Welcome to a couple of new followers since I last checked! And greetings to you all. Just wanted to report that I'm still alive and invested in the blog. But ....
It was Doug's 80th birthday on the 19th, and we've had family reunion going on here at home and in cyberspace for a couple of weeks. (Congratulations by the way to Michael the Contentious and his beautiful, charming, calm, supportive wife, Jill, who welcomed Owen Michael on the 18th and celebrated Abigail Jane's second birthday on the 20th in a city far away.)
I wanted to take a minute to suggest something to you while I'm occupied with playing with grandchildren: The Complete Christian by Robert S. Wood. (I once bought up all copies available through Amazon.com, but try again if you're interested.) Those of you who were in class with me Fall '08 know about Brother/Elder Wood, member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy and former dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies and the U.S. Naval War College. Has degrees from Stanford (BA) and Harvard (MA, PhD). If you haven't done it already, you might want to Google him.
Elder Wood brings together a number of useful sources—from Moses to Kurt Cobain—as he works his way through his own ideas. Early in the book he quotes something from Brigham Young that I find worth pondering in light of some questions we've raised here:
Except I am one with my good brethren, do not say that I am a Latter-day Saint. We must be one. Our faith must be concentrated in one great work—the building up of the Kingdom of God on the earth, and our works must aim at the accomplishment of that great purpose.
We have got to be united in our efforts. We should go to work with a united faith like the heart of one man; and whatever we do should be performed in the name of the Lord, and we will then be blessed and prospered in all we do. We have a work on hand whose magnitude can hardly be told.
It is also our duty to love the Gospel and the spirit of the Gospel, so that we can become one in the Lord, not out of Him, that our faith, our affections for truth, the kingdom of heaven, our acts, all our labor will be concentrated in the salvation of the children of men and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth. This is cooperation on a very large scale. This is the work of redemption that is entered into by the Latter-day Saints. Unitedly we perform these duties, we stand, we endure, we increase and multiply, we strengthen and spread abroad, and shall continue so to do until the kingdoms of this world are the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe, Deseret Book, 1956, p. 284.)
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From this quote by Brigham Young, as well as quotes from Elder Oaks and President Hinckley I just read on my own, it seems to me that being one is mostly a statement about the oft-repeated phrase "one in purpose." That purpose is, of course, bringing forth Zion/building the kingdom of God on Earth. This cannot in any way happen in the presence of contention. It will happen anyway, of course, but in spite of us/to our condemnation, not because of us/to our exaltation. I think that, to be one, we should each learn to do (at least) two things. First, we must take the opinions and actions of others with a grain of salt, looking beyond poor reasoning, lack of tact, and/or just plain spitefulness for more important things--things seen only through the eyes of charity. Have you noticed that truly humble and charitable people never get offended? No matter how mean the insult, or vicious the attack, they remain meek and full of love. They may mourn, of course, but they do not allow contention to enter, under any circumstances. Second, we must keep our own thoughts and opinions to ourselves, especially if they in any way alienates someone else. Example: don't wear an "Obama/Biden" pin to stake conference as I saw an old woman do. This is the very antithesis of becoming one. Obviously, the same is true of any political candidates/causes not backed specifically by God's servants here on Earth. We must share our testimony of eternal truths and principles, but I think D&C 19:31's advice isn't heeded enough:
ReplyDelete"Of tenets thou shalt not talk, but thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior, and remission of sins by baptism, and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost."
Just because a thought pops into our heads, or because we've thought about something long and hard, it doesn't mean that thought is A) correct, B) of eternal value, or C) worthy of sharing.
Church is a place to talk about things of eternal value. It is a place to help us differentiate between destinations and the devices we use to get there (to quote Elder Oaks: "Weightier matters," Life in the Law, page 113). Anything that causes contention, unless it is a gospel truth and the contention arises due to hard hearts, we should not bring it up. If what we're saying is not edifying, we may be playing for the wrong team.
Much to ponder here, Graham. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteToday I'll focus on the "truly humble and charitable people never get offended" statement. I have been pondering this lately, as in certain situations I almost reflexively take offense. Partly because I'm quite sure, from past experience, that offense is intended. But, of course, the intent of the other should not matter. And, of course, my taking offense never helps ANYTHING (certainly not me)!
In a similar vein, and this is a question for everyone: Do you believe that God is a being who ALWAYS acts, NEVER "reacts"? (Even when his actions appear to be "responses?")
Meaning that a humble, charitable (spiritually competent?) person wouldn't act reflexively (except to avoid physical danger, of course).
ReplyDeleteI believe the answer is Both.
ReplyDeletePart of my undergraduate and graduate training in economics has been to "train" my intuition so that, upon reading a problem, I instinctively have a clue about what's going on. I think that everyone training in a particular field does the same. I think that, in the process of becoming perfected, God "trained" his emotions, thoughts, and actions so that His "reactions" really aren't reactions at all, but trained responses.
I'll put it another way. This thought came about answering the question: why do good people experience bad things? Jesus invited us to become perfect, like He is. I think that part of this process requires us to experience hard things so that we can train ourselves to think, act, AND react the same way Jesus would in similar circumstances. Reread Elder Holland's most recent conference address for great illustrations of how Jesus acted/reacted. The one that truly blows my mind is when He asks Heavenly Father to forgive those crucifying Him. How would we act/react in similar circumstances? How did I act/react when my Father asked me to help with something because I was "just waiting around, doing nothing" when, really, I was trying to give my only son as much attention as I could before his new baby sister arrived? I didn't have nearly as much poise as would my Savior.
I'm not sure if I captured what I wanted. I'm still working on this thought. Please treat it gently.
Here's another way to pose my question: Would perfection mean that you could never be caught off guard, meaning that you would never react to another person or to a situation in a way that is less than your best, less than charitable? Less than ... perfect.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to disagree about the trained responses thing. It's a metaphor quite commonly used in the Church, but I don't think it fits, ultimately. I think God IS. Through learning, yes. But different from training, more like capacity development, growth. To my view, charity, pure love, is a state of being. A condition of wholeness, of being complete. Training to my mind connotes the checklist capacities, not the abundance. Training is too specific and arbitrary. Limited. Poise can be lost. Charity never fails.
Am I quibbling? Thoughts?
I disagree. God IS because He has BECOME. Becoming is composed of small, steady, consistent changes (for us at least). This is the same as training one's intuition. Training to do a task may comprise checklists, but training intuition or emotional responses is much more. It is substituting and replacing good intuition for bad, good reasoning for poor, good responses for bad ones.
ReplyDeleteI think the very notion that God could be caught off guard contradicts the fact that He is an infinite God. A necessary part of training one's tuition is the need to see, experience, and work through many, many problems and iterations of problems. This creates the foundation upon which our correct intuition formulates a response to a new variation. Take this process and let it go to its limit. Then every iteration is seen, or, at the very least, an iteration not seen is so close to something else it may as well have been seen.
But God is an infinite God, and Christ's atonement is an infinite atonement. Thus, God cannot be caught off guard because He's seen it all (at least enough that there's nothing new to experience); otherwise, how could Christ suffer each and every one of us in and through our individuals lives and problems?
I definitely meant to say "succor" not "suffer" in my last post.
ReplyDelete