Mortality is Temporary

I'm still sick, which is kind of a bummer, but the good news is that I know that it's temporary. All mortal experiences are temporary, including mortality itself. Whether I get over this cold in a matter of days or whether I stay sick for the rest of my life, this illness will eventually end. Eventually, I will have a perfect, immortal body, and then I'll never get sick again. That's something to look forward to, I guess. I'm confident that I'll shake off this illness shortly, but whether I do or not, I'm comforted by the knowledge that all of our afflictions are temporary. As with everyone else who has ever lived, I will be whole and well again. This illness of mine won't last forever. No mortal experience will.

Sick Day - Misery Doesn't Always Love Company

I'm taking a sick day off from blogging today. I hope I feel better by the next time I plan to meet up with people, but I also hope that I don't/didn't make anyone else sick. They say that "misery loves company," but in this case (apart from blogging about it), I'd rather keep my misery to myself.

Book of Mormon Stories

More likely than talking about being a witness for the Book of Mormon, I might do something simpler, easier, and more fun with the Primary class. Since we're going to spend the year studying The Book of Mormon, we might spend the first class period discussing our favorite Book of Mormon stories. For instance, I love the story of when Captain Moroni had the army of Zerahemnah surrounded at the river Sidon. Both sides of that conflict acted fairly honorably, demonstrating good examples of how I ought to conduct myself.

I also love the story of Nephi and his brothers trying to get the Brass Plates from Laban. I'm a big fan of D&D, and this story is the one story I've found that most closely resembles a D&D game. The party has a quest to go get a thing from a place, they cast lots (perhaps by rolling dice) to decide who should make the first attempt, the first two social interactions go south almost immediately, there's some inter-party conflict that gets shut down by the DM, and the party is generally having a pretty hard time with the quest, but then, after a few lucky breaks, an ethical dilemma, and some good Deception checks, the party retrieves the quest item and even picks up a new player who joins the party. It might be fun to run a D&D adventure based on that, even though the premise, Get Important Item from Wealthy, Unfriendly NPC, is fairly simple.

I'm sure there are plenty of other good Book of Mormon stories that the class will want to discuss, which should eat up what time we have, help us get to know each other, and get us excited to study The Book of Mormon and read the many stories in it.

And all of that is assuming my teaching companion doesn't have a better plan. I think we'll be alright.

Being a Witness - Don't Keep It Secret

Depending on how the second hour of church goes tomorrow, I may be called upon to teach a short lesson inspired by the introductory pages of The Book of Mormon. If that happens, I might focus on the testimonies of the witnesses, a total of a dozen people who all shared their experience with The Book of Mormon. Naturally, we are supposed to follow their example. God wants each of us to share the truths and blessings we have with others, including those found in The Book of Mormon and The Book of Mormon itself.

However, I have some concerns related to hypocrisy. I don't want to teach a lesson I don't live, at least not without confessing that I need the lesson as much as anyone else does. If I encourage my class to be witnesses of The Book of Mormon, I need to be (or become) willing to be such a witness myself. So, knowing that I'm going to be morally obligated to follow my own counsel, what counsel am I willing to give? What am I willing to do to share The Book of Mormon?

Evidently, I'm willing to blog about it. While I don't go out of my way to share my religion and beliefs, I don't go out of my way to hide it either. It's no secret that I, Andrew Robarts, am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And if it ever was a secret, it certainly isn't now. Anyone who knows me can look me up on Facebook, where I share these blog posts (I think publicly). Anyone who's friends with me, perhaps even everyone who has a Facebook account, and certainly everyone who stumbles onto this blog, has the opportunity to learn that I read from and believe in The Book of Mormon.

Granted, I'm not going to invite a bunch of 7- and 8-year-olds to share their faith on social media, but I will ask them not to make a secret of it. If anybody asks what religion you ascribe to or what you think of The Book of Mormon, tell them. If you're feeling especially witnessy, you might even include a mention of church when people ask you how your weekend was instead of just saying "it was alright." I'm not entirely comfortable going out of my way to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in this political climate, I'm not sure it's really smart for a person to share their beliefs unless they're prepared to face ostracization. Yet, I am willing to let it be known that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I don't keep it secret from others. When they ask, I tell them. To at least that extent, I am willing to be a witness of The Book of Mormon. So, I don't think I'll feel like a hypocrite for asking that much of my class.

Two Omnipresent Influences

Today, I remarked about successfully drawing inspiration for a blog post out of a Star Wars cartoon, and I was reminded that we can see God's influence in all things. To my recollection, I responded with something about His influence "or the other guy's." Both God and Satan have an influence on just about everything. God puts something good in just about everything, and Satan slips evil into everything he can. So, while it's good to look for God's influence in everything and to see His hand in all things, it's also important to watch out for Satan's influence as well. There's at least some good in just about everything, but there's also some bad in just about everything, so it's important to not just be careful about what shows we watch and what games we play, but also to be careful whose messages we learn from those shows and games.

Fighting Against Violence

A character in a show I recently started watching said that "fighting for peace" is a contradiction, and when she said that, I had to pause the video to process my thoughts about that. I understand that fighting to defend oneself and others is sometimes necessary, but I have to admit that fighting for peace does sound like a contradiction. A peaceful person would never resort to violence, would they?

I suppose it depends on how they stack their hierarchy of values. It's good to believe that hurting others is wrong, but I also believe that it's wrong to allow someone else to hurt others. If I see someone attack someone else, and the only way I can stop the attacker is by using violence against them, then I have to make a choice. I have to choose whether to exercise violence or whether to allow violence to persist. It's a difficult choice, and I don't fault anyone for making a different choice than I might make. Heck, which choice I make may depend on the specific details of the situation. I believe that neither violence nor nonviolence are always wrong. Some situations call for violence, and others don't.

Yet, I can understand why some people might, on moral grounds, commit themselves to nonviolence. I'd say that this stance is the better one most of the time. And if everyone agreed to solve their problems nonviolently, then violence would cease, and the world would be better for it. But some people do decide to try to solve their problems with violence, and sometimes it is necessary to use violence to stop them. Granted, this won't be true in all situations, and when there is a nonviolent solution, it should at least be considered, but there are times when using violence to stop violence is the best choice.

I don't want to hurt anyone, but I don't want to let anyone hurt anyone else, either. If I had to hurt someone in order to stop them from hurting me or someone else, I very well might. I'd like to think that I'd be brave enough to fight to stop a violent person. Any good paladin should. Yet, I have to admit that I can understand why some people would hold a different opinion. It's not quite a contradiction, but it is a bit ironic that it is sometime necessary to use violence to stop violence.

The Final Exam of Life

Being a student, I have become somewhat familiar with the practices of academics. Each class consists of instruction and assignments designed to test one's understanding and application of that instruction. There are usually several small assignments, perhaps a few medium-sized assignments or mid-terms, and then one large assignment at the end of the term. Each of these assignments are worth a portion of the students' grades, with the largest assignments being worth the largest percent of the students' grades. As a student, I learned that, while the final assignment is the most important one, that doesn't mean that one can safely neglect the smaller assignments. Every assignment contributes to one's final grade, which itself is an average of how well one did on each assignment, with some assignments weighted to have a greater influence than others.

The Final Judgement isn't quite like that. While each of the many tests of life are important, I don't think they'll all affect our "final grades." God doesn't judge us on a basis of how much good we did weighed against how much evil we did. Instead, our final grades are largely determined by how we do on the final exam. I believe that, at the Final Judgement, God will be more interested in testing what sorts of people we are than asking what sorts of things we did. Naturally, what we do is a reflection of who we are, but God's main concern is what sorts of people we ultimately become, not how badly or how frequently we stumble on our way to becoming that way.

For instance, one could fail miserably at the first several tests of life, but as long as one eventually learns from those failures and becomes a better person, I don't think those early failures will be held against them. Alternatively, if one is raised in the light and walks in it for a while, but then turns against it, I'm not sure how much that early righteousness will help them. God seems far more interested in who we become than who we were.

So, while there are several tests and quizzes building up to the Final Exam, that Exam is the part that's worth the vast majority of our "final grade." That's why it's important to use the smaller tests to help us prepare for the Final Exam. Let's use our smaller tests to help us figure out how we're doing in this class and what we need to do or not do to perform well in the Final Exam. We get daily indications of what we're doing well or poorly, but none of that will ultimately affect our grades. In the end, we will be judged not by how we did during our lives but by how well we turned out by the end of it.