Last night, Joe and I watched a marathon of Magic School Bus episodes on DVD. We also had popcorn. It was a little bit stale, as it had been made a few days ago, but it was covered in a kind of peanut butter caramel, so it still tasted delicious. The problem was that when it was time to change the DVD, our hands were covered in caramel.
In life, and especially in the church, there are some things that can only be done with spiritually clean hands. Many of those things are priesthood ordinances, which can only be performed by worthy men who hold the priesthood. But anyone, male or female, may receive some those ordinances, though they, too, need to be worthy. Members of the church must meet a fairly high standard of worthiness to participate in the ordinances of the temple. And it's not just ordinances for which we need to stay clean. We also need to stay clean in order to enjoy the presence of the Spirit and receive personal revelation. In essence, our lives are so much more blessed when we keep ourselves morally clean.
On the other hand, that popcorn was pretty tasty.
Satan tries to make sin look appealing - more appealing, in the moment of temptation, than the blessings we could be worthy for by not sinning. And with tragic frequency, he succeeds. To be fair, the popcorn was tasty, and certain sins can be fun, but all sins (and excessive popcorn consumption) lead to long-term regrets. Even with just that one bowl of popcorn, I had some regrets. Pieces of popcorn kernels got stuck in my teeth and remained stuck there long after the popcorn was gone, not to mention the inconvenience of not being able to change the DVD. Actually, I was able to change the DVD, because I was careful to only eat the popcorn with one hand, so my other hand would be clean enough to change the DVD, but sin doesn't work that way. Whatever part of you commits the sin, the whole soul suffers as a result.
So, let's say you've eaten some popcorn, and you know you're going to have to change a DVD later, but now you hands are covered in caramel. What do you do? You wash your hands.
The repentance process can be long and difficult, so you may still miss out on a few opportunities for blessings between the time you start repenting and the time that you're finally clean again. But once the repentance process is complete, your hands will once again be clean, and you'll be ready to receive all the blessings that you had been missing, and though repentance can take a lot longer than washing your hands because many sins are more sticky than caramel, the sooner you get started, the sooner you'll be clean.
But if keeping your hand clean is the goal, especially when you never know when you'll need to change a DVD, perhaps it's best that you avoid the popcorn in the first place.
Avoiding sin can be difficult. Satan makes it seem harmless and even enjoyable. You have to be sharp to not be fooled by his tricks. But identifying the temptation is only half the battle. It often takes strong will-power and self-restraint to resist the temptation, even when you see it for what it is. But when you're faced with temptation, it might help you resist it if you think of the blessings you'll miss out on if you give in. Losing the presence of the spirit is an immediate drawback to most sins. Some sins can keep you from being worthy to partake of the Sacrament or to enter the Temple. And any sin dulls your spiritual sensitivity, making it harder to receive personal revelation. We stand to lose a lot when we give in to sin, and what do we get in return? A little bit of light refreshment and popcorn kernels stuck in your teeth. Bad trade. It doesn't even fill your stomach like normal food would. No, we're all better off not touching the popcorn, and keeping our hands clean enough to change DVDs.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Getting Lost in the Internet Jungle
The internet is a dangerous place. Some parts of it are more dangerous than others. The most dangerous of those, we know to avoid. We avoid them because we've been warned against them, or because we can feel, in our hearts, the danger of those places. Other parts of the internet are dangerous in different ways, and could be said to be dangerous in the same way that the internet itself is dangerous. Those parts of the internet, and the internet itself, are double-edge swords, capable of both good and bad. And sometimes, the bad parts are unseen or counted as being less bad than they are because of the parts that are good. The internet is a jungle.
Jungles aren't bad places. They aren't evil. But they are extremely dangerous. There are many natural hazards and predatory creatures in the jungle. One could easily lose their lives to the many dangers of the jungle, but there's one danger that's less obviously lethal, but still very deadly: the risk of getting lost. Even if the jaguars can't find you and the quicksand can't trick you, you still may never get out of the jungle alive if you lose your way. And even if you do escape the trap of being lost in the jungle, you'll find that you spent a good deal more time in the jungle than you expected to.
People don't get lost in the internet. You can get to any place in the web from any other place in the web by copying down the URL to the place where you want to go. All you have to do is save a link or make a bookmark. If you find yourself in a place on the internet you've never been before, and you've forgotten how you got there, you can check your browser's history. You can also follow the browser's history like a trail of breadcrumbs by clicking the Back button, or teleport back to any website you've ever been to using the links in the history, or, again, copying the URLs. No, people usually don't have much trouble navigating the internet. The real challenge is to stop navigating it.
People can spend a lot of time on the internet. There are billions, if not trillions of webpages we might find interesting, hours and hours of "must watch" footage on Youtube, and countless amusing images and memes shared on Facebook and on the websites they link to. A person could spend their entire life looking at the memes and Youtube videos of their choice and still not have time to see every online thing that interests them. Even cutting out the evil and equally addicting obviously bad parts of the internet, there's more good stuff online than any human being has time for. And yet, here we are, watching it, sharing it, reading it, even writing it, adding to and enjoying the immeasurable mass of time-consuming information, images, and videos that the internet has to offer. I frequently find myself in the trap of spending too much time online.
So, how do we get out of that trap? How do we cut our way free from the jungle of the internet? Taking a machete to the power cord might do the trick, but for a less dramatic and dangerous approach, try this: Acknowledge that there is too much internet for anyone to be able to see it all, and resign yourself to the fact that you're going to miss some of it. It's a fact you'll have to deal with, whether you want to or not, and once you accept it, you can let that fact help you. Acknowledging that there are some parts of the internet that you're going to have to live without can help you be more selective in the parts of the internet you choose to enjoy. Pick out only the most worth-while sites, and you'll eventually learn that you can live without the rest. I have a weakness for Top Ten lists on youtube videos, but they seldom enrich my life, while I can think of several real-life activities that do. By choosing the "better" things over the "good," we will find that the "good" things weren't really all that good in the first place, compared to the things that are better.
The internet is a place where countless good things come together, along with many not-so-good things, and even a few great things. The trick is to be willing to choose to live without the many "good" things on the internet (while avoiding the bad things like the plague), so we have more time to spend with the better things, the things of lasting value, that do some real good in the world.
Jungles aren't bad places. They aren't evil. But they are extremely dangerous. There are many natural hazards and predatory creatures in the jungle. One could easily lose their lives to the many dangers of the jungle, but there's one danger that's less obviously lethal, but still very deadly: the risk of getting lost. Even if the jaguars can't find you and the quicksand can't trick you, you still may never get out of the jungle alive if you lose your way. And even if you do escape the trap of being lost in the jungle, you'll find that you spent a good deal more time in the jungle than you expected to.
People don't get lost in the internet. You can get to any place in the web from any other place in the web by copying down the URL to the place where you want to go. All you have to do is save a link or make a bookmark. If you find yourself in a place on the internet you've never been before, and you've forgotten how you got there, you can check your browser's history. You can also follow the browser's history like a trail of breadcrumbs by clicking the Back button, or teleport back to any website you've ever been to using the links in the history, or, again, copying the URLs. No, people usually don't have much trouble navigating the internet. The real challenge is to stop navigating it.
People can spend a lot of time on the internet. There are billions, if not trillions of webpages we might find interesting, hours and hours of "must watch" footage on Youtube, and countless amusing images and memes shared on Facebook and on the websites they link to. A person could spend their entire life looking at the memes and Youtube videos of their choice and still not have time to see every online thing that interests them. Even cutting out the evil and equally addicting obviously bad parts of the internet, there's more good stuff online than any human being has time for. And yet, here we are, watching it, sharing it, reading it, even writing it, adding to and enjoying the immeasurable mass of time-consuming information, images, and videos that the internet has to offer. I frequently find myself in the trap of spending too much time online.
So, how do we get out of that trap? How do we cut our way free from the jungle of the internet? Taking a machete to the power cord might do the trick, but for a less dramatic and dangerous approach, try this: Acknowledge that there is too much internet for anyone to be able to see it all, and resign yourself to the fact that you're going to miss some of it. It's a fact you'll have to deal with, whether you want to or not, and once you accept it, you can let that fact help you. Acknowledging that there are some parts of the internet that you're going to have to live without can help you be more selective in the parts of the internet you choose to enjoy. Pick out only the most worth-while sites, and you'll eventually learn that you can live without the rest. I have a weakness for Top Ten lists on youtube videos, but they seldom enrich my life, while I can think of several real-life activities that do. By choosing the "better" things over the "good," we will find that the "good" things weren't really all that good in the first place, compared to the things that are better.
The internet is a place where countless good things come together, along with many not-so-good things, and even a few great things. The trick is to be willing to choose to live without the many "good" things on the internet (while avoiding the bad things like the plague), so we have more time to spend with the better things, the things of lasting value, that do some real good in the world.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Who Are You Talking To?
Our house just got a phone call from someone who was trying to get a hold of Dad. Something about a telescope. The thing is that Dad no longer lives at this house, so I picked up the phone and told whoever-it-was a number at which Dad could be reached. Then the person on the other end of the line said something to the effect of "I know Glen has any interest in astronomy. Do you?" I assumed it was a telemarketer, and I almost said "No, I'm not interested," and abruptly hung up, but now I am very glad I didn't do that. I did answer no, but I did so politely, and the conversation carried on for a few more seconds before the caller hung up to go call my Dad. When I went to erase the message on the answering machine, I let the message play to the point where I picked up the phone, and the caller immediately identified himself as my home teacher.
What struck me most about that revelation, beside the fact that people sound VERY different on the telephone than they do in person, was that I was very glad that I hadn't been as rude as I might have been to a person assumed to be a telemarketer. Can you imagine how embarrassing that would have been the next time I saw him at church? Thank goodness Mom raised me to be polite!
And why shouldn't we be? Let's imagine that it was a telemarketer, someone I had never met before. I'm sure a little kindness would have brightened their day. And if we ever met later, I would have been much happier knowing that our first conversation had been a pleasant one, even if it was decidedly brief. And while there's very little chance of meeting a random "stranger," and recognizing each other later in life, I believe there's a much larger chance of meeting and recognizing a great number of people after life. Old friends, distant relatives, casual acquaintances, people we had only bumped into once, and many more people will be waiting on the other side, and I'd be surprised if we all didn't have the chance to talk to each other again. I think on that day, I'd rather be thanked for being courteous than be prompted to apologize for unkind words.
I suppose that there really are no strangers. We're all brothers and sisters, in a sense, and some of them we may also become friends with later on in life. We know that we'll be judged for everything we do, and everything we say, even to strangers. In fact, writing about this, I'm reminded about a scripture in Matthew, "When saw we thee a stranger?" I'm sure you know it. (Matt. 25: 38, and the surrounding verses)
What struck me most about that revelation, beside the fact that people sound VERY different on the telephone than they do in person, was that I was very glad that I hadn't been as rude as I might have been to a person assumed to be a telemarketer. Can you imagine how embarrassing that would have been the next time I saw him at church? Thank goodness Mom raised me to be polite!
And why shouldn't we be? Let's imagine that it was a telemarketer, someone I had never met before. I'm sure a little kindness would have brightened their day. And if we ever met later, I would have been much happier knowing that our first conversation had been a pleasant one, even if it was decidedly brief. And while there's very little chance of meeting a random "stranger," and recognizing each other later in life, I believe there's a much larger chance of meeting and recognizing a great number of people after life. Old friends, distant relatives, casual acquaintances, people we had only bumped into once, and many more people will be waiting on the other side, and I'd be surprised if we all didn't have the chance to talk to each other again. I think on that day, I'd rather be thanked for being courteous than be prompted to apologize for unkind words.
I suppose that there really are no strangers. We're all brothers and sisters, in a sense, and some of them we may also become friends with later on in life. We know that we'll be judged for everything we do, and everything we say, even to strangers. In fact, writing about this, I'm reminded about a scripture in Matthew, "When saw we thee a stranger?" I'm sure you know it. (Matt. 25: 38, and the surrounding verses)
The moral of the story is to be polite to everybody, and this morning, I find myself very relieved that I was.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Strong in Faith
Last night, for our family scripture study, we read Romans chapter 4. Some of it went over our heads, but some of it made a bit more sense and conveyed an aspect of faith and hope that I'd like to share this morning. In verses 18-21, as well as through most of the chapter, Paul wrote about Abraham:
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Romans 4: 18-21
At the risk of brutally butchering this passage, I'll try to explain what it says in plain English.
Even though it seemed hopeless, Abraham had hope that he would be the father of many nations, because God had promised that he would be. And because of his strong faith, he didn't worry about the fact that both he and his wife were too old to have kids. So, even though the blessing God had promised Abraham was staggering and difficult to believe, Abraham believed that it would happen, and he glorified God, knowing that what God had promised, He was able to make true.
I butchered it, didn't I? Oh, well. At least now I'm pretty sure you understand those verses as well as I do, though I had to read them a couple of times for it to make any sense to me.
This passage of scripture reminds us of a moment in time when God promised Abraham that He would do a thing that seemed impossible. But, of course, God kept His promise, lending even more evidence to the claim that nothing is impossible for God. That's great, but what most interests me about this passage is the parallel from which we may learn if we link this passage to ourselves.
God has made us a few tremendous promises as well, ones involving salvation, exaltation, and a mighty change of heart. When we get stuck in a rut or suffer a setback in our spiritual progression, we may wonder sometimes if even God is able to save us, to change us, to help us eventually become like He is. We have such a long way to go, and we're making so little progress, if any at all, it seems impossible that we'll ever reach such lofty goals. Yet, with God, all things are possible (Matt. 19: 26).
God is able to save us. He is able to change us. He is even able to exalt us until we become even as He is. But in order for that to happen (assuming I'm not mistaken), He needs us to trust Him and follow Him in faith, or at least to try to trust Him and try to follow Him. His incredible blessings rest on the prerequisite of faith, and faith is a principle of action.
There's another concept I'd like to tie into this; a concept relating to time, and a strong faith in the certainty of future events. When God says He's going to do something, it is going to happen, so sometimes, when there are prophesies of things that are going to happen, they're written in the scriptures as if they already did, because they might as well have. The truth of the matter is just as certain either way. So, if God has promised that He will work a mighty change in our hearts, perhaps it'd make sense to start acting as though He already has.
Faith being a principle of action, we should act on our belief that God is helping us to be worthy and welcome to dwell in the Celestial Kingdom with Him. We have been promised that, if we are faithful, we will be saved, so let us be faithful to that promise, and glorify God in faith that we will be saved. We don't have to wait for blessings to be realized in order to thank God for them, especially when these are blessings that God has promised will come. Let us be strong in faith, like Abraham, and strive to live worthy of the blessings God has promised us, trusting whole-heartedly that God will fulfill His promise.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Immediate Blessings
Yesterday, in Sacrament Meeting, one of the sisters in our ward, whose name I forgot to write down, quoted a scripture that I immediately wanted to share this morning.
When I heard that scripture yesterday, I thought of the word immediately, meaning without delay, instantly, very closely following whatever happened before it, and I knew there were a few places in which the word "Immediately" was used in the scriptures. I was wrong. There are several places where "Immediately" is used in the scriptures, mostly in the New Testament, and as far as I could tell, most of those referred to people being healed immediately. I wanted to share the "Immediately" scriptures, but there proved to be too many, so I thought it'd suffice to share the one I posted above, and one more, but I'll get to that one later.
The other scripture I wanted to share the features the word "immediately" is Alma 34: 31:
This verse talks about the keeping of a specific commandment, repentance, for which one may immediately receive a specific blessing, that "the great plan of redemption [will] be brought about unto you." I think that means forgiveness, but again, don't quote me because I'm not completely sure.
If I'm right, this is another blessing that can be rather subtle and not always felt, so there's little chance of people repenting just for the instant gratification of the feeling of being forgiven (besides, such people probably aren't genuinely repenting anyway), but for those with sincerity and enough spiritual sensitivity, the feeling of being forgiven may be felt and appreciated.
Honestly, I think that God likes to bless us, that He's eager to bless us, but that there are usually a few things holding Him back. His Spirit can't be with us if we're not keeping the commandments because He "dwelleth not in unholy temples." He could grant us miracles on our behalf, but actually, that might do more harm than good. If we sin, but get blessed anyway, we may never learn our lesson and repent, so, for our own sakes, God can't bless us unless we obey His counsel and commandments.
But as soon as we do, He blesses us. I believe that God is eager and anxious to bless us, and as soon as we give Him an opportunity, by keeping a commandment or repenting of a sin, He welcomes us with open arms and makes sure that we feel welcome by blessing us with His Spirit. I think that God really, really loves us, so He wants to bless us, and He does so immediately when we give Him a good reason to. But even more than He wants to bless us, He wants what's best for us. He wants us to learn and grow to be good people. He wants us to repent of our sins and keep His commandments. So, as much as He wants to bless us, He often holds some blessings back until we show that we're willing to follow Him.
But here's the kicker: If we do follow Him, no good thing will be withheld from us. Even all the He has will be given to us if we follow Him. A blessing that big may not come to us immediately, but it's certainly worth keeping the commandments for, and we have a scriptural assurance that there will be many immediate blessings along the way.
And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.
And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
Mosiah 2: 23-24
When I heard that scripture yesterday, I thought of the word immediately, meaning without delay, instantly, very closely following whatever happened before it, and I knew there were a few places in which the word "Immediately" was used in the scriptures. I was wrong. There are several places where "Immediately" is used in the scriptures, mostly in the New Testament, and as far as I could tell, most of those referred to people being healed immediately. I wanted to share the "Immediately" scriptures, but there proved to be too many, so I thought it'd suffice to share the one I posted above, and one more, but I'll get to that one later.
The scripture above is mostly talking about the debt we owe to God for creating us and for the many blessings He gives us, but I want to highlight the part of the verse where it says that some blessings come immediately. We normally don't think of it happening that way. Or at least, I don't. I feel that it sometimes takes a while for the blessings of commandment-keeping to come. Delay gratification is a good thing, right? It teaches us patience, and it teaches us not to keep the commandments just for the sake of receiving blessings. If we keep commandments just for the sake of receiving the blessings that will immediately come, then the purpose of hose commandments (making us better, more Christ-like people) would be ruined.
Or would it? Even if we keep the commandments selfishly, if we keep them consistently, the habit will still form, and we'll become better people for it. I'm starting to get off-topic, aren't I?
My current thinking is that God does bless us immediately when we keep commandments, but that the blessings that come immediately after a specific act of commandment-keeping are often very subtle. To be specific (though I may be wrong here, so don't quote me on this), I think that the immediate blessing of keeping commandments is that we'll have the Holy Spirit with us more abundantly, that it'll touch our hearts and give us the "warm fuzzies" that we usually associate with the act of doing good. Other blessings, such as miracles on our behalf, may come later, precisely in the moment they're needed, perhaps after we've shown that we're willing to keep God's commandments with some consistency. The less-obvious blessing of the presence of the Holy Spirit may also help people to keep the commandments for the right reasons. It's subtle enough that many people could miss it, and it's not usually enough incentive for people to keep the commandments just so they could feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.
Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.
This verse talks about the keeping of a specific commandment, repentance, for which one may immediately receive a specific blessing, that "the great plan of redemption [will] be brought about unto you." I think that means forgiveness, but again, don't quote me because I'm not completely sure.
If I'm right, this is another blessing that can be rather subtle and not always felt, so there's little chance of people repenting just for the instant gratification of the feeling of being forgiven (besides, such people probably aren't genuinely repenting anyway), but for those with sincerity and enough spiritual sensitivity, the feeling of being forgiven may be felt and appreciated.
Honestly, I think that God likes to bless us, that He's eager to bless us, but that there are usually a few things holding Him back. His Spirit can't be with us if we're not keeping the commandments because He "dwelleth not in unholy temples." He could grant us miracles on our behalf, but actually, that might do more harm than good. If we sin, but get blessed anyway, we may never learn our lesson and repent, so, for our own sakes, God can't bless us unless we obey His counsel and commandments.
But as soon as we do, He blesses us. I believe that God is eager and anxious to bless us, and as soon as we give Him an opportunity, by keeping a commandment or repenting of a sin, He welcomes us with open arms and makes sure that we feel welcome by blessing us with His Spirit. I think that God really, really loves us, so He wants to bless us, and He does so immediately when we give Him a good reason to. But even more than He wants to bless us, He wants what's best for us. He wants us to learn and grow to be good people. He wants us to repent of our sins and keep His commandments. So, as much as He wants to bless us, He often holds some blessings back until we show that we're willing to follow Him.
But here's the kicker: If we do follow Him, no good thing will be withheld from us. Even all the He has will be given to us if we follow Him. A blessing that big may not come to us immediately, but it's certainly worth keeping the commandments for, and we have a scriptural assurance that there will be many immediate blessings along the way.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Let's Agree to Disagree
While I was looking on Facebook for something uplifting and sharable, I stumbled upon a Facebook page that posted, or at least shared, the following photo:
This photo is particularly relevant because of how I found the page. One of my friends shared a photo that this group had posted, depicting a comic that I find myself surprised that I agree with. The comic showed a man having a conversation with God:
The general feeling I get from the Facebook page I stumbled upon is that those who claim to be Christian should try to act more like Christians. We should be loving, and even tolerant, even with those with which we disagree. I agree with that much. But then there comes up the question of gay marriage, and suddenly I no longer know where I stand. By opposing gay marriage, am I being intolerant?
Hold on. I blogged about this once. I know I did. Let me go back and remember what I said then.
Okay, I blogged about it in two places: In Faith and Following on June 28, and Political Ramblings on June 30. In my opinion, they're better read in reverse order.
Reviewing my opinion in Faith and Following, I remember that while I have no personal convictions against gay marriage, I believe that God is against it, so I cast my vote against it as well, not because I oppose gay marriage or gay people, but because I trust God. I have nothing against gay people and I don't think I'm being intolerant of them. As I said before:
I want them to act according to their convictions, but I also want them to understand that I have to follow mine. It's nothing personal. We're both just tying to do what we think is right, and I hope we can just agree to disagree. There is a disagreement, but I'm not trying to change anybody's minds and I hope they don't try to change mine. I don't want to start any arguments. I'm just trying to follow God.
I hope that we can all be kind to one another, even though we disagree on this point. Rick Warren once said:
I hope that I can be compassionate with those I disagree with without compromising my conviction to follow God. We made be opponents, politically, but we don't have to be enemies, personally. At least, that's how I feel about it.
This photo is particularly relevant because of how I found the page. One of my friends shared a photo that this group had posted, depicting a comic that I find myself surprised that I agree with. The comic showed a man having a conversation with God:
Man: Lord, why do you pile all these troubles upon us? It's because of the gays, isn't it?
God: Yes, it is.
Man: I knew it. You're punishing us for their abominations.
God: Oh, no no no. Not at all. I'm punishing you for the [poor] way you treat them.
The general feeling I get from the Facebook page I stumbled upon is that those who claim to be Christian should try to act more like Christians. We should be loving, and even tolerant, even with those with which we disagree. I agree with that much. But then there comes up the question of gay marriage, and suddenly I no longer know where I stand. By opposing gay marriage, am I being intolerant?
Hold on. I blogged about this once. I know I did. Let me go back and remember what I said then.
Okay, I blogged about it in two places: In Faith and Following on June 28, and Political Ramblings on June 30. In my opinion, they're better read in reverse order.
Reviewing my opinion in Faith and Following, I remember that while I have no personal convictions against gay marriage, I believe that God is against it, so I cast my vote against it as well, not because I oppose gay marriage or gay people, but because I trust God. I have nothing against gay people and I don't think I'm being intolerant of them. As I said before:
If it were up to me, I'd let people - no, I'd want people to follow their hearts courageously, and not have the government or the general public trying to tear them down for acting according to their beliefs.
I want them to act according to their convictions, but I also want them to understand that I have to follow mine. It's nothing personal. We're both just tying to do what we think is right, and I hope we can just agree to disagree. There is a disagreement, but I'm not trying to change anybody's minds and I hope they don't try to change mine. I don't want to start any arguments. I'm just trying to follow God.
I hope that we can all be kind to one another, even though we disagree on this point. Rick Warren once said:
Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.
I hope that I can be compassionate with those I disagree with without compromising my conviction to follow God. We made be opponents, politically, but we don't have to be enemies, personally. At least, that's how I feel about it.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Upkeep
I was looking through my older blog posts, re-reading "Four Titles," and others. As I did, I saw the post on Prerequisites and was reminded that I had revised that role-playing system since then, by adding the principle of Upkeep.
In the standard role-playing system, once you've earned a Benefit, you usually get to keep it. Say a character was a fighter in his twenties and thirties, but he retired from that and now he's in his sixties, not having swung a sword in thirty years. But a horde of goblins raids his village, so he pulls his old sword off the mantle and starts slaying goblins just as easily as he did when he was thirty. The problem with this is that he should be horribly out of practice. He should have forgotten a lot of what he used to know about fighting, and lost almost all of his strength (depending on what he has been doing these thirty years, if not sword-fighting). There's a sort of use-it-or-lose-it principle to most skills in real life, and I'd like that to carry over to gaming.
A problem I saw with my Prerequisites idea is that it seemed too easy for a character to become extremely powerful, just by virtue of growing up. Say a boy of fifteen sets out to become a warrior, and spends five years learning how to fight. Along his adventures, he meets a wizard, and spends five years learning how to do magic, while keeping up his sword-fighting skill in his free time. By now, he's a well-known and very competent adventurer. He goes on an epic quest in which he saves the life of the High Priestess of the Holy Light. In return, she offers to teach him the way of light, which he accepts, spending five years learning the art of holy magic, while simultaneously maintaining his wizardry and swordsmanship. At this point, the man is thirty-ish years old and has spent half his life sword-fighting, has a decade of experience with arcane magic (or wizardry), and has spent the last five years learning divine magic from the High Priestess herself. He would be an incredibly powerful character. But there's just one problem: It would be impossible to keep all those skills in top shape. The more time he spends studying magic, the less time his spends practicing sword-fighting. The more time he spends with divine magic, the less time he spends with arcane magic.
In my Prerequisites system, I want there to be a system of Upkeep, where you need to spend a portion of your time practicing a skill you learned previously in order not to lose it. The fighter in the first example should be fairly useless at sword-fighting after thirty years of no practice, and the adventurer in the second example shouldn't be a great sword-fighter either, having spent so much of his time studying magic instead. There needs to be a way to keep tract of how much time each character spends on each skill, and at what level each of those skills should be as a result of the amount of time spent on them. This is starting to get complicated.
Thankfully, in real life, this system is much more intuitive. We all know that the more time we spend, say, practicing on the piano or learning to cook, the better we get at those things, and the longer it's been since we've done those things, the more those skills will start to slip away from us. The same applies with spiritual matters. The more time we spend reading the scriptures and trying to follow the spirit, the more spiritual we become, and there's a certain amount of effort required just to maintain the level of spirituality we've already achieved. The longer we go without saying our prayers and reading the scriptures, the more our spirituality starts to dwindle. We may lose it entirely, if we're not careful.
So, I'm going to try to spend more time, especially in the evenings, when I'm supposed to read the Book of Mormon, write in my journal, and say my evening prayers, trying to keep my spirituality up. I've felt it slipping the last few days, and forgetting my scripture study may be a large part of that. I need to get back into the habit of meeting the Prerequisites for Divine Favor, or I may lose that benefit entirely, and I seriously cannot afford that.
In the standard role-playing system, once you've earned a Benefit, you usually get to keep it. Say a character was a fighter in his twenties and thirties, but he retired from that and now he's in his sixties, not having swung a sword in thirty years. But a horde of goblins raids his village, so he pulls his old sword off the mantle and starts slaying goblins just as easily as he did when he was thirty. The problem with this is that he should be horribly out of practice. He should have forgotten a lot of what he used to know about fighting, and lost almost all of his strength (depending on what he has been doing these thirty years, if not sword-fighting). There's a sort of use-it-or-lose-it principle to most skills in real life, and I'd like that to carry over to gaming.
A problem I saw with my Prerequisites idea is that it seemed too easy for a character to become extremely powerful, just by virtue of growing up. Say a boy of fifteen sets out to become a warrior, and spends five years learning how to fight. Along his adventures, he meets a wizard, and spends five years learning how to do magic, while keeping up his sword-fighting skill in his free time. By now, he's a well-known and very competent adventurer. He goes on an epic quest in which he saves the life of the High Priestess of the Holy Light. In return, she offers to teach him the way of light, which he accepts, spending five years learning the art of holy magic, while simultaneously maintaining his wizardry and swordsmanship. At this point, the man is thirty-ish years old and has spent half his life sword-fighting, has a decade of experience with arcane magic (or wizardry), and has spent the last five years learning divine magic from the High Priestess herself. He would be an incredibly powerful character. But there's just one problem: It would be impossible to keep all those skills in top shape. The more time he spends studying magic, the less time his spends practicing sword-fighting. The more time he spends with divine magic, the less time he spends with arcane magic.
In my Prerequisites system, I want there to be a system of Upkeep, where you need to spend a portion of your time practicing a skill you learned previously in order not to lose it. The fighter in the first example should be fairly useless at sword-fighting after thirty years of no practice, and the adventurer in the second example shouldn't be a great sword-fighter either, having spent so much of his time studying magic instead. There needs to be a way to keep tract of how much time each character spends on each skill, and at what level each of those skills should be as a result of the amount of time spent on them. This is starting to get complicated.
Thankfully, in real life, this system is much more intuitive. We all know that the more time we spend, say, practicing on the piano or learning to cook, the better we get at those things, and the longer it's been since we've done those things, the more those skills will start to slip away from us. The same applies with spiritual matters. The more time we spend reading the scriptures and trying to follow the spirit, the more spiritual we become, and there's a certain amount of effort required just to maintain the level of spirituality we've already achieved. The longer we go without saying our prayers and reading the scriptures, the more our spirituality starts to dwindle. We may lose it entirely, if we're not careful.
So, I'm going to try to spend more time, especially in the evenings, when I'm supposed to read the Book of Mormon, write in my journal, and say my evening prayers, trying to keep my spirituality up. I've felt it slipping the last few days, and forgetting my scripture study may be a large part of that. I need to get back into the habit of meeting the Prerequisites for Divine Favor, or I may lose that benefit entirely, and I seriously cannot afford that.
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