I assumed for years that hosanna and hallelujah both meant essentially the same thing—"praise God" or something close to that. That is what hallelujah means, but the meaning of hosanna surprised me.
Imagine you are lost in the wilderness, and you hear a helicopter coming toward you. You take off your white t-shirt, and begin to wave it frantically, and begin to scream. What do you scream? "Here I am—save me!" That is the sense behind the word hosanna: "[Here we are,] rescue us."
When Jesus entered Jerusalem the week He was crucified, the celebrating crowd grabbed palm branches and waved them, shouting "Hosanna!" Here we are. Rescue us. Get us out of this mess. We use the word "Savior" to refer to Jesus Christ so often that its meaning has become dilapidated in our minds. It means "Rescuer." It is more than a title; it is a verb turned into a description of Jesus' role in our salvation. He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Are His commandments important to Him? I mean, is it important to Him that we keep His commandments? Even a cursory leafing through the Gospels will reveal an avalanche of directions of how to behave, to act, what to do, and even how to feel and think. If the point of Jesus' arrival was to relieve us of the burden of rules, why did He spend His ministry dispensing rule after rule after rule? Some of them are difficult to keep; others are impossible to keep, at least without divine assistance. And I believe that assistance is part of salvation that He offers. We are all familiar with the concept of being excused for something we have done that is wrong. But there are other things Jesus provides for us besides forgiveness.
Grace is often thought of as the forgiveness I have mentioned above. It may be, but it is something far more three-dimensional. Grace is the enabling, strengthening power of Christ, given to us mortals so that we can do things beyond our normal capacity. Peter walking on the water is a good example of grace. Being enabled by God to forgive someone who has hurt you tremendously is grace. Being strengthened by the Lord to carry any burden beyond your own ability is grace. I take the examples of grace in my own life as proof that yes, God DOES care about what we do, about whether we keep the commandments or not.
In addition to grace, God also grants another miracle—sanctification. Grace might include receiving strength to resist some temptation, but sanctification implies the removal of the temptation from your heart. Imagine a smoker waking up one morning to find that she no longer craved tobacco. Sanctification is like suddenly craving broccoli and feeling apathetic about chocolate cake. And no amount of effort on our part can secure this "mighty change of heart" (Mosiah 5:2). The effort we exert to experience this change is to overcome our pride, and submit our whole selves to God. When we genuinely feel that we belong to Him, when we acknowledge our dependence on Him, when we toss away the weapons of our rebellion and trust that He will catch us as we fall into His arms, THEN we are displaying the kind of humility necessary to enjoy sanctification at His hands. In John 3 this is called being "born of the Spirit."
The real heavy lifting, then, is faith, trust, and humility. Getting our pride out of the way so God can change us from the inside. Once this change has taken place, good desires displace bad ones, and we naturally do what is good and right. And the enabling power of grace makes us able to perform miracles if need be. This is my view of what Jesus was teaching and talking about in the New Testament. He did not come to release everyone from work—rather, He came to enable everyone to do good works, to change their hearts so that such behavior was desirable instead of a chore. "I am able to make you holy," Jesus tells Joseph Smith in D&C 60:7.
Yes, there are about eleven scriptures that say "sanctify yourselves," but I do not believe they mean that the power to change our hearts is in us. I think of it as an instruction to get a tan. Grab your beach towel, stereo, sunscreen lotion, and head up on the roof, lie down, and get a tan. Oh, wait, it won't work until the sun comes up. Similarly, our attempts to sanctify ourselves depend on the presence of Jesus in order to succeed. We do not tan ourselves; we expose ourselves to a source of energy that causes the desired effect. Repentance does not do much good unless there is a Savior to validate it.
Realizing and admitting we need help is probably the first step in receiving all the blessings I have been describing, and more.
The general view of heaven is that it is the environment that can make anyone happy, like Disneyland. When outside, you are not as happy, and when inside, you are happy. Heaven is different than Disneyland in that respect. You must be of the same quality or essence as everything else there, otherwise it will not be a pleasant experience to be there. "Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell" (Morm. 9:4). In the story of the three little pigs, each built houses of different qualities of materials—brick, sticks, and straw. To enter heaven AND be comfortable there, we must be made of the same quality of people that God is. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3). This is impossible without His help, but possible with it, and essential. If we were not like Him, we would feel ashamed to be in heaven: "For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence" (Alma 12:14).
Repentance includes more than a change of behavior; it also entails this mighty change of heart. Those who have experienced it are filled with the characteristics of Christ (if in their beginning stages).
Many talk about being saved, but saved from what? Not just the perils of justice and death, but the perils of our own monstrous nature, our bad desires. Jesus can resurrect us from the grave, and stave off justice without our cooperation. But since God respects free will, He will not overstep the threshold of our heart and mind without permission. That permission takes the form of our submission and humility before Him. That is part of what hosanna means, in my opinion—save us from ourselves, from our corrupt nature.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Overcoming Pornography Addiction: What Is Success?
Apathy, Not Revulsion
Hatred and enmity are commonplace in the world today. Many people, especially in politics, are comfortable defining their success in terms of someone else's failure. They are less worried about where the bus is going than they are about who is driving it. I think of arriving at a good destination as a success; others see ousting the driver as a victory.
What constitutes success as far as pornography is concerned? Behaviorally, that is an easy question to answer, but mentally and emotionally, the answer may surprise most people. I was listening to a man speaking about helping others overcome pornography addiction, and he mentioned that APATHY, not violent revulsion, is the ideal response for an addict who is exposed to pornography. Adrenaline, whether from rage, excitement, or fear, is part of the addictive cycle. It elicits the release of dopamine in the brain—the neurotransmitter involved in ALL addictions. It is the chemical signal in the brain that lets it know, "This is important." Drugs cause massive releases of dopamine in the brain, and so they are artificially elevated beyond normal importance to survival-importance status in the brain, alongside breathing, drinking water, and getting out of the way of danger. The same thing happens with pornography in the addict's brain; it gets falsely labeled as "extremely important."
Hatred and enmity are commonplace in the world today. Many people, especially in politics, are comfortable defining their success in terms of someone else's failure. They are less worried about where the bus is going than they are about who is driving it. I think of arriving at a good destination as a success; others see ousting the driver as a victory.
What constitutes success as far as pornography is concerned? Behaviorally, that is an easy question to answer, but mentally and emotionally, the answer may surprise most people. I was listening to a man speaking about helping others overcome pornography addiction, and he mentioned that APATHY, not violent revulsion, is the ideal response for an addict who is exposed to pornography. Adrenaline, whether from rage, excitement, or fear, is part of the addictive cycle. It elicits the release of dopamine in the brain—the neurotransmitter involved in ALL addictions. It is the chemical signal in the brain that lets it know, "This is important." Drugs cause massive releases of dopamine in the brain, and so they are artificially elevated beyond normal importance to survival-importance status in the brain, alongside breathing, drinking water, and getting out of the way of danger. The same thing happens with pornography in the addict's brain; it gets falsely labeled as "extremely important."
Rather than categorizing reactions into bad excitement and good violence, the speaker at the seminar pointed out that the optimum reaction was one of apathy, because apathy does not respond, and apathy forgets.
3Ne. 12:27-30: "Behold, it is written by them of old time, that thou shalt not commit adultery; But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath committed adultery already in his heart. Behold, I give unto you a commandment, that ye suffer none of these things to enter into your heart; For it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell" (emphasis added). It is inevitable that "these things" are going to get into our minds; what is not inevitable is that they will get into our hearts, our desires, our motivations. And that is where the Lord draws the line with this commandment. He sees everything, and yet His heart is pure. He asks that our reactions to what we see and hear also be pure.
It is not natural for a man to react with apathy to pornography. "The natural man is an enemy to God..." (Mosiah 3:19). A mighty change of heart, a change of nature, empowers us to comply with the commandment to "suffer (allow) none of these things to enter into your heart." As the rest of verse 19 says: "[yield] to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and [put] off the natural man and [become] a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and [become] as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [you], even as a child doth submit to his father." We often neglect the "through the atonement" part of this verse. It is not something accomplished through personal exertion; Jesus is the one who changes our hearts. We exercise faith in Christ, repent of everything we can, stay humble, beg for deliverance, and do everything possible to keep and follow the influence of the Spirit in our lives.
Jesus Christ can restore purity of heart, and reorder desires so that exposure to pornography does not necessarily mean carrying it around in your heart for the remainder of the day.
Two Monks
I remember a story about two Buddhist monks walking down a street after a rainstorm. As they walked, they saw a beautiful woman in elegant clothes looking for a way around an enormous puddle. One of the monks walked through the puddle, picked her up, and set her down on the other side. She thanked him, and went her way. As the monks walked down the road, the other monk became concerned that his friend had violated their oath of celibacy. He remained silent for a mile or so, then burst forth in chastisement of his friend. His friend responded, "I set that woman down by the side of that puddle. Why are you still carrying her in your heart?"
What About Poison In the Blood?
It is easy to believe that the solution to the problem of pornography addiction is to purge the world of immoral images. This is like saying that the cure for a snakebite is to kill the snake. Once the poison is in the blood, whether the serpent lives or dies is irrelevant to the survival of the one who has been bitten. Yet most attempts to quell the pornography tidal wave strike at that superficial level. To be certain, these efforts are laudable precautions, and the river of filth needs plenty of banks and boundaries to keep it separate from the young and innocent. But sooner or later, everyone is exposed, and the difference between becoming addicted and being able to walk away will not be an internet filter or anti-smut legislation—it will be the filter in the heart of the person exposed to it. That filter is constructed by the Lord in the heart of those who meet the qualifications of spiritual rebirth. The Book of Mormon will get us "nearer to God" "than any other book" (Joseph Smith, Introduction to the Book of Mormon) when we abide by its principles because it teaches with incomparable clarity the steps we must take in order to experience this change of heart.
As you read the Book of Mormon, note the places where some kind of inner change is mentioned (e.g. 1Ne. 2:16). Nearby, you will find some reference to faith and humility (e.g. 1Ne. 2:19). This pattern continues throughout the book. You get to read events from the lives of those who are in need of this change, and you get only the essential events leading to the changes they experience. There is no chaff, no unnecessary narrative, just straight doctrine and direction for those who are wise enough to distill instructions from the patterns they see in the accounts.
What constitutes success in the battle with pornography? Apathy, calm—no spike in pulse, no obsessing, no self-righteous indignation. Just leaving it at the side of the road, both in reality, and in the heart, and forgetting about it.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Overcoming Pornography Addiction Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ
"Having no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" is a description of a heart freed from any harmful obsessions or addictions. The key to success, then, is not to manage unrighteous desires, but to have them removed by Jesus Christ. There is much talk of this mighty change, and there is also much talk of abandoning pornography, but not much in the way of combining the two subjects, applying the first to the second. This is my attempt. So many are struggling with this problem, and are bereft of clear explanations of how they might apply gospel principles. This article is for those who are struggling, as well as those who are on the sidelines.
Mighty Change of Heart
The scripture that says "no more disposition to do evil" (Mosiah 5:2) may seem intimidating. It can be disheartening, because we doubt that such a thing is possible. But it is possible, even essential. We can experience a mighty change of heart "because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent."
What does it take to experience this mighty change? It is not something we do to ourselves. It is not something we "work on," or "practice." It is comparable to waking up one morning feeling apathy for chocolate cake, and intensely craving broccoli. You could not practice enough to trick yourself into such a state. It would require a fundamental change of nature, and that is something only God can accomplish.
God does not interfere with our agency, our free will. He will not reach into a heart and change it until it belongs to Him. Words such as "I'll do anything," and "It doesn't matter what I want anymore," are the sounds produced by a heart that belongs to God.
The Spirit and the Atonement
How do we know when the Atonement is active in us, refining our hearts and minds? The answer is so simple, it startled me the first time I heard it: The Atonement is active in our hearts and minds when we feel the Spirit. The degree to which we have the Holy Ghost is the degree to which our hearts are being changed by the Atonement, because the Holy Ghost is the agency through which the power of the Atonement is delivered (see Mosiah 5:2). How can we have the Holy Ghost to a greater degree? Faith in Christ, humility, and doing all we can to invite and keep the Spirit with us (see 3Ne. 9:20). The Lord is the One who changes our hearts; we do the things that He requires before He makes those changes.
5 Points
Below are five things necessary in not only receiving, but maintaining, a change of heart. They are principles distilled from scripture and teachings of modern prophets. This is not a checklist, but a list of things that must be firmly in place ALL THE TIME in order to keep that change. It is also not a list of ways to stay so busy that there is no time for sin.
1. Faith in Christ. This gets a lot of airtime, but it is necessary just the same. If you find yourself free from the shackles of pornography addiction, and you let yourself think that maybe it was your own strength or psychosomatic whatever that allowed you to break free, you will find the original weight of temptation crushing back onto your feeble shoulders. Nurture faith in Christ by studying the scriptures, and through prayer. The word "Savior" is dilapidated in our minds; it has lost its meaning for us. "Rescuer" is one synonym. Rescue from what? From everything, including physical and spiritual death, and addictions. Jesus proclaimed He was the Messiah: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound..." (Isaiah 61:1). Providing freedom from temptation is His job.
2. Humility. This is perhaps the most neglected virtue. It is not "the American way." Yet it is essential to receiving a change of heart. When does a heart belong to the Lord? When it is "as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [it], even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19). "I'll do anything, Lord," sincerely written in the heart, is essential. Recognize your nothingness, your dependence on the Lord, not just with escaping pornography addiction, but in all things. Be willing to do whatever He asks, go wherever He needs you, sacrifice anything at His request. This includes more than giving up sins; it also includes sacrificing opportunities such as scholarships and relationships, if the Lord should prompt you to do so through the Spirit. Defer to the truth in all things, no matter how uncomfortable. Don't just pray; cry (scream) to the Lord that He will deliver you from sin. Your change of heart will be proportional to your submission to God's will.
3. Follow the Spirit. The Holy Ghost will prompt you to do things, go places, sacrifice things you enjoy (sinful or neutral), and guide you in what to say or write. Give heed to those promptings, follow them with exactness, and the change of heart will stay with you. Balk, and the dam in your heart that separates you from your old sinful desires will begin to crack. Rebel, and the dam will break. "Not my will, but thy will be done," is the only right way to approach the promptings of the Spirit. If you are set free from pornography, it is to be the Lord's servant. You are waiting for the call, so to speak, and when it comes you drop everything and obey.
4. Stop Offending the Spirit. You may be tempted to think that just because some entertainment has only violence in it, and no pornography, that it is "safe" for you to indulge in. ANYTHING offensive to the Spirit (even wasting time or oversleeping) puts you at risk for relapse into old desires and behaviors. Why? Because it is the Spirit that brings the power of the Atonement, which activates and maintains that change of heart. When the Spirit leaves, your armor departs with Him. Throw away movies, books, magazines, music, video games, relationships, substances, behaviors, words, and anythings else, whether pornographic or not, which you know to be offensive to the Spirit. This world is vast, and there are many activities, people, places, and things to excite and fascinate you. Do not be so narrow as to think that never playing a video game again will stifle your ability to have fun. Reality will become much more captivating than virtual reality and fiction after the mighty change of heart has taken place. Being useful, deploying your strengths, and being creative in reality are more satisfying than the nonsense and distraction of fiction and games, anyway. The Lord does not set us free from socially embarrassing sins to engage in socially acceptable vices. He wants total repentance from all sin. Why should He help us get rid of the one we cannot lift alone, when we also want to keep our little pet sins? Repent of everything bad, not just one or two things. (You may say, "Pornography offends the Spirit; how can I have the Spirit to get rid of the very thing that keeps Him out of my life?" Think of your mind and heart as a garden full of rocks you are trying to remove. Pornography is a giant boulder you need divine help with; violent movies and video games that offend the Spirit are sacrifices you can and should extract more easily, of your own free will.)
5. Invite the Spirit. Study the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, for at least an hour a day. Attend the Temple every week, or if you are not worthy to yet, do indexing or genealogy research. Attend church meetings, mentally as well as physically. Share the gospel when prompted by the Spirit. Help others, serve them, show them love. Participate in priesthood ordinances, when possible. Learn your duty, and fulfill your church callings. Pray earnestly and often. Fast in secret, when no one knows about it. Be grateful. Think, feel, say, and do all the other things mentioned above; it all invites the Spirit. Think of repentance of sin as clearing rocks off a runway, and doing good as lighting that runway. Then the plane can land; the influence of the Spirit can enter into your heart.
I suppose a sixth point could be receiving ordinances, but I will assume the reader is already a baptized, confirmed Latter-day Saint, and possibly even Temple-endowed. Another point might be loving God with all our hearts. Rebirth comes by the Spirit through ordinances. Ordinances are events; keeping the Holy Ghost with us is a life's work.
Not the Same
A mighty change of heart is not the good feelings you have when you hear an excellent talk, or the determination you muster to "never do it again." These things are good, but they are not spiritual rebirth. Actual rebirth is seamless, very easy to miss unless you are looking for it. Remember, the Lamanites were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and "they knew it not" (3Ne. 9:20). Your own rebirth becomes most obvious when you are exposed to former temptations, and your main response is apathy. No temptation can withstand the peace the Lord is able to confer, if we give our whole hearts to Him.
Part of the Plan
It is important to remember that sexuality is not all bad. It is a main component of God's plan for us. In the landscape of the mind and heart, there are good facets to sexuality (the ability to fall in love; romance in the context of monogamy and family; improved physical and mental health; fidelity and trust; meeting the needs of another; giving and receiving affection; wanting children; rejoicing publicly, like at a wedding; wanting to have a companion through all seasons of life; tenderness and gentleness). To say that sex is totally bad is to condemn and dismiss all the good things that are connected with it. It is natural to have bad elements in our minds and hearts connected with sex as well (pornography, unrealistic expectations, selfishness, exploitation, addictions, aberrations like masochism, sadism, and other violence, avoiding family responsibility, secretiveness, hiding feelings, clandestine behaviors, shame, viewing others as disposable objects, desensitization through excess, etc.) The potential for both good and bad exists side by side in our hearts, but a mighty change of heart is like sunlight that kills one plant, while encouraging the other to grow. The monks got it wrong. The Spirit does not lead to prudish asceticism or greasy, holier-than-thou hypocrisy. All the good connected with sex increases in the mind and heart of a person who experiences spiritual rebirth, while all the bad in the mind and heart decreases, shrivels, and wilts. The Spirit engenders life and health and vigor, and all those things are associated with an intensification of sexuality in humans, not a decrease. The purpose of sexuality in God's plan is not just to procreate, but to help us be able to select and love companions. It is a strength, when it is tempered by the Spirit.
Beginnings
Mighty Change of Heart
The scripture that says "no more disposition to do evil" (Mosiah 5:2) may seem intimidating. It can be disheartening, because we doubt that such a thing is possible. But it is possible, even essential. We can experience a mighty change of heart "because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent."
What does it take to experience this mighty change? It is not something we do to ourselves. It is not something we "work on," or "practice." It is comparable to waking up one morning feeling apathy for chocolate cake, and intensely craving broccoli. You could not practice enough to trick yourself into such a state. It would require a fundamental change of nature, and that is something only God can accomplish.
God does not interfere with our agency, our free will. He will not reach into a heart and change it until it belongs to Him. Words such as "I'll do anything," and "It doesn't matter what I want anymore," are the sounds produced by a heart that belongs to God.
The Spirit and the Atonement
How do we know when the Atonement is active in us, refining our hearts and minds? The answer is so simple, it startled me the first time I heard it: The Atonement is active in our hearts and minds when we feel the Spirit. The degree to which we have the Holy Ghost is the degree to which our hearts are being changed by the Atonement, because the Holy Ghost is the agency through which the power of the Atonement is delivered (see Mosiah 5:2). How can we have the Holy Ghost to a greater degree? Faith in Christ, humility, and doing all we can to invite and keep the Spirit with us (see 3Ne. 9:20). The Lord is the One who changes our hearts; we do the things that He requires before He makes those changes.
5 Points
Below are five things necessary in not only receiving, but maintaining, a change of heart. They are principles distilled from scripture and teachings of modern prophets. This is not a checklist, but a list of things that must be firmly in place ALL THE TIME in order to keep that change. It is also not a list of ways to stay so busy that there is no time for sin.
1. Faith in Christ. This gets a lot of airtime, but it is necessary just the same. If you find yourself free from the shackles of pornography addiction, and you let yourself think that maybe it was your own strength or psychosomatic whatever that allowed you to break free, you will find the original weight of temptation crushing back onto your feeble shoulders. Nurture faith in Christ by studying the scriptures, and through prayer. The word "Savior" is dilapidated in our minds; it has lost its meaning for us. "Rescuer" is one synonym. Rescue from what? From everything, including physical and spiritual death, and addictions. Jesus proclaimed He was the Messiah: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound..." (Isaiah 61:1). Providing freedom from temptation is His job.
2. Humility. This is perhaps the most neglected virtue. It is not "the American way." Yet it is essential to receiving a change of heart. When does a heart belong to the Lord? When it is "as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [it], even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19). "I'll do anything, Lord," sincerely written in the heart, is essential. Recognize your nothingness, your dependence on the Lord, not just with escaping pornography addiction, but in all things. Be willing to do whatever He asks, go wherever He needs you, sacrifice anything at His request. This includes more than giving up sins; it also includes sacrificing opportunities such as scholarships and relationships, if the Lord should prompt you to do so through the Spirit. Defer to the truth in all things, no matter how uncomfortable. Don't just pray; cry (scream) to the Lord that He will deliver you from sin. Your change of heart will be proportional to your submission to God's will.
3. Follow the Spirit. The Holy Ghost will prompt you to do things, go places, sacrifice things you enjoy (sinful or neutral), and guide you in what to say or write. Give heed to those promptings, follow them with exactness, and the change of heart will stay with you. Balk, and the dam in your heart that separates you from your old sinful desires will begin to crack. Rebel, and the dam will break. "Not my will, but thy will be done," is the only right way to approach the promptings of the Spirit. If you are set free from pornography, it is to be the Lord's servant. You are waiting for the call, so to speak, and when it comes you drop everything and obey.
4. Stop Offending the Spirit. You may be tempted to think that just because some entertainment has only violence in it, and no pornography, that it is "safe" for you to indulge in. ANYTHING offensive to the Spirit (even wasting time or oversleeping) puts you at risk for relapse into old desires and behaviors. Why? Because it is the Spirit that brings the power of the Atonement, which activates and maintains that change of heart. When the Spirit leaves, your armor departs with Him. Throw away movies, books, magazines, music, video games, relationships, substances, behaviors, words, and anythings else, whether pornographic or not, which you know to be offensive to the Spirit. This world is vast, and there are many activities, people, places, and things to excite and fascinate you. Do not be so narrow as to think that never playing a video game again will stifle your ability to have fun. Reality will become much more captivating than virtual reality and fiction after the mighty change of heart has taken place. Being useful, deploying your strengths, and being creative in reality are more satisfying than the nonsense and distraction of fiction and games, anyway. The Lord does not set us free from socially embarrassing sins to engage in socially acceptable vices. He wants total repentance from all sin. Why should He help us get rid of the one we cannot lift alone, when we also want to keep our little pet sins? Repent of everything bad, not just one or two things. (You may say, "Pornography offends the Spirit; how can I have the Spirit to get rid of the very thing that keeps Him out of my life?" Think of your mind and heart as a garden full of rocks you are trying to remove. Pornography is a giant boulder you need divine help with; violent movies and video games that offend the Spirit are sacrifices you can and should extract more easily, of your own free will.)
5. Invite the Spirit. Study the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, for at least an hour a day. Attend the Temple every week, or if you are not worthy to yet, do indexing or genealogy research. Attend church meetings, mentally as well as physically. Share the gospel when prompted by the Spirit. Help others, serve them, show them love. Participate in priesthood ordinances, when possible. Learn your duty, and fulfill your church callings. Pray earnestly and often. Fast in secret, when no one knows about it. Be grateful. Think, feel, say, and do all the other things mentioned above; it all invites the Spirit. Think of repentance of sin as clearing rocks off a runway, and doing good as lighting that runway. Then the plane can land; the influence of the Spirit can enter into your heart.
I suppose a sixth point could be receiving ordinances, but I will assume the reader is already a baptized, confirmed Latter-day Saint, and possibly even Temple-endowed. Another point might be loving God with all our hearts. Rebirth comes by the Spirit through ordinances. Ordinances are events; keeping the Holy Ghost with us is a life's work.
Not the Same
A mighty change of heart is not the good feelings you have when you hear an excellent talk, or the determination you muster to "never do it again." These things are good, but they are not spiritual rebirth. Actual rebirth is seamless, very easy to miss unless you are looking for it. Remember, the Lamanites were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and "they knew it not" (3Ne. 9:20). Your own rebirth becomes most obvious when you are exposed to former temptations, and your main response is apathy. No temptation can withstand the peace the Lord is able to confer, if we give our whole hearts to Him.
Part of the Plan
It is important to remember that sexuality is not all bad. It is a main component of God's plan for us. In the landscape of the mind and heart, there are good facets to sexuality (the ability to fall in love; romance in the context of monogamy and family; improved physical and mental health; fidelity and trust; meeting the needs of another; giving and receiving affection; wanting children; rejoicing publicly, like at a wedding; wanting to have a companion through all seasons of life; tenderness and gentleness). To say that sex is totally bad is to condemn and dismiss all the good things that are connected with it. It is natural to have bad elements in our minds and hearts connected with sex as well (pornography, unrealistic expectations, selfishness, exploitation, addictions, aberrations like masochism, sadism, and other violence, avoiding family responsibility, secretiveness, hiding feelings, clandestine behaviors, shame, viewing others as disposable objects, desensitization through excess, etc.) The potential for both good and bad exists side by side in our hearts, but a mighty change of heart is like sunlight that kills one plant, while encouraging the other to grow. The monks got it wrong. The Spirit does not lead to prudish asceticism or greasy, holier-than-thou hypocrisy. All the good connected with sex increases in the mind and heart of a person who experiences spiritual rebirth, while all the bad in the mind and heart decreases, shrivels, and wilts. The Spirit engenders life and health and vigor, and all those things are associated with an intensification of sexuality in humans, not a decrease. The purpose of sexuality in God's plan is not just to procreate, but to help us be able to select and love companions. It is a strength, when it is tempered by the Spirit.
Beginnings
Where should you start? Are you in the bottom of the hole, looking up, wishing for a way out? Jesus is the one who can help you out, but it requires at least what is listed above (especially humility and submissiveness to His will), and possibly more. Our prayers are often too tepid and insipid. Screaming (the scriptures say "cry") for the Lord to deliver you is the first place to start. Get rid of the darkness in your life, and invite the good. Incorporate all the five points listed above as well. A messed up life is like a rubik's cube—no matter how scrambled it is, the Lord can put it right again.
Arm of the Flesh
There are decoys, artificial solutions that present themselves. Peter jumped out of the boat to walk on the water; we often want to strap on our water skis first. We want to rely on what we understand, on our own wisdom, strength, willpower, etc. Even if we could manage unrighteous desires through sheer willpower, they are still a contaminant in the heart that disqualifies us from entering heaven. "And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, 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; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God" (Mosiah 27:25-26).
Winning the state championship in basketball or getting attention from that special someone may temporarily fill the emptiness in your heart, and you will be tempted to say, "I must be cured." But as soon as life happens, and the goodness of one day gives way to hardship or tragedy the next, you will be exposed to those same temptations again.
Let the Spirit in, don't keep it out, be as humble as you can be, and the Lord will change your heart. He will strengthen you to resist temptations, and when you go long enough without giving in He will cleanse your heart to the point where you are not tempted anymore. This is my faith, and my encouragement to those who want to be free.
Grace Between Bondage and Freedom
There will probably be an intermediate time between total freedom and bondage, where you are not completely free, but you are strengthened to effectively resist temptations (see Mosiah 24 for an excellent analogy of being freed from addiction). This strengthening influence is called grace. Jesus gives us strength beyond our own natural capacity to accomplish what He has asked us to do (1Ne. 3:7). Grace gives you the ability to conform your behavior, even though the temptation is still alive in your heart. If you go long enough successfully resisting temptation through this sustaining grace, you will be freed from addiction, and it will be as if you had never looked at pornography in the first place. You will be standing at the edge of the pit instead of inside it. You will be able to jump into the pit if you want, but why would you? If you neglect any of the points listed above, that peace that diffuses temptation will begin to dissipate, and you will find yourself face to face with the same temptations again (see D&C 20:30-34). The mighty CAN fall—David's real Goliath was lust; neglecting the very things that allow us to experience the change will cause it to leave us.
The main determining factor of how long this period lasts, of relying on grace to face temptation and waiting to have bad desires removed, is humility. The sooner we see ourselves, our lives, our time, our abilities, all we have or hope to have, as the Lord's personal property, the sooner we will go from being tempted to "having no more disposition to do evil." And the possibility of backsliding also increases as we become proud. Pride keeps us back; humility moves us forward.
Here and Now
It is something of a backwards compliment to be put on earth at this time—the Lord's way of letting you know that you are somehow capable of dealing with the very temptations available on the earth today. Don't look for worldly solutions—rely on the Lord, and He will get you out of the mess you are in, if you have faith in Him, remain humble and submissive before and after He gets you out, and if you do everything in your power to always invite the Spirit and keep its influence.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Skipping Straight to Happiness
Happiness, satisfaction, contentment, peace, joy—these words cluster around what it is that people are actually looking for, or striving toward. All human activities and efforts have these things as their ultimate ends. And how often they fail. Dissatisfaction, misery, anxiety, emptiness, hover over millions of us like clouds of annoying mosquitoes.
I have had an epiphany in recent years about where authentic, lasting happiness and joy actually come from. There is cognitive happiness, that results when you believe something good has (or will) come to you. For instance, "It's my birthday!" or, "I bought a new car." But the happiness that results from such thoughts is fleeting, easily dispersed by other thoughts and beliefs.
It is possible to have everything this world has to offer, and still remain unhappy. Such a situation is described in the Book of Mormon. We meet King Lamoni's father, who is never actually named, in Alma chapter 20. He is king of all the Lamanites, so he has the most people under his command of anyone alive at the time. More people means more land. He is probably also the most popular fellow in his social circle; we get hints of people licking his boots and accomadating his whims. His son "feared to offend him" (Alma 20:11), and Amalekites had to appeal to him before they could build places of worship (Alma 22:7). He had at least one granddaughter who was old enough to marry (Alma 17:24), and sons who were kings under him. He hosted great feasts for his people (Alma 20:9), and in spite of being a grandpa, he still thought he was physically strong enough to defeat his son and Ammon in sword to sword combat (Alma 20:16, 20). His wife was loyal to him, even though he was apparently a grouch (Alma 22:19). Here is a man with wealth, health, love, power, popularity, pleasures of the flesh, and a large family—everything the world has to offer. And yet he is grouchy and unhappy.
Why is it possible to have everything you want, and still be unhappy? "God made us; invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it could not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were assigned to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way" (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp 53-54).
Mr. Lewis has the gist of the idea, and Latter-day scripture can take it a step further. We lived with God before we were born, and enjoyed happiness in His presence. We enjoyed a full supply of that energy, light, emanation, radiation, whatever you want to call it. But we did not have physical bodies like Him, and so we still lacked a fullness of joy. D&C 93:33: "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God..." God proposed a plan whereby we would come to earth, have our memories veiled, receive physical bodies, and die. But because of Jesus Christ, we would each be resurrected and return to God some day. We would then have a physical body, AND enjoy the fullness of God's light and power. A fullness of joy.
Here, we have physical bodies, but not that eternal glory, found in the presence of God, necessary for a fullness of joy. BUT we can enjoy a measure of happiness, peace in this life, as well as full joy in the life to come. How? Go back to the story of the King of the Lamanites. He tries to kill his son, but Ammon injures his arm. When the King sees that he is at the mercy of Ammon, he begins to bargain, offering him half of his kingdom. But all Ammon wants is for him not to be mad at his son. This apparent lack of greed or ambition on the part of Ammon troubles and intrigues him. He sends for Ammon, but other missionaries come instead. They begin to teach him, and in the course of study, he asks the golden question:
The course of action they give the King to follow is to humble himself before God and give up all the evil things he was doing. How does this lead to happiness? Here on earth, we are distant from God, and enjoy only sparks of His glory. But the extent to which we have that light is the extent to which we feel innate peace and joy. Not the transient cognitive happiness, but a taste of the sweetness we enjoyed when we were in His full presence. Humility allows us to enjoy a greater amount of this light. When we repent, have faith in Christ, and submit our wills to God's, we receive a greater portion of that light. The influence of the Holy Ghost is the earnest money of eternity, a foreshadowing of what is to come in heaven. But sin and pride offend and drive away this Spirit.
In 3Ne. 9:20, Jesus explains, "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not." "Broken heart" and "contrite spirit" imply a deeper level of submission and humility than most people evince in their lives, except when they are in extreme pain. That is one reason why there is so much pain in life—God gives us weakness, toes that can be bruised, to keep us humble (Ether 12:27). But we can also choose to be humble without the buffeting. In return, the Lord will "baptize" us "with fire and with the Holy Ghost." We receive greater influence of the Holy Spirit, and taste that sweetness that is waiting for us in God's presence.
No wonder so many people are unhappy. The key to happiness is total submission to God. Who wants to do that? Usually just the miserable people who cannot see any other source of help. And when they are rescued, they often go right back to their old attitudes, and lose that portion of the Spirit again.
"And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true." Do what? "...remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel" (Mosiah 4:12, 11). Happiness is hidden in a place where most of us are not inclined to look. Is it abusive to think of ourselves as "nothing?" Whether knowing it hurts or not, we truly are small, fragile specks of dust in the vast configuration of the grand cosmos. Perhaps that is the essence of humility—complete deference to the truth.
Gal. 5:22: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness..." There they are—the real gems that everyone is scrambling for—love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness. We get them when we have a large enough portion of the Spirit, and the key to that is faith in Christ, coupled with a deep, genuine, submissive humility.
"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me" (Alma 32:28).
"...ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and your mind doth begin to expand. O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good" (Alma 32:34-35).
"Is not this real?" It is a source of faith to me whenever I feel God pour light, knowledge, and peace into my heart and mind. Yes, the world, the environment, is a mess, but God grants peace on the inside, and it is not dependent on environment. Also, I have had some experience with that change of nature the scriptures refer to as being "born again," and I know that it is real.
In Norton Juster's novel, "The Phantom Tollbooth," the characters dine on "subtraction stew." The more they eat, the hungrier they get. Many are engaged in frantic grasping at real forms of subtraction stew. Drugs, sex, food, and other pleasures all promise unlimited happiness, but ultimately they leave us hungry. Life without the gospel is a giant tease, a come on, as sadistic, cruel joke. "Outside of the religion we have embraced, there is nothing but death, hell and the grave," said Brigham Young, and the more I live, the more I see he was right. "Every excellency, blessing, comfort, happiness and light, and everything that can be enjoyed by an intelligent being, is for us, if we live for it" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 10:352).
The appetites and desires driving us mad in this life are often divorced from reality. "The body never lies" is untrue—it lies to its owner frequently. My body tells me that I will be happy if I turn off the alarm, roll over and go back to sleep. But my day is ruined when I give in. Misery results. My body is lying to me. The power to fulfill all appetites is not the same thing as power to be completely happy. Happiness is not the point of bodily appetites; keeping us, and the species alive, is the at the root of such desires. When the imperative is met, the happy hormones shut off. The point is survival, not joy. A prominent scientist has prophesied a future where technology imparts immortality. He also describes being able to eat junk food without negative consequences. In spite of his brilliance, he is getting contradictory signals from his lower-brain: "live forever," and "eat junk food." Even if he could live forever, eating limitless mountains of junk food, my experience indicates to me that doing so would fail to confer joy.
People's descriptions of heaven reveal a lot about them. One person described a fantasy about raspberrys the size of footballs with only one seed. Hollywood imagines Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, where the nominal 2500 calories per day necessary for survival give way to rivers of fat, sugar, and flavoring. Some imagine having sex with numerous women for eternity. All of these descriptions have several things in common, among them: 1. They originate from a belief that happiness is totally dependent on environment; 2. They represent things that can and are bought with money—Xanadu was already built and crumbled a long time ago, and many have been, and are now, actively engaged in constructing pleasure palaces.
Paul had skipped straight to happiness, and so it was not asceticism for him to say, "... having food and raiment let us be therewith content" (1Tim. 6:8). 2500 calories and some modest clothes were all he needed to be content. Ironically, those in the pleasure palaces are never satisfied, and make themselves and millions of other people miserable by trying to get more money, more power, more pleasure, etc.
There is a way to experience peace in this life, and joy. Faith in Christ, humility before God, and repentance allow that nascent fuel we lack here on earth to be infused into our starving souls. We can get a partial sample now of what awaits in fullness there.
I have had an epiphany in recent years about where authentic, lasting happiness and joy actually come from. There is cognitive happiness, that results when you believe something good has (or will) come to you. For instance, "It's my birthday!" or, "I bought a new car." But the happiness that results from such thoughts is fleeting, easily dispersed by other thoughts and beliefs.
It is possible to have everything this world has to offer, and still remain unhappy. Such a situation is described in the Book of Mormon. We meet King Lamoni's father, who is never actually named, in Alma chapter 20. He is king of all the Lamanites, so he has the most people under his command of anyone alive at the time. More people means more land. He is probably also the most popular fellow in his social circle; we get hints of people licking his boots and accomadating his whims. His son "feared to offend him" (Alma 20:11), and Amalekites had to appeal to him before they could build places of worship (Alma 22:7). He had at least one granddaughter who was old enough to marry (Alma 17:24), and sons who were kings under him. He hosted great feasts for his people (Alma 20:9), and in spite of being a grandpa, he still thought he was physically strong enough to defeat his son and Ammon in sword to sword combat (Alma 20:16, 20). His wife was loyal to him, even though he was apparently a grouch (Alma 22:19). Here is a man with wealth, health, love, power, popularity, pleasures of the flesh, and a large family—everything the world has to offer. And yet he is grouchy and unhappy.
Why is it possible to have everything you want, and still be unhappy? "God made us; invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it could not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were assigned to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way" (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp 53-54).
Mr. Lewis has the gist of the idea, and Latter-day scripture can take it a step further. We lived with God before we were born, and enjoyed happiness in His presence. We enjoyed a full supply of that energy, light, emanation, radiation, whatever you want to call it. But we did not have physical bodies like Him, and so we still lacked a fullness of joy. D&C 93:33: "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God..." God proposed a plan whereby we would come to earth, have our memories veiled, receive physical bodies, and die. But because of Jesus Christ, we would each be resurrected and return to God some day. We would then have a physical body, AND enjoy the fullness of God's light and power. A fullness of joy.
Here, we have physical bodies, but not that eternal glory, found in the presence of God, necessary for a fullness of joy. BUT we can enjoy a measure of happiness, peace in this life, as well as full joy in the life to come. How? Go back to the story of the King of the Lamanites. He tries to kill his son, but Ammon injures his arm. When the King sees that he is at the mercy of Ammon, he begins to bargain, offering him half of his kingdom. But all Ammon wants is for him not to be mad at his son. This apparent lack of greed or ambition on the part of Ammon troubles and intrigues him. He sends for Ammon, but other missionaries come instead. They begin to teach him, and in the course of study, he asks the golden question:
"What shall I do that I may have this eternal life of which thou hast spoken? Yea, what shall I do that I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day? Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy. But Aaron said unto him: If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest" (Alma 22:15-16).
In 3Ne. 9:20, Jesus explains, "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not." "Broken heart" and "contrite spirit" imply a deeper level of submission and humility than most people evince in their lives, except when they are in extreme pain. That is one reason why there is so much pain in life—God gives us weakness, toes that can be bruised, to keep us humble (Ether 12:27). But we can also choose to be humble without the buffeting. In return, the Lord will "baptize" us "with fire and with the Holy Ghost." We receive greater influence of the Holy Spirit, and taste that sweetness that is waiting for us in God's presence.
No wonder so many people are unhappy. The key to happiness is total submission to God. Who wants to do that? Usually just the miserable people who cannot see any other source of help. And when they are rescued, they often go right back to their old attitudes, and lose that portion of the Spirit again.
"And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true." Do what? "...remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel" (Mosiah 4:12, 11). Happiness is hidden in a place where most of us are not inclined to look. Is it abusive to think of ourselves as "nothing?" Whether knowing it hurts or not, we truly are small, fragile specks of dust in the vast configuration of the grand cosmos. Perhaps that is the essence of humility—complete deference to the truth.
Gal. 5:22: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness..." There they are—the real gems that everyone is scrambling for—love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness. We get them when we have a large enough portion of the Spirit, and the key to that is faith in Christ, coupled with a deep, genuine, submissive humility.
"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me" (Alma 32:28).
"...ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and your mind doth begin to expand. O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good" (Alma 32:34-35).
"Is not this real?" It is a source of faith to me whenever I feel God pour light, knowledge, and peace into my heart and mind. Yes, the world, the environment, is a mess, but God grants peace on the inside, and it is not dependent on environment. Also, I have had some experience with that change of nature the scriptures refer to as being "born again," and I know that it is real.
In Norton Juster's novel, "The Phantom Tollbooth," the characters dine on "subtraction stew." The more they eat, the hungrier they get. Many are engaged in frantic grasping at real forms of subtraction stew. Drugs, sex, food, and other pleasures all promise unlimited happiness, but ultimately they leave us hungry. Life without the gospel is a giant tease, a come on, as sadistic, cruel joke. "Outside of the religion we have embraced, there is nothing but death, hell and the grave," said Brigham Young, and the more I live, the more I see he was right. "Every excellency, blessing, comfort, happiness and light, and everything that can be enjoyed by an intelligent being, is for us, if we live for it" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 10:352).
The appetites and desires driving us mad in this life are often divorced from reality. "The body never lies" is untrue—it lies to its owner frequently. My body tells me that I will be happy if I turn off the alarm, roll over and go back to sleep. But my day is ruined when I give in. Misery results. My body is lying to me. The power to fulfill all appetites is not the same thing as power to be completely happy. Happiness is not the point of bodily appetites; keeping us, and the species alive, is the at the root of such desires. When the imperative is met, the happy hormones shut off. The point is survival, not joy. A prominent scientist has prophesied a future where technology imparts immortality. He also describes being able to eat junk food without negative consequences. In spite of his brilliance, he is getting contradictory signals from his lower-brain: "live forever," and "eat junk food." Even if he could live forever, eating limitless mountains of junk food, my experience indicates to me that doing so would fail to confer joy.
People's descriptions of heaven reveal a lot about them. One person described a fantasy about raspberrys the size of footballs with only one seed. Hollywood imagines Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, where the nominal 2500 calories per day necessary for survival give way to rivers of fat, sugar, and flavoring. Some imagine having sex with numerous women for eternity. All of these descriptions have several things in common, among them: 1. They originate from a belief that happiness is totally dependent on environment; 2. They represent things that can and are bought with money—Xanadu was already built and crumbled a long time ago, and many have been, and are now, actively engaged in constructing pleasure palaces.
Paul had skipped straight to happiness, and so it was not asceticism for him to say, "... having food and raiment let us be therewith content" (1Tim. 6:8). 2500 calories and some modest clothes were all he needed to be content. Ironically, those in the pleasure palaces are never satisfied, and make themselves and millions of other people miserable by trying to get more money, more power, more pleasure, etc.
There is a way to experience peace in this life, and joy. Faith in Christ, humility before God, and repentance allow that nascent fuel we lack here on earth to be infused into our starving souls. We can get a partial sample now of what awaits in fullness there.
First Principles and Ordinances Are A Contiguous, Cyclical Whole
Adam was in a mess when he fell, and the Lord sent angels to teach him how to get out of that mess. They taught him that Jesus Christ, a Savior, would perform an Atonement for sin. How could Adam benefit from this Atonement? What the angels taught him was so simple that we often look beyond the mark: Faith in Christ, Repentance, Baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost. We Latter-day Saints often categorize these things as a checklist, pat ourselves on the back for having completed them, and move on to...whatever seems interesting to us. But I do not think those things are a checklist. They never become obsolete.
A friend has recently pointed out to me that faith in Christ, repentance, water baptism, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost are not separate events or a checklist, but parts of a contiguous whole. They include enduring to the end, but enduring in what? Each of these steps is part of a recursive cycle, and we endure inside that process. We exercise faith unto repentance continually; we repent continually to be worthy of partaking of the sacrament (and other ordinances) which renews our baptismal covenants; we are baptized, or effectively rebaptized every time we partake of the sacrament; and we are commanded to receive the Holy Ghost when we are confirmed members of the Church of Christ, not just once, but always. When we receive the Holy Ghost, He bolsters our faith in Christ, and the process, the circle, begins again. Every time we repent of sin (commission), or do something good we neglected (repent of omission), we progress. And since exaltation is our ultimate goal, this cycle never stops until we are like Jesus (in other words, there is no finish line in the foreseeable future). Once we are like Him, full of grace and truth, then we can say that we have crossed the finish line for ourselves. Or maybe we have crossed a finish line, and a starting line; we go from helping ourselves (Acts 2:37-38) and working on our own salvation, to working on ourselves and helping others (Alma 26:22), to one day helping others exclusively, like Jesus (2Ne. 26:24, 27).
On playgrounds of the past, before the spirit of litigation made fun toys too immense of a liability, there were merry go rounds. These swiveling platforms had handlebars so kids could ride them while other kids, who were not riding, could spin them. In a similar way, different people participate at different points in propelling the cycle of faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost. Though we participate in all four parts of the cycle, in my opinion repentance is the point where we make the biggest contribution to our own salvation.
Jesus is called the "author and finisher" of our faith (Moroni 6:4). While we must exercise faith, many things must be done by Him, and His emissaries, before we can even do that. Faith comes by the hearing the word (Rom. 10:17). Directly from Jesus, or written, or delivered by an angel, or a mortal Apostle or missionary, we cannot exercise faith in Christ until we get the correct information. Even after we receive correct information, the Spirit must confirm its correctness before our faith is efficacious. Unless the Holy Spirit leans on us, we cannot even get a clear view of what we are hoping for, longing for, what we are having faith in (John 3:3). What do we exercise faith unto? Repentance.
Baptism is something we submit to, but we cannot baptize ourselves any more than we can give birth to ourselves. One man, a representative of Jesus (actually, he stands as a representative of each member of the Godhead) lowers us into the water, and brings us back up again. I saw a girl once, very limber, who tried to use her own strength to pop back out of the water again, instead of letting the one baptizing her pull her out. While this did not invalidate the ordinance, it ran counter to the spirit of the thing. We are beating our wings in a vacuum to think that we can save ourselves. Only Jesus, The Rock, can provide any sort of fulcrum or traction to make our efforts effective. Our repentance only benefits us because there is a Savior. Baptism formalizes our commitment to obey and repent, and the priesthood makes the contract effective in eternity as well as on earth. All contracts entered into here on earth are void unless they are made under the authority of the priesthood, and then sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise (D&C 132:18).
When we are confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one holding the Melchizedek Priesthood lays his hands on our head, and says, "receive the Holy Ghost." This is not a passive instruction; it is a command to actively make ourselves a fit Temple for the influence and power of that member of the Godhead to dwell in. "Let every heart prepare him room," as Isaac Watt said. We cannot force the Spirit to be with us; we can only invite. How do we invite? Repentance! Obey the promptings of the Spirit. Stop offending the Spirit. Do those things that most thoroughly invite His presence. Sing hymns, participate in ordinances, attend Church, pay tithing, study the scriptures, serve others, fast, pray, attend the Temple, research your ancestors, share the gospel message with others, bear testimony, let your mind rest on Jesus and eternity. There are many ways we can invite the Spirit. Special prominence is given to one way, however, that does not receive much attention in our meetings, or is glossed over with brief lip service: humility. Jesus said: "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not." Deep humility allows us to receive the Spirit in a way, and to a level, that is not possible in any other way.
A friend has recently pointed out to me that faith in Christ, repentance, water baptism, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost are not separate events or a checklist, but parts of a contiguous whole. They include enduring to the end, but enduring in what? Each of these steps is part of a recursive cycle, and we endure inside that process. We exercise faith unto repentance continually; we repent continually to be worthy of partaking of the sacrament (and other ordinances) which renews our baptismal covenants; we are baptized, or effectively rebaptized every time we partake of the sacrament; and we are commanded to receive the Holy Ghost when we are confirmed members of the Church of Christ, not just once, but always. When we receive the Holy Ghost, He bolsters our faith in Christ, and the process, the circle, begins again. Every time we repent of sin (commission), or do something good we neglected (repent of omission), we progress. And since exaltation is our ultimate goal, this cycle never stops until we are like Jesus (in other words, there is no finish line in the foreseeable future). Once we are like Him, full of grace and truth, then we can say that we have crossed the finish line for ourselves. Or maybe we have crossed a finish line, and a starting line; we go from helping ourselves (Acts 2:37-38) and working on our own salvation, to working on ourselves and helping others (Alma 26:22), to one day helping others exclusively, like Jesus (2Ne. 26:24, 27).
On playgrounds of the past, before the spirit of litigation made fun toys too immense of a liability, there were merry go rounds. These swiveling platforms had handlebars so kids could ride them while other kids, who were not riding, could spin them. In a similar way, different people participate at different points in propelling the cycle of faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost. Though we participate in all four parts of the cycle, in my opinion repentance is the point where we make the biggest contribution to our own salvation.
Jesus is called the "author and finisher" of our faith (Moroni 6:4). While we must exercise faith, many things must be done by Him, and His emissaries, before we can even do that. Faith comes by the hearing the word (Rom. 10:17). Directly from Jesus, or written, or delivered by an angel, or a mortal Apostle or missionary, we cannot exercise faith in Christ until we get the correct information. Even after we receive correct information, the Spirit must confirm its correctness before our faith is efficacious. Unless the Holy Spirit leans on us, we cannot even get a clear view of what we are hoping for, longing for, what we are having faith in (John 3:3). What do we exercise faith unto? Repentance.
Our faith is most evident in what we do, or do not do, and what we feel and desire. What we believe most firmly shapes who we are, how we feel, what we want, and how we act. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26). In the four-part circle or process, "repent" is the verb most loaded with concrete instructions for us. As Hugh Nibley points out in Approaching Zion, "...you can't repent somebody else or force somebody else; you just repent" (p. 417). You could theoretically categorize all commandments and rules under one word: repentance. If we are not following a commandment that applies to us in our current circumstances, we need to repent by following that commandment. In 3Ne. 11:32-33, Jesus tells the Nephites when He arrives: "And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me. And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God" (emphasis added). Repentance applies to everyone, not just sinful thems and theys over there, but to us, that person we see in the mirror. "God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect," President Uchtdorf notes. "Let me add: God is also fully aware that the people you think are perfect are not" ("Forget Me Not," Oct. 2011 General Conference). Jesus' commandment, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as I, or your Father which is in heaven is perfect (3Ne. 12:48)," is a call to repentance for everyone who is not yet perfect. I think that all our improvements may be safely categorized as forms of repentance.
When we are confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one holding the Melchizedek Priesthood lays his hands on our head, and says, "receive the Holy Ghost." This is not a passive instruction; it is a command to actively make ourselves a fit Temple for the influence and power of that member of the Godhead to dwell in. "Let every heart prepare him room," as Isaac Watt said. We cannot force the Spirit to be with us; we can only invite. How do we invite? Repentance! Obey the promptings of the Spirit. Stop offending the Spirit. Do those things that most thoroughly invite His presence. Sing hymns, participate in ordinances, attend Church, pay tithing, study the scriptures, serve others, fast, pray, attend the Temple, research your ancestors, share the gospel message with others, bear testimony, let your mind rest on Jesus and eternity. There are many ways we can invite the Spirit. Special prominence is given to one way, however, that does not receive much attention in our meetings, or is glossed over with brief lip service: humility. Jesus said: "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not." Deep humility allows us to receive the Spirit in a way, and to a level, that is not possible in any other way.
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