A Random Encounter

Life's not always a lot of fun. There are chores and errands and work to do, and there are challenges that come up and cause additional problems and/or make our existing work more difficult. One such challenge arose in my household tonight, but as I told my friend about it, I didn't phrase it as a problem. I phrased it as a random encounter.

Lots of life's problems and challenges can be made more tolerable when one thinks of them adventurously. Chores can become adventures. Errands can become quests. And the challenges that arise unexpectedly can be random encounters, like a goblin ambush, or a bandit raid, or even a dragon attack. They, of course, may be challenging, but we can rise to the challenge, overcome the problem, and press forward in the pursuit of our quest.

Perhaps it's silly to think of life this way, but it's more encouraging, more interesting, and a lot more fun.

Everything God Does (and Doesn't Do) Shows His Love

The more I think about it, the more I think that just about anything could be a manifestation of love. Love isn't one of several listed possible acts. Love is a motivation that can inspire any number of kinds of acts. I suppose that, if your goal is the welfare of a person, any attempt to accomplish that goal can be viewed as an expression of love for that person. Of course, it's best if those attempts actually contribute to that person's welfare, but it may be that, so long as your heart is in the right place, then anything you do to try to help that person, including trying to understand how to best help them, can be an act of love.

Applying that to God gives us an interesting result. I think I recall hearing that everything God does, He does for our benefit. Yeah, here it is. 2 Nephi 26:24: "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world..." God loves the world, so everything He does, he does for the benefit of the world; therefore, everything He does is an expression of love for the world,  including us.

Naturally, that would include every act of omission as well. Choosing not to do something is a choice that's as active as choosing to do something is. Just as everything God does is something that God does because He loves us, everything He doesn't do is something He doesn't do because He loves us.

Huh. That even applies to withholding blessings. As President Dallin H. Oaks said, "God’s universal and perfect love is shown in all the blessings of His gospel plan, including the fact that His choicest blessings are reserved for those who obey His laws." So long as all actions made for the benefit of someone are expressions of love for that person, and so long as all of God's actions (and inactions) are made for our benefit, then all of God's actions (even including withholding blessings and meting out punishments) are expressions of His love for us.

This is a little mind-blowing, to be honest. This is prompting me to reevaluate some of God's inactions which I had previously interpreted as evidence of an absence of love, or at least as a limitation on God's ability to express His love. Perhaps I was misinterpreting the (lack of a) sign that I was given. Yet, the logic seems sound. If the premises hold true, then the conclusion must be true as well. If all acts taken for the benefit of a person are expressions of love for that person, and if all of God's acts are for our benefit, then all of God's acts are expressions of love for us, even if they don't feel like acts of love at the time.

I currently believe that this revelatory moment is the reason I was chosen to lead this discussion. God wanted me to have this assurance that everything God does, He does because He loves us, because He loves me.

I almost mentioned this yesterday, and the night before, but I thought that leading this discussion was going to be difficult because I hadn't felt God's love for me in a long time. I felt like He couldn't reach me or didn't care to. But now I know that, if those two premises are true, then I must conclude that everything God does (or doesn't do), He does (or doesn't do) out of love. So, God does love me after all, and every sign He shows me, or doesn't show me, is an expression of that love.

A Short List of Ways in Which God Shows His Love

I have been asked to lead a discussion next week, focused on the talk "God Loves His Children," by Elder Taniela B. Wakolo of the Seventy. In this talk, Elder Wacolo lists three ways in which God manifests His love for us, namely through our eternal relationships, through giving us prophets, and by offering correction when needed. For the purpose of the coming discussion, I'd like to add a few more items to that list, including the offers of exaltation, personal revelation, the comfort of His Spirit, and inner peace.

God has many ways to show His love for His children, and so long as I'm being asked to lead a discussion on ways God shows His love for us, I'll be sure to include a few of my personal favorites.

Doing Good Badly

I am incredibly tired and terribly late. I started trying to blog at around 10:30 tonight, and I thought I'd have plenty of time, but I hit a roadblock, just stuck, and couldn't get myself out of it until just now. Just now, I decided that I had to at least blog about something. At least I could blog about being late and tired and sorry and promising to do better tomorrow, which is basically what repentance is anyway.

Nobody's perfect. We all fail to live up to our ideals more often than we'd care to admit. I submit my blog posts late more often than I'd like to, and I occasionally tell myself that I'll do better, and I often do, but I still end up posting late blog posts every so often.

But you know what? That's okay. Late blog posts are better than no blog posts. Trying to do good, but falling short, is still good. This doesn't work in academia, but in real life, you can sometimes get an A for effort, regardless of the results.

I've been blogging daily for almost ten years now. Most of those blog posts have come in on time. Several of them have been insightful. My blogging hasn't been perfect, but it has been good. Blogging is a good thing, even if the blog posts are very late. Doing good is a good thing, even if we're not terribly good at it. Doing good badly is better than not doing it at all.

Pieces of Light and Truth

As I've been reading about these ancient religions for my humanities class, I've been struck by the number of similarities between the ancient faiths and my own. Granted, it's only natural that we'd have features in common with early Judaism, since we both use the Bible, but I was almost surprised to see that the ancient Egyptian got a handful of things right as well. Now, I could attribute this to the stopped clock situation and say that even a broken clock is right twice per day, but I think it's more accurate to say that anyone from any faith can be inspired by the Light of Christ, and so it's only natural for there to be some light and truth in every religion, even in the ones that get literally everything else wrong.

I know that there's only one true church with all of the truth in it, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see pieces of light and truth pop up elsewhere as well.

The (Divine) Advancement of Early Man

This morning, I finished and submitted a paper about the remarkable advancement of early man. Even back in the Neolithic Age, around ten thousand years ago, we see evidence of invention, art, architecture, social structures, and religion. Of course, it seems remarkable that a group of clever or lucky cavemen could have developed such traits, but personally, I wouldn't be surprised if mankind was basically born with them.

Adam and Eve were taught by God, an omniscient being, and they taught their children and grandchildren. These were not animals who evolved opposable thumbs and tried to figure out how to use them. These were human beings place here and instructed by the hand of God. They may or may not have had a written language or many of the other advancements that we sometimes take advantage, but I wouldn't be surprised if God taught them how the world works and how they could work together.

Looking at the world and evolution and the development of society, it can seem to be the result of a series of staggeringly lucky coincidences. But looking at it from a religious perspective, it's easy to imagine that humankind has had a lot of help from God to get us started.

Balancing Productivity and Relaxation

Perhaps in response to feeling overly stressed, I have forced myself to slow down with my homework, to make use of more of the time that I've been given, to pace myself, and to try to relax, unwind, and keep calm, at least in the evenings, even while I try to make steady progress during most of the day. And I think it's working. This morning/early afternoon, I wrote a 1269-word draft of an assignment, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and playing a game with some friends. I had a balanced, productive, relaxing day today, and I plan to have a similarly productive and relaxing day tomorrow.

It's possible that I won't be able to keep up this exact balance forever. My workload will increase, requiring me to spend more time working, but for now, the balance seems to work. I can make good progress on my work without running myself into the ground, mentally or emotionally. I'm not sure what I'll do when my workload increases, but I'll figure it out. No matter how much work I have to do, I'll find some way to balance productivity and relaxation and how to get my work done without driving myself insane.