The scriptures and the teachings of the church place on us a heavy burden of advice, obligations, and commandments. All these commandments seem to encompass and culminate in the statement of Matthew 5:48 “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

How is this perfection to be achieved? Is it a far distant goal only to be realized in a distant heavenly future? Is it accomplished only by those who manage, through intense personal effort, to rid themselves of weaknesses and worldly desires?

We seem to have two options. An approach whereby we train ourselves to be perfect or acknowledge the hopelessness of that approach and leave it all up to Jesus to save us by his grace. In the church we sometimes seem to default to a combination of those two. We are to try our hardest to train ourselves and then hope Christ will pick up the slack all the while hoping that we are doing enough to then merit Christ’s grace. However, I think that overlooks the essential and ongoing role that Christ should play in our quest for perfection.

Benjamin Franklin’s autobiographical account of how he tried to achieve moral perfection through an arduous process of self-examination and stern resolve illustrates the impossibility of achieving perfection through our individual efforts.

Franklin writes:

It was about this time I conceiv’d the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employ’d in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.

Franklin then established a list of moral virtues that he would attempt to inculcate into his nature:
1. Temperance, 2.Silence, 3. Order, 4. Resolution, 5. Frugality, 6. Industry, 7. Sincerity, 8. Justice, 9. Moderation, 10. Cleanliness, 11. Tranquility, 12. Chastity, and 13. Humility.

Franklin continues that:

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen. . . .

Franklin then stated he made a book, allotted pages for each virtue, and tracked, over the course of week by marking with spots on a chart (Tables of Examination as he called them), whether he had exhibited a fault in the above areas. Franklin continues:

I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much strengthen’d and its opposite weaken’d, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots.

Franklin thought it necessary to solicit God’s help in this endeavor and formed the following prayer:

O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favors to me.

Thus prepared, Franklin writes:

I enter’d upon the Execution of this Plan for Self Examination, and continu’d it with occasional Intermissions for some time. I was surpris’d to find myself so much fuller of Faults than I had imagined, but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.

Eventually, however, he omitted the plan althogether in the face of voyages and business. At this point, he notes a fault for which he experienced a particularly stubborn weakness.

My scheme of ORDER gave me the most trouble; and I found that, tho’ it might be practicable where a man’s business was such as to leave him the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, it was not possible to be exactly observed by a master, who must mix with the world, and often receive people of business at their own hours. . . . This article [Order], therefore, cost me so much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed me so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbour, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turn’d, while the smith press’d the broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came every now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length would take his ax as it was, without farther grinding. “No,” said the smith, “turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and-by; as yet, it is only speckled.” “Yes,” said the man, “but I think I like a speckled ax best.” And I believe this may have been the case with many, who, having, for want of some such means as I employ’d, found the difficulty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle, and concluded that “a speckled ax was best”; for something, that pretended to be reason, was every now and then suggesting to me that such extreme nicety as I exacted of myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, which, if it were known, would make me ridiculous; that a perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance.

Thus, Franklin good naturedly excuses his lack of perfection and observes that he is less obnoxious to his neighbors for his lack of perfection.

Even so he observes that he felt he benefitted from the exercise

tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it;

As a final observation, Franklin relates that a friend observed that Franklin suffered from pride often evidenced in conversation. Franklin therefore added Humility to his list of virtues. He noted that he accomplished a superficial success in this area in at least not appearing proud:

I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue [Humility], but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own.

Essentially, Franklin was trying to train himself to be perfect and failed. Franklin had the good sense to let himself down easy going so far as to conclude that even if he had achieved moral perfection he would only have produced envy or alienation in others.

I think we should not assume the responsibility of trying to achieve moral perfection enitrely through our own efforts and resolve. Franklin has demonstrated that generally such efforts will fail and, even where success is achieved, it is as likely to merely be the appearance of or habit of virtue rather than a change in our natures.

The Savior’s command to be perfect is something else. According to Paul: “Therefore if a man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor 5:17. The Lord’s words to Alma echo this: “Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, . . . must be born again; born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; And thus they become new creatures; . . .” Mosiah 27:25-26.

Our natures are fallen and we must be reborn. This is not a process that we can impose on our natures through practice, resolve, and self-examination. It comes through Christ and the Spirit. The people of King Benjamin proclaimed after hearing his teachings: “Yea, we believe all the words which thou has spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” Mosiah 5:2. The Spirit not only confirmed the truth of Benjamin’s teachings but wrought a mighty change such that they no longer had a disposition to do evil.

This was not a one-time event thus rendering his people forever changed. The people entered into a covenant but Benjamin warned that they should still take heed and not transgress causing the name of Christ to be blotted out of their hearts. See Mosiah 5:10-12. They, in a sense had to continue the process of rebirth.

Elder Bednar in his April 2007 conference address pointed out that becoming spiritually changed, transformed, and born again is a process. (See Ensign, May 2007, 19-22). Elder Bednar teaches that: “. . . you and I are born again as we are absorbed by and in the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we honor and ‘observe the covenants’ (D&C 42:13) into which we have entered, as we ‘feast upon the words of Christ’ (2 Nephi 32:3), as we ‘pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart’ (Moroni 7:48), and as we ‘serve [God] with all [of our] heart, might, mind and strength’ (D&C 4:2).” Elder Bednar continues that after baptism “our souls need to be continuously immersed in and saturated with the truth and the light of the Savior’s gospel.”

It is by observing the covenants, feasting on the words of Christ, praying, and service that we immerse ourselves in Christ’s gospel and enable the Spirit to transform our hearts. It is through this process that our natures become changed and perfected.

“You can think of only one thing at a time!” (“Zeal Without Knowledge” Hugh Nibley Approaching Zion 1989 Deseret Book p.63). We are locked into a singularity of time and thought. Our minds are a single point of perception with time streaming quickly through and past us. Our brains, on the conscious level, process one thing at a time and we exist in an instant of time. In other words, our thoughts flow through our minds one minute piece at a time. Time streams past our consciousness one instant at a time. Each split second or instant passes and is lost forever leaving behind a memory that blurs and fades.

This is a fundamental limit on our ability to comprehend the world around us. In fact, can a mind that can only think of one thing at a time and is watching time stream past to be lost in the instant it is experienced really understand anything in a complex world – a world full of essentially infinite causes and infinite parts all acting and reacting against and with each other?

For example (if I correctly understood the Nova episode) weather prediction is essentially impossible beyond a day or two. This is in part because there is no means to track every molecule of air in the atmosphere and every influence on those molecules needed to predict the weather. In other words, to predict the weather, a computer would need to know the position of every molecule of air and every force or influence on those molecules simultaneously with absolute accuracy.

The world around may seem to be ruled by chance. It appears that way because our thoughts and experience of reality is singular. We can’t see all the interacting forces around us simultaneously. All of the billions of people deciding what to eat, spend or buy affecting the economy. The billions of people making decisions on how to act or respond that affect history. What if our brains could simultaneously comprehend and process the position and influence of billions, trillions, or an infinite number of elements on each other. If we could, we might accurately predict or even control these complex systems.

However, our human brains are simply not equipped to do anything like that. We are forced to build clever yet ultimately over-simplified models to try and help us understand and predict the infinitely complex reality around us.

God does not have this limit. He is not locked in a singularity but comprehends the infinite of the eternal now – all things are present before him. “Let us remember that quite peculiar to the genius of Mormonism is the doctrine of a God who could preoccupy himself with countless numbers of things: ‘The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine” (Moses 1:37) (Nibley p. 65). Further, God, “is the same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes.” D&C 38:2. In other words, “all things are present with me, for I know them all.” (Moses 1:6). Nothing passes without His notice. (See Luke 12: 6-7).

This gives rise to two implications. (1) We ultimately do not understand or comprehend the world around us sufficiently to accurately decide the correct course to take on any given matter. Therefore, our choices may always go awry because we simply lack the ability to gain all of the understanding needed to make a right choice. We must rely on a more intelligent power. (2) This limitation is part of the unique test presented by mortal life. If allowed to only think one thought at a time how do we direct that thought? (See Nibley) With our finite mental capacities, we are in a position to choose our thoughts, whereas if we could think of infinite things simultaneously, there wouldn’t seem to be much room for choice.

(1) I believe the Holy Spirit is continuously prompting most people on the earth – even those who profess not to believe. Impressions and ideas come to us from the Spirit and seem to be part of our thought process. However, I believe God or the Spirit should be given credit for many if not most of the good ideas or right ideas we get. Thus, the Spirit strives with those billions of people as they make their innumerable decisions each day. Some accept the promptings of the spirit (either as being inspiration or the product of their own genius) and some reject them (discounting them is inaccurate or unfounded), therefore affecting the course of society and history for good and bad.

That is why the Book of Mormon expresses such a dour picture when the Holy Spirit withdraws from a people. “For the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with man. And when the Spirit ceaseth to strive with man then cometh speedy destruction, and this grieveth my soul.” (2 Ne. 26:11. See also Moroni 8:28.) Once the spirit ceases to prompt, guide, inspire, and strive, with a society, they not only start to choose the self-destructive path of sin, they are left to try and make decisions based on their woefully inadequate mental faculties. Their actions go awry. They are collectively left to stumble in the dark of their limited comprehension with disastrous consequences.

(2) At some point, perhaps, this infinite mental capacity may be granted or restored to us. It has been provided, in part, to Moses in vision and apparently with the help of God’s power. “And it came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered.” (Moses 1:8) However, to behold all God’s works would require that the prophet behold all God’s glory which cannot be done and still remain in the flesh on the earth. (See Moses 1:4.)

We can’t do everything we would like, and we can’t really get our heads around it all. We are fundamentally limited and hindered in this life. As Nibley points out, we constantly are choosing what to put our minds on. Further, we are constantly choosing what to get done and not to do. What are we going to put first and always make time for? We have been stripped down to a singularity of thought in a singularity of time to see what we will choose to do, what will we put our minds on, and how will we act when we can only do one thing at a time. What will it matter how smart we are now if and when our full mental and conceptual (cognitive) powers are unleashed or restored – when we can finally get our heads around infinity and become infinite? What will matter is that we chose the right, that we directed our very limited thought processes on virtue and love, that we strove to help, enlighten, and ennoble others. What will matter is who we are and what we became through this life’s experiences.

If we are restored to or gain infinite mental capacities so we can fully grasp the infinite and really comprehend it, I think we would realize how absurdly meager even the smartest person’s mental capacities were in this life and realize what really mattered was how much we helped others and sacrificed ourselves for the benefit of others. How we sloughed off selfish preoccupations and looked to the needs and well-being of others as Christ did.

I will love you as long as

I will love you so long as

I will love you until

Reader: So, did you get dumped or something and now you’re bitter?

Author: I have to admit, this did have part of its impetus while I was brooding over some failed relationships, the bleak dating scene where I live, and the similar experiences of some friends. But also its impetus is a talk I once heard about the unrealistic expectations people put on relationships. The song really is intended to capture the irony of pursuing relationships out of the desire for romantic love that is ultimately or really simply a selfish gratification.

R: What? A desire for physical gratification?

A: Not really, I think people get addicted to that rush of romantic feelings that usually initiate a relationship. And once that starts to settle or fade they move on to the next rush.

R: Why does anyone stay for the long term or stay together once the romance fades?

A: Ultimately there has to be a genuine concern for and interest in the other person – something like friendship. Once the buzz of early romance starts to fade, if there is nothing left but a selfish preoccupation with one’s needs, the relationship is probably doomed to failure.

This song tries to capture the irony of singing about romantic love from an ultimately selfish stance. It also tries to capture the irony of putting selfish conditions on a romantic relationship which I think people do all the time but never express it so bluntly to themselves – or at least never think about clearly. The conditions they put on the relationship at that point are unreasonably rosy expectations that probably won’t (can’t) come true. When the rosy visions of romantic love fade and life gets hard, the speaker of this poem says sayonara.

“True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well-being of one’s companion.” Gordon B. Hinckley (Conference Report, April 1971).

While not one of the five senses, spiritual perception is real and a means of gaining understanding.

We each have the capacity to discern on a spiritual level. An ability to learn, understand, and grow through the soul’s communion and communication with God. It is through this capacity that we can detect and feel spiritual outpourings from God. This spiritual acuity is more vibrant and developed in some. In others it is deadened by distractions, cares, wrong behavior, ignorance, or outright rejection of its reality or efficacy.

The basis of faith is in the experience of communicating with the Spirit of God. These experiences are not arrived at through a purely mental process or the working up of an emotional surge, rather, they come through the soul’s capacity to discern, connect, and understand spiritual outpourings from God.

This spiritual acuity and the resultant development of faith can be seen at work in our lives and in the lives of others. Evidence of its reality is demonstrated when the soul is enlarged, the understanding is enlightened, and the word of the Lord becomes delicious. (Alma 32:28) The understanding gained from and through the spirit is clear and certain and may be accompanied by a sense of well-being and reassurance.

Further evidence of the reality of spiritual perception may be seen in an account written by Oliver Sacks. (See Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. London: Picador, 1986) Sacks writes about Jimmie, a patient who suffered from an amnesiac condition known as Korsakov’s syndrome which left him unable to transfer sense experience into his long term memory. As a result, he was lost in a meaningless “now” – disconnected and incapable of connecting with the world around him in any but fleeting instances.

Sacks noted that Jimmie was an intelligent man who was “quick-witted, observant, and logical, and had no difficulty solving complex problems and puzzles – no difficulty, that is, if they could be done quickly. If much time was required, he forgot what he was doing.” (Sacks 25) At one point, Sacks placed items on a table, asked Jimmie to remember them, and then covered them. After a minute’s chat, Sacks asked Jimmie to tell him what was under the cover. Jimmie could not remember the items and could not even remember that Sacks had asked him to remember.

Focusing on Jimmie’s memory, Sacks “found an extreme and extraordinary loss of recent memory – so that whatever was said or shown . . . to him was to apt to be forgotten in a few seconds’ time.” (Sacks 25). “It was not, apparently, that he failed to register in memory, but that the memory traces were fugitive in the extreme, and were apt to be effaced within a minute, often less, . . . while his intellectual and perceptual powers were preserved, and highly superior.” (Sacks 26) For whatever reason, his memory simply stopped about thirty years earlier, was devoid of anything after that point, with no new memories ever added.

As a result of this condition, Sacks noted that Jimmie was “. . . isolated in a single moment of being, with a moat . . . of forgetting all round him . . . He [was] a man without a past (or future), stuck in a constantly changing, meaningless moment.’” (Sacks 28).

Sacks observed that

One tended to speak of him, instinctively, as a spiritual casualty – a ‘lost soul’: was it possible that he had really been ‘de-souled’ by a disease? ‘Do you think he has a soul?’ I once asked the Sisters [ who cared for the patients]. They were outraged by my question, but could see why I asked it. ‘Watch Jimmie in chapel,’ they said, ‘and judge for yourself.’

I did, and I was moved, profoundly moved and impressed, because I saw here an intensity and steadiness of attention and concentration that I had never seen before in him or conceived him capable of. I watched him kneel and take the Sacrament on his tongue, and could not doubt the fullness and totality of Communion, the perfect alignment of his spirit with the spirit of Mass. Fully, intensely, quietly, in the quietude of absolute concentration and attention, he entered and partook of the Holy Communion. He was wholly held, absorbed, by a feeling. There was no forgetting, no Korsakov’s then, . . . for he was no longer at the mercy of a faulty and fallible mechanism – that of meaningless sequences and memory traces – but was absorbed in an act, an act of his whole being, . . .

Clearly Jimmie found himself, found continuity and reality, in the absoluteness of spiritual attention and act. [As the Russian Neuropsychologist Luria wrote,] “A man does not consist of memory alone. He has feeling, will, sensibility, moral being . . . It is here . . . you may touch him, and see a profound change.” Memory, mental activity, mind alone, could not hold him; but moral attention and action could hold him completely.

If Jimmie was briefly ‘held’ by a task or puzzle or game or calculation, held in the purely mental challenge of these, he would fall apart as soon as they were done, into the abyss of his nothingness, his amnesia. But if he were held in emotional and spiritual attention – in the contemplation of nature or art, in listening to music, in taking part in the Mass in chapel – the attention, its ‘mood’, its quietude, would persist for a while, and there would be in him a pensiveness and peace we rarely, if ever, saw during the rest of his life at the Home.

(Sacks 37).

This account demonstrates the human ability to learn and connect on a spiritual basis. The “spiritual or moral attention” (as Sacks puts it) is demonstrably real and is other than a purely mental process, emotional reaction, or perception through the senses. Something in Jimmie allowed him to connect on a level that was not purely or even dependently mental despite of his condition. He found “continuity and reality, in the absoluteness of spiritual attention.”

It is on this experience of spiritual attention that faith is built. Elder Scott in the April 2003 conference spoke of the reality of faith. Even though it is not discerned by the five senses, it is a discerning nonetheless. He stated: “Some feel that any discussion of religion and the guidance one can receive through robust faith have no rational basis. However, faith is not illusion nor magic but a power rooted in eternal principles.”

Elder Scott illustrated this with an example:

Years ago I participated in the measurement of the nuclear characteristics of different materials. The process used an experimental nuclear reactor designed so that high energy particles streamed from a hole in the center of the reactor. These particles were directed into an experimental chamber where measurements were made. The high energy particles could not be seen, but they had to be carefully controlled to avoid harm to others. One day a janitor entered while we were experimenting. In a spirit of disgust he said, “You are all liars, pretending that you are doing something important, but you can’t fool me. I know that if you can’t see, hear, taste, smell, or touch it, it doesn’t exist.” That attitude ruled out the possibility of his learning that there is much of worth that can’t be identified by the five senses. Had that man been willing to open his mind to understand how the presence of nuclear particles is detected, he would have confirmed their existence. In like manner, never doubt the reality of faith.

Faith is developed through the process of learning to hear or sense the spiritual communication from Heavenly Father. Faith increases as we learn to trust that spiritual communication, follow it and act on it even when it may be very difficult. This process is very real and has very real results: Namely, the expansion of our minds and hearts, an increasing capacity for spiritual communication, Divine direction and solutions to problems, and a profound sense of God’s love and purposes for us. Those who open their souls to the presence of the Spirit of the Lord and exercise their spiritual attention, come to see and understand the reality of God and the reality of those things communicated by His Spirit.

This is the message of the restored gospel and a foundational and key principle of the LDS faith: That God communicates directly to us individually, that he gives instruction and comfort, and this spiritual capacity to discern and learn is real. This is demonstrated by Jimmie, who could not connect or maintain anything but a fleeting understanding or connection to the world around him on a mental level, yet, when his spiritual perception or attention was activated, his ability to connect and be sustained from moment to moment was not hampered.

Therefore, the call of the restored gospel is to: Open your mind to the reality of the soul’s interaction and connection with the Spirit of God. Open your heart to experience the effect of faith and communication with the Spirit of God. Open your soul to expanding and enlightening influence of the Spirit of God. Feel His presence, His love, and reassurance. Benefit from His counsel, direction, and wisdom.

This parable came to mind after reading many books and several blogs.

At the top of a high weather scrubbed rock ridge is an old gathering place designed in the Greek style. The land around the forum falls away in vertical cliffs and fractured ravines. On a beautiful day, many people ascend the rocky path from the surrounding lowlands. They gather at the forum to talk, debate, and deliberate. The day is full of bright sun; the discussion is lively and compelling.

Late in the day, as is common to the climate, banks of cloud and mist accumulate on the ridges and mountains. The forum is quickly engulfed in a deepening darkness. The discussion breaks up and those that have gathered look about to determine the best way to return to the safety of home. They lose sight of the landscape and each other in the mist. The way back down the ridge around the cliffs and ravines has become treacherous.

Voices begin to call out: “Which way shall we go?” “Which is the right way?” Others call: “Follow me, I know the way.” Soon the voices overlap and become confused. “This is the right way.” “No! Here!” The voices compete for hearers and loudly assert their efficacy.

In response to a call to follow, a voice rings out: “Those voices are wrong. Do not heed them. They will misguide you. They can’t see the correct path clearly as a result of their cultural and social biases.” Another offers, “No this way. Listen to the peaceful reassurance in your hearts confirming my direction.” But another shouts, “Do not listen! They are appealing to the irrational. They ask you to rely on the uncertain guide of emotion rather than the facts which we can see clearly in this fog.”

Others call in simple, unaffected language, “Come this way.” But others respond, “Not that way. They lack the refined outlook gained through extensive study. They will lead you astray. They are out of touch with the realities of this mist and the lay of the land. Follow me, and I will lead you right.”

One voice gathers a huddled following and confidently announces: “I appreciate the subtle nuances of the treacherous landscape and can avoid any pitfalls.” But the group that follows where the voice directs soon stumbles off a ledge hidden in the mist. Hearing their cries as they fall and are broken on the rocks below, the voice explains: “I now perceive that my impeccably reasoned conclusions on the proper direction were insufficient due to some misinformation on this area and the density of the fog. But as a mark of my intellectual integrity, I am willing to correct my views and now state that this is not a proper direction to take.” And the speaker turns away from the ledge and those who have fallen.

Which is the right voice? To whom should those who are lost listen to among the confusion of voices? Are they all misguided?

A peaceful assurance comes that we are not left alone to try and take a chance on the right voice. We have a means to discern the one that will lead us on the safe course. There is One whose voice can safely direct those that are lost in the mists and darkness to safety. One who absolutely knows the landscape and whose understanding pierces the obscuring fog. Through the study of scripture, sincere prayer, humility, and the resulting experiences with the spirit, the right voice is discerned and recognized as the right voice. The voice of the Lord and his servants acting under his direction will be familiar and carry the authenticating witness of the spirit to those who have cultivated the understanding and spiritual sensitivity to hear. Thus, when the Lord or one of his servants calls from out of the mist, the call is accompanied by the confirming and authenticating spirit of truth that any who are attuned recognize: “Follow me, this is the right way.”

As reflected in the title of this blog, I am a lifetime Mormon. I find it surprisingly energizing to think about and mull over the doctrines and teachings of the church and the scriptures. My purpose here is to force myself to give structure and coherence to those thoughts. While in my mind, ideas and supposed insights float around and seem gloriously brilliant. I’ve noticed, though, that when I try to put them in writing, the once brilliant thought fades to a lesser light, or worse–a bland statement so obvious it goes without saying.

Putting things into a structure understandable to others and, even more so, releasing it for view by an audience (however, limited) forces me to work through and develop my free-flowing mental effusions into a structured, useable form. I am looking for greater discipline and accountability in my thinking by doing so.

However, I understand that not all thoughts or insights can or ought to be reduced to writing for open review and discussion. To a large extent, development of spiritual and religious understanding is an individual experience or, rather, a personal interaction between myself and the Spirit of God. The key scripture of faith and conversion in the Book of Mormon exhorts the reader to “ponder [the mercies of God] in your hearts” while reading and then to “ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true. . . .” with no mention of discussing or debating the issue with others. Our ongoing development and education in matters pertaining to faith, God’s ways, and our spiritual awareness is to be pursued privately in the sacred places of our hearts, minds, and souls.

The Lord, through Joseph Smith, apparently after attempting to reveal how God orders and directs the universe, resorts to a parable and then the revelation breaks off with “. . . I leave these sayings with you to ponder in your hearts, with this commandment . . . that ye shall call upon me while I am near – Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you . . . .” (D&C 88:62-63). There is no directive or invitation to discuss or debate the issue in a gathering of church members. Rather, the members are to ponder and draw close to the Lord with the promise that the matter will eventually be opened to their understanding.

So, undertaking to write a blog presents me with an ongoing effort to balance the desire to discuss ideas with the private nature of interaction with God. Thus, if an idea or thought gets past the double hurdles of being a meaningful insight and not something better left for quiet reflection, it may get posted.

Um, er. . .