Truth Will Out

Lots of people over my lifetime have tried to convince me that my beliefs are wrong. Which, I guess is only fair, because there are thousands of missionaries all over the world trying to do the same thing. Some people told me that it doesn't really matter what church you belong to, as long as you believe in Jesus Christ. Some people argued that their church was correct, and mine was wrong. Again, only fair, in the grand scheme of things. I have tried to think of it from their perspective. Someone knocks on your door, and tells you that their church is the right one, and yours is wrong, and we'd like you to join ours. Then they proceed to tell you that a fourteen year old boy went into the woods, God Himself, and Jesus Christ appeared to him, told him that none of the churches on the earth were correct, and not to join any of them. As if that didn't sound crazy enough, a few years later, he was praying again when an angel named Moroni appeared to Joseph and told him that a book, written on gold plates, was hidden under a rock near his home, and he was to go get them, and translate them. It sounds like something out of a fantasy novel. It sounds nuts. So, let's play the What If Game for a moment. Let's say for a moment, that it's not true. Joseph Smith never saw God, the Book of Mormon is the result of an overactive imagination and greedy mind, and millions of people all over the world have been brainwashed. It wouldn't be the first time. But, let's say it is true. Joseph Smith saw what he saw, translated a history, and restored the true Church of Jesus Christ to the earth. I have had so many people ask me questions like, "If it's really true, what about this?" The "this" can be almost anything. But, unfortunately, that's backwards. The way we learn isn't by knowing everything at once, otherwise my brain would have exploded in about week two of being a chemistry major. I learned first that molecules exist, then what they do, then what we can do with them. The first thing to do is to figure out if Joseph Smith really was a prophet. You find that out by praying. If you don't feel anything, happy living! What we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints invite everyone to do is to pray, and listen. We know that if you pray with real intent, you will feel the truth of it. Real intent means you really want to know whether it's true or not. If you're already convinced it's false, what can God tell you? It sounds presumptuous to say that if you're not getting a yes answer, it's your fault. But, there it is. If you don't care, then don't worry about it. But, wouldn't you want to know the truth? If it is true, and all the blessings we promise, like eternal marriage and families and happiness here on earth, are real, then wouldn't you want that? Does all the finger-pointing matter, when all is said and done? It comes down to this: either it's true, or it isn't. I testify that it is. God and Jesus Christ appeared to a fourteen year old boy, and restored the true Church to the earth. The Book of Mormon is true. It really happened. Once you know that, all else will come. Of that I testify, in the name of my beloved Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Piano Recitals and Flat Tires

I was young, maybe six or seven, I can't remember exactly. It was my first piano recital. I was all dressed up in my Sunday best. My parents were sitting three or four rows back in the Primary room at the Church. I waited anxiously for my turn. When it came, I walked to the piano, although to this day I don't know how I made it, with my Jell-o legs. With shaking hands, I hit the first chord. The song was from the LDS Children's Songbook, called "I Wonder When He Comes Again". The song is just short of two pages long, and about halfway through it, the notes from my memory and the muscle memory both flew right out my brain. It was gone. I sat there, hands shaking worse than ever, panicking, blood rushing to my fingertips as the impulse to flee threatened to overcome me. Just before I could convince my near-liquid legs to take on the weight of my body, I heard something. A whisper. It was my teacher, sitting in the front row, just to my right. "She can do it, I know she can do it." That's what she said. The possibility of running away now entirely out of the question, I sat there, nonplussed and confused. I couldn't remember the song, but I couldn't very well leave now, not with my teacher showing such confidence in me! What a pickle. But then suddenly it came to me. I remembered! I started exactly where I'd left off, and when I finished the last chord, and the sound died away, I stood, and grinned, first at my parents, and then at my teacher, courtseying as my teacher had instructed.

A couple years ago, I had some business to attend to at BYU. I drove my mom's car into the parking lot, parked, conducted my business and returned-only to find that in my absence, one of my tires had deflated. Flashing back to my first time on the road, which involved a curb, a flat tire and a lesson in which pedal is which, I knew exactly what to do. I opened the trunk, retrieved the necessary elements, jacked up the car, and proceeded to loosen the bolts. Except that they wouldn't budge. At all. It's like they were welded to the hubcap. When my arm strength proved too weak, I resorted to my legs, since they are larger muscles, and I could stand and put my weight on it. I must have looked pretty silly, stomping on the bar over and over again, with increasing frustration evident in the increasing force with which I brought my foot down. In the midst of this, I heard from behind me a male voice saying, "Whoa! Whoa!" as though I were beating a puppy. I turned and he walked over, indicating that he would assist me. Feeling a little hurt, I nevertheless conceded the mechanism to him. He took the bar, and began to struggle, first just a little and then with all his might. It wouldn't budge. Feeling vindicated, I looked at him, and he looked back at me. His chivalrous act was disintegrating before his very eyes. Eventually, he resorted to my own form of attack, and began stomping on it. I'd like to think that I loosened it for him, but he did eventually get the bolt loose, and then the others as well. We got the spare tire secured, and I thanked him for his help. It's hard to say who's pride was wounded more in the encounter.

In the first incident, I practiced for weeks upon weeks, memorizing and agonizing. In the second, it was a complete surprise, as was the complication. In either case, help came precisely when it was needed. In both, I knew what I was doing, but it didn't hurt to have a little extra push in the right direction. However things come our way, we can always rest assured that our Heavenly Father will never leave us stranded. Whether it's in the form of whispered words of encouragement or a proverbial Knight who comes to the rescue, even when we could probably do the job ourselves, He will never leave us alone. He always knows what we need and how we need it. All we have to do is learn to recognize and accept it.

I Was Pretty Sure

Almost ten years ago now, I graduated high school. The early Arizona summer was in full swing so the school provided water so that we would all be good and hydrated. At the table where the water cups were stood my sophomore geometry teacher, whom I had liked very much. Jokingly, I asked her, "Never thought I'd make it, did you?" To which she replied rather matter-of-factly, "No, I was pretty sure you were going to make it." I have thought about that experience ever since that day. Even my flippant disregard for my own abilities was met with an attitude of confusion and disbelief. She believed in me, she had always believed in me, and made sure that I knew it. I don't even remember her name, but I remember her face and her words.

The musical Les Miserable contains within it a song called Bring Him Home, a very touching song about one man's wish for another's well-being, even at the expense of his own. He pleads for God to give rest, peace and life to the poor soul whom he loves dearly. His plea is similar to Christ's plea for all of us. Even in his pronouncement that Marius is like the son he might have known, he is echoing the words of King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon that we become the sons and daughters of Christ through faith. If you listen to it from this perspective, Christ is pleading for each of us to return to Heavenly Father, even at the expense of His own life.

The story of the Candy Bomber is one that I love. One soldier who orchestrated a world-wide effort to deliver not only candy to the children of East Berlin, but also hope. The candy represented much more than momentary pleasure for the recipients. It represented love from some unknown person, and undoubtedly came in moments of desperate need to buoy up the spirits of those caught in the turmoil of the time.

Jesus Christ can be each of these things to us in times of need and in times of plenty. He can be that voice that says, very bluntly, "I know you can do it." He is our advocate, pleading our cause, aching for our return home so that He may embrace us and show us how very much He loves us. He can be our Candy Bomber, dropping packages in the form of the right person or word at the right time. Sometimes, He simply wants us to know that there is indeed someone out there, closer than we may think, who loves us. The thing is, He is always there, speaking, pleading and gifting. Sometimes, though, we may turn a deaf ear, turn prideful or be blinded by the turmoil in our own lives, missing the sweet things raining down on us from Heaven.

I have often wondered why it is so important that Christ came as a child, and why we celebrate it. I think it is imperative to understand that Christ came as He did precisely so that He could be the Advocate we need. What better advocate than one who can say, "I have stood where they stand, and can testify of their tribulations"? It is the very fact that He grew from an infant to the Man who died on the cross that He can be our Savior. Were it any other way, He could not be who He is. That is why we celebrate His birth. That is why we celebrate His life. That is how He can succor us. May we open our eyes, ears and hearts to our Savior, especially at this season. Merry Christmas, and God bless us, every one.

Video Testimony

These are two videos I made to express how I feel about the Savior and His life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N80_9Aw0wuc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYfNVO8lgyg&feature=plcp
Thanks for watching, please feel free to share and post, they are meant to uplift those who need it!

Evil Queen Vs. Wicked Witch

My new obsession, for anyone who cares, is called Once Upon a Time. It's a TV show that takes all the fairy tales and turns them on their heads, albeit a little unDisneylike. One of the things it endeavors to answer is why does the evil queen hate Snow White so much? The play Wicked attempts to answer the same question about the Wicked Witch. Dumbledore in Harry Potter makes a point to educate Harry about his enemy, what made him the way that he was. On my mission I had an interesting conversation with an elder, during which we disagreed on whether it matters how someone like the Wicked Witch got to be so wicked. For him, the bottom line was that she is, in fact, wicked, and it does not matter how she got that way. For me, it goes beyond that. Understanding why someone is evil doesn't make them any less evil, it simply makes them, well, more understandable. It means that they are not simply evil for the sake of being evil. There is more to them than meets the eye. It changes me, not them.

We all have bits of evil in us. The natural man, sinful self, enemy to God. Whatever you call it, all it means is that we are all, more or less, just like the villains we love to hate. The difference between us and them is that they have embraced their sins, and let them define them. The more we let jealousy, fear and pessimism rule our lives, the more like them we become. So, does it really matter why? Yes, and I'll tell you why. Because we learn to be that way. We learn how to sin. Early in life, our imperfect minds and bodies give our spirits a run for their money and we learn how to sin. It's just that simple. The ever-present good news is that if we can learn how to be a certain way, we can certainly unlearn the same thing. It takes time, but we can go from being the Evil Queen to Snow White, lovely and loving and pure. Because if the Evil Queen has a back story, so does Snow White, which means Snow learned how to be good, just as the Queen learned how to be evil. We get to choose. So, who will you choose to be?

Knowing

Pornography is not intimacy. Pornography is a distortion of reality. Intimacy between a man and a woman celebrates their love for one another and brings them closer together. It is mind, body and spirit melding together. The scriptures refer to intimacy using the word "know". To know something is to be familiar with, perceive, understand. It requires experience. Which is exactly the way the Lord intended intimacy to be in the first place. If you do not know someone in a personal sense, you cannot know them in the Lord's sense. Which is how pornography distorts the true meaning of what it means to love someone. To love someone for the physical pleasure they give you is to view them as an object, something to be discarded when it no longer suits you. The truth is, you can always be pleased physically, but emotionally, spiritually, those take someone special. Someone willing to know you as you would know them. Someone to hold you when the tears come unbidden, someone to serve and protect you. Someone to love you. That is why we guard intimacy like a precious jewel, because it is the only jewel worth giving to someone else.

And the Winner is...

We as a society speak in terms of winners and losers. If I were to ask you to describe to me what a loser is, certain people would come to your mind. Maybe even yourself. Words associated with losers are criminal, team, misfit, failure or bad. A loser is someone who consistently proves they are not worthy of respect. But when you think to yourself, "I'm such a loser," what you're really saying is that you have somehow failed at life. You are consistently proving to yourself your ineptitude at this game we call Being Human. 

Ok, so you are a loser. What does that mean? Even the loser gets to play. But that's not really what you want to hear, is it? What you want to hear is, "No! You're not a loser!" Ok, so you're not a loser. Do you feel better? No? Why not? I told you what you wanted to hear. In that case, let's try something else.

What does it mean to Be Human? In order to figure that out we have to go back a little bit. Rewind to before we were born. We all lived with Heavenly Father together. Chances are we've met before. Hello again. Anyways, we were presented with a choice. Heavenly Father's plan involved coming to earth, learning how to be like Him and one day return to Him to receive of the glory which we choose. Lucifer (who, by the way, was every bit our brother as Christ was) decided he didn't like that plan. He didn't want to see any of us perish because of bad choices. And he also wanted all the glory to himself. Maybe more so the latter. In any case, Lucifer proposed his plan, and maybe it sounded pretty good. None of us would be lost, what did we care who the glory went to? There was just one flaw in Lucifer's plan. You can't take glory away from the Father. It can only be given. So when he demanded the glory go to him, he set his will in defiance with the Father's. We took sides, and the mere fact that you are sitting in that chair with that rather stunned look on your face means that you chose not to follow Satan's plan. Congratulations, you won a free body! Unfortunately, bodies come with all sorts of things that Spirits don't. Like livers and pancreases. And hearts and brains. And hearts and brains develop very differently than our Spirit versions do. They are susceptible to decay, disease and malformation. And our emotions, which are tied to pretty much everything we do, came right along with this wonderful body. Isn't it great? Now, raise your hand if you have complete control over your emotions. Put your hand down. Even the "best" of us are prone to emotional hijackings. Some of you are wondering what "best" means. Well, that depends on you. So, think about that for a minute. Got the idea in your head? Great, now throw it out the window. Because who in the world are you to decide what's "best" as far as people go? Now I admit that the Avengers are the best at what they do. But they have superpowers. If you haven't got superpowers, forget it. Given the chance, we could all come up with a list of the "best" people we know of, historical or otherwise. Names like Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King would crop up quite a bit, probably. But they were only the best at being Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. Some of you are laughing right about now, shaking your heads and saying, "Well duh!" But if they could only be the best at themselves, why do you have to be better than everyone you know, and even some people you don't? Because that's what being a loser means. It is a word that implies competition. Because if you're are a loser, somewhere out there is a winner. Which, as you can hopefully now see, is preposterous. The only way you can lose at being an imperfect human is if you stopped being human. And barring any zombie apocalypse, that ain't going to happen. So just be yourself. You, my friend (and I do not use that term lightly) are NOT a loser. You wish you were different? Change. Not tomorrow, not next Friday. Right now. That doesn't mean that everyone else will see the change tomorrow. But you will know, and so will God. Change takes practice. But if I can learn how to do multivariable calculus and quantum mechanics, you can do this. You can learn to not think of yourself as a loser. And that is the most important change you can possibly make, because it is the most self-fulfilling prophecy on the planet. In other words, if you think you're a loser, you will be. If you think you're a child of a loving Heavenly Father who expects nothing more than His imperfect human child can offer, then you will feel that, too. You'll feel love. Perfect love.

Ready? Go!