Humble Reaching: Having ears to hear

I listened to a talk in Sacrament meeting today about reaching. It was a powerful story, well presented. The speaker described her very imaginative and talkative five year old niece who was visiting temple square. A mall with fountains is found cross the street. This little girl looked at the black waters in one of the water features, and pronounced that Satan. The water was filled with black stones, so that gave the appearance of darkness. Then she looked at the fountains of water coming from that pool, and that water was clear. She decided that represented Jesus. This angel wanted to touch Jesus, so she climbed, reached and stretched and asked for help. Then she touched the water, and proudly proclaimed to all that were near that she touched Jesus!

A similar thing happened in this week's reading. Luke 8 describes how a woman reached out and touched Jesus. At that moment in history, people touching Jesus was not an unusual occurrence - there was a huge group of people, and all of them wanted to be close to Him. The difference was that they wanted to touch the miracle causer; the rock star; the new kid in town. This woman wanted something different. She wasn't about curiosity, and she wasn't about posting a selfie with Jesus. She had faith and a purpose, and wanted to touch the Son of God. She believed that He could heal her.

She also reached. She did what she could do for herself. Her actions included getting herself to the place where Christ would be, and positioning herself.  She had gained enough faith to know that Christ could do this for her, then she reached. Christ did the rest.

How different it is to acknowledge God, compared to accessing His power through humble reaching.

Another thing that strikes me in these chapters is the  phrase "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear". This is kind of the same thing as above for me actually - we all have arms, but few of us reach. We all have ears, but few of us want to know what Christ needs us to do. We'd love to have Christ show up and give us a clear path for what we need to do next - but only if those instructions fit our existing lifestyle. Otherwise? Not interested. And it would be convenient if those words that we want to hear from Christ didn't involve having to go anywhere to hear them. Just do it between my breaks at work, thank you very much.

I have discussed this in other posts - Christ protects us from ourselves by giving to us only what we are willing to manage. With parables, Christ can give great wisdom to those who reach for great wisdom, but if you didn't really want to know? Then he can hide what might have been damming to your soul behind the same parable. It's an act of love - not giving us what He knows we can't or won't handle.

And then a scripture that has always made me scratch my head: Matthew 13:11 and 12
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

So why would the Lord give to those who are already "rich" and take from the poor? Isn't that backwards? I thought it was always about giving to those who didn't have - isn't that right?

In this scripture, I believe that Christ wasn't talking about physical needs, but spiritual strength. Those who have ears, and listen, will be given more learning - because they listen. Those who have arms that reach for him will find him, and be healed. Those who want to get close to him for a really awesome facebook selfie with Christ? From them "it" will be taken away. We all have to be careful about that - are our motivations to get close to Christ, or to appear that way? Do we do things to check the box, or do we do things to show our love for Christ and to be His disciple?

I should probably quit here because it might appear that I view myself as "above", and that I'm preaching. This is not my goal. It's just what's coming to me as I think and type.

 I've spent a great deal of my life being very interested in pleasing others so I could have friends. I'm starting to learn that as I settle in to being comfortable with who I am, which is a disciple of Christ, that friends come to me. I'm grateful for that. Still a lot of issues, but I'm reaching. I hope that's enough. 

Come Follow Me: It's not about "getting through"

So we joined families to do our Come Follow Me lesson for next Sunday. It was interesting what expectations we put on ourselves. For example, one member of the group complained a bit about having six chapters to "get through". We have Matthew 10-12; Mark 2, Luke 7 and Luke 11. A lot of material.

Now, for me that's not a problem because of what I've learned as I've done this blog. I was originally challenged to read the scriptures for half an hour, then write for about 10 minutes about what I learned. What it has turned into is that I read until I find something that inspires me and compels me to write. Then I consider it as I write.

Priesthood meetings are much better for me lately. Our instructions are to sit in a circle, and have the group teach each other. It will be a surprise to no-one that many heads thinking and drawing from their experience is better than one lecturer and a group of chair sitters. I just congratulated my Elder's quorum president on his presentation - he is more of a choir director than a lecturer, and it becomes very rewarding to be in those classes. This is not a new thing necessarily - the Preach My Gospel manual has stated for some time that the most important trait of a teacher is his ability to listen. 

By contrast, the teacher who feels that he or she must "get through" the lesson is probably making the lesson about themselves. That's harsh, I know, because they would say their only desire is to serve. For me, the goal is not to "get through", but to deepen our souls. To improve our understanding, to gain from each other, and from the Holy Ghost. To recharge and enlarge our spiritual batteries. In some sense, a need to cut off a discussion that is doing those things, with the intent of getting through the lesson, is counter productive.

This goes me back to the beginning of this page. She was expecting to accomplish her goal within the time allotted. I was looking for gems, and places where we could discuss and learn. One is more check-boxy. The other is less check-boxy. One is about fulfilling self-imposed expectations, and the other is about spiritual growth and depth of soul.

I believe that when our goal is to check the box, we gain less. Much less.

Home teaching was changed to ministering to avoid the box checking. The change was made to align our goals with the Lord's goals: don't just visit them once a month - serve them. Love them. See them as the Lord does. Develop a relationship with them - take them swimming, or to the park, or four-wheeling with you. It was never supposed to be about getting an appointment on the 31st each month. 

I think it's similar with lessons and scripture reading. May we not just "get through", but may we learn to love the scriptures because it deepens our relationship with Jesus Christ - no matter how many chapters or verses that may take. 

It's a new way of thinking, and a new way to be. May we not just go to the temple so we can feel good about having done it, but go to be inspired. May we not just pray so that we did it, but to report in and commune with our best friend. 

It's better that way. 

Led by a woman - again

After the temple ceremony, and each time I go, I come away with profound respect for Eve. She got it - she always did. For me, and based on what I see and perceive, Eve was always way ahead of Adam - her role, at least partly, was to help Adam get it. What an amazing woman.

The fact that she is generally vilified among those who don't get it doesn't change her greatness one bit. Her greatness is. It just is. Opinions of those who don't understand doesn't change things. I guess that's another lesson that can be learned here, but it's not the direction I am going today. 

Then we run into Mary, Mother of Christ. Here is a woman whose greatness is generally recognized, but probably for the wrong reasons. Yes, being the mother of the Son of God is no small thing, but Mary isn't just someone else's mother - she is a spiritually deep soul who God the Father picked for a reason. Those reasons are not explored like they could be.

I love how Mary, like Eve, started things off. It came time for Christ's first miracle - turning the water to wine. As you read John 2, and watch the church video on that moment, you get that Mary knew it was time for Christ to begin his ministry. She was the one who understood that it was not just about getting more wine for the wedding attendees, she knew it was the beginning of Christ's ministry and miracles. She gave him the permission, the request, the authorization or the reminder that His time for miracles was now here.

It occurs to me that perhaps the two greatest moments in human history - the choice to leave the garden and the choice to begin Christ's ministry of miracles - was led out by a woman. They just seem to get it better than us males do sometimes. 

Christ was well aware of what was really happening, and his love and admiration for her was evident - even thousands of years later. His response was something like "I'll do whatever you say until my time comes". It shows great love and respect, and it reflects that he knows how things will end for him. 

Mary knew that Christ could and would turn the water into wine, she knew it was within his powers, she knew that he would do it for the guests, and she knew He would do it for both of His Fathers. She knew it was the beginning of a road that would end in pain that no mother could imagine. But she did so faithfully, perhaps even proudly, that it was now time for her Son to be who He is. The fear, the faith, the pride, the love and whatever other emotions she felt at the time can only be imagined. 

In any case, when an insurmountable problem arrived, she knew who to turn to. She did so immediately, and with confidence that He would solve it.

May we show that kind of faith. 

Come Follow Me: Lesson 1

Imagine this: you're a high priest, you're in the temple to do a sacred ceremony, and suddenly you find an angel of God standing to the side of the altar. Pretty cool huh?

Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, found himself in just such a spot.

Now to be clear, this is a man that was described as just and good. This is the man that God the Father saved for such an elevated calling. Out of the billions of spirits that have lived on earth, God chose this man to be the father of John the Baptist. I expect that he must have been chosen for this calling because he was more than extraordinary.  How amazing would it be simply to have lived in this place, in this generation, and just see the Savior in the flesh?

So despite of all of that praise, here's Zacharias. Temple, altar, messenger. The messenger tells him that he will be the father to one of the most influential men ever to stand on the earth, and that his aged wife will have that baby. Maybe she's 60ish? 80ish? Who knows? The scripture says she's "stricken" with age.

And how does he respond? It's not in the category of "I'm so humbled and awestruck that I am seeing a messenger from God", and it's not "I can't fathom that I will be the father of such an amazing person", and it's not even "I'm so grateful that my wife, at her age, can be given a child". It was (according to the scripture account) "How can I believe you? She's old!"

Yo - Zacharias. It's God the Father. You know - miracles, all powerful, creator of the universe - that sort of thing.

It's easy to dump on Zacharias. For that moment, he chose doubt rather than faith, and was stricken with the inability to speak. But he was a great man, and if he's that great, where does that leave the rest of us? Will we doubt a spiritual manifestation? Or perhaps a better question is this: how often do we doubt or ignore a spiritual manifestation? And when we do, is our own soul made unable to speak in some way for some period of time?

The same thing with his wife, but perhaps to a lesser degree. The Lord's messenger tells her that she's about to give birth to John the Baptist! Her response? Oh good! Now I'll not be embarrassed about being barren any more!!

It's a bit bigger than that.

How often do we get to buried in our own routine that we fail to make room for divine intervention? How often do we ignore it because it's not part of our schedule?

And the biggie for the Jews - the thing that sent them over the edge, and made them marvel? It was that Zacharias and his wife decided to name their son John. This absolutely broke all rules. None of their ancestors was named John. You can't do that. You just can't. It's a rule - somewhere. This overwhelming break of tradition must have caused them to go full melt down.

We have traditions too. We have assumptions about how things should be. We have a prophet that's changing things, and indicating to us that just because something has been the routine, that doesn't mean it's eternal truth.

There are things to learn here: first is to listen for divine guidance, and then do what we're told, when we're told it. Right now. Even if it's un-routine or uncomfortable. In other words, if the message comes from God, that trumps all other factors. Even if it might be awkward to do it.

The second is that we don't know as much as we think we do. Traditions, assumptions, and general "knowledge" are not necessarily eternal truth - they're just traditions. We have to learn to separate out procedures from principles. That's hard - it requires us to be close to the Lord so we can know the difference.

May we grow within ourselves so we can have those divine messenger moments. May we gain the companionship of the Lord and his messengers on this side of the veil, as well as after this life. I can testify that it's worth it.

Where prophets are

I remember on my mission hearing more than one of my companions stating that there is only one prophet on the earth at once. That's true - kinda.

Right now, with the advantage of the internet, radio, TV, etc, a prophet's voice can reach any corner of the world. When that's true, how many prophets does the Lord need? One. And that's how many he will have.

Actually that's not true either, because there are 13 who are sustained as prophets, seers, etc. The quorum of the 12 are all sustained as prophets, among other titles. I guess it's safe to say that the Lord needs all 13 of them to get the work done and spread the word. And then He needs more than that - the quorums of the 70, as well as stake presidents, mission presidents, missionaries, bishops, and yes - the home teachers. I know it's ministers, but I'm so comfortable calling them home teachers that it's pretty hard to let it go.

But I digress.

So back in the day, let's say Book of Mormon times, how many prophets were there? Two that we know of. There was one at any given time (except during apostasy) in Jerusalem, and one in the American continent. When the Jaredites were there, and while they allowed a prophet, they had one too.

In 2 Nephi 29, the Lord defends himself against those who grumble that they want there to be only one book that has His word. "8 wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another..."

And do you remember that the Lord said he had many sheep to visit after He visited the Nephites? Check out verses 11 and 12. He mentions his flock in the east, west, north and south, and in the islands. In verse 12, he mentions the Jews, the Nephites, the other tribes of the house of Israel, and then he says "I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth and they shall write it."

I guess that covers it. All nations. The people in Iceland? Check. Zambia? Yep. Samoa? Absolutely. By the way, if there were a reincarnation, I'd totally want to come back as a Polynesian. Polynesians rock.

"And they shall write the words which I shall speak to them, for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world".

But to me, the debate (I use the word loosely because there kinda isn't one) isn't about how many prophets there are. That's a pretty intellectual and therefore meaningless argument. What's important is that the Lord loves all of us, and He will provide a means for all of us to have access to truth. If I live in Micronesia, and it's 1829, and if I'm looking for truth, and if my government allows truth to be told, and if I'm open to that truth, there will be as much truth out there as the Lord can pour in the jar.

Once again, it's not that the Lord is not filling our cup - it's that we have a lid on the cup.

May we do more than acknowledge the Lord's word, whether it be the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or whether it be the inspired words of those who love us. May we prayerfully and intentionally remove the lid and allow the Lord to fill our souls. May we acknowledge the Lord's yearning to fill our cups and enlarge our souls, and allow him to do it by removing the blocks we've placed on this side of the pipe.

I've had days in my life when I knew the blocks were partly removed, and my soul was enlarged. I've had the other kinds of days too. Being filled is better. Let's all stretch for that.

Who's the Master?

I have to admit that I struggle sometimes. I see people who rely on what they believe to be superior intelligence, who have managed to baffle themselves so completely with their perceived intelligence that an angel of God couldn't convince them otherwise.

Part of why it's hard for me is that it feels like I'm arguing for not using your brain. Of course that would be wrong - everything we're given is expected to be used beneficially for ourselves and for others around us. But an over-reliance on any one gift, to the detriment of other gifts, can steer us very wrong.

I see this as I'm reading in Nephi today. It's 1 Nephi chapter 15, verse 3 especially. Here's Nephi who gets it. His dad had a vision, so what did Nephi do? He went to the Lord to get confirmation. What did his brothers do? They argued about the meaning of what Lehi told them. He said the explanation their father Lehi gave them was "hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord".

Simple enough. If you don't understand, go the Lord first, then to your brain second. Not your brain first, and the Lord never. He continues "and they being hard in their hearts, therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they ought".

I remember my mom saying once "We're all inactive, it's just a matter of degree". I've requoted her and remembered that for many decades. It never seems to hit home as much to anyone else as it does me. I'm thinking we're all "hard in our hearts" to some degree. We'd all rather decide for ourselves about whatever issue is at hand. And after we decide? Who needs the Lord? We have our decision made.

I have a painting in my home that I really appreciate. It's a Greg Olsen, titled woman at the well. Here is a woman that is listening intently to her Redeemer and Savior. She's not telling him her opinion, she's not formulating a witty response to what he's saying. She's listening intently. Her goal is to swallow up all of his words without missing anything. She is expressing love to her Master by listening humbly and completely to every word of his. Any of her previous opinions are irrelevant right now - she's listening to the Master.

May we rely on our Master more, and on our own limited skills less, as we navigate life. And perhaps this is true too: as soon as we think we've got it? That's when we know we've probably lost it.

#lds #mormon #Jesus #Christ #love #spirit #faith #sharegoodness #lighttheworld #ldsshare #giftsandguides #thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints

I will go and do

Sometimes in life we find ourselves stopped. Trapped. The battles have been waged and lost. You sit there feeling the pain of the loss and wondering perhaps where God is. Isn't he supposed to help you always?

So I opened to Alma Chapter 52 today. These are the war chapters of the Book of Mormon. These are sometimes criticized for being interesting, but not necessarily spiritually uplifting. The thing is - the Lord knows why they're in there. These of course are not just interesting war stories. There is wisdom in them.

So I was reading through the chapter, and while I enjoyed the story, I knew that I wasn't getting much in the spiritual strength category. I thought "I haven't found those easter eggs I'm looking for yet", when the thought occurred to me that I'd probably already passed two or three of them. Didn't catch them. I did find at least one though.

So the Nephites just lost a battle for some of their biggest and most important cities. The cities are well walled, the Nephites made sure of that. They made sure that a small army and the city defenses could hold off a much bigger Lamanite army, and now the city was in the hands of the Lamanites. Can you get that back? Nope.

But if the Lord needs you to get it back, you get it back. You find another way. You consult with the Lord, and use your resources, and you get it back.

And if the Lord needs you to keep podcasting, or writing, or if he needs you to be a better sunday school teacher despite the abuse you may have taken from students, parents, etc, then that's what you do. If your spouse doesn't support your wishes to raise the kids in a certain way - you find another way. It's about relentless dedication to doing what you know you should be doing. Not that I'd be an expert in that, but Teancum, Moroni and Lehi (the ones in the book of Alma) were.

To be clear, it's not about enforcing a person's personal will. It's about making the Lord's will happen. Big difference. Huge. Doing the first makes a person very unpopular and difficult to live or work with. It also results in a person being truthfully and properly called some very unpleasant names. The second makes a

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person a follower of God. The methods of doing these tasks will be very different as well. One will feel like force, while the other feels like love. One feels like "my way or the highway", while the other probably feels like relentless dedication.

So what did they do? These important and lost cities were critical to both sides, they were very well defended from a military perspective, and they were inhabited by a large army of very unpleasant soldiers. It would seem to be a very lost cause.

So does a person give up? If you're doing your own will and it's not working very well, perhaps so. You might be doing something that doesn't need to be done - or shouldn't be done. If you're following the Lord and it's not done yet? Find another way. The Lord doesn't make getting his work done easy - he just makes it do-able.

Teancum followed his leaders, and through military strategy, won an unwinnable battle. It's kind of in the same category as Nephi saying "I will go and do".

If it's the Lord's will, it will happen. The Lord will make it happen, but only if we surrender our will to his. Only if you and I do what the Lord needs us to do to get there. For whatever reason, he won't snap his fingers and make things work while we sit on our lawnchairs. I think I know why that's the case, but that's a topic for another day.

May we "go and do", even when the battle seems lost to us. To quote Yoda, there is no try.

#lds #mormon #Jesus #Christ #love #spirit #faith #sharegoodness #lighttheworld #ldsshare #giftsandguides #thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints

What it means to be powerful

 In your mind, picture that guy who is abusing his wife. Trailer house, wife beater shirt, beer bottles on the floor in and out. Starving dogs in their own filth outside the trailer. That guy. Who wants to be that guy? Absolutely none of us. Does he think he's "better than" because he can beat his wife any time at all? Probably. Is he powerful? He is not more powerful than the stuff his dogs are leaving in his yard.

That's what I've been working on lately: what is a powerful man? What is a powerful person? What is real power? Obviously our friend above is not powerful - he's a despicable waste of potential. What about others? Is a rich person powerful? I suspect it depends. If he's using his money to throw his weight around and prove he can get what he wants, he's no different than the trailer trash man. Money doesn't make you powerful - it's something else that causes real power.

What about the politician? The senator or the president? I have never personally met a president of a country, but I have lived through a number of their administrations. The most recent ones are men whose personalities and character I loathe. I wouldn't let them in my home. No matter the party, these men are nothing I'd want to be like. Are they powerful? Not in any way that I respect. Yes, they have the ability to throw their weight around and get what they want.

And again we see that despite their position, these people are not that much different than trailer trash guy.

Rock stars! Are they powerful? Thousands or millions of adoring fans. Drugs, sex and rock and roll. Wasted bodies, no purpose, turn the page.

So what does it mean to be a powerful person? I was reading in Mosiah 11 today. This is where the priests were changed out to suit a king's wishes. What had been God's chosen leaders were changed to suit the political needs of a community that wanted more politically correct (corrupt) men.

And then they started building stuff. Towers, thrones, gold laced chairs, elegant and spacious stuff. Elevated positions. Did the new priests need these symbols of power to support them because they knew that the power didn't come from inside them? I realize that a prophet doesn't need a golden throne to be a prophet - he needs well worn sandals. Or in today's case, shoes. He doesn't need a tower, he needs power that comes from inside himself. From God.

It occurs to me that a person who uses props to pronounce his power (a lambo, expensive furniture, a thoroughly beaten or demoralized wife, stories of their own awesomeness, trophies from 20 years ago, expensive clothing, etc) probably is not and never has been powerful. That person may be miles behind the average Joe that you meet on the street randomly. Power? I don't think so. Surrounded by props? That's true - but it's not power.

I could throw in one more. Knowledge about pro sports. Knowing who should have drafted who in which round, and how it would have been affected by available spending caps is interesting, but it doesn't make a man a real man. It's a prop too.

So if all of the typical signs of power are not powerful, then what does it mean to be a powerful man? Or powerful woman? The answer may be about the most powerful man the universe has ever known: our Creator.

He didn't need props. From my understanding of the bible, he didn't use any. No expensive chairs, no beaten wives, and the crown they placed on his head was placed against his will. His props were the moments when he served others by teaching them and washing their feet.

So what does power mean? Where does it come from? I believe that real power comes only from the inside. From having cleansed the inner vessel to the point that Christ can work with you to lead others. That powerful person can't be recognized by their car, but if your soul is open to them, they can be recognized by the spirit. When you find them, learn from them and support them. Gain from them. Find someone who can lift you - that person is powerful in a real way.

To be clear, it's not money that's the problem. It's how the money is used. If the rich person uses their money to support abused women, that's power. If the money is used to abuse, that's a prop.

May we all search for real power in ourselves, and surround ourselves by others who have real power in themselves. May we fill our souls with real power, then dedicate our lives to sharing that gift we have received.

#lds #mormon #Jesus #Christ #love #spirit #faith #sharegoodness #lighttheworld #ldsshare #giftsandguides #thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints

Good intentions are not enough

So I have to admit, I've fallen out of the routine, and I feel less guided lately. It's entirely possible that one has much to do with the other - I don't know. I tried to get back into clearing my pipeline yesterday with some reading in the Doctrine and Covenants. It didn't inspire me and I found nothing to write about. This is a time to return to home. For me, that's the Book of Mormon. I've said it before many times, but its simplicity and straightforward spiritualness (is that a thing?) make it a good place for me to come back home to.

So I'm reading in Mosiah today. I started at the top of the page, then worked backwards, each time looking for more background story. I saw in verse 18 where Zeniff, the pioneer and first king of the group, wrote at the end of his life that his people's problems were caused by Laman, the king of the lamanites whose land he pioneered. He said Laman caused all those problems "by his cunning, and lying craftiness, and his fair promises".

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It struck me funny. I'm sure Laman was all those things and more, but this looked to me like a guy that was perhaps not taking responsibility. "That guy over there made my life miserable!" We all hear it, we've all felt it, and we've all wanted to be the person pointing the finger.

Really, I suspect that nobody can force us to be miserable. Only we can make our own lives miserable, or we can allow others into our vulnerable places enough to allow them to make us miserable. Either way, we caused or allowed the misery. It's not them, it's us.

But this guy is a writer in the Book of Mormon, right? He's a prophet? And he doesn't get the concept of personal responsibility? My first thought again, is yes. Men are prophets. Prophets are men. The Lord has to work with the tools he has available, and we're all messed up - one way or the other. It has to be a pretty messy business from the Lord's perspective - using people who are guaranteed to be imperfect while running your organization on earth.

So then I went back some more in the chapter. Was Zeniff a prophet? Turns out no. He was a good hearted man who was a Nephite spy. While spying he found Lamanite lifestyles that warmed his heart. There were families, there was love, there was certainly kindness. He wanted to believe that the Lamanites were misunderstood by the Nephites.  To prove that, he resolved to take a group of Nephites into Lamanite land to live with them in peace, happiness and prosperity. Kumbaya would reign.

So he did just that. They did OK for a while, then things go badly, and Zeniff goes back to blaming Laman for being cunning and evil.

There's a problem in all this. The problem is not that Zeniff wasn't a prophet - he was a well intentioned, good man. He called himself overzealous in verse 9.

Here's the point: Zeal alone, or good intentions, or kind heartedness, or whatever its name may be, is no replacement for learning and following the will of the Lord. Zeniff had no directive from the Lord to do what he did. It didn't come from any prophet or leader, and it didn't come from personal inspiration. It came from a belief system he developed while working as a spy for the Nephites.

Was he a member of the church? Probably. Did his membership alone make his decisions divinely inspired? Nope. Did he choose to rely only on his own intellect? Sadly, yes. Membership alone in the Lord's church doesn't make us correct in our decisions - we have to know that our decisions came from the Lord. As a result of Zeniff's well meaning personal decision, generations of his followers suffered and died.

I guess it's also fair to say that they can't blame Zeniff. They chose to follow him, because his idea sounded great. They didn't bother to check in with the Lord to make sure the Lord thought the idea was OK.

At the risk of straying from the subject, it kinda reminds me of politics. People get drawn to ideas that sound great, but are known to fail. Even after the idea shows itself to be a failure, they still cling to the idea because it still sounds great.

How does this apply to us? Sometimes we see a need: That homeless person on the corner wants money, or the neighbor across the street needs whatever, or the wayward grandson needs a place to live (I could tell you so many meth stories). These are all conditions that tug at our hearts, but rather than simply give, we must check in first with the Lord. Will we be further ruining that person's life by handing him money for the next fix? Will the neighbor use our kindness as a way to avoid looking for a job? Will the grandson move in and contaminate the home? As a former meth home remediator, I can say you lose everything. Everything. It all goes to the landfill. Then grandma and grandpa get to start over. and the meth head moves on to the next good hearted victim.

So we need to check in with the Lord. He knows if that beggar is hungry, or if he's going to feed his addiction. The Lord knows, and he is all too willing to provide us with that guidance. We have to keep our end of the pipeline clear.

From personal experience lately, I know that's not easy. But I do remember that it's worth it.

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Light and good stuff

Navigating the scriptures can be hard. I remember reading the scriptures for the first time as an 8th grader. I started my first seminary class and we were all challenged to read the book of Mormon all the way though. Three pages a day. "Shouldn't be hard" the teacher said. Yeah, right! I think by the time we were supposed to be done, I was somewhere in Alma - about 40% finished. Reading scriptures is boring if you're an uninspired teen. It's not like reading Harry Potter.  How could others find it so much easier to read than I found it to be?

Navigating the scriptures can be a task for many. If you don't know what you're looking for and just trying to read the scriptures like a novel, it can be labor. But lately (and this is why I started this blog), I read it looking for easter eggs. Gems. Little shining truths that expand my understanding and allow me to feel like I can see one more star in the sky. One way to look for those is to look for markers. For me, no word makes a better easter egg marker than the word "and". 

It's such an unassuming word - and that's why it's awesome in its use as a marker.

I was in priesthood meeting yesterday, and the lesson was on the general conference talk by Taniela Wakolo. Our teacher was my former home teaching partner, when it was really home teaching. A stellar man. The dude has a few years on him, and every one of those years must have been spent well. He serves when nobody is looking, and his soul runs deep. I admire him much.

So he was teaching, and had a question that seemed to drop off a cliff. He was asking about light and knowledge. He was referencing this talk, and quoted one of our church leaders about light and knowledge. "Why light and knowledge" he asked. Nobody had an answer. I asked a question back to him - what is light and knowledge? He didn't know. Nobody else in the room did either apparently. The conversation went elsewhere then, but I was stuck. He had wanted to consider knowledge and light to be interchangeable, but I knew the Lord doesn't do that. The Lord's language is extremely precise, and if he used both words, then both words were different and important. I knew that here lies an easter egg, and it was up to me to find it. 

What's the difference between light and knowledge? Light and truth? The title of this conference references light and protection. I suspect that a discussion on light and truth goes infinitely deep. I can venture down that hole, but I could never go too far. That one is so deep, it's a personal thing. That's one egg we all have to find ourselves, nobody can or should hand it to you - including and especially me.

But I feel like Light and Knowledge are something I can explore. For me, using your brain to learn spiritual truth is like trying to use your eyes to hear a song. Not the right tool. Like trying to hear someone touching you. 

So light and knowledge? What if knowledge is what we know - it's truths we already have. It's super data. It's some combination of experience, study, and what we've already received from above. It might even be described as the sum total of what we have achieved thus far in life. No matter where that is, it is probably not enough to move forward in life without further guidance from on high.

So that's what light might be. Light is our ability to be guided into tomorrow. Not our present skill set. We might have a huge tool box, but be completely unaware that there is such a thing as a drill, a table saw, or an allen wrench. We might not know because, to date, we've never needed them or been able to use them. 

This is where light comes in. The Lord sees that I really need an allen wrench. Nothing else in my tool box works. He tries to give it to me as I need it, and if I'm open to receiving it, I've got the allen wrench I need. 

Light is like access to the library, or to google. It's access to knowledge much more infinite than I can ever use. It's my Heavenly Father being there, lighting my way, and placing the allen wrench in my pathway, moments before I need it. I still need to be open to seeing it, bend down, pick it up, carry it and use it. Most importantly, I must not reject it.

There is much more to this subject, but as always, this is about as far as I can go. It's a subject that certainly goes a mile deep. I can get to the first two millimeters.

Light and knowledge? Very different. Huge.  

May we read the scriptures looking for gems, may we find our own sign posts indicating where the gems are for us. May we use all the tools that the Lord provided for us as we search for truth. And may we seek earnestly for them.

Lesson 33: Sharing the Gospel

I don't remember when or where it was, but I heard a church leader say something like "The church must be true - if it wasn't, the missionaries would have killed it long ago".

I get that. As a missionary nearly 40 years ago, I saw that some of the missionaries there considered themselves to be on a two year vacation away from mom and dad. The damage they did was regrettable. Even a well meaning missionary, and I'm speaking of myself here, can cause damage. The language in Guatemala is Spanish. I walked past an outdoor preacher once and said in English "Is that so?" Now that alone was definitely not Christ like, but how it got interpreted was worse. He didn't speak english. He spoke spanish and thought I said "Sonso", which means he thought I was calling him an idiot. There was no recovering - I kept moving on. Damage - done.

So there is a little bit of understanding for Jonah. He was definitely a man, and like all of us, was much less of a tool for the Lord than the Lord would have him be. First, he tries to avoid a mission call by leaving the city. Apparently he didn't understand that the Lord was the Lord of more than just that city. The bigger picture was lost on this man - at least in that category.

Next, I find the story interesting. It looks like there is a chiasm in this story, but that's a subject for a different blog. All my life I had heard that a whale swallowed him up and blew him out right next to Ninevah. Not so. The old testament says it was a fish, and it vomited him, 3 days away.  It may have been a whale, but the bible just says it was a fish. The whale thing is "common knowledge", but it's also inaccurate.

So like so many of us, when we get a title, we think we're awesome. We're powerful. We are to be obeyed and feared. And whatever we say goes, because why? We have a title. In his case, he was a messenger of the Lord. To him, that meant that whatever came to his head, and whatever he said, must be backed up by the Lord. It wasn't about relaying the Lord's word to the people, it was about him being powerful. In a way, he misunderstood his role - he considered himself to be the Lord, and figured that if he said it (he had a title, right?) then the Lord had an obligation to make it so.

Credit: Garth Knox - Longroom.com

Now, the purpose of this discussion is not to just beat up on Jonah. It's to get all of us to look at ourselves, and decide how much we fail to understand our roles. Do we expect the Lord to back us when we don't listen to his guidance? Do we let a title of the Lord's trust make us proud? When we get a title, do we then humbly work to enlarge our pipeline with the Lord? Or do we consider it no longer necessary because now we have the title?

This passage is in the scriptures not because Jonah was a problem, but because we all are.

We all have leadership positions. Husband, wife, father, quorum presidency, manager, executive, bishop, nursery leader. It doesn't matter what the position of trust is. What matters is that we must rely on the Lord to guide us. What can't we rely on? We can't rely on ourselves, our intellect, our social circles, philosophical books, social trends, or "common knowledge". And we can't rely on our titles. We must develop that pipeline with the Lord, and do what He commands. And when we really wanted those tens of thousands of people to die so that we could be "right"? When it ruins our day that the Lord doesn't do what we command him to do? That's when we need to check our own souls.

It's not about the title - it never was. The prophets have long said that judgment day won't be about what title we had, it will be about how we lived. For me, that means it's about how well I've developed that pipeline to the Lord. May we seek that relationship. From what little I know about it, it's absolutely worth developing.