believe, I find that I have more faith than I led myself to believe.

Let me be clear on this point: I am not asking you to pretend to faith you do not have. I am asking you to be true to the faith you do have. Sometimes we act as if an honest declaration of doubt is a higher manifestation of moral courage than is an honest declaration of faith. It is not!

Let's be honest. Which is easier to say to a friend, co-worker, or stranger: "I don't know why we haven't found the rusted relics of the ancient Nephite-Lamanite wars," or "I know that the Book of Mormon is true"? I can tell you which one I would rather say, but I can also tell you that I'm a coward, and that should give you your answer. I believe it takes more courage to stand up for unpopular beliefs than it does to admit that you may be wrong. They both take courage. It's my opinion that a declaration of faith, especially when you feel your faith is limited, takes more.

Last observation: When doubt or difficulty come, do not be afraid to ask for help. If we want it as humbly and honestly as this father did, we can get it. The scriptures phrase such earnest desire as being of “real intent,” pursued “with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God.” I testify that in response to that kind of importuning, God will send help from both sides of the veil to strengthen our belief.

Sometimes, I fall into the trap of thinking that I have to do things by myself. Someone I know is famous for that, but he's the most capable man I know, so he could usually get way with it. I, on the other hand, can do a great deal without special assistance, but not everything. For many things I should do and need to do, I need extra help. So I need to humble myself before God, admit my inability, and ask for help. But perhaps first, I should start with my strengths. Perhaps before telling God "I can't do it," I should remind myself of what I can do, and thank God for giving me that strength. Then I can tell God and myself what can reasonably be expected of me, and ask only for the help that I actually need. That way, I can accomplish what would be impossible for me to do alone, but it will still make me stretch and grow because God's not simply doing it for me.

I think God likes pushing us to the limits of our abilities before He lends a hand. Perhaps He's the personal trainer that I wish Satan were, always pushing us to do all we can do. There was almost nothing the father in story could do to help his son, but Jesus still required him to push the limits of his faith and expand them, just as a personal trainer does with the limits of our strength. And when the father hit his limit, did all he could, and it wasn't enough, Jesus stepped in and cured the child.

There are many encouraging and inspiring lessons we can learn from this brief passage in Mark, and Elder Holland share more insights in his talk than I did in my commentary. If anything I said in these past two blog posts appeal to you, I'd encourage you to listen to the talk again. (Here's a Link.) I'm a fairly good writer, but he's an excellent speaker. It'll be worth the 15 to 20 minutes it'll take to listen to his words from his own mouth. His was a good talk. I'm glad I finally wrote about it.