Perspectives On Women And The Priesthood

In the wake of the cry from a few LDS women to ordain women to the priesthood, many people have laid their cards on the table and expressed their thoughts and feelings. I have had several epiphanies on the subject, some of which were so intertwined with my understanding of the Temple that I do not feel comfortable sharing them. My cousin wrote about the roles of men and women on her blog, and summed up one of the ideas that has distilled upon my mind: women are gatekeepers who bring us from the presence of God into the world; men administer the ordinances that take us from this world back into God’s presence. There are many other details and parallels, but that is the nutshell of my understanding of men’s and women’s respective, distinct roles.

The Larger Picture

Though I feel I grasp the underlying principles well enough to explain why there is no degradation in women not being given the priesthood, I feel that even the most blatant revelation describing the symmetry of the system God has created would be insufficient to touch some of the underlying roots of the outcry.

I read much of the literature published online by the movement to ordain women to the priesthood; nowhere in any of it did I read about personal revelation. Religion without revelation is a farce. Either God is there, and revelation is given from Him, or not. In other words, the clamor reflected priorities and personal lives that revolved around something other than God, or obedience to His will.

Jesus told the befuddled crowd, “…My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34). Difficult, unsavory, and dirty work, Jesus could have added. “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death…Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:34-36). He did not assert any claim that His status absolved Him from carrying the responsibility to atone for our sins; there was no privileged easy path, even for Him. His world revolved around doing His Father’s will, not around a self-image of prominence or sense of entitlement. Can we be happy with following that example?

Jesus knew the burden He would have to shoulder, and talks aloud to Himself about it: “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour” (John 12:27). We cannot bear His burden, and He saved us from our own burdens, including the price of justice if we will repent. But as He reminds Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail when he begins to complain about his deep anguish and misery at being unjustly imprisoned and separated from his family: “…know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below all things. Art thou greater than he? Therefore, hold on thy way…” (D&C 122:7-9). We all have our own assigned burdens; He is our exemplar here, as in all else.

Are we here on earth to have our pride polished? Is the ultimate source of our happiness intended by the Lord to be self-esteem? It brings happiness of a temporary sort to feel our greatness, to get what feels like deserved praise for a job well-done. But this kind of happiness has a short shelf life. It is like makeup that can smear easily, to borrow an image from Elder Maxwell.

There will always be someone with something we lack, who has superiority of some kind or another. Does that truth disqualify us from happiness? It can, if we rely on self-esteem for strength, hope, and fulfillment.

Our assignment in this life is to demonstrate how low we can bow, not how amazing we can seem in public. If we are denied the privilege of preening, where are all the peace, love, and joy supposed to come from? These good feelings come from an increased portion of the Spirit instead.

THAT is the main ingredient missing from the aforementioned movement; the hand of God, direct interaction with the divine.

If we are not careful to keep our hearts orbiting around the will of God, and choose some other object or objective as the target of our affections, we will find ourselves off balance and threatening to fly off into apostasy.

One of Several Red Herrings

Lehi’s dream recorded in the Book of Mormon is instructive. It tells us about the forces that are meant to keep us from coming to Christ, and drive us away from Him after entering the fold. In his dream, he sees a great and spacious building filled with people dressed in beautiful and expensive clothes, and all of them are pointing fingers at and mocking the people at the Tree of Life. The delicious, sweet fruit of the tree represents the love of God. The people eating the fruit have to sacrifice one of two things: either they must sacrifice the fruit, or they must sacrifice the praise or approval of the well-dressed mockers in the building.

This metaphor is a vivid illustration of one of four temptations aimed at Jesus: the lusts of the flesh, popularity, wealth, and power. If our hearts revolve around any of these, we are liable to fall, even to destroy ourselves. Popularity, or the concern for others’ good opinion and praise, is the temptation that dragged some of the people in Lehi’s dream away from the Tree of Life.

Not ordaining women because they are female is anathema, a flagrant violation of current cultural norms and bylaws. As in Lehi’s dream, a gulf separates the righteous from the norms of the world. The gulf between the world and the gospel expectations and standards will only widen with the passage of time. If we worry about the criticism that comes from living within the priesthood hierarchy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or any other tenant of the gospel that does not meet the world’s approval, we will find ourselves like someone holding onto the wharf and the bow of a departing ship: eventually we will have to make up our mind and hold onto one or the other. We cannot have both.

Clinging Versus Holding Fast

The group in Lehi’s dream who fell away after arriving at the Tree of Life and eating the fruit got there by merely “clinging” to the iron rod, or the word of God. It is not enough to casually cling; we must hold fast. None of the group who held fast to the iron rod fell away after reaching the Tree and eating the fruit. In fact, they ignored the mockers and scoffers with their fine apparel and massive architecture: “…we heeded them not…For as many as heeded them, had fallen away” (1Ne. 8:33-34).

Many members of the Church are actively receiving revelation, studying the scriptures, and generally trying to obey the original commandment they heard when they were confirmed to “receive the Holy Ghost.” They have had similar epiphanies to mine about women and the priesthood, and many other potentially difficult questions that come to earnest seekers of truth as they explore the scriptures and the Church.

For one who does not have or keep the Spirit, who does not pray and actively listen to and follow personal revelation, no amount of explanation, however accurate and detailed of why certain things are or must be, will adequately satisfy him or her. (Trying to explain difficult questions to someone offended and teetering on the edge of apostasy is like trying to plug every leak in a rapidly-crumbling dam with one’s fingers; even an octopus could not do it.) To one who thinks that happiness is meant to flow from praise or a sense of entitlement instead of the added portion of the Spirit given to those who are humble, the scriptures will remain a confusing series of contradictions.

Undignified Recipe

How are we to be happy? The prescription is unbearable to most: “…if ye have known of his (God’s) goodness and have tasted of his love (remember the Tree of Life?), and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls (what a relief, forgiveness), even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, (here it comes!) the greatness of God, and your own nothingness (ouch! My pride!), and his goodness and long-suffering towards you (how condescending!), unworthy creatures (that’s just plain rude!), and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility (what about my positive self-image? Isn’t that the key to happiness?), calling on the name of the Lord daily (like I’m going to do that after such an insulting rant against my feelings and self worth!), and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken of by the mouth of the angel (Jesus Christ).” What do we get in exchange for all this self-abuse?

“And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God (the fruit of the Tree of Life!), 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” (Mosiah 4:11-12). I read that passage for years, but I got so hung up on the “unworthy creatures” bit that I did not recognize a promise of perpetual rejoicing.

Wallowing in self-abusive language is not the key to rejoicing; deferring to the truth, even when it is ugly or inconvenient, allows us to receive a large portion of the Spirit, and THAT fills us with joy. That’s what true humility consists of; deference to the truth (willing obedience to God, acknowledging our helpless dependence on Him, exhibiting faith in Christ as trust through action, etc.) is the main ingredient.

Happiness is not about having an exalted opinion of one’s self, and I believe that great misconception, that conflation of the gospel with the current popular philosophies of the world, lies at the root of all sorts of misdirection and irritation with the Church, its authorities, and the gospel. When we expect happiness to arise out of pleasant internal cognitive processes, all we can swallow is flattery. When we involve a Third Party, the Godhead, suddenly there is potential to break all sorts of ironclad rules, and cheat our way to happiness without letting go of the ugly truths in the mirror (or missing some of the pleasant ones, also part of the truth. Despite our current condition, we are children of God, destined for His presence and becoming like Him.). We can plug into a source of joy not dependent on feeling better than others, or even at least as good as others.

A Decoy of Fulfillment

Even if women were to be ordained just as they requested, those who had requested it would soon find that someone somewhere else had something else they did not possess, and the process of discontent and demanding would begin again. Plugging into a heavenly source of joy means circumventing all that self-entitlement, retiring from the rat race, letting the Joneses keep their yachts and mansions without jealousy, and feasting on the pure source, the sweetest thing of all, the love of God imparted by the Holy Ghost. The greater our humility, faith, and submission, the greater the portion of this Spirit we get; the greater the portion of our joy.

There is not enough prestige and position and authority and praise in all the world to fill the emptiness that comes without the Spirit; with receiving a sufficient portion comes a sense of satisfaction and peace that leaves the people in the great and spacious building baffled, sweating on their treadmills of worldly achievement that ultimately lead nowhere. How can you just sit there when there is so much to do before we can be happy? Easily; I am eating the sweetest of all fruit, the love of God.

(It is worth noting that the love of God is depicted as fruit. Unlike grains and other crops that require plowing, planting, fertilizing, irrigation, harvesting, winnowing, milling, baking, etc., fruit is simply picked and eaten off the vine for free. It is not part of the world's economic structure. All we have to do is get to the point where it is served. Do we earn it or deserve it? No, not really. Is it given away freely? YES, very freely to anyone who can find his or her humble.)

The movement calling for the ordination of women is symptomatic of larger misunderstandings. “And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them” (1Ne. 2:12). A bogus interpretation of the gospel, mingled with the self-esteem philosophies of the world, divorced from personal revelation, is bound to have worse consequences in the end than a fairly dignified and erudite cry to rearrange the plan of salvation. It takes the humility demonstrated by Jesus in submitting to the will of our Father in heaven to swallow all the bitterness we may be assigned and expected to endure in mortality, even if it means being embarrassed about doctrines and practices of the Church in front of our friends, members of the Church or not.


In short, unless we are in constant contact with God via the Holy Ghost we will fall. That is the difference between the five wise and five foolish virgins; the oil in the lamps represents the Spirit (see D&C 45:56-57); those who are wise will be the ones who have done what it takes to receive and keep an added measure.

Poor Wayfaring Men of Contempt

The main undercurrent I detected in this recent General Conference was that we ought to brace ourselves for increases in persecution. This theme cropped up again and again, and I winced (because I hate conflict and strife above almost everything else. I would rather get a root canal than listen to people argue).

I got a taste of it recently.

I was waiting for someone to show up at a restaurant awhile ago, and a man, apparently homeless, was sitting in one of the outdoor chairs. He greeted me by commenting on the music piping through the speakers, proud that he had "lived through" the era from which it came.

While I stood there and waited for someone else, I listened to this man talk. He was a volcano of contempt. He took a stab at Mormons, and then everyone else.

Respect For Agency

D&C 121 contains what I think of as a guide to navigate through the treacherous shoals of others' agency. God holds agency so precious that He will frequently allow mortals to abuse one another rather than intervene. God allows people to harm themselves, too. He expects those who follow him to exhibit similar attitudes (most of the time). Agency is sacrosanct in the plan. Freedom to choose is rule number one in the game of life that He has designed, through which we are passing. (Parents may keep children from running into physical danger; adults managing other accountable adults without invitation are another matter.)

Politics is uncivil now precisely because it is accepted as standard practice to criticize others, and demand that they change their behavior regardless of obtaining their permission to give them orders.

The word "devil" literally means "accuser" (see Rev. 12:10). Jesus gave us the basic rule: Judge not. He qualified the rule in certain circumstances, but when we stray from the basic guidelines, especially those outlined in D&C 121, we immediately lose the Spirit, are under Satan's influence, and begin to exhibit his characteristics. Accusing others (even TRUE accusations) puts us in the role of doing Satan's job for him.

Joseph Smith taught the first members of the Relief Society, "If you do not accuse each other, God will not accuse you. If you have no accuser you will enter heaven, and if you will follow the revelations and instructions which God gives you through me, I will take you into heaven as my back load. If you will not accuse me, I will not accuse you. If you will throw a cloak of charity over my sins, I will over yours—for charity covereth a multitude of sins" (History of the Church, 4:445).

We don't even have to open our mouths in order to lose the Spirit, though:

"...when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man. Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God" (D&C 121:37-38). If we begin to assume the role of compelling people to do the right thing (remember, that was Satan's version of the plan of salvation), we begin to experience all the symptoms of his rebellion. We think of abominable acts as the leading characteristic of evil people; the arguments of Satan during the war in heaven were couched in terms of righteousness, self-righteousness (No sin will be allowed; everybody will be saved; etc.).

D&C 121 protects the would-be critic, as well as the intended target of that criticism. The homeless man who assaulted my ears had at least one thing in common with the shadowy overlords who were oppressing him: they both feel entitled to compel other people to do their bidding, to give orders without consent of the ordered.

Yes, people actually are doing bad things, but the mere fact that we have the truth about them does not qualify us to criticize, or accuse them. Yes, people are doing evil things in high places (and plenty in low ones, too), but that does not license us to police the world and compel people to do the right thing.

The Proper Limits of Criticism

One qualification Jesus gave for examining others' flaws was the mote/beam criteria: If you are doing things that are worse than the infractions committed by the person you intend to critique, repent before you attempt to cure them of their sins. Take the telephone pole out of our own eye before we try to remove the splinters from someone else's.

So the arena of political discourse is a slum ruled over by evil feelings and darkness, because the general rules of conduct fall outside the guidelines provided by the Savior.

One of the most beautiful phrases in the scriptures is "without compulsory means." A nursery rhyme provides an evocative visual:

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And doesn't know where to find them;
Leave them alone and they'll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.

God operates in the same fashion: "All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also..." (D&C 93:30). Occasionally we bump into immovable objects, like the fool who disbelieves in gravity and walks off a cliff; our agency is not being violated, but curtailed by the unavoidable consequences of using it poorly. But for the most part, the wicked, not God, destroy themselves. Those who have made covenants and signed their lives over to Him are more likely to be "chastened" (for education and growth, not for cruelty). There are many things which we see as unacceptable that God views with a more lenient, hands-off eye.

Love Unfeigned and Influence

Anna Leonowens (of King and I fame) had a massive impact on the destiny of the nation of Siam (now Thailand). Many legends have cropped up around her, but the fact remains that the young prince Chulalongkorn she trained became king and abolished the ancient traditions of slavery and compulsory servitude in Siam.

What gave her such great influence? Where did the opportunity come from?

I was not present to witness her experiences, but may I suggest that, perhaps, it came from her willingness to get dressed up and be respectful of other people and their customs. The homeless man who confronted me at the restaurant was embittered by the burden of injustices heaped on US citizens, and the dishonesty that infects our government, as are many, many others in America today. For all his teeth-grinding and vitriol, I fear that this homeless crusader will have very little impact on society. Why? Because he is unwilling to play the game; even to take a bath. How can he sway people or change public opinion if drives people off? If he is not like the people he wants to change, or at least actively exuding love toward them, who will listen to him?

Ammon understood that argument would be fruitless in his missionary labors to the Lamanites—he determined to win their hearts first, THEN preach to them; getting his toe through the door, winning their stubborn hearts, was the beginning of radical political swings in Nephite/Lamanite relationships, and the war chapters hinge on the outcome of his parlay, the truths they accepted from him. Love, not knowledge, was the key to persuading them; the olive branch, not the sword, let him succeed.

Nothing gives us such immense influence over others as unabashed love toward them.

Getting It Right

Before we are allowed to criticize anyone, we must first receive the ACTIVE promptings of the Holy Ghost to do so (no just the absence of being forbidden to do so):

"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

"That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

"The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever" (D&C 121:43-46).

A good rule of thumb might be: If you don't follow up criticism with an outpouring of love, it probably wasn't inspired.

Our contempt for sin will not do nearly as much to save others as our love for sinners, and our sincere desire to get them to Jesus, who can actually remove sin from their hearts. The only way to destroy evil is to convert it and turn it to good; killing sinners (or even merely criticizing them) just sends them to a different address.

Thoughts About the Mechanics of the Atonement

"For the mystery of godliness, how great it is!" (D&C 19:10). One of the mysteries is the Atonement. This is no idle question; everything hangs on understanding and applying it.

I would like to take a stab at a question that various people have scratched their heads at and gone on with the umbrella statement that there are certain things we don’t know: What caused the pain of the Atonement?

Why the Atonement had to happen is fairly easy to grasp; economic metaphors, the three dimensional learning devices nature of animal sacrifice and ordinances, and other scriptural teaching devices help us to understand our accountability and our need for someone to help us out of the hole we have dug for ourselves. But many parts are not so easy to grasp; the questions of how the Atonement was worked out defy mortal comprehension—they all terminate in superlatives.

Source of Joy

Joseph Smith spoke of the First Vision in terms of light. As soon as the light appeared, Satan left him. One account of the First Vision said that he expected the light to start the surrounding forest on fire. He also wrote that for many days afterward, the experience filled him with great love and joy.

He said in one account of the experience, "A pillar of fire appeared above my head; which presently rested down upon me, and filled me with unspeakable joy" (Joseph Smith's First Vision, by Milton V. Backman Jr., p. 159)

What few snippets of quotation we get from the Lord during that vision have little to do with love or joy. Jesus expresses His displeasure with the corrupt preachers and the general sinful activities of the inhabitants of the earth, telling Joseph that He plans on destroying the whole lot at the Second Coming. This is dire; why did the encounter with God and the Son fill him with such great love and joy? We can derive at least one reason from the account: Because of the light they radiated—Joseph got to "enjoy" (D&C 130:2 says) eternal glory for a brief moment while in mortality, not just with a spirit body, but with a physical body at the same time as well. He got a taste of the celestial kingdom during his mortal probation, and the memory probably carried him through a life that would have shattered a man not so fortified.

D&C 88 teaches that when we fulfill the measure of our creation (whatever activities that may include) we are given a portion of glory, glory that has a celestial quality. We do not receive a fullness until after we are resurrected, but we are plugged into a celestial circuit, so to speak, anyway. Performing, or even diligently attempting or sincerely intending ("willing," the sacrament prayer says) to perform one’s work brings the Spirit; the Spirit empowers us to complete our work. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me…" (Isa. 61:1). Isaiah then lists the duties, a job description, of the Messiah. That is the general idea behind anointing; we are assigned a certain task, and when we are anointed, the Spirit comes upon us to a great enough degree to allow us to accomplish our duties. So grace is delivered by the Spirit; the Spirit is received in what the scriptures call "portions," which can increase or decrease in size. The bigger the portion, the greater the grace.

Even if we are not receiving a portion of the Spirit that is great enough to be plainly visible, viz. Joseph Smith during the First Vision, we are still able to receive enough that it imparts peace, love, and joy, as well as power in the priesthood, and activating other spiritual gifts.

Source of Pain

Hell has been described and envisioned as a burning pit of sulfur, but that is only true in a metaphorical, poetic sense. The clinical description, "outer darkness," gives the true essence of what hell is: the complete absence of light. Just as the Spirit quickens and invigorates, so its absence is all that is required for life and matter itself to unravel. To destroy the universe would be an act of omission, not commission, for God; simply withdraw His sustaining influence, and everything would disintegrate. The maelstrom of chaos is the forwarding address of hell. By contrast, God dwells in everlasting burnings: “[The angels] reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord” (D&C 130:7). And if we can make it back into His presence with a celestial, resurrected body, we will have a fullness of His joy.

In D&C 19:20, Jesus warns, "Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit." Earlier in section 19, he is describing His Atonement; in other words, the sustaining light of God was deliberately and completely withdrawn from Him during the Atonement. He experienced outer darkness while on earth in mortality.

Alma the younger had a similar experience. But while Alma was in his coma, what was he suffering for? He was incapable of atoning for his own sins; why would the loving Savior put him through hell? 3Ne. 9:20 tells us that those who come to Christ with broken hearts and contrite spirits will be born again, baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost. As the sustaining light was withdrawn from him, Alma's heart and spirit were being broken ("punctured" is the literal translation of "contrite" from Old Testament Hebrew) to the point that he could experience the mighty change of heart. Jesus’ suffering already paid for all sin; the point of punishment, here or hereafter, is to humble us so we can be reborn and rid of the DESIRE to sin, sinfulness. It may satisfy justice to a degree, but not enough to merit any joy by it. We cannot pay our own way; we spend our ability to do so when we sin, a catch-22. Those who are penniless and in debt are unable to pay their debts.

Jesus took our names, our identities, ergo our punishments, onto Himself in the Garden and on the Cross. The punishment for sin is the loss of the light, the Spirit. We try to take His name, his reputation, and identity, upon ourselves. This means we get to enjoy some of His powers and privileges, including always having His Spirit to be with us (see Isa. 61:1). As He suffers the punishments we earned, we experience the peace, love, joy, and power He deserved, and lost for our sakes when atoning for sin (see Isa. 53). He dies; we live. He suffers; we feel comfort. He is injured; we are healed. It is a reflexive symmetry of opposite poles, pluses for minuses, and ups for downs.

Even if the light of God does not completely withdraw when we sin, we still lose it in such a way that we feel sorrow, discontent, perhaps even anger. We are exposed more to the attacks and temptations of the adversary when the Spirit withdraws. Our spiritual gifts and sensitivity decline. We are getting a little taste of hell.

The Importance of Bodies

We receive the Spirit, the light, according to obedience, and lose it according to disobedience. Disobedience makes us subject to Satan, and he uses what light we are still receiving to warm his hands, drawing light off from us, when we sin. This is why the evil legion wanted to be sent into the 2000 Gadarene swine—they wanted to enjoy a particular property of a physical body; its enhanced ability to pick up, absorb, receive, that greater light. In this sense, the body acts like a satellite dish or antenna, absorbing a greater portion of the light than a spirit body alone can absorb. D&C 93 calls the elements the "tabernacle" of God; that spirit and element inseparably combined receive a fullness of joy.

Is this the reason those with bodies have more power than those without? The reason why the absence of a physical body seems to be bondage? The reason why addictions are easier to overcome during mortality? Because a body can receive more of that light which eminates from the presence of God and "fills the immensity of space" (D&C 88:)? I believe it is. We talk about the importance of having a body to procreate, and the range of other physical experiences it allows us to have in mortality; this is true, but are these physical abilities conferred by a physical body the main reason it allows us to have "a fulness of joy"? Ironically, the joy-enabling power of the physical body is, ultimately, spiritual.

Spirits in the presence of God are unable to have a fullness of joy because they lack bodies, and cannot pick up as much of the light in which they are basking; we here on earth with physical bodies are unable to have a fullness of joy because we are not in His presence, enjoying immortal glory. It is not just being in His enjoyable company that makes heaven a desirable home; it is basking in the glory He radiates that makes heaven heavenly. Jesus was the main focus of the Nephites when He arrived, not the miracles or anything else desirable. He was a light source to them, and they looked on Him with longing. "And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy." Notice the last word—"enjoy." Not simply "possess," "have," or "get"; ENJOY. It's more than Whom we get to be with that brings greater joy in heaven; it's a physical force that they radiate.

The power of the Atonement is delivered to our hearts and minds by the Spirit; we receive a portion of the Spirit proportional to our humility. We are changed by the Atonement, but into what? We are not just having sin removed, or any desires instilled; we are receiving the nature of Christ, bit by bit. The fruits of the Spirit are peace, love, joy, and power; it is a foretaste of heaven. And losing it is a diluted taste of hell. That is what Jesus experienced on our behalf, so that we would not have to, if we would just repent, believe, and receive all He has.

The Sacrament: Swapping Identities

I used to think of the phrase in the sacrament prayer about taking the name of Jesus Christ upon us was adding yet another burden to my to-do list. "What would Jesus do?" Or, "What would Jesus do in my position?" That is part of it, but I have recently realized that taking His name upon us is more than assuming new duties. It also includes adopting His identity, which means borrowing His powers and privileges (some of them).

Yes, we agree to work in the sacrament covenant. But even that gets a boost from the Lord. Chewing bread is a delicious activity, but it requires work. Drinking grape juice or water afterward makes dry, hard bread easier to work on. The prayer on the bread says eating it shows God our willingness to 1. Take His Son's name upon us, 2. Always remember Him, and 3. Keep His commandments. If we do 1, 2, and 3, we ALWAYS have His Spirit to be with us. If we have trouble with the work of 1 and 3, at least we can do as the prayer on the water says, number 2, "always remember Him." Then we can "have (minus "always") His Spirit to be with [us]." Water makes bread easier to swallow; grace makes works possible for us.

When Jesus chose to announce publicly that He was the Messiah, He read Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19). The people stared in anticipation as He sat down—why read this to them? He interpreted the scripture: "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (verse 21). "...he hath anointed me..." the word Messiah means Anointed One—Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah. So the people got mad and tried to murder Him by throwing Him off a cliff, and Jesus barely escaped.

The verses He read amount to a job description of the Messiah. There is a sermon buried in each phrase, but for now I want to focus on the first part: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me..." One of the privileges of being the Messiah was a greatly increased portion of the Spirit. Receiving the Holy Ghost is not an all-or-nothing proposition; the Spirit is given by degrees, or "portions" as the scriptures say. The greater the portion of the Spirit, the greater the power. That is the general idea of the ordinance of anointing; oil is poured on a person, and the Spirit falls on that person to a greater degree, which empowers him or her to accomplish a specific mission. For instance, Aaron, a High Priest in the Tabernacle (a portable Temple), and David, a King, were both anointed before they began serving in those offices. It signified their entry into their respective offices, and was the symbol that God had empowered them to fulfill their distinct roles.

Jesus had a fulness of the Holy Ghost, and it was always with Him (I will discuss the momentous exception He endured in a second). We do not fully take His name upon ourselves when we partake of the sacrament; that happens more fully in the Temple. But we assert and confirm our willingness to take His name upon ourselves by partaking of the sacrament. It is a public declaration to God that, yes, we are willing to do everything in our power to repent and progress and obey Him. Jesus earned the privilege of always having the Spirit with Him because He always did exactly what His Father asked. Perfect obedience is one way to always have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. (Being unaccountable for our sins through ignorance may be another way; even that requires divine intervention.) But what about us imperfect people?

Instead of earning the privilege, we are given a deal, grace: we can always have His Spirit (we are borrowing this from Jesus) in exchange for our willingness—willingness to try. Attempts technically fall short, but we are given the Spirit anyway, just because of the condition of our heart ("willing" in the sacrament prayers only describes the condition of our hearts. It says nothing about whether or not we actually succeed at obeying, just that we desire to obey.) This is a generous extension of mercy to us. The Spirit brings many things to us; it gives us a taste of the joy of being in God's presence. It activates our innate spiritual gifts. It empowers priesthood authority.

Perhaps the most overlooked function of the Holy Spirit among Church members is that it delivers the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to our hearts and minds. It sanctifies us; when we give our hearts completely to Jesus Christ, he installs His heart, instills His nature, in us. This is an extremely generous deal for us. We get to enjoy the benefits of being Jesus when we assume His identity.

It is a lot like a teenager who owns a bike, but gets to borrow his parents' car (provided he earns his driver's license and keeps other rules, traffic rules, house rules, etc.). Keeping the rules and borrowing the car are not the same thing as buying the car or owning the car; it is loaned to him out of the generosity of Mom's and Dad's hearts. Fulfilling the conditions and obligations to borrow the car are just the parents' way of keeping their kid from getting spoiled. But the car itself empowers him to travel further, faster, and carry more passengers and cargo. Dating (at least the shame-free variety) becomes a reality for him. The car can even make him more useful to his parents, enabling him to go shopping, pick up siblings, deliver goods, and run other errands.

Spiritual rebirth amounts to borrowing Jesus' identity. We get to enjoy the consequences of His obedience, or in other words, we "rely" on His "merits," what He earned (2Ne. 31:19).

Jesus also took our identities, and their negative consequences, onto Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane and upon the Cross. He assumed the burdens we would have had to bear if justice had been administered without His intercession. He pushes us out of the way and absorbs the impact of justice for us. He served our prison sentence for us, and we enjoy His freedom. This is a paradox; we guilty people are set free while the only innocent Person is punished.

Isaiah 53 explains how the trading of identities plays out: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (verses 4-6). He took the hit for us, He paid the bill we incurred through disobedience, and He offers us the clean slate He earned through perfect obedience. He is wounded; we are healed. He dies; we live. This is an extremely generous tradeoff.

In D&C 19, Jesus explains the naked mechanics of His indescribable misery and agony during the process of the Atonement: "Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit...Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. Wherefore, I command you again to repent...lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit" (verses 18-20; my emphasis). Hell is not inferno; it is literally outer darkness, the complete withdrawal, the absence of the light of the Spirit emanating from God's presence (see D&C 88:11-24). (Our bodies give us extra power because they increase the portion of this Spirit we are able to receive; see D&C 93:19-36. This means an added portion of the sanctifying grace and power of the Atonement, too. This may explain why it is easier to overcome addictions in mortality).

Jesus earned His own salvation; we must borrow His. (Perhaps another metaphor might be a child borrowing the parent's credit card). We who are accountable for our sins (intelligent adults who can choose, who know right from wrong) must repent in order to be saved. This means turning from our sins, eliminating our misbehaviors. But it is not the same as earning our way to heaven.

The ministry and teachings of Jesus place enormous emphasis on modifying our behavior. If our "righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6), if He paid the price of our entry into heaven, if it is too late after we commit the tiniest infraction of the law (see James 2:10) to earn our way, then what is the point of His demanding our work, work, work?

"If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). We are not showing by our ardent, avid attempts at obedience that we are good in and of ourselves; rather, we are demonstrating that we actually belong to Jesus, that we are His, because His commands cause us to move. (Brigham Young taught that in heaven, we do not own anything unless and until it obeys us; see Abr. 4:18.)

Jesus merited something else: His "rights of mercy." He was innocent, yet He suffered more than anyone. This creates an imbalance in justice, a vacuum of debt owed to Him, and it is inside that empty space that we must hide. He has racked up a debt, a super-abundance of credit is on His tab. We deserve death and hell without His interference on our behalf. But if we repent and have faith in Christ, and love for Him, and even try our hardest to show that love by obeying Him, and if we are bound to Him through covenants and priesthood ordinances (baptism, etc.), then we belong to Him. It is an official adoption. We become His, and He is privileged to take us to heaven with Him (provided we wipe our feet, bathe, and get clean clothes from Him before we enter; there is plenty of refinement work for all of us. He speeds that up, too.). The main thing is that justice cannot touch us as long as we have shed enough pride and sin and dirt that we fit inside His protective shadow. We never get rid of all of it, but even our sorrow for sin, our humility, shrinks us just enough that we are completely shielded by His grace.

"...Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men..." (Moroni 7:27). "Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. Hearken, O ye people of my church, and ye elders listen together, and hear my voice while it is called today, and harden not your hearts..." (D&C 45:3-6). Jesus drank a bitter cup so that we could take a sweet drink of peace, the wine (now water) of the sacrament.

Becoming miniature versions of the Savior is the ultimate goal of the gospel, and the sacrament is an emblematic part of that happy transformation. When we receive the Spirit, we get to experience the joy the Savior had in life: "...I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy..." And He offers us the opportunity to always have the Spirit, His Spirit, to be with us.

Portable Packets, Quotable Quotes, Succinct Snippets

In this age when frantic, frenetic flitting from one internet image to the next renders linear thought an endangered species, a mile-long treatise on one particular part of the gospel may not be adapted to current expectations. It is possible to spur faith and repentance with a few simple words. This entry still long, but it is composed of segments, sound bites in no particular order. It is a collection of random, disjointed, non-linear, distinct ideas that may be quotable, or at least easier to swallow because they are bite-sized.

• Spiritual rebirth might be summed up in one sentence: We give our hearts to Jesus Christ, and He gives His heart (His nature) to us. The more of our hearts we give to Him, the more of His heart, His tendencies, He installs in us.
  
  
• We strive to take the name and identity of Christ upon ourselves. Why? Not just because it is good to try and imitate Him, but because we are borrowing His privileges connected to His identity. Jesus overcame the world, and merited exaltation for Himself. When we present ourselves at Judgment Day, we will be presented as if we were a miniature Jesus Christ if we are to enter heaven. We will enter heaven because He has earned the privilege of taking us with Him wherever He goes, and we are bound to Him forever.
  
  
• We demonstrate our willingness to take the name of Jesus onto ourselves each Sunday when we partake of the sacrament. If we have His identity, that means we receive one of the blessing He qualified for: the constant companionship of the Spirit. What is not commonly mentioned is that Jesus took our names, our identities, upon Himself when He suffered in Gethsemane and on the cross. He took all the consequences and disadvantages that come from being who we are, including our culpability for our sins and the loss of the Spirit.
  
  
• “Opposition” is commonly defined as the stuff that gets in our way, inconveniences and trials and pains. The phrase “opposition in all things” means that as the bad gets worse in the world, so the good must necessarily be getting better. In D&C 88, Jesus gives a parable about His impending arrival on the face of this earth, and then says: “...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...Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name it shall be given unto you...” (verses 62, 63, 65). There must necessarily be increasing compensatory blessings to counter the increasing wickedness now raging. We will catch the shower of manna falling from heaven today if only we keep our bowls facing upward.
  
  
• Jesus prophesied that Peter would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed. Immediately after that sad prediction, Jesus tells Peter, “Let not your heart be troubled...” Again, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:1, 27). “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Let’s say Peter, or any of us, stumble as we give our 100%. Jesus gave His all, and it was enough to overcome all. We give our all, and fail anyway. If we are in all sorts of trouble for failing, why should HIS victory cheer us and defray our fears and worries? Because if we belong to Him, we inherit His victory, His rewards. We just need to give our 100%, and succeed or fail, if it really is our all, He will accept it, and “he shall divide the spoil with the strong...” (Isaiah 53:12). We make too much of performance; we already blew it by being imperfect.
  
  
• What is hell? Jesus explains it: “But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I...therefore I command you...confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments...which...in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit” (D&C 19:17, 20). To have that light, radiation, power, whatever it is emanating from God, withdrawn, THAT is hell. That is why hell is described literally as “outer darkness;” fire and brimstone are figurative. The celestial kingdom is described as “dwelling in everlasting burnings,” receiving the fullness of that light. Why are we all miserable on earth? The scarcity of the Spirit. The Spirit is a foretaste of the joy, the earnest money, of heaven (see D&C 11:13). The withdrawal of the Spirit when we sin is a foretaste of hell, too. The little we get and keep here will be amplified in the eternities beyond our current ability to comprehend, if and when we are exalted. It is discouraging and frightening to see how casually members of the Church take the privilege of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, how eager and willing we are to dim our receptivity through “mildly” ungodly entertainment and talk. It is more than a warm blanket to keep us from being miserable; it is a lifeline to God, a portion of His presence. Why discard it? What risky business to do so.
  
  
• The command to offer the Lord “a broken heart and a contrite spirit” is fairly vague. We get the gist of sorrow for sin and admitting our nothingness, our complete dependence on God. The fuller meaning of the phrase gets illustrated for us in vivid clarity and by formal covenants in the endowment.
  
  
• Repentance is not just for “the very vilest of sinners.” Any progress can be characterized as repentance. Since we have all been commanded to be perfect as God, no one is off the hook. Jesus arrives among the Nephites, and His opening lines include the following: “...I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me” (3Ne. 11:32). And as Nephi says, when the Lord gives a commandment, He also prepares a way to keep it.
  
  
• 1Ne. 3:7 is oft-quoted, but is it oft-applied? Do we think of it as a scripture about the Law of Chastity? Or tithing? Or fasting? Nephi’s statement gives us a picture of humility acceptable to the Lord. “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded...” Nephi announces his willingness to obey, to do things the Lord’s way. “...for I know the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” Nephi acknowledges his nothingness, his total dependence on God, and his intense trust, too. These are two indispensable threads we must braid into the wick of genuine humility. Notice this definition of humility is proactive and hopeful, instead of the drooping defeatism we often associate with being humble.
  
  
• What are the “Sunday School Answers?” Pray, read scriptures, attend church meetings, attend the temple, fast, do service, pay tithes and offerings, etc. Why are these presented as the generic solution to all our problems? Why are they so prominent and ubiquitous in General Conference talks? These activities have one main thing in common—they each invite the Spirit to be with us, with us powerfully. The Spirit delivers the power of the Atonement to our hearts, minds, and lives, and THAT is what gives them such broad application, what makes the Sunday School Answers such profound solutions to our problems.
  
  
• Our job is not to manage our bad desires; it is to let the Savior surgically remove them from our hearts, and replace them with His desires. Not only is this possible, it is mandatory, at least for all those who would enter heaven. No one is exempt, however socially acceptable or innocent a person may appear.
  
  
• Among the first sentences that opened this dispensation in the Sacred Grove, the Savior states the following: “all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ‘they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof’” (Joseph Smith—History 1:19). Jesus tells Joseph in the Sacred Grove that all these pious Christian teachers deny the power of Jesus to make a bad man into a good one. A few years later, Joseph Smith gets the gold plates, and translates the Book of Mormon from them. It is practically a manual about how to access the Atonement, to have “the Spirit of the Lord omnipotent [work] a mighty change in us...that we [might] have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2). It contains the solution to the big problem defined by the Lord for Joseph Smith in the First Vision.
  
  
• The “mighty change” is not something we practice; it is a gift from God. If a person awoke one morning craving broccoli intensely and feeling indifferent toward chocolate ice cream and cake, this person would not say, “Wow! All that hard work and practice is finally paying off.” There might be celebration of good luck, but more likely a visit to the hospital for a brain scan to figure out if wires had crossed. We are not expecting a change of attitude through our willpower; we are expecting a fundamental change of nature through the Atonement. How do we experience it? Read the Book of Mormon—it is a Master’s thesis on the subject. All our efforts and good works do not in themselves secure this mighty change; rather, they qualify us to receive it from God.
  
  
• One of the most profound things I ever heard from a devotional speaker was the idea that we do not forgive others because forgiveness implies the damage they did was inconsequential; we forgive others because we expect Jesus to make it right one day, to pay the debt our enemy owes to us. Would scourging and suffering repair a broken stained glass window? No. Those who injure us are usually powerless to repair or repay. Jesus will fix the damage and repay the debt the offending person owes to us instead. How ironic that the speaker who forwarded this idea was among that despised and vilified class of professionals, a lawyer. His training and career primed him to learn a gospel truth I never heard before. A third party is paying for, and repairing, the mess I caused in someone else’s life, and the messes others caused in mine. I am free to relinquish my demands on them, and rely on the Savior instead.
  
  
• Where is love in the temple endowment? If love is the driving force behind God’s actions, why all the legalism and semantics and mechanisms of justice, mercy, Atonement, forgiveness, ordinances, covenants, and so on? Imagine an operating room in a hospital. Tubes and machines by the dozen are hooked to the body of a sick child. Surgeons and nurses crowd around, cutting and stitching. The physicians are dressed in colorless gowns, masked and unsmiling. Everything is mechanical, by the book, procedures and technical jargon. Where is the love in this picture? The love is all around, if we understand what is going on. All these tools and machines and trained medical professionals are there to infuse life into a broken body, to restore damaged tissue and extend the child’s life to the fullest extent of their ability. A lullaby and other common trappings of love just won’t suffice here. Platitudes and cuddly sentiment will not get us out of our predicament either. We are sinners who hope to inherit exaltation and eternal life. What awesome measures and efforts must it take to get us from our present miserable point A to our hoped-for, perfect point B? Think about that the next time you feel perplexed by the endowment. It’s all here to help us.
  
  
• I walk the face of the earth, free as can be, and yet I keep to familiar paths for the most part. The Lord always knows right where I am, and often I run right into people or things or ideas at just the right moment, as though it had been planned. Is agency real? Jonah had two choices: Go to Nineveh, or be dragged to Nineveh. So he went there. God has agency too, and he said, “The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught...therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round. Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men...” (D&C 3:1-3). Satan thought he was destroying God’s plan, but giving the fruit to Adam and Eve only furthered it. Perhaps agency is less about what we do, and more about what we choose in our minds. We often long for things that don’t exist, but we are told we will answer for these longings and desires as part of the final judgment.
  
  
• When Jesus beckoned to Peter to jump out of the boat and walk on the water to Him, Peter did not say, “One moment—let me strap on my water skis.” When we attempt to accomplish the Lord’s work by trusting in our own understanding, day planners, schedules, salesmanship, psychology, science, medication, charisma, charm, etc., we are doing what Nephi called “making flesh” our “arm.” Could water skis have sustained Peter? Poorly at best. Even when Peter floundered and began to sink, because he was failing while doing things the Lord’s way Jesus was there to bring him back up to the surface. He relied on the Lord in the boat, on the water, while sinking, and when Jesus pulled him up and escorted him back to the boat. Perhaps the Lord uses the weak and simple things of the earth as His instruments is because they are not sophisticated or savvy enough to make the mistake of looking to some source of power besides the Lord. The strong things of the earth have ways, means, procedures, and gadgets; the weak and simple have nothing to rely on but the power of the Atonement.
  
  
• There are only five scriptures that have anything bad to say about money: The Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Why the bias against money in scripture? Perhaps the Lord is offended when we take His creations, which each have intrinsic value, and reduce their status by equating them with a thing that has no intrinsic value, the essence of ephemeral. The value of money compared to other things is a human contrivance. One good test to see whether or not a thing is eternal might be: can it be bought with money? Putting a price tag on everything obscures its intrinsic, eternal worth from our view.
  
  
• I once saw what was supposed to be a comprehensive list of addictions in a magazine. Missing from the list was the appetite for money. There is nothing addicts will do in the attempt to get their fix that greedy people have not perpetrated in the attempt to get money. Dishonesty, destroyed families, selling sex, killing, stealing—all these have been suffered in the attempt to get money. Does that put it in the same category as so many other deleterious substances addicts abuse?
  
  
• Money can be used for good or ill, but so few things have its limitless ability to corrupt an otherwise kind, righteous person. All of God's creations have limits; sex has physical limits, the desire for food has limits. Even land is a limited commodity. But because of the imaginary nature of money, the appetite for it can grow without limit. Because the portfolio can expand without limits, it can become a red herring Satan can use to throw us off the trail—if only I get a little more wealth, THEN I'll be happy. Those who subscribe to this philosophy learn by experience that wealth cannot shield us from pain or sadness or emptiness. The poor people of the world are notoriously happy and generous. They don't need psychotherapists because they cannot afford them.

The Three Witnesses

The Book of Mormon was translated from gold plates, but Joseph Smith was told not to show them to anyone, at least at first. He was overjoyed when the Lord told him the time had come to show the gold plates to witnesses who could publicly back up his testimony. We can learn principles from the lives of these three men.

These three men were not simply to gander at the gold plates and report that Joseph had them. Metal plates might be accounted for through human means. They were assigned to have a heavenly manifestation—to see the angel Moroni bring the plates down from heaven for them to handle, and hear the voice of God testify to them that the Book of Mormon is true. They were to bear witness to this event on peril of their souls if they should deny what they had seen.

Many people have expressed a desire for this kind of experience. But the three men who had it—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, each eventually forsook Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even while averring that what they originally testified of was true. They never retracted their collective statement; their witness is recorded at the beginning of every copy of the Book of Mormon.

In the Book of Mormon itself, there are instructions to the translator about the necessity of showing the plates to witnesses: “And now I, Moroni, have written the words which were commanded me, according to my memory....And behold, ye may be privileged that ye may show the plates unto those who shall assist to bring forth this work; And unto three shall they be shown by the power of God; wherefore they shall know of a surety that these things are true. And in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established; and the testimony of three, and this work, in the which shall be shown forth the power of God and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost bear record—and all this shall stand as a testimony at the last day” (Ether 5:1-4).

Joseph Smith also received a revelation giving instructions to the Three Witnesses before they saw the plates: “And after that you have obtained faith, and have seen them with your eyes, you shall testify of them, by the power of God; And this you shall do that my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., may not be destroyed, that I may bring about my righteous purposes unto the children of men in this work” (D&C 17:3-4). To Martin Harris: “...I will grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see. And then he shall say unto the people of this generation: Behold, I have seen the things which the Lord hath shown unto Joseph Smith, Jun., and I know of a surety that they are true, for I have seen them, for they have been shown unto me by the power of God and not of man” (D&C 5:24-25).

God knows the future. Why did He choose men who would eventually apostatize to be the Three Witnesses for the Book of Mormon?

The idea of angels and revelations strains credulity; getting people to take it seriously requires evidence. If Joseph’s story was true, it would make sense that more people than he would learn by experience that it was true. Having multiple witnesses confirm his story bolsters it, makes it easier for others to accept.

Liars lie because they want to be believed. Fabrications are meant to fool people by seeming plausible, usually to get something from others. Their individual apostasies and disaffection show that whatever they were motivated by in the beginning was absent at some later time. If they were lying, they would have exposed that lie when they each apostatized and became disaffected from the Church and Joseph Smith. The weakest position would be for them to deny their original testimony. A stronger position than that would have been for them to maintain their full fellowship with Joseph and the Church, and never deny. But the strongest position of all is the one they eventually took—hating and criticizing Joseph Smith, leaving the Church, yet never denying their collective witness. If they hated the Church and Joseph enough to leave it, why continue claiming the Book of Mormon is true unless they actually experienced a divine manifestation and feared divine retribution? If the work was a fraud, why not expose it in a moment of anger or disloyalty? They were angry; they left the Church, but never wavered in their claims about what they had seen.

“Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Matt. 13:33). Joseph Smith interpreted this parable to be a reference to the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Leaven, when it is put into bread dough, it causes the unbaked loaves of bread to rise by forming gas bubbles. Leaven is fungus; fungus is a corruptible. The Lord knew the flaws of the men chosen to bear witness. Their apostasy, combined with their unwillingness to retract their statements, made their testimonies stronger than if they had been angelic men with no flaws who remained perfectly faithful throughout their lives. Fungus makes loaves rise; the corruptible parts of the witnesses’ characters ultimately helped the Church to rise.

The Lord can use anything, even our flaws, to get His work done: “Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men...” (D&C 3:3). “...the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan, that he may destroy this work...I will not suffer that they shall destroy my work; yea, I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil” (D&C 10:12, 43). Like a sailing ship that can tack in the opposite direction the wind blows, the Lord can incorporate anything, even our sins and flaws and rebellion, into His work. (The Fall was another such instance.)

While this is all true, I would much rather be aware of God's plans and cooperate with them than be a helpless, oblivious cog participating in them anyway.

Seeing great miracles or manifestations does not convert people. Each of these witnesses left the Church; Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris returned, while David Whitmer never rejoined the Church. Faithfulness needs more than knowledge; it requires great trust, courage, and can require a high pain threshold.

The fact that witnesses were called to testify of the divine origins and authenticity of the book also shows that it is meant to be taken seriously, to challenge those who come in contact with it. The Book of Mormon is not a work of fiction; it is meant to be believed. Many people approach the Bible like a fish, taking what they prefer and leaving what they consider to be the bones. Unlike the Bible, the Book of Mormon has been presented to the world in such a way that it cannot be approached like a buffet; it must be completely accepted or rejected. Either it is all true, or it is all false. The more ignorance people possess, the more easily they can dismiss the Book of Mormon. But the more knowledge they bring to bear on the question of its authenticity, the more resilient the book becomes. As Hugh Nibley said, it is like a football—you may kick it, throw it, bounce it, but it will wear you out before you wear it out.

Even when something is proven through evidence or logic, that is not always enough to change behavior, let alone to sanctify a person. Seeing an angel and hearing the voice of God was not enough to keep these men faithful in their behavior, though they were terrified of denying what they saw. My witness is that the Book of Mormon is true, and I have it through the simple power of the Holy Ghost. The Bible is the Old Testament—the book of rules, and a never-ending list of how people break them, and the New Testament, the story of how Jesus paid for those sins through His Atonement. The Book of Mormon teaches better than any other book how to access the power of the Atonement, not only to be forgiven for our sins, but to receive its transforming effect in our lives, minds, and hearts.

Spiritual Rebirth: Process or Event?

Elder Maxwell talked about the daunting “sense of enormous distance” that a discussion about the gospel can cause. We are so riddled with weakness and flaws, and the scriptures describe such lofty goals, the simple act of self-evaluation or comparison can drain motivation out of us. The ideal is so far off—how can we ever reach it? In my experience, most Latter-day Saints are operating under the mistaken notion that this state is to be achieved through our own efforts, planning, goals, and practice. Works are important, but not because they change our natures. That is the Savior’s job. Our job is to learn how to qualify to receive that change, and then meet those qualifications.

King Benjamin’s people declare in Mosiah 5:2, “...Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast 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 us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” A whole congregation experienced a mighty change of heart. This is more than a change of attitude, or the enthusiasm or renewed determination we often feel when a great speaker motivates us. That intensified resolution never endowed anyone with “the manifestations of [God’s] Spirit,” or gave them “great views of that which is to come...” or the gift of prophecy: “...and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things” (Mosiah 5:3). This is not coming from personal exertions; it is coming to these people from God.

Deny Not the Power of God

When we view the difference between what we are, and what we should be, we often salve our uncomfortable feelings by telling ourselves that “spiritual rebirth is a process, not an event.” While patience with our own flaws (and each others’) is commendable and mature, I fear we often tread too close to a line that Jesus warned Joseph Smith about in the First Vision.

Joseph Smith tells us that there were many things communicated to him in the First Vision, but that he was forbidden to share them. The few things we do get glimpses of are instructive for us as well as for him. Joseph was seeking the right church. Jesus informed the boy prophet: “...all their creeds were abominations in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ‘they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof’” (JS—H 1:19, my emphasis).

In Moroni’s farewell, we hear a tone of dire warning, a plea not to make that mistake: “...I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God...For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God. And wo unto them who shall do these things away and die, for the die in their sins, and they cannot be saved....Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:25-26, 32-33). He is desperate to convince—Jesus can clean the desire for sin out of our hearts.

“Holy, without spot”—“no more disposition to do evil”—these phrases are music to the sinner’s ears. Can we cause these transformations in ourselves? It seems to me that the best we can do is want to want the right things. But we of ourselves cannot change our fundamental natures. It requires a miracle called “spiritual rebirth,” and that is exactly what the scriptures describe. To place the responsibility for causing this change in ourselves is to pretend to abilities we lack, and to deny that Jesus has power to change us. And Moroni is anxious that we not make that mistake, in part because it disqualifies us from receiving that very blessing.

In seeking to excuse our unsanctified state, do we “deny the power of God?” “...I am able to make you holy...” (D&C 60:7). Do we diminish His miraculous ability in our minds by suggesting that we must have all these flaws still residing in us because He is delaying to change us, or even lacks power to do so? Is anything to hard for the Lord?

Process vs. Event

It is my testimony that spiritual rebirth comes instantly as we meet the qualifications to receive it. “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise” (D&C 82:10). If we are not reborn, it is not because Jesus lacks power to change us; it is because we either do not know, or do not apply, the rules governing the principle of rebirth.

The Lord lets us make spiritual progress at our own pace because He respects agency. We graduate from grace to grace, climb from one plateau to the next, gaining experience and becoming more saintly. Perfection is a state to which no man arrived in a day, the Prophet tells us. But what about those miraculous moments when a quantum leap is made in the scriptures? Alma the Younger was going about, seeking to destroy the Church of God. An angel stopped his behavior; he fell, paralyzed and unaware. After three days and nights, he emerged from his coma and declared, “...behold, I am born of the Spirit” (Mosiah 27:24). The Lord informed him that everyone who wants to get into heaven must experience a similar change: “...all mankind...must be born again...changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and his daughters;...and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 27:26).

Lamoni’s father, the king of the Lamanites, has a similar experience. He falls to the ground in a coma after he prays, and when he wakes up after a few minutes, he is reborn. How did these men experience a “mighty change of heart,” a change in their very natures, within such a short span of time? Why is there such an enormous lag for some people, and for others, an instantaneous change?

The scriptures describe the conditions necessary to enjoy rebirth, that change of our desires by God. I heard a speaker reinterpret the scriptures for convenience recently. He wanted to explain the escape from addiction through the atonement, yet he denied the power of God to make instantaneous changes. He quoted the following scripture: “...therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you” (Alma 34:31). He spoke of one of his clients relapsing into addiction, and instead of admitting some deficiency in his or his client’s understanding, said the contrast between this scripture and the behavior of his client must alter the meaning of the scripture to something other than “immediately.” This is known as “wresting” (twisting) the scriptures.

“Who am I that made man, saith the Lord, that will hold him guiltless who obeys not my commandments? Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and not fulfilled? I command and men obey not; I revoke and they receive not the blessing. Then they say in their hearts: This is not the work of the Lord, for his promises are not fulfilled. But wo unto such, for their reward lurketh beneath, and not from above” (D&C 58:30-33). If this man’s client relapses into addiction, it is not because the Lord misspoke in scripture or neglected something; rather, it is because neither the man, nor his client, understood how to harness and receive an adequate portion of the sanctifying, strengthening grace that comes through His Atonement (that, or they knew how but did not comply).

Instead of diminishing the power of the Atonement to excuse our shortcomings, we can go back to the scriptures and find the conditions we must live by in order to receive its sanctifying power, that power which changes our very natures.

The Lord takes responsibility for making us weak; He also offers to make our weakness into strength. Why should we look somewhere other than to the Manufacturer for repairs or upgrades? Ether 12:27 is among the most poorly-understood verses in the Book of Mormon, and among the most oft-quoted. If we actually understood it, more of us would cease to be confused about the rate at which spiritual rebirth occurs:

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.” How unflattering. Who wants to go to Jesus if it will diminish our self-esteem or self-love? That is like asking, “who wants to go to a doctor if all he will do is point out what’s wrong?” That is his job—that, and fixing the problem. “I give unto men weakness that they may be humble.” Toes that can be stubbed, a mind that can forget, even a heart capable of being tempted—He did all that to me? This should be the most controversial statement in the entire Book of Mormon. We are so eager to pigeonhole this verse into our practice-makes-perfect paradigm that we gloss right over this sentence without critically examining it. Jesus gave me my weakness! What do I need to do in order to have the problem fixed? Read again: “...that they may be humble.” This is the missing ingredient in most people’s search for sanctification and rebirth. Why do we feel like we are the same old sinners trying to manage the same bad desires? Why does rebirth take so long? We fail to meet this one qualification: humility.

“...and my grace is sufficient for all men who humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” Is this talking about practicing the piano until we get good at it? No. This is speaking of receiving the grace of Christ, power beyond our own natural capacities. To receive it, we must come to Him in faith and humility.

I give it as my opinion that faith is much more common than humility. Many people believe many outlandish things beyond the scope of proof. Even Satan and his angels have a perfect knowledge that God lives; what good do their testimonies do them? We must have faith AND humility before it will do us any good.

Defining and Adopting Humility

Now to the most important part: What is humility? Why is it crucial before we can be reborn?

Nephi’s statement to his father gives us a general idea of what actually constitutes genuine humility: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded...” He is 1. Willing to obey. (That word, “willing,” shows up each Sunday in the sacrament prayer on the bread.) “...for I know the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1Ne. 3:7). Nephi is willing to obey—2. Not because of his great confidence in himself, but because of his confidence in, and reliance upon, the Lord. Willing obedience, combined with an acknowledgement of our own nothingness, our utter dependence on God, constitutes the majority of acceptable humility.

(We often conflate the smoke with the flame, the symptoms with the real thing; weepiness, self-degradation, moping, giving up, limp limbs—these are not humility. Even sorrow for sin is not quite there yet, though it is a beginning point. A deeper definition of humility might be something like, “Absolute deference to the truth, however embarrassing or inconvenient or painful it may be.” This applies to us all, saints and sinners alike.)

Paradoxically, the Savior exhibits the ultimate in humility, even though He was the only perfect person ever to walk the earth. What business do we have being less than humble?

The Book of Mormon is the perfect manual for learning how to access the sanctifying, enabling power of the Atonement. Anywhere you read about sanctification, a mighty change of heart, being born of God, changed, nearby in the text there is some reference to humility lurking—meekness, lowliness of heart, a soft heart, submissiveness—these words begin to form a litany, a clear message: All who would be reborn must become adequately humble.

That is another misunderstood property of humility. It is not all-or-nothing; scriptures speak of “depths” (plural), degrees of humility. We may be proud; then we may be sort of humble, very humble, or extremely humble. Imagine pushing a beach ball under water at a swimming pool. The deeper you try to push it the harder it becomes to keep the ball down there.

That is important too; the mighty change of heart we receive for being that humble only stays to the degree of, and for the duration of, our humility. The instant we are no longer humble, any change of heart we may have received begins to crumble, because we are no longer fulfilling the condition of receiving that mighty change. Must we be THAT humble, ALL the time? YES, if we want to be that reborn, all the time.

That is the difference between those who are spiritually reborn in an instant, versus the rest of us who struggle for years and notice bumps of progress instead of the leaps and bounds. We are not waiting for the Lord; He is waiting for us, waiting to see us make that offering.

“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...” (3Ne. 9:20). No exceptions, no qualifications, no timetable or waiting. IF we make that offering, THEN we are reborn. And when we choose to un-humble ourselves, then that blessing is withdrawn. Therefore it is critical to understand scriptural humility.

The next verse further explains what He is describing: “Behold, I have come unto the world to...save the world from sin” (3Ne. 9:21). The professors of religion in Joseph Smith’s day (and some unwitting Latter-day Saints today) denied His power to do this very thing, to take the desire to sin out of the hearts of people.

Measuring Humility

How do we know when we have fully offered our hearts to God? We can go through the list of things we love, and ask ourselves, one by one, if there is anything on that list we would have a hard time parting with if the Lord asked us to give it up. Could we give up our favorite foods for the Lord? Our possessions? Friends? Status? Loved ones? For spiritual rebirth, this is where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. The scriptures call it “real intent.” “...I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent...witnessing...that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ...then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost...” The role a sincerely humble heart plays in the process is indispensable. It is our side of the deal; if we cannot produce it, we do not receive that mighty change of heart. (Ordinances also play a vital role, and formalize these internal commitments to God in visible ways; we will assume that the reader is a Latter-day Saint, and that ordinances are already taken care of.)

This is not the art of hating; rather, it is the art of loving Him more than anything or anyone else we love. The things we might accidentally value more than God, or His will for us, need not be sinful; we can inadvertently convert innocuous things like cars, health, romantic relationships, food, or anything else into an idol by elevating it in our hearts above God’s status. It is the topography of our hearts that determines whether they belong to God, or to someone or something else.

Think about the medal podium at the Olympics. There are multiple winners up there, but only one gets to perch on the highest point. Is God in that position in our hearts, or is something else? As we elevate Him higher and higher in status, our hearts become more and more His. That is real humility before God. And that is the degree to which we are reborn.

Ownership is an uncomfortable paradigm in our day and age. Before we balk at the concept, let us examine it fully. Do we want the Lord to own us? Yes, as much as the passengers of the Titanic wanted to belong to a lifeboat. Having a god, a highest priority, a thing we devote our hearts to most, is inevitable. Everyone belongs to someone or something in that sense—we all have a favorite. If we do not belong to Jesus, ultimately we have chosen someone or something else as our God, and the consequences will be spiritual death. It may be insulting to be equated with chattel, a sheep, but without the Shepherd, the sheep are exposed to the wolf, easy pickings.

Here is a shorthand way to conceive the mechanics of spiritual rebirth: Our hearts are changed by the power of the Atonement; we have the Atonement to the degree we receive the Spirit; we receive the Spirit to the degree that we are humble; therefore, the more humble we are, the more sanctified our hearts become. So rebirth is proportional to humility. Humility is a function of several things—attitude, willing obedience, acknowledging and confessing our flaws and lowliness, receiving ordinances, submitting to trials. It gets a workout as we progress through the gospel and live, but that core virtue must be intact through it all before rebirth happens.

If we want to be completely spiritually reborn, we must become (and remain) completely humble.

(These principles are universal. To the degree they are applied accurately, they work, regardless of the setting or semantics. Examine a generic 12-Step Program sometime. You will find each step is saturated in humility. Those people who participate in such programs are unwittingly going through the process of offering a broken heart and a contrite spirit to God, and reaping the blessing—to be “baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost,” to experience a might change of heart, or rebirth. They are doing it in the dark, so to speak, without the terminology or knowledge about Atonement, Spirit, Holy Ghost, repentance, humility, sanctification, etc. But they go through the right moves, the exact same motions. And they still experience measurable success. Why should we do it blindfolded when the scriptures are laid before us plainly?)

The work of spiritual rebirth is not trying to mimic the attributes of charity; the work is to humble ourselves into the dust so that the Lord can “bestow” (Moroni 7:48) this gift upon us. Then we will exhibit the attributes of charity naturally, automatically, without thinking, because then it will be our nature to act that way; God has made us new creatures.

Limits on Rebirth

God respects agency; it is inviolable for Him. Thus, He will not change a heart that does not belong to Him. Our hearts belong to Him when nothing we love has a higher claim on our hearts. The “process” of spiritual rebirth we speak of is not the process of waiting for God to change us, but one of waiting for us to get our hearts completely into His ownership. That is what enables those miraculous 5-minute rebirths recorded in scripture. Those people actually met the qualification, and the Lord immediately poured out His promised blessing, a large enough portion of the Holy Ghost to cleanse them and change their natures.

The imagery of cleansing with fire describes rebirth. It is strange that people could experience such a cleansing and not be aware of it, like the Lamanites in 3Ne. 9:20. Such healing from the Lord is seamless, and those newly-reborn Lamanites would probably need to encounter things that once tempted them to realize their hearts had been changed at all. Here is another way to conceptualize the mechanics of rebirth, or just what rebirth entails:

We give our hearts to Christ, and He gives us His heart in return.

Imagine a teen riding a bicycle. It gets him around well, and he is glad. Then he qualifies for a driver’s license. His parents subsequently allow him to borrow their car. Qualifying for the license and owning the car are two separate things, but the teen is able to benefit from the borrowed car. It is superior to his bicycle in every way, speeds up his travel, and makes him more useful to his family. As long as he keeps the traffic laws and family rules, the parents are glad to let him benefit from borrowing the car. If he should ever abuse the privilege, or break family rules (even rules unrelated to driving) use of the car would be withdrawn.

We each have our own natures, our own “bicycle,” with its talents and flaws. Instead of asking “what would Jesus do,” we can, through the Atonement, learn the answer to a much more intimate question: “What would Jesus feel?” What would He want if He were me, in my place? How would He react to the things that tempt me? When we have those moments in our lives when sin just loses its appeal, we can take that as evidence that spiritual rebirth is occurring in us. We should humble ourselves even more to keep it from being withdrawn. It is only as permanent or impermanent as our humility:

“And we know also, that sanctification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their mights, minds, and strength (i.e. a broken heart and contrite spirit). But there is a possibility that a man may fall from grace and depart from the living God; Therefore let the church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation; Yea, and even let those who are sanctified take heed also” (D&C 20:31-34). (Notice that being a member of the Church, receiving ordinances, is not the same thing as being sanctified, or spiritually reborn? It is possible to be baptized in water and confirmed without offering a broken heart or a contrite spirit.)

How can we lose rebirth, if our nature is replaced with the nature of Jesus Christ Himself? Oliver Cowdery was inspired to write D&C 20, and ironically lived out the scenario of falling from grace it describes. Instead of losing his sanctification, rebirth, through gross sin, he lost it through pride. Rebirth elevates us to a plateau where the enemies of carnal desires and lusts have reduced access to us. But the price of retaining that elevated ground is humility. The temptations of pride and rebellion are still there. If ever we are commanded by the Lord to do something, and we ignore the promptings of the Spirit or rebel, the Spirit withdraws. That means the Atonement that kept us safe from lower temptations also withdraws, and we lose the high ground. Lucifer was a Son of the Morning, dwelling in the presence of God, but pride was able to develop in him even then. How much easier is it for us, in our physical bodies on earth, to develop pride? Pride is a function of agency; agency never goes away; so pride is a constant danger for all, even those who are not being tempted by the flesh anymore. Retaining rebirth means maintaining humility. That includes meeting the Lord’s difficult assignments and enduring what He sees fit to inflict upon us.

Non-Selfish Purposes

When we are reborn, healed, it is not so that we can leave behind our more embarrassing sins while engaging in socially acceptable sins. This is radical brain surgery, not a haircut. The complete humility that precedes rebirth amounts to giving God the title to our souls, not just willingness to sacrifice a vice here or there. Rebirth empowers us; we are upgraded from lost sheep to shepherds. The ability to be free from sin precedes assignments to help others, not an invitation to go out and play. We are enabled, and assigned, to do our Father's work.

Some of us evince the attitude that hard work, struggling with temptation, is a greater virtue than being humble enough to have the burden completely removed. Read the scriptures; managing evil desires is not our ultimate assignment, or our greatest work. If all desire for sin were removed, do we really think that our work would be done? Think of the Three Nephites. Jesus freed them from temptation, but they have been busy for almost two millennia.

Latter-day Saints do not view rebirth in the smug, one-shot, self-congratulatory manner of pop-religion, but we still have a long way to go as a Church in understanding and applying it fully. Instead of explaining our shortcomings by denying that Jesus Christ is able to make us holy, let us look into our hearts and see what idols we may be placing above God in our ranking system. They put our hearts out of the reach of His healing, cleansing power.

Closing the Gap

Being humble is hard work. It requires a new mindset. Are we aware of our nothingness, or do we run and hide from that obvious truth (the way Satan convinced Adam and Eve to hide from God)? Are we willing to do whatever God asks, or sacrifice anything at His request? Even when we reach this state, we still have to admit, like Nephi (2Ne. 4:16) that we are still missing the necessary funds to say “thy will be done” and have it translate into solid obedience (not just the non-rebellious type, but the kind that doesn't stumble or spill anything). Do we recognize that not sinning, doing the right thing, is simply clearing the bar, meeting the minimum requirement, rather than a reason to spray champagne? And it takes grace, assistance from Jesus Christ, to lift us over that bar anyway. Our nothingness and limitations are huge.

Those who struggle with embarrassing addictions and grievous sins are driven to be humble by the sheer social pain of their situations. Those whose vices are socially acceptable are in a dangerous position—to paraphrase C. S. Lewis (in The Great Divorce), it is easier to mistake brass for gold than to mistake mud for gold. Just because we are not embroiled in serious violations of the commandments does not mean we can get into heaven without being reborn, and that requires full submission to God, humility. So being humble is not just for professional sinners; it is required of everyone. Managing our foibles through willpower and our cunning devices will suffice for the short term, but in the long run, the natural man must be euthanized, and only the Savior can perform that operation. Trying to keep the natural man as a well-fed pet with scraps of mild worldliness and innocent fun will not do.

Perhaps the humility we offer that is acceptable is not objectively perfect humility; maybe it is simply our personal best, our 100%, whatever that might be at the moment. There is, unfortunately, always room for improvement, deeper depths of humility to reach, with no discernible finish line in sight. (I was astonished at a photograph of the world-record holder for the Limbo; she was mere inches off the ground, and walked under a bar less than a foot high. I could not manage to go that low.) What I know for certain is that the grace we receive is proportional to our humility. How low we can go, and how low we actually go, are partway in our control, and in some ways out of our control. We all fall short and miss the mark. That is why we need Jesus to save us, to act as our Savior. We need not be frantic or self-abusive. But we need to begin somewhere. The real process is getting more humble, and that means actually understanding humility via the scriptures. We hold the metronome; the ball is in our court. Most of the attributes described in the scriptures, the ones we work on and practice so frantically, are what the Lord can make of us AFTER we offer that broken heart to Him.

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Follow this link to an earlier blog post about spiritual rebirth. It describes the same concepts, with a different emphasis or angle.