Alive But Not Living

Last weekend our young men hiked White Mountain; one of several peaks in California that is over 14,000 feet.  When we arrived at the base camp, we climbed to the top of a large hill to watch the sunset.  Moments after arriving on top, with breathtaking views in every direction and spectacular color in the sky, one of the boys realized that he was getting cell service and within seconds every boy was playing Fortnite on their phones (that's a popular video game for those of you who are "old" and out of the know).  Instead of drinking in the beauty of nature, the digital pied piper of our day hypnotized them away into the soft glow of their smartphone world; rendering the beauty all around them irrelevant.  Not because it didn't exist, but because they weren't experiencing it.

Albert Einstein said, "The only source of knowledge is experience."

We know through modern revelation that "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection."

Thus, if it is through experience that we gain knowledge and knowledge is all that rises with us into the next life, then it follows that Satan does not need to convert you to win; he only needs to distract you from having experiences.

I love that saying that we are not humans having a spiritual experience, we are spirits having a human experience.  The purpose of this life is to master ourselves while in these temporary bodies so that we can be endowed with greater power in the next life with our permanent bodies.

But, just like those boys who sat atop a panoramic mountain starring into their smartphones; it is possible for us to go through life so distracted by the world, that we miss out on the purpose for which we have come.

2 Nephi 28:21
And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security...and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

Calvin Coolidge
All growth depends upon activity.  There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

Abraham 3:25
And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.

Intellect Is Not Authority

I met a Lutheran minister on a radio show discussing the topic of religion during Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.  He and I became friends and I asked him one day in his office where his priesthood authority comes from.  He gestured towards a plaque on the wall, indicating that he had been to seminary. 

My question to him was about priesthood authority, his answer to me was about intellectual training.  To him, and most other religions, they are one and the same.  

Priesthood authority (the ability to act in the name of God) is actual, not intellectual.  If you learn everything there is to know about a car, that doesn't mean you own one.  The actual authority of God can only be received by the laying on of hands by someone who holds that priesthood authority themselves; not by having an above average GPA at a prestigious seminary.

Authority means permission or the ability to act in the name of.  If that is true, from whom does a person who graduates seminary get his permission?  A book he studied?  Another person who also read that book?  

Intellect is not authority.

This confusion between authority and intellect is one reason why we have more than 40,000 very different Christian religions, all based on the Bible.  No amount of intellectual training gives a person the ability to say, "Thus sayeth the Lord." 

It is not just in the ministry, in today's pop culture world we accept as gospel the words of any famous movie or sports star; as if their talents on the court or the silver screen somehow convey authority to speak any subject they want.

In stark contrast, God's prophets have often been very young, uneducated or ineloquent.  Joseph Smith, Jeremiah, Samuel, and David were all young.  Moses and Enoch were "slow of speech."

The Lord specifically chooses such to do his work so that we know it is the work of the Lord and not the work of man.

This isn't to say that a prophet can't be intelligent.  Our current prophet is a renowned and respected surgeon.  But that is not where his authority to speak in the name of the Lord comes from.

It is authority that makes this the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Doctrine and Covenants 132:8

Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.

Don't Bank On It

Last summer we received a reverse 911 call informing us of a mandatory evacuation order because a fire was headed towards Paradise.  As I was anxiously hooking up the 5th wheel to pull out of town, I noticed the next door neighbor watering her grass.  I asked her if she was going to evacuate?  It was a rhetorical question really because the evacuation order was mandatory.  To my surprise, she said, "No, I work at the Bank of the West and its all brick.  If it gets bad, I am just going to go over there and wait it out."

That seemed to make sense.  I'll never forget the creepy feeling as I pulled away while she watered her grass.  In the end it didn't matter because the fire never made it to our town; thanks to CAL FIRE.

Many months later I was awakened early in the morning by a phone call that my daughter's school had been canceled for the day because the Bank of the West building next door had burned down.  No other structures burned but they closed my daughter's school next door because it lost power.

As I stood looking at the hollowed remains and charred brick walls, I remembered my neighbor saying that this is where she was going to go for safety, if the fire made it to Paradise.  Her plan didn't sound so good anymore.  It turns out that the building was built mostly of wood like any other building but it had a cosmetic brick overlay; giving it a superficial impression of safety.  Ignoring the warning from CAL FIRE officials to evacuate would not have ended well for her, if the fire had come to town.

How often do we hear the warnings of the prophets and decide whether or not we will take the warnings seriously; like not watching R rated movies, dating too young as teenagers, having our emergency supply of food, or paying tithing?

Ezra Taft Bensen, in the October 1980 General Conference said, "The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."

I wonder if those of us who choose to ignore those warnings from the prophets will one day lament, as did the Nephites, "O that we had repented before this great and terrible day..."  They had been warned many times, just as we have been.

The Lord’s promises of protection are only valid if we heed the warning.

Malachi 4:1
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble...

Jeremiah 17:5
...cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm...

No Haters In Heaven

We are a product of the experiences we have in life.  Just like a study of your DNA will reveal what nationalities you hail from; your current opinions and beliefs are in some ways a product of the experiences you have had up to today.  Those experiences don't dictate what we do, but they have a great influence on how we think and act in our daily lives.

Right before I was to speak one Sunday the bishop stood up to announce that he had just received word that a young man in the congregation had been killed riding his bike the night before.  An audible gasp and then a hush went over the congregation as the news shocked each of us.

I was almost as shocked to hear him say that the parents of this young man wanted to say something.  His loving parents came to the pulpit; softly and with tears in their eyes they bore the most powerful testimony I had ever heard about eternal families and how we will see our families again in the next life.  There was not a dry eye in the room.

As I stood to speak, I realized that the topic I was prepared to speak on was suddenly and completely inappropriate.  I stood silent in front of the teary-eyed crowd, struggling for how to begin or even what to say in that heart-wrenching moment; when a profound thought struck me...there are no scars in heaven.

Here on earth events have an emotional impact on each of us that bolsters or scars us emotionally and thus influences our daily existence for great lengths of time, if not our whole lives.  Some extreme examples would be how seniors who grew up in the Great Depression won't throw away used band-aids for fear of being wasteful, the heroes that serve in the armed forces often come home with PTSD, or someone we love passes away far too early.

These are major events, but even the smaller ones become part of our existence; manifesting themselves in our views of the world and how we react to future events.  It is a natural part of being human.

In the next life, there will be no such thing as PTED (Post Traumatic Earth Disorder).  It is not that we won't remember the pain we had here; we just simply won't have any use for it anymore.  How can you be sad about death when everyone you ever knew is alive and well.  How can you be sad about suffering when all physical ailments have been abated forever?

The suffering of this life is simply a means to an end; a way of teaching us the difference between happiness and sadness, good and evil or right and wrong.

Eder Joseph B. Wirthlin said, “The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss...Every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude.”

Unfortunately, I think there are a few things from this life that can transcend the joy of that post-mortal existence; one of them is hatred.  Those who will not forgive others can carry that hatred into the next life unless and until they decide to give it up.  Just like the way you cannot smile and frown at the same time, you can't hate and love at the same time.

There is no day coming where we will watch gleefully while revenge is meted out to those who offended us.  The Lord has said, "Vengeance is mine..."  Yet, have you noticed that there are people, even now, who are so consumed by hatred that they can't see how blessed they are?

Many years ago I visited a less active member of the church who told me that she would never come back to church because of what Bishop White had done.  I had just moved to Paradise and the name didn't sound familiar, so I asked who he was.  She told me that he was her bishop in San Fransico. I asked when she had moved to Paradise and she told me about 30 years earlier.  Its been about 15 years since she told me that and she has still not come back to church.  So for some 45 years she has been depriving herself of the gospel of Jesus Christ because she was offended by a bishop in San Fransico; who probably didn't even know he offended her.

I wonder if there will be people in the next life residing in kingdoms below their potential, telling this same story about how they were offended back on Earth?  It seems possible when you consider "...that same spirit which doth possesses your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."

The pains of this life will be alleviated in the next, but you have to decide to forgive.

One thing I am sure of is that there will be no haters in heaven.  If you have any unkind feelings towards any member of heaven you will be asked to withdraw so that the Lord can be present.

Forgive.  Move on.

Matthew 5:46-48
46. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? 47. And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? 48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.