John Chapter 11: Guidance and grey matter

 For years now, I've been on a kick about using our brain for brain stuff, and using our spiritual senses for spiritual stuff. I think we get too tied up thinking we can deduce, or calculate truth. I use the term calculate because as an engineer, that's how we determine what the right answer is. 

That's great if you're an engineer and you want to figure out what size that beam or column should be. That's how it should be done. Yes, there is experience, and experience can sometimes indicate what the size of that floor joist should be. That's an example from the engineering field, but it's also an example of how we think that we can use our grey matter to figure out all things. 

The concept I'm approaching may be perhaps best described as trying to hear a smell, or to feel a sight. There may be some approximations, such as a blind man using his fingers to "see" a person's face, but these are approximations at best, and are only a shadow of what being able to use your eyes means if you want to see a person's face - or a vista of trees, lakes and mountains. 

But we as humans think that the five senses we have and our own puny brains are all we need to ascertain truth. Clearly, if that were the case then we could just have a handful of smart people tell us all how life is. They would all agree with each other and we could just live their way. The problem is that the smarter that people proclaim that they are, the more they are likely to disagree with people who also proclaim their own genius. To me, it's clear that there's something missing. 

Another example of this is religion itself. If the bible were able to provide all the answers by itself through thorough study, then someone would be able to come up with a list of all truths from the bible, and we'd have only one religion. But super intelligent, well researched opinions are all over the place. There are any number of Christian religions, and they all have a team of scholars who claim they've done the research and that their way is the only way. 

But what if using your brain to deduce spiritual things is like trying to hear a smell? If we have five senses and a brain (let's call that a sixth gift), what if we're using the wrong gift still? What if we were to use a seventh gift to help us arrive at truth? Here's what I'm thinking: there is one God, and He loves us, and He'll help us if we allow him to help us. So if we're looking for spiritual truth (or perhaps any truth), why don't we go to Him? Wouldn't it be better to hear a sound than try to smell it? Isn't it better to rely on our spiritual pipeline with God than use some lesser gift to try and approach the right gift? 

Someone told me once that if the only tool you have is a hammer, then all problems look like nails. If what you really need is a set of pliers or a screwdriver but you only have a hammer, then you'll just hammer the nail in. It might work - kinda - but the result will be much less than successful. So it is, I believe, with relying on our brain for all things spiritual. There is a role for our brain, but we need the full toolbox. 

So in John 11, the religious leaders - who theoretically had the spiritual toolbox in place - sat down and decided that Jesus was doing too many miracles. Their reasoning was that men would believe Jesus, and then the Romans would come in and destroy the country. That logic may have been more fear and conjecture, but it was their logic. They decided that it was better for one man to die than they lose their country. Perhaps that was true in their minds, but what if that One Man was the creator of the universe? 

Here's a trolley question for you: if you knew that either the creator of the universe would die or a nation of his creation? What would you choose? But that's a false question. If you don't execute the Creator, there's a pretty good likelihood that good things follow. 

Contrast this with Nephi's mandate to kill Laban. In this case things were turned the other way: Nephi's spiritual pipeline with God, his spiritual gift which was well developed and strong, told him to execute Laban. His intelligence and earthly knowledge had a big problem with that. What did he pick? He knew that serving God was the highest priority. The Pharisees were serving themselves because I expect that they were less concerned about losing the nation and more concerned about losing their position. If Jesus created a new spiritual order, they would be jobless and irrelevant. That must have terrified them - so it was acceptable to them to kill Jesus - creator of the universe or not. 

So how does one develop what I'll call the seventh gift? I guess it's not that mysterious. I've been going to the gym lately. I'm trying to lose my fat belly and trying to get my chest to be more pronounced than the belly. I've seen results, but it doesn't happen overnight. It's a gradual process. Spiritual progress may be the same way - line upon line. Precept on precept. Opening ourselves up to the sunlight of the Lord. Accepting his Peace. Showing our willingness to follow him by doing what's right. Following the prompts we receive. Asking for more in prayers and building that gift. Over time, the pipeline goes from nothing, to a needle's diameter, to a straw size, then larger. 

May we find greater success and happiness by making our spiritual gift from the Lord our first sense we rely on. It's a much better way to live.