Today, I was asked if I thought that selfishness is part of human nature. I don't know how well I responded to that question at the time, but I would like to try to write a better response now.
Yes, I believe that selfishness is part of human nature, but human nature has many different parts. First, there are the physical parts, largely governed by the Natural Man (except, if I mentioned this in my conversation earlier today, I would have had to explain who the Natural Man is, and I didn't want to bother with that). The Natural Man is selfish and impatient and proud and has various other negative traits. For the most part, we have the Natural Man because he's good at ensuring the survival of the species and because he's excellent at giving us opportunities to practice self-control.
That's where the other set of parts comes in: the spiritual parts. In addition to bodies, we each have spirits, and not just any spirits. The spirits we have chose to follow God's plan of happiness and fought valiantly against Satan. This means that we each have (and were) spirits who were devoted to developing the traits God has, including empathy, temperance, and generosity. That doesn't necessarily mean that we were all unselfish before we were born and were thus born with unselfish spirits to counter our selfish bodies, but the little evidence we have leans that way.
So, is selfishness part of human nature? Yes, but so (probably) is unselfishness. Cowardice and Valiance, Pride and Humility, Natural Evil and Divine Good are all elements of human nature. Humans are dual beings, and our self-conflicting, paradoxical nature reflects that fact. So selfishness is part of human nature, along with many other negative traits, but so are many of their opposites. Many contradictory traits are part of human nature. But now it's up to us to decide which of those conflicting traits we develop.
Monday, October 21, 2019
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Slowing Our Descent
Today, my mom and I discussed the parachute analogy. The premise is that we have foolishly jumped out of a plane without a parachute and are about to become subjected to the full consequences of the law of gravity. However, a Friend, sensing that we were about to do that, quickly strapped a parachute onto our backs before we left the plane, and thus we are allowed a way to "cheat" gravity. The parachute doesn't break the law of gravity or any of the other laws of physics. Rather, it works within those laws to provide us a solution. This is supposed to be an illustration of how there can be Mercy without denying Justice; however, this version of the analogy doesn't seem fully plausible to me. I hardly think that any Friend could put provide us with a parachute that quickly, no matter how skilled that Friend is. Rather, I have a different analogy that also uses the same Justice and Mercy moral, but also works in a lesson of Grace and Works.
In my version, we jumped out of the plane without a parachute, and our Friend jumped out behind us with a spare. In this version, our Friend dives quickly in hopes of catching up to us, but He needs us to cooperate in order for Him to succeed. If we're falling as fast as He is, He won't catch up with us, and we'll die. So, to survive, we need to slow our descent as much as possible. Granted, we won't be able to slow ourselves down to the point where the fall wouldn't be fatal. We cannot be saved by works alone. But our works may enable our Friend to catch us and provide us with the one tool that can help us survive, His Grace. Yet, even when we have access to the parachute, we still need to pull the cord, so a bit more work on our part is required. Still, it's the parachute that saves us, not the fact that we pulled a cord.
Ultimately, we need both Grace and Works. We need to do our part to gain access to Divine Grace, but doing our part won't be enough on its own. We need Grace in order to be saved, though it still takes some Work on our part to secure and apply that Grace. At this point, we can't stop ourselves from falling to our deaths, at least not on our own. However, it is essential that we do everything in our power to slow our descent and to take full advantage of that parachute when we get it.
In my version, we jumped out of the plane without a parachute, and our Friend jumped out behind us with a spare. In this version, our Friend dives quickly in hopes of catching up to us, but He needs us to cooperate in order for Him to succeed. If we're falling as fast as He is, He won't catch up with us, and we'll die. So, to survive, we need to slow our descent as much as possible. Granted, we won't be able to slow ourselves down to the point where the fall wouldn't be fatal. We cannot be saved by works alone. But our works may enable our Friend to catch us and provide us with the one tool that can help us survive, His Grace. Yet, even when we have access to the parachute, we still need to pull the cord, so a bit more work on our part is required. Still, it's the parachute that saves us, not the fact that we pulled a cord.
Ultimately, we need both Grace and Works. We need to do our part to gain access to Divine Grace, but doing our part won't be enough on its own. We need Grace in order to be saved, though it still takes some Work on our part to secure and apply that Grace. At this point, we can't stop ourselves from falling to our deaths, at least not on our own. However, it is essential that we do everything in our power to slow our descent and to take full advantage of that parachute when we get it.
Saturday, October 19, 2019
So Subtle a Prompting
Yesterday, my mom taught me that spiritual promptings don't always take the form of words, or even specific thoughts, but are sometimes positive or negative feelings. In this case, my mom had negative thoughts about her normal plan for Friday mornings, which is especially odd, because she goes to the temple most Friday mornings, and I often go with her. But this week, it just didn't feel right. However, when she thought about a certain sister in our ward, those negative feelings were replaced by positive feelings, and she took that as a sign that, this week, we were to serve someone on this side of the veil, rather than the other side.
I'm not sure I would have caught a prompting that subtle. In fact, I'm almost sure I wouldn't have. I can be pretty dense. If I had bad feelings about something, I might assume that I just had a bad attitude or that I was feeling bad about something else and was just projecting those bad feelings on whatever I was planning to do. Instead, my mom knew the difference between her personal feelings and feelings that came through promptings of the spirit. I hope that I someday become that well attuned to the Spirit, because He sometimes is that subtle.
If I had my way, spiritual promptings would be more obvious, perhaps even to the point of being unmistakable, but I'm sure there are good reasons why the Spirit isn't usually that blunt. Perhaps it's like a horse's reins. The Spirit doesn't want to jerk our heads around to literally make us face the right direction. He'd rather use a gentler hand. But for that to work, we need to be sensitive to even the softest pulls of the reins, and we need to be willing to turn our heads at even the faintest suggestion. Being that sensitive and submissive to the promptings of the Spirit takes a lot of effort, perhaps even a lifetime's worth, and I'm really impressed that my mom was able to detect, recognize, and act upon so subtle a prompting. As my mom taught me yesterday, some promptings are that subtle, and we need to be extremely well attuned to the Spirit to even notice them.
I'm not sure I would have caught a prompting that subtle. In fact, I'm almost sure I wouldn't have. I can be pretty dense. If I had bad feelings about something, I might assume that I just had a bad attitude or that I was feeling bad about something else and was just projecting those bad feelings on whatever I was planning to do. Instead, my mom knew the difference between her personal feelings and feelings that came through promptings of the spirit. I hope that I someday become that well attuned to the Spirit, because He sometimes is that subtle.
If I had my way, spiritual promptings would be more obvious, perhaps even to the point of being unmistakable, but I'm sure there are good reasons why the Spirit isn't usually that blunt. Perhaps it's like a horse's reins. The Spirit doesn't want to jerk our heads around to literally make us face the right direction. He'd rather use a gentler hand. But for that to work, we need to be sensitive to even the softest pulls of the reins, and we need to be willing to turn our heads at even the faintest suggestion. Being that sensitive and submissive to the promptings of the Spirit takes a lot of effort, perhaps even a lifetime's worth, and I'm really impressed that my mom was able to detect, recognize, and act upon so subtle a prompting. As my mom taught me yesterday, some promptings are that subtle, and we need to be extremely well attuned to the Spirit to even notice them.
Friday, October 18, 2019
Slipping
I'm slipping. I was doing great for a short while, but I'm already slipping back into the bad habit of waiting too long before I blog. I had a half-decent blog post in mind for today, or at least, I had an experience that was certainly blogworthy, if only I could find the right words. But right now, I'm tired enough that I'm having some trouble typing, let alone looking for spiritual messages and finding the right words to talk about them. Fortunately, I've realized that I'm slipping, and I'll use this as a reminder to do better next time. I'll blog earlier and better tomorrow, I promise. And I'll try to make a habit of that, instead of letting myself slip back into my old, bad, blogging habits.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Empathy
Today, I got to have a conversation with someone on the power of empathy. The funny thing is, the actual topic of conversation was climate change, and we talked about how sympathy for the troubles of others can help inspire us to do our part to fight climate change and its accompanying semi-natural disasters. However, we also discussed the benefits of practicing empathy for those who are among the greatest contributors to climate change. Change is hard, even when it's for the better, and it's even harder when people attack those who need to change and demand that they change, with little thanks for those who do. People tend to get defensive when they're attacked, and that's not likely to get us anywhere. Instead, we might make some progress by acknowledging the difficulty of what we're asking them to do and acknowledging the progress that they make. That way, they may feel inspired to keep up the good work.
Empathy is powerful. It can heal people, unite people, and persuade people to work together, despite their differences. It can break down barriers and build bridges of understanding. Empathy is uplifting. When we want to help others, and when we want to persuade them to help us, we would to well to practice empathy.
Empathy is powerful. It can heal people, unite people, and persuade people to work together, despite their differences. It can break down barriers and build bridges of understanding. Empathy is uplifting. When we want to help others, and when we want to persuade them to help us, we would to well to practice empathy.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Armor Spells
Since I started playing D&D some years ago, I've learned that certain defensive D&D spells are a better analogy for spiritual armor than physical armor is, and there are three spells in particular that fulfill the analogy quite nicely: Mage Armor, Shield of Faith, and Shield.
Mage Armor is a spell that sets an unarmored creature's AC to 13 plus that creature's Dexterity Modifier. AC stands for Armor Class. The higher one's is, the harder one is to hit. One's Armor Class is mostly based on one's armor, though one's Dexterity Modifier (a modifier indicating how nimble a character is) is also taken into account when using Light or Medium Armor, or no armor at all.
What makes Mage Armor better than regular armor is its duration and the fact that one can sleep in it. With regular armor, once you put it on, you can keep it on until you have to go to bed at night, at which point you take it off. Mage Armor doesn't work that way. You can sleep in Mage Armor with no issues (as far as I know), but if you want to do that, you'll have to cast it right before you go to bed. Mage Armor has a duration of 8 hours. Once you cast it, your AC will go from 10+DEX to 13+DEX, and it'll stay that high for 8 hours, at which point you'll lose the AC bonus unless you cast it again. As an analogy for spiritual armor, Mage Armor is incredibly useful in that it emphasizes our need to regularly refresh the armor, even three times per day, and it facilitates our need to never willingly take it off.
With a name like Shield of Faith, one might expect that spell to be a perfect analogy for the Armor of God, or at least a part of it, but it's actually far more limited than that. Shield of Faith adds +2 to one's AC (whether they're wearing armor or not), but it only lasts for a duration of 10 minutes. 10 minutes is plenty long enough for a battle or two, but it's not going to last all day. Instead, Shield of Faith is best suited for individual battles, for when you know that you are being tempted, not for when you know that you might be tempted later.
If Shield of Faith is best for individual battles, Shield is best against individual attacks. With the shortest duration of 1 round (approximately 6 seconds), Shield hardly seems useful at all, but its value is seen in its benefit and its casting time. Its benefit is that it adds +5 to your AC for that one round, which is an incredible bonus. Few attacks can get past a Shield, especially if one's AC was already good to begin with, and Shield's casting time of Reaction allows one to use it in response to an attack that might otherwise have hit them. The other two spells I've discussed have a casting time of an Action, meaning that one has to spend their Action on their turn casting the spell in order to get the benefits for later turns. Mage Armor and Shield of Faith are mostly proactive spells. In contrast, Shield is a reactive spell. When one would get hit by an attack, one can use their Reaction to cast Shield, which increases their AC until the start of their next turn. Shield is like a prayer uttered in the face of a specific temptation. It doesn't say "I may need help later." It says "I need help Right Now."
The best part is that these spells can be stacked to combine their effects. One can cast Mage Armor at regular intervals to keep their armor on at all times, cast Shield of Faith at the start of a battle to give themselves extra defense for that battle, and cast Shield on top of that if anything gets through their already excellent defenses. Using those three spells (and a positive Dexterity Modifier), one can (temporarily) have a higher AC than that offered by any non-magical armor in the game.
But more importantly, these three spells illustrate when we ought to pray for strength to resist temptation. First, regularly (one might dare say always), at least every morning and evening, and maybe one or more times during the day. Second, when we know temptation is upon us or coming soon. And third, in the exact instant when we are being tempted. If we pray at all three of those times, we will be extraordinarily well-defended against temptation, making it much, much easier for us to get through our battles unscathed.
Of course, it will still be up to us to fight or flee. If we linger in tempting situations, those temptations will eventually get the better of us, no matter how good our armor is, but as long as we do everything in our power to end the fights quickly, we should be basically untouchable within our well-maintained spiritual armor, and the best part is that we never have to take it off. Our spiritual defenses can be formidable, and with the right prayers said at the right times, we can keep them up almost constantly.
Mage Armor is a spell that sets an unarmored creature's AC to 13 plus that creature's Dexterity Modifier. AC stands for Armor Class. The higher one's is, the harder one is to hit. One's Armor Class is mostly based on one's armor, though one's Dexterity Modifier (a modifier indicating how nimble a character is) is also taken into account when using Light or Medium Armor, or no armor at all.
What makes Mage Armor better than regular armor is its duration and the fact that one can sleep in it. With regular armor, once you put it on, you can keep it on until you have to go to bed at night, at which point you take it off. Mage Armor doesn't work that way. You can sleep in Mage Armor with no issues (as far as I know), but if you want to do that, you'll have to cast it right before you go to bed. Mage Armor has a duration of 8 hours. Once you cast it, your AC will go from 10+DEX to 13+DEX, and it'll stay that high for 8 hours, at which point you'll lose the AC bonus unless you cast it again. As an analogy for spiritual armor, Mage Armor is incredibly useful in that it emphasizes our need to regularly refresh the armor, even three times per day, and it facilitates our need to never willingly take it off.
With a name like Shield of Faith, one might expect that spell to be a perfect analogy for the Armor of God, or at least a part of it, but it's actually far more limited than that. Shield of Faith adds +2 to one's AC (whether they're wearing armor or not), but it only lasts for a duration of 10 minutes. 10 minutes is plenty long enough for a battle or two, but it's not going to last all day. Instead, Shield of Faith is best suited for individual battles, for when you know that you are being tempted, not for when you know that you might be tempted later.
If Shield of Faith is best for individual battles, Shield is best against individual attacks. With the shortest duration of 1 round (approximately 6 seconds), Shield hardly seems useful at all, but its value is seen in its benefit and its casting time. Its benefit is that it adds +5 to your AC for that one round, which is an incredible bonus. Few attacks can get past a Shield, especially if one's AC was already good to begin with, and Shield's casting time of Reaction allows one to use it in response to an attack that might otherwise have hit them. The other two spells I've discussed have a casting time of an Action, meaning that one has to spend their Action on their turn casting the spell in order to get the benefits for later turns. Mage Armor and Shield of Faith are mostly proactive spells. In contrast, Shield is a reactive spell. When one would get hit by an attack, one can use their Reaction to cast Shield, which increases their AC until the start of their next turn. Shield is like a prayer uttered in the face of a specific temptation. It doesn't say "I may need help later." It says "I need help Right Now."
The best part is that these spells can be stacked to combine their effects. One can cast Mage Armor at regular intervals to keep their armor on at all times, cast Shield of Faith at the start of a battle to give themselves extra defense for that battle, and cast Shield on top of that if anything gets through their already excellent defenses. Using those three spells (and a positive Dexterity Modifier), one can (temporarily) have a higher AC than that offered by any non-magical armor in the game.
But more importantly, these three spells illustrate when we ought to pray for strength to resist temptation. First, regularly (one might dare say always), at least every morning and evening, and maybe one or more times during the day. Second, when we know temptation is upon us or coming soon. And third, in the exact instant when we are being tempted. If we pray at all three of those times, we will be extraordinarily well-defended against temptation, making it much, much easier for us to get through our battles unscathed.
Of course, it will still be up to us to fight or flee. If we linger in tempting situations, those temptations will eventually get the better of us, no matter how good our armor is, but as long as we do everything in our power to end the fights quickly, we should be basically untouchable within our well-maintained spiritual armor, and the best part is that we never have to take it off. Our spiritual defenses can be formidable, and with the right prayers said at the right times, we can keep them up almost constantly.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Putting in an Effort
Today, I gathered four tennis balls from the tennis courts at my school. The first three were easy. One was stuck pretty low in the fence, and the other two were just lying on the ground. They were almost too easy. The last one, however, was about as high up on the fence as a tennis ball can get. To get to it, I had to roll a set of portable bleachers across the lengths of two tennis courts and stand on the highest bench of those bleachers so I could just barely reach the fourth tennis ball with a stick. But you know what? I appreciate that fourth tennis ball a bit more than the other three, mostly because of the work I had to put into it.
Life is hard. At least, the more worth-while parts of life are hard. Getting and keeping a job, raising a family, keeping covenants, and achieving Celestial Glory are all fairly difficult things to do. Yet, those things are absolutely worth doing, and we appreciate them all the more for the work we put into them.
Too often, I shy away from doing difficult things because they'll be difficult, and I doubt that they'll be worth the effort, but maybe, sometimes, the effort itself is what makes those things worth doing. People don't climb mountains because it's easy. They climbs mountains, among other reasons, to challenge themselves and to prove to themselves and the world that they can do difficult things. More than that, they are willing to put in the effort required to do difficult things.
I spent at least five minutes today retrieving a tennis ball. I should be willing to put in at least that much effort to do things that are more difficult, but infinitely more worth-while.
Life is hard. At least, the more worth-while parts of life are hard. Getting and keeping a job, raising a family, keeping covenants, and achieving Celestial Glory are all fairly difficult things to do. Yet, those things are absolutely worth doing, and we appreciate them all the more for the work we put into them.
Too often, I shy away from doing difficult things because they'll be difficult, and I doubt that they'll be worth the effort, but maybe, sometimes, the effort itself is what makes those things worth doing. People don't climb mountains because it's easy. They climbs mountains, among other reasons, to challenge themselves and to prove to themselves and the world that they can do difficult things. More than that, they are willing to put in the effort required to do difficult things.
I spent at least five minutes today retrieving a tennis ball. I should be willing to put in at least that much effort to do things that are more difficult, but infinitely more worth-while.
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