Random Beauty and Daily Wonder

It's probably clear that I'm thrilled with poppies.   Color!  It touches the spirit.  It lifts and encourages.  Not just color, but also color contrast.  Symmetry.  Shape.  Beauty.  

We are often put off by how very seldom the empty lots and the curbsides are trimmed; but then on the other hand, we're greeted with random beauty everywhere we go.  

Or in the case of the photo below, random beauty and calculated ugly...

But then, speaking of gracing the landscape:

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I took the bottom photo...I may have...We never get tired of seeing and pointing out the reflection of the statue of Christ right in the center of the temple, as seen through the front windows of the Visitors Center.  And as for the stream, I believe I may have referenced Ezekiel 47?

For me, it really is "life-giving" to enjoy these views and feel these feelings of joy and peace, every single day while working here.

Couldn't resist taking this photo of the rearview window of a van.  We had just left an open market; we visited three on our Pday, purchasing artichokes, a potted basil plant, and some jewelry.

I know I've posted photos of Carlo before.  Blaine and his companion Jack Ward left a little card with the church's address on it at the shop where Carlo worked in Rome, forty-six years ago.  Now we're old buddies.  His sister-in-law Maria may or may not have been amused at Blaine's efforts to be on a par with her.  She is a great spirit and a great intellect, even in a small body.  

The young single adults of Italy had a conference last week, and spent a great deal of time on the temple square site.  Carmen is the daughter of some of our dearest friends in Naples, Nunzia and Salvatore Tucci.  Wonderful to see her and other YSAs from around Italy.

You may have seen this caricature of Blaine and me; I've added it as my Facebook profile picture.  It was drawn by one of our multi-talented sister missionaries, Sorella (Sister) Deschine.  We have singers, musicians, multi-linguists...they're amazing.  Many of them performed in the Easter Concert that was presented last Friday and Saturday.  Both were very well attended, by Italians as well as by American tourists and others.  We're portrayed as if we're singing, but I think it's supposed to be us "flapping our lips", as Blaine likes to call it.  No, really, I have to say, he is such a dedicated, prepared missionary.  He's always willing and ready to discuss any principles, to assist the sisters, just to do whatever is required.  I'm so proud of him.  And of his precious tablet!  (His IPad is chock-full of topics with relevant scriptures, videos, maps, you name it.  Johnny-on-the-spot).

I am SO happy to say that we do get a chance to communicate with family often.  Two illustrations:  Abbey in a cool coat she bought on their Semana Santa spring vacation in northern Spain, which she told me about as we spoke with them via Whatsapp, as they were traveling home, then sent me a photo; 

...and Slate's baptism, in Katy, Texas.  He's shown here with his bishop, and with Andrew.  I am so grateful that we were able to participate.  It was wonderful to be part of this milestone in Slate's life.

I've been thinking a lot lately about miracles vs. normal, everyday life.  For one thing, as Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge pointed out in this marvelous talk at BYU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSEsLtwKzvw), EVERYthing about mortal life is a miracle - it's just so "normal" that we don't realize how miraculous it is.  "The healing of the withered hand is not nearly as amazing as the existence of the hand in the first place. If it exists, it follows that it can certainly be fixed when it is broken. The greater event is not in its healing but in its creation."

There's a wonderful series of videos in our visitors center, called "The Storms of Life".  One of the many take aways that have come to me from watching several times, is that when "miracles" happen, it's not as if we "live happily ever after."  When the tempest and the winds were calmed, there was still a boat full of water, which had to be baled out; the occupants were still wet through; they still had to navigate to their destination, etc.  

In other words, "normal" life goes on.  The wonder and joy continue, if we receive them.  I wrote in my journal recently, "I love Walter Rane's painting of the blind man whose eyes Jesus anointed with mud [John 9].  It's very awkward-seeming; not a miracle done with a flourish, but just very human, a little odd.  We all expect (or at least I do) to act and speak as if we're filled with spiritual eloquence and grace 'at all times and in all places.'  Instead...awkward, imperfect, normal, human.  That's how most things get done."

(no copyright infringement intended)

May we SEE wonder in all things.  Alleluia.

Further up and further in

I think we go in ever-ascending cycles throughout life, learning the same principles over and over, but on ever deepening levels.

I was a "kid missionary" once - I served in the "Italy South Mission", even here in Naples, forty? years ago.  I was out there on the street, opening my mouth, keeping the rules, hoping to share what I felt - and still do feel - to be my greatest possession, my happiest truth.

Somehow, though, finding myself again in a similar position over the last couple of weeks, there on the sidewalk outside the main employment office, or circulating among groups of parents waiting for the children to exit a school, hoping to offer them an opportunity to achieve "autosufficienza" - self-reliance - with a possible next step of receiving the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, it all seemed kind of the same but completely different.

(Taken outside one of the schools where were handing out invitations to the self-reliance seminar.  I found these two little girls with their arms around each other irresistible.)

Here's why:  I've been losing myself.  Or perhaps, more accurately, letting go of my self.  The self that sees things and people in a certain way, that has expectations based on...I don't know, experiences, personal filters and perceptions, fears, doubts.  There is a sense of safety in the vision we build for ourselves out of known experiences, out of what people we trust have told us, perhaps out of what people we fear have told us.  Letting go of that safety, letting myself be vulnerable, storing up instead treasure through the simple things - prayer, scripture study, partaking of the Sacrament...service - trusting that "in the very moment" I will have what I need to say given to me...I'll say it:  it takes courage.  It takes trust.  Faith.

The awareness of a larger world - a MUCH larger world - than the one I hold on to is growing in me.  I'm getting lost in it.  But what I'm finding...ah, what I'm finding.

Love this place, love this work, love this process.  Maybe I'm beginning "to fly up, and to know the meaning of kindness and love", as Blaine had inscribed on my wedding ring (re:  Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull).  It's a cycle that goes on and on, deeper and deeper, "further up and further in" (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity and The Last Battle).  If I dare hope that it is true at all, I have to give credit to the Great Creator of that larger world, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here's what we've been sharing - 1500+ invitations in two weeks:

https://www.lds.org/topics/pef-self-reliance/manuals-and-videos?lang=eng&old=true

And now some photos.  I'm going to put an album of the Royal Palace of Caserta on Facebook, but I'll include a couple here as well.

The latest in senior missionary fashion.  We went to paint some furniture in one of the elders' apartments.  I didn't know my help would be needed so I hadn't brought clothes.   We improvised with a sheet and tape.

This was taken about six weeks ago.  I like it.  Sorella Crandell is in Rome now.

The current sister missionaries here in Pozzuoli, Sorella Fielding from Utah and Sorella Bellomo from northern Italy.  This is our apartment; they came to take showers because their plumbing was broken!

Buying chairs for the elders in IKEA.  Lots of cheese from Anziano Hyde.

In Prato they didn't make that big of a deal of Carnevale; judging from this display in the toy store next to the church building in Naples, I'd say Carnevale is going to be a big deal.

This is Angelo, an artisan who makes ceramics with Napoli themes.  TVB means Ti Voglio Bene, or I Love You.  He graciously gifted us a ceramic "cornucopia" with peperoncini - little red peppers - in it.  It's a symbol of good luck.

Always have to put in the view from Pozzuoli.  It's a marvel everyday.

We took a rare "P day" (preparation day, the young missionaries take one every Monday, but we usually just take a day off every now and then, maybe watch a movie every couple of weeks) and went to the Royal Palace of Caserta with the Williams, another missionary couple, last week.  Very big.  Lots of rooms.  Huge gardens.  I couldn't help asking, What was all the fuss about?  I'm a hopeless plebeian, I guess.

On our horse-and-buggy ride around the grounds, we saw this "play house" used by the royal offspring.

Huge waterway, used for fishing as well as sight seeing.  Dolphins and a sea monster.

Queen Linda and King Blaine

Royal consorts the Williams of Colorado...or was it Arizona?

Lots of fascinating ceilings.

Very ornate place.  Obviously.

Joachim Murat's bed.  He did not live here; his furniture was brought here to show period furniture.

I like the whimsy.

Okay, this was all my camera would do.  You'll have to check it out on wikipedia for the size of the thing.  It was patterned after Versailles but is actually bigger.  I am sorry to say it is not well maintained; I don't know what they do with the 12 euros they charge everyone, but I don't think they use it to keep the place clean.  All those Murano glass rococo chandeliers coated with grime.  Sheesh.  More on FB, ciao for now!

Time, Talents, and Everything the Lord Has Given Me

Jesus suffered - before the spear wound and the nails - scourging (which in itself killed some), the crown of thorns crushed into His scalp, deprivation of sleep and sustenance, humiliation, unbelief, scorn...all this, AFTER the expiatory agony of the Garden. As he trod the Via Dolorosa in a near state of physical, mental and emotional collapse, He could at any time have "self-medicated" - or, more specifically, self-healed. He alone among mortals - for He was mortal - had the power to do that, for He had nascent Immortality in Him. He could have healed Himself in every moment in every particular. But at every stage, He practiced Self-denial: "No. I will not do this for Myself, that I MAY do it for others."
Because of His choices in my behalf, I will never be alone in suffering or in agony; I will never be faced with more than I can bear. He only asks that I do as He did, that I use whatever "powers" He has given me, whatever talents, gifts, capabilities, callings, stewardships - not for my own benefit, but for others'.

The Wise Man Built...

In our Relief Society lesson on Sunday, Sister Wheatley spoke of her brother's house, which is built on a mountain side, so that the bottom floor is a basement on one side but has a back door on the other, out of which if you stepped out, you were likely to find yourself running down a hill.

Her brother had a retaining wall built a good way down the part of the hill that was his yard, then filled in the area in between the door and the wall so that it became level. We talked about how we can avoid making a "slippery slope" of our lives by learning of and coming to our Savior through prayer, study, obedience to his commandments, walking in his footsteps through service, worshiping in the temple, and so on. Thus, He is a retaining wall, and helps us fill in the space, so that we find ourselves standing firm.

As our discussion progressed, into my mind came a picture of my parents' house. Dad built it about seven years ago, when he was 75. When Mom saw the lot upon which he planned to build, she was incredulous: "How do you intend to build a house there?" she remonstrated. "It's solid rock!"

Yes, it was solid rock, but the location was amazing - right on the crest of a small mountain, with a gorgeous commanding view.

Well, he did it, and it is a lovely, welcoming, comfortable house, with its foundation sunk into bedrock. The wind blows savagely up there sometimes, so much so that the heavy glass tabletop from their patio set was blown right off the table and broken on the rocks below; but the house itself stands firm, shielding its inhabitants from the wind and the weather.

Considering my father's house from the standpoint of the lesson, I saw that it is symbolic of the decision my parents made long ago to fully commit themselves to their membership in the Lord's kingdom. They married at 18. By the time my sister and I had come along, they saw the need to be united in their belief system. My mother had always attended the non-denominational community church, but my father was a less-active Mormon. When they discussed the church in which to bring up their family, there was no doubt in Dad's mind: his.

Accordingly, Mom participated in missionary discussions, seeking and receiving a testimony of the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before her baptism, she gave my father this ultimatum: if we go this route, there will be no half-commitment; it will be 100%, full steam ahead. He said okay, and neither of them has looked back since.

Sixty years later, their house is a visible witness of that commitment. Their marriage, their lives, and what they bequeathed to us, their posterity, are built upon the Rock. For each of us who remains true to that foundation, the house on the top of the mountain will stand firm throughout eternity.

Sacrament meeting talk: Works and Grace

When I was a student at BYU, we received a caution from our Priesthood leaders that there were some then circulating among us, which had made a whole religion out of a single principle of the Gospel, such as The Word of Wisdom, or Preparing for the Last Days. These people tended to focus on the one principle, to the exclusion of all others, and then preached according to their understanding, thus fomenting a misunderstanding of the Gospel in general among those who chose to listen. We were cautioned not to be swayed by their preaching. These people, though members of the Church, preached “up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning,” something Nephi warned against; they “set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they [sought] not the welfare of Zion (2 Ne. 26:20,29).”

Such was very much the case, when our Savior walked the earth, with those who were supposed to be the leaders and teachers over the people of God. Because of their state of apostasy, it had been a very long time since the Jewish people had been led and taught by a prophet, who spoke and acted under authority from God. Their leaders had also “set themselves up for a light” by making up countless rules, based more and more loosely on the Law of Moses, which they said people must strictly adhere to if they were to be considered worthy of the Kingdom of God. By the time the Savior and his forerunner, the great prophet John the Baptist, had begun their ministries, almost the entire Jewish religion depended more upon the outward performance than upon the state of the heart. The law of Moses had become their whole religion, rather than what it was meant to be, and what indeed it was to the righteous peoples of The Book of Mormon: merely a tool to point people to the Savior. As stated in the Gospel of John, 1:17, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

The apostles who spread the true Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the predominantly Jewish world found it necessary to lay a great deal of emphasis upon the principle of grace, in order to help them see the Law in its true light: as a “schoolmaster” that leads unto Christ (Gal 3:24-25), rather than as the defining goal in and of itself, as the Jews in general had come to believe. The apostles taught that it is “Through the grace of Christ, we shall be saved (Acts 15: 11, Rom. 3: 23-24; D&C 138: 14),” that “we have access by faith to his grace (Rom. 5: 2),” and that “by grace [we] are saved through faith (Eph. 2: 8). “The grace of God brings salvation (Titus 2: 11).” “Come boldly unto the throne of grace (Heb. 4: 16).” “God gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5: 5).”

It was very necessary for those who desired to be part of the Kingdom of God to understand that, as Paul taught, “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17)” through the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and through his Resurrection and Atoning power.

The Jews had to rethink their whole idea of salvation and of the Messiah, whom they had come to expect as One who would deliver them from earthly bondage. They had to come to see that it was from the bondage of their own sins that they most needed deliverance, and that such redemption was only possible in and through the Atoning grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The apostles of the New Testament era were charged with the daunting task of undoing hundreds of years of false teachings that emphasized salvation through man’s works, teachings that excluded what the prophets of the Old Testament had plainly taught: that a Savior was necessary to save us from our iniquities, that an atonement was required for our sins, an “infinite atonement,” as Nephi tells us (2 Ne. 9:7; see also 2 Ne. 25:16 and Alma 34:12), to which every sacrifice ever made by the priests of the temple pointed.

“It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by his atoning sacrifice,“ we are told in the Bible Dictionary, “that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life.”

It was very important for the people of New Testament times to understand this principle, so the apostles reiterated it again and again. This was occasioned, as I said initially, because the leaders of the Jews had created an entirely different religion, based upon their own interpretation, in order to set themselves up as a light, to gain unto themselves followers who would uphold them and support them.

We all know what happened, eventually, to the Lord’s apostles; Paul had warned that “the time [would] come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (2 Timothy 4:3-4).”

What I understand from Paul here is that, after all the efforts of the apostles to teach and to spread the true Gospel again, so that people would know to Whom they must look for salvation, and would know the way in which they must walk in order to receive the blessings of salvation; notwithstanding being led by the power of the Priesthood of God and by the Gift of the Holy Ghost, yet eventually people would choose other ways, would follow those who “set themselves up as a light” in order to get gain; and the true Gospel would be taken from the earth once more. The people would be left with only a “form of godliness (2 Tim 3:5),” until many churches would be built up around this or that principle, but none would have a fullness.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie spoke in 1984 at a devotional at Brigham Young University, concerning this Great Apostasy, and what has sprung out of it. He says:

"I wonder how many of us are aware of one of the great religious phenomena of the ages, one that is now sweeping through Protestant Christianity, as only one other thing has ever done in the whole Christian Era.

"We are silent witnesses of an almost worldwide religious craze that had its birth in the minds of a few great religious reformers nearly five hundred years ago and which is now receiving a new birth of freedom and influence.

…

"But before zeroing in on this religious mania that has now taken possession of millions of devout but deluded people, and as a means of keeping all things in perspective, let me first identify the original heresy that did more than anything else to destroy the primitive Christianity.

"This first and chief heresy of a now fallen and decadent Christianity--and truly it is the father of all heresies--swept through all of the congregations of true believers in the early centuries of the Christian Era; it pertained then and pertains now to the nature and kind of being that God is.

"It was the doctrine, adapted from [pagan beliefs], that changed Christianity from the religion in which men worshipped a personal God, in whose image man is made, into the religion in which men worshipped a spirit essence called the Trinity. This new God, no longer a personal Father, no longer a personage of tabernacle, became an incomprehensible three-in-one spirit essence that filled the immensity of space.

"The adoption of this false doctrine about God effectively destroyed the true worship among men and ushered in the age of universal apostasy.

…

"The Second Greatest Heresy

"Nearly a millennium and a half later, during the sixteenth century, as the Reformation grew out of the Renaissance, as a means of breaking the hold of the dominant church, the great Christian reformers lit a new doctrinal fire. That fire, burning wildly over the dry and arid prairies of religious autocracy, is what really prepared the way for the restoration of the gospel in modern times.

"It was nonetheless the doctrinal fire--the burning, flaming, heretical fire--that became the second greatest heresy of Christendom, because it effectively destroyed the efficacy and power of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ by whom salvation comes.

"The first great heresy, sweeping like a prairie fire through the struggling branches of a newly born Christianity, destroyed the worship of the true God. And the second, a heresy originating in the same courts of darkness, destroyed that very atonement of God's only Son.

…

"This second heresy--and it is the delusion and mania that prevails to this day in the great evangelical body of Protestantism--is the doctrine that we are justified by faith alone, without the works of the law. It is the doctrine that we are saved by grace alone, without works. It is the doctrine that we may be born again simply by confessing the Lord Jesus with our lips while we continue to live in our sins.

…

"Interwoven with this concept is the doctrine that the elect of God are predestined to be saved regardless of any act on their part

..."

You see what has happened? The doctrine of grace, which the apostles found it so necessary to emphasize in order to combat the false Jewish ideas of outward performance, has itself become “a religion of its own” in the eyes of many today, to the exclusion of other principles of the Gospel of Christ that are every bit as essential to salvation. It is the doctrine that appeals most in today’s world, and so it is touted by those who “set up themselves as a light.”

So, we could say that the pendulum has swung the other way in our time; among those who purport to follow the Gospel of Christ, the value of one’s works is diminished; “the conviction that the sinner is justified by faith alone, without the works of the law“ has overridden all other considerations.

Now, as I have grown up in the Church, I have observed an interesting phenomenon, and it is best illustrated by a conversation with a friend of mine several years ago. As we sat discussing the challenges of being a Latter-day Saint, he expressed the belief that he had “just about made it.” He clicked off the basic commandments, as he viewed them, expressed his modest evaluation that he kept them conscientiously, and pronounced therefore that he felt pretty close to being a candidate for the Celestial Kingdom. His wife, on the other hand, felt that no matter what she did, she was abysmally far away from being a candidate for the Celestial Kingdom. In short: he had made “works” his religion, and she was in dire need of understanding grace.

To continue from Elder McKonkie:

"We believe and proclaim that salvation is in Christ, in his gospel, in his atoning sacrifice. We are bold to say it comes by the goodness and grace of the Father and the Son. No people on earth praise the Lord with greater faith and fervor than we do because of this goodness and grace.

"As the Lord's agents, as his servants, as ambassadors of Christ--sent by him, sent to speak in his place instead, sent to say what he would say if he personally were here--we testify that no man, as long as the earth shall stand, or the heavens endure, or God continues as God, no man shall ever be saved in the kingdom of God, in the celestial kingdom of heaven, without doing the works of righteousness.

"As far as man is concerned, the great and eternal plan of salvation is:

"1. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; faith in him as the Son of God; faith in him as the Savior and Redeemer who shed his blood for us in Gethsemane and on Calvary;

"2. Repentance of all our sins--thus forsaking the world and its carnal course; thus turning from the broad way that leads to destruction; thus preparing for the spiritual rebirth into the kingdom of God;

"3. Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; baptism under the hands of a legal administrator who has power to bind on earth and seal in heaven--thus planting our feet firmly on the strait and narrow path leading to eternal life;

"4. Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost--thus enabling us to be baptized with fire; to have sin and evil burned out of our souls as though by fire; to be sanctified so as to stand pure and spotless before the Lord at the last day; and

"5. Enduring to the end in righteousness, keeping the commandments, and living by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God.

"Thus saith the Lord:

'He who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come. [D&C 59:23]'

"As God is true, and Christ is the Savior, and the Holy Ghost is their minister and witness, such is the plan of salvation, and there neither is nor ever shall be any other.

"Let those in the world think and act as they please; let us, the Saints of God who know better, together with all who are willing to live by the higher standard of the gospel, praise the Lord for his goodness and grace and do so by keeping his commandments, thereby becoming heirs of eternal salvation."

In the Bible Dictionary, we read: “It is … through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.”

Brothers and Sisters, let us not just hold on to those parts of the Gospel of Christ that are the easiest, or that make the most sense to us; let us not hold on to any “private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20)” at all, wherein we build up our own religion. We have the first principles and ordinances before us; all of them revolve around the great atoning sacrifice of the Savior in our behalf, because the Father and the Son want us to become like them: “For this is my work and my glory: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39).”

Moroni, in almost the last verses of The Book of Mormon, summarizes how this is accomplished:

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

"And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot (Moroni 10:32-33).”

Coming unto Christ is our part, our little but absolutely necessary part, involving obeying his commandments and keeping our covenants to the very best of our ability; his “amazing grace” does the rest. In this way “when he shall appear we may be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen (Moroni 7:48).”

note: James E. Talmage's tome Jesus the Christ was an invaluable resource in the thoughts expressed in this talk.

Aspire Higher

Recently I heard our principal say over the morning announcements that everyone needs to practice safe sex so that they can avoid sexually transmitted disease. That was painful on many levels, not the least of which has to do with the fact that there were undoubtedly, and contrary to popular opinion, many tender, chaste young hearts pierced in the hearing of it. Nevertheless, too many young hearts have also become inured to the gentle promptings to the chaste life: A few days ago I substituted in an English class and found it necessary to mention to at least two young women that the amount of cleavage their attire showed was unacceptable (actually, that's a very low number compared to what I see daily in the attendance office). Occasionally I see students fondling each other in the classroom. Often in the hallways I see “public displays of affection” from which I must abashedly turn away.

It seems to me that what we are dealing with here is a spiritually transmitted disease. We have foresworn ourselves from teaching values, however, from teaching the sanctity of the human body as the temple of the spirit God placed in it, and from teaching purity and morality.
We leave ourselves therefore with very little to back up our pitiable rules and dress codes. If there is, ultimately, no real right and wrong, what is the reason for doing anything?

Is there any wonder that from this little beginning, the individual and the society that produces him stumble around in a moral miasma, floundering in the swamp created by failed relationships, tepid education, and an amoral economy?

We have to have some kind of standard; people realize this: "Because things work out better that way, because it contributes to the common good."

Guess what, though? When it comes to selfish desires, those reasons simply don't hold sufficient sway to direct a person's conduct. I see such reasoning in modern textbooks on citizenship and I am torn between shaking my head that someone actually went to the trouble of publishing such banality, and outright guffawing - except it really isn't funny at all.

"Because God gave us commandments, because he loves us and because they are therefore for our best good, and because we stand to lose a great deal on the eternal scale if we ignore purity and morality."

Now those are reasons to do something.

Most of all, because Jesus Christ set the example, paid for our sins, heals our sorrows, and makes up for all that we miss out on in this life, through his infinite and eternal Atonement; we owe it to Him to do our little part, to show our gratitude and our obedience, and to shine a light for those of His children who do not yet know these things. A solemn obligation is upon us, in fact, to repent, or perish.

"Aside from Jesus Christ and his program of giving," I remember C. Terry Warner saying in a speech at BYU, "there is no real reason for doing anything."

I am looking for ways to share that message, because basically I am persuaded that most of those young hearts are yearning for something loftier, something, as Viktor Frankl would say, more meaningful. Pray with me that they will find it, and blessings upon you as you too strive to share it.

A Marvelous Work and a Wonder

Liza, a new convert to the church, made some great chalk drawings on our driveway one day. They were based on stories from The Book of Mormon. One of them told the story of Ammon's heroic efforts to save the flocks of King Lamoni (Alma 17). There were the severed arms on the ground, along with the dumbfounded enemies of the king. The caption read, "I think I'm beginning to be astonished!"

We all got a good laugh at that. That one simple phrase seemed a huge understatement of the actual event.

Recently, though, I have been pondering that phrase. I was reading about Alma's and Amulek's public conversation with Zeezrom (Alma 10-13), and in chapter 14, the word "astonished" appears again in much the same context: as the sophistry of Zeezrom begins to erode before the sure tide of the revelation-founded prudence and authority of Alma and Amulek, Zeezrom is "astonished:" an evil man who has laid a cunning plan finds his secret laid bare, and is completely routed.

In the New Testament we are shown that the people were astonished because Jesus " taught them as one having authority from God, and not as having authority from the Scribes. (JST Matt. 7:28)" He confounded the leaders of the Jews at every turn in the simple majesty of truth and divine power: "Talitha cumi...And straightway the damsel arose [from the grips of death] and walked...And they were astonished with a great astonishment. (Mark 5:42)" Saul, the militant Pharisee, full of zealous purpose, blinded by the Light, trembled and was astonished. Perhaps Lucifer's hosts, cast out of heaven, "began to be astonished," all that precipitous fall to earth.

I can remember feeling astonished at various times myself, doing something "my way," and finding my purposes confounded. I imagine the creators and navigators of the Titanic and the Hindenburg "began to be astonished" as their mighty inventions sunk or blazed into nothingness, leaving unimagined grief and tragedy in the aftermath.

Pride, I gather, infuses the "natural man" with boundless confidence that his cunning plans are unstoppable; yet by what simple means, whether by a man whose father was given divine assurance that he could not be harmed, or by the word of testmony, or by nature's force, or by any number of providential ways, do the efforts of the natural man vanish into thin air. When you've put a lot of sock into a "foolproof" plan and it falls apart completely, and you are helpless to stop it, in the process fearfully "falling into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31)," it is most emphatically astonishing.

If being astonished can lead to being amazed, to recognizing utter helplessness, to falling down in abject humility, calling upon God, to receiving his grace and his forgiveness, to leaping from one's bed of affliction, to becoming a mighty servant of the Lord [as it did at least for Paul and Zeezrom], then let the marvelous works and wonders come, and let us all be astonished!

A Grim Tale

I have read many stories over the past few weeks of people reaching out to people, particularly amid the rubble that is now Haiti, and I applaud every effort, even the one mentioned in Wendi C. Thomas' column "Center Has Soft Spot for Kids in Hard Times," in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which championed a safe place for young people dealing with same gender attraction. However, I must respond to the underlying "born-that-way" implication that someone dealing with same-gender attraction has only one recourse, which is to submit and embrace homosexuality.
We seem to be living in the grim fairy tale world in which the emperor is parading around naked, yet we all feel compelled to exclaim over his dazzling new clothes. In this world, to hint that homosexuality is not a sentence but a challenge, is to be denounced a heretic. One who so proclaims is forthwith accused of "gay bashing" and is relegated to the lowest possible rung of societal opinion.
Notwithstanding, I feel compelled to say unequivocally: there is a way out of homosexuality, just as there is a way out of alcoholism, or of sexual addiction of any kind, or of any addiction, whether genetically imposed or environmentally disposed or consciously chosen. There is always a way out; I have seen it happen. One must ask: Did Christ come for nothing?!
Had we not embraced such a casual attitude toward right and wrong that families began to fall apart, that marriage became optional and "shacking up" preferable, that sexual relations among teenagers became normal and expected, then we would not have arrived at the place where we find ourselves today, where homosexuality too has become normal and natural, and where further moral erosion threatens the innocent in ways we dare not (as yet) imagine.
We have, as Isaiah describes it, "turned things upside down" (Isaiah 29:16), as societies before us have done; and, while we fiddle our own tune, like Nero, modern Rome - I mean our Western world - burns. For while the emperor was "born that way", his nakedness exposes him to dire repercussions, unless he finds a way to be clothed.
I say this, not because I hate, but because I care.

What Stuff Is This?

So, the other day I saw a YouTube video, “The Story of Stuff.” The presenter, Annie Leonard, is obviously very committed to her cause, which is essentially to get people to stop the unchecked flow of consumerism, and to take responsibility by wise management of our finite resources. It was pretty good. There were a couple of things, though, that raised a red flag for me. One was her adamant demeanor, the way she seemed to demand that we draw the same conclusions she was drawing. The other was what she said about government’s role: that “they’re supposed to watch over us and take care of us. That’s their job.” This statement seemed to me to negate the sentence she used to preface it, that government is of the people and for the people. I wonder what happened to “by the people.”
Be that as it may, I felt alarmed at her implication that government is responsible for our welfare. That is only true in a protective sense; it is not true in a providing sense. What Annie finds objectionable, that our government has become too cozy with big corporations and has indirectly, therefore, assented to the plundering of the poor and of third world countries, is indeed heinous and tragic; however, I believe that what she is advocating, at least by implication, that government step in to legislate economic endeavors in favor of the “green” way, is fraught with the same caveats.
As I wrote in a response on Facebook: “I think expecting more government to take care of us is what got us into the mess she describes in the first place. We let go of individual responsibility, of government by the people, by allowing government to ‘take care of us.’ If we continue in that mindset, but in the opposite direction, you can bet we'll just end up with another corrupt system.”
With so much wrong with our government, and with so much clamoring in so many different directions as to ways of correcting it, it is easy to become confused and befuddled, as I think many people have. The tendency at that point is to do nothing, which allows the enthusiasm of the Annie Leonards in all walks of life to run rampant.
What’s wrong with that? Only this: while we are indeed living upon a finite planet, we are infinite beings, with an eternal purpose. Government is “instituted of God for the benefit of man; and …he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society….no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life (Doctrine and Covenants 134:1-2).”
In other words, only as we conform to eternal principles of truth, and govern ourselves accordingly, can we act within and support effective governments. Otherwise, causes become religions in and of themselves, inevitably encroaching upon “the free exercise of conscience.”
The problem today is not the Constitutional government, but the way in which “we, the people,” through our abandonment of those eternal, true principles in our headlong pursuit of our own individual wants and desires, have allowed our rulers to violate their trust, under the guise of catering to our demands. In the 50s, consumerism made sense, and the politicians, for their own purposes, catered to it. Today, we see its horrific downside and in a panic, run off in the opposite direction, to which today’s politicians will pander, again for their own purposes, and with the same disastrous results.
The only safe way is to hold to eternal principles of truth that never vary, because they are not finite. The Constitution was written in adherence to those principles; it behooves us to return to it, in strict adherence ourselves.
President Ezra Taft Benson, who served under President Eisenhower as Secretary of Agriculture and who was a patriot in the best possible sense of the word, wrote and gave many outstanding addresses on topics like government and individual freedom. From his speech, “The Proper Role of Government,” which can be accessed on YouTube, comes this statement, which is actually a quotation:
“No historian of the future will ever be able to prove that the ideas of individual liberty practiced in the United States of America were a failure. He may be able to prove that we were not yet worthy of them. The choice is ours.” (Charles Hallberg and Co., 116 West Grand Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60610)
In point of fact, President Benson said what I have been trying to say far more convincingly and eloquently, so I urge and exhort all who read this to go to that speech, which can also be googled for the text.
To conclude: I applaud Annie Leonard for her very real concerns, but I wish to sound a voice of warning to her and to everyone, that we must subject all our concerns to the standard of the one overarching and eternal Governor. Only then will our purposes and our efforts find fruition.

Merry Christmas`

I feel it incumbent upon me to be a voice crying in the wilderness, just in case there are any out there who think that the unmistakable good will that pervades during this hoiday season has no direct connection to the birth of Christ. I have noticed over the last few years, a marked increase in other "reasons" to celebrate, an effort to diminish the Christian "reason for the season."
Kwanzaa is completely worthwhile; the celebration of Hannukah is totally legitimate; the winter solstice is awe-inspiring. They can enhance the season's enjoyment.
However, the effort to try to remove Christ from Christmas will yield a commensurate loss of Christmas spirit; the celebration will seem somehow empty, the good will, not "enough:" endeavors to engender those feelings will echo somewhere in the chambers of the heart that have been emptied of the one Eternal source of joy.
Humanity is not solely of the animals, not fully of the genus "mammal." Evolution is a principle of science, but is not All in All. As the poet Wordsworth expressed, "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:/ The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,/ Hath had elsewhere its setting,/And cometh from afar:/ Not in entire forgetfulness,/ And not in utter nakedness,/ But trailing clouds of glory do we come/ From God, who is our home:/ Heaven lies about us in our infancy!"
I believe that the best scientists have much in common with the greatest poets, and perhaps even with the prophets. I believe that there is really very little that separates the spirit of inquiry from the beckoning of Mystery. One blogger, Rich Blundell, shared this observation: "A scientist's Christmas has humility and dignity both. It is humble enough to admit that our knowledge of the sacred will always be incomplete, without the need to declare 'war' on anything but ignorance. There is plenty of mystery to celebrate and plenty of ignorance to fear - Merry Christmas."
This year, I suggest that instead of denying the "knowing" deep within every human soul, that we instead acknowledge it, that we, as it were, give room for it. See where it leads. Celebrate it all, and celebrate Him who is the Source of it all. "Come in, and know me better, man!"