Raising the (Uneven Parallel) Bars

I was involved in a Stake Leadership Training Meeting a couple of years ago, and I felt compelled to remind those who were in the Aaronic Priesthood Leadership group that "raising the bar" for the youth, leaders and parents does NOT mean establishing the bar at the same height for all Young Men. Rather, I believe it should mean helping each individual Young Man jump a little higher than he was able to jump previously.

If the bar is set at 7'6" for everyone, there will be much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth - and failure; if it is set at 3'0" for everyone, there will be much boredom and daydreaming and drifting away. The key is to know each Young Man well enough to raise that individual Young Man's bar just high enough so that clearing it is possible but requires increased effort and growth and strength.

Religious Nutcases, Unite!

Diablogging: Neylan McBaine (By Common Consent)

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the Poetry of Our Hymns

It has been my practice for years during the passing of the sacrament to open the hymnbook and read the words of the hymns being sung that day. I read them without the musical rhythm and pacing that make them "songs" - simply as poems, as I would read them in a classroom to a group of students. The meaning often jumps out in ways that simply are impossible to understand in their lyric form.

For example, look at the 3rd verse of Silent Night. If you type the words in separate lines for each individual thought or idea or phrase, it looks like this (read without pausing when no punctuation is visible):

Silent Night!

Holy Night!

Son of God,

love's pure light radiant beams from thy holy face,

with the dawn of redeeming grace,

Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Translated into "normal" English, it might read:

Silent Night! Holy Night! Son of God, love's pure light beams radiantly from thy holy face, and that pure light of love carries with it the rising light of redeeming grace.

Thou art Jesus - Lord at thy birth.

I gained a MUCH deeper appreciation of this hymn and others when I started reading them as poems within the spirit of Sacrament Meeting.

Borderline Sacrilegious, but Flat-Out Hilarious

Speaking of the Council in Heaven in the pre-mortal existence:

I’d make it look like the council in The Lord of the Rings, except Boromir is Satan, Gandalf is Jesus, Aragorn is the Holy Ghost, Elrond is Heavenly Father, and Legolas is Heavenly Mother. Frodo represents all of us. He says, “I’ll go to earth, though…I do not know the way,” and Jesus says, “I will help you bear this burden.” Then the Holy Ghost kneels and says, “If I can protect you, I will. You will have my spirit.”

Comment #26 on "Chapter 1 - Council in Heaven" - Eric Russell (New Cool Thang)

Admit It: We Don't Have All the Answers By Ourselves

We often believe we know what is best for others without bothering to get to know them intimately and ask them what they want for themselves. I have seen that way too much in my administrative meetings over the years. I believe that if we stopped making this assumption and simply asked others for their input, most of these problems would disappear - sometimes because the "solutions" would be manifest, but other times because we will realize that they really aren't major problems in the first place.

Charity: The Relationship Between Behaving Unseemly and Meekness

[This week as I have continued to ponder charity and not behaving unseemly, particularly as I have thought about the aspect of unseemly behavior I outlined last week from Romans 14, something I wrote almost exactly two years ago about being more merciful has weighed on my mind once again. Therefore, I am re-posting it this week in lieu of a "new" resolutions post]:

As I have continued to think about and try to practice being more merciful, something struck me that I had never considered previously. Considering it more deeply has been enlightening for me. [both then and now]

Being merciful might be categorized initially as being willing to forgive, but I think it is more fundamental than forgiving. Remember, one of the core definitions of mercy is "forbearance to inflict harm when one has the power to do so" - and I think there is a fundamental difference between forgiving and not harming. I think that we often focus so much on the first one (forgiving) that we sometimes forget about the second one (not harming) - and the thought that struck me is that forbearance to inflict harm must occur BEFORE true and total forgiveness can take place.

This is because "forgiveness" is focused on the offending person and is, as all who have been offended understand, a process. In order to "forgive", one must first be harmed in some way - but, more fundamentally, one must recognize that one has been harmed. Someone can harm me (and do so to a great degree), but if I am not aware of it (like instances of libel or slander that do not come to my attention) I cannot "forgive". Forgiving requires an understanding of harm, and requires an extension of mercy - by not demanding punishment that would constitute justice. In other words, if I am unable to extend mercy by forbearing to inflict harm when it is in my power to do so - and when it is "justified", I will be unable to forgive. This, in turn, will make me a bitter person - which will compel me to continue to judge and withhold mercy - which usually, if not always, will be done unrighteously (not in accordance with God's understanding and will) - which will, therefore, place me outside God's own mercy for my own transgressions. Only if I offer mercy to others will I be able to "obtain mercy" from God.

Forgiving what someone does to me requires that I proactively do something for them - extend the hand of mercy and not strike back. I have never considered "turning the other cheek" as an application of mercy, but this puts it squarely as a merciful act. This puts a new and compelling twist on the scripture I have read many times in my life but never seen quite this way:

"For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." (Isaiah 5:25)

I have read compassion in this verse (and others that use the same statement), but I have never framed it in terms of mercy. Each instance describes instances when the people of Israel have done things to reject their Lord, and each instance mentions the anger of the Lord at this rejection and the "just" result of that rejection - that his anger is not turned away. However, each verse ends by saying that His "hand is stretched out still".

The footnotes to Isaiah 9:12 (which contains the same phrase) provide the following additional clarification:

"IE In spite of all, the Lord is available if they will turn to him."

This is mercy at its most basic level.

In the grand scheme of things, being merciful might be the clearest, most practical way to define and understand forgiveness. If you truly have forgiven, you will not seek or do anything to inflict harm - either physical, financial, emotional or spiritual. You will, in a very real AND figurative sense, "turn the other cheek".

[As a post-script, I only will add that not behaving unseemly fits this same category of an active expression of mercy - by not doing something that is in one's power to do for no reason other than love and concern for others whose standards are different than your own.]

Godhood as the Goal of Existence for Men and Women

I believe that the great and fundamental heresy of the apostasy is the removal of the Father as an actual Father from Christian theology - someone His children can emulate and grow to approximate. I believe the great correction of the Restoration, imo, is the reinstatement of the Father as our ultimate, eternal objective. I believe the great addition of the Restoration is the inclusion of women in this eternal vision - by positing the existence of a Mother.

No matter the actual nature of Godhood, I believe strongly that the belief in individual exaltation and the effort required to reach perfection (completion of growth) is critical to the Atonement of Jesus as taught in the Gospels. Explicitly including women in that construct by juxtaposing a Mother at the side of a Father is deeply profound, in my humble opinion, regardless of whether it is an "accurate" depiction of the afterlife. The temple (and now "A Family: The Proclamation to the World") is a good example of how our ideal differs from the modification that is practiced in the fallen world, and too many people (even members) don't understand the power of our truly unique theology as it relates to men and women.

I Hope My Children Have This Type of Conviction and Courage

YW Virtue Lessons - Kevin Barney (By Common Consent)

Even Joseph Smith Had to Learn Line Upon Line Over Time

I'm not convinced Joseph understood the implications of his own visions and revelations when they happened. We have a hard enough time contemplating them even almost 200 years later; I think he learned "line-upon-line" from each subsequent experience. I think he understood his First Vision better through the years as it was reinforced by other experiences, so . . .

I'm not sure if the Lord told him not to reveal all of the First Vision details or if he simply didn't understand it all, but I think it's a combination of the two. I think he was overwhelmed by it; after all, Moroni later had to repeat his visit three more times after the initial vision in order to be sure Joseph understood it all. Of the two, I'm fairly certain that the First Vision would have been more overwhelming and hard to fathom than Moroni's message.

When you boil everything else down to the most fundamental principle of the Restored Gospel, I think it can be stated as: "I am a child of God." The literal reality of that statement is mind-boggling even for us, much less for others still bound by the teachings of centuries - as Joseph undoubtedly still was even after the First Vision. It was and is the heresy that nearly got Jesus stoned; Joseph had enough trouble with his claim of translating the Book of Mormon; I think understanding the First Vision fully and broadcasting it publicly easily could have killed the Restoration before it got started.

That's speculation, of course, but it makes sense to me.

True or Not, Some Things Simply Should Be Believed

"If you want to believe in something, then believe in it. Just because something isn’t true, there’s no reason you can’t believe in it. Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most: that people are basically good; that honor, courage and virtue mean everything; that power and money mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; that true love never dies. It doesn’t matter if they are true or not. A man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in."

- from the movie, "Second Hand Lions".