When our idealism has been rattled by abrupt confrontations with realism, our attitude about what has happened is more important than what has happened.
When held together, thought and faith can interact to help us keep our spiritual balance-and help us grow.
One unresolved question can't offset a mountain of answers that are resolved.
True faith is not blind, or deaf, or dumb. Rather, true faith sees and overcomes her adversary.
In stage one, faith is blind because it lacks awareness of reality. In stage two, faith is still blind if it sees complexity as the end of the journey of faith, because it has lost its vision of the ideal.
But our family chose to believe that the prayer made a difference.
Choosing between two principled alternatives (two 'goods') is more difficult than choosing when we see an obvious contrast between good and evil.
The difference between the believers and the unbelievers was not so much in what happened to them, but in their attitude toward what happened.
You'll always gain more from what you discover than from what you're simply told. Don't just look at the mountain - the doctrine - go climb it. You might just meet the Lord at the summit.
The contention he (Joseph Smith Jr.) sensed among the religious denominations in Palmyra distressed him primarily because of its effect on his personal quest, not because at age fourteen he was caught up in any macro-level worries about the historical state of Christianity.
Then Joseph took one more step into the intimacy of knowing Him fully, when in his great extremity at Liberty Jail the Lord called him "my son" (D&C 121:7) Gradually he had grown from servant to friend to son. Like Paul, Joseph paid the price to know the Lord most fully as he suffered with and for Him entering into the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.
What did Joseph learn in the "prison temple" of Liberty Jail that he didn't know, couldn't have known, on that 1820 spring day in the grove? Line up on line, opposition after opposition, it was the witness borne of experience-the witness more powerful than sight.
The questions we encounter can become rungs that give us solid footing or they can become holes we fall through; it depends on how we handle them.
It is one thing to know about Him or even to see Him-but quite another to know Him.
"If you do not use the cross, what is the symbol of you religion?" He replied, "the lives of our people."
The democratization of ideas sometimes confuses the reader as to what is true and what is not, as all ideas are presented horizontally and as fact, thus positioning the blogger's flippant opinion alongside the scholar's well-researched dissertation.
Heber C. Kimball once said that the Church had yet to pass through some very close places and that those who were living on borrowed light would not be able to stand when those days came. Thus, we need to develop the capacity to form judgments of our own about the value of ideas, opportunities, or people who may come into our lives. We won’t always have the security of knowing whether a certain idea is “Church approved,” because new ideas just don’t always come along with little tags attached to them saying whether the Church has given them the stamp of approval. Whether in the form of music, books, friends, or opportunities to serve, there is much that is lovely, of good report and praiseworthy, that is not the subject of detailed discussion in Church manuals or courses of instruction. Those who will not risk exposure to experiences that are not obviously related to some Church word or program will, I believe, live less abundant and meaningful lives than the Lord intends.We must develop sufficient independence of judgment and maturity of perspective that we are prepared to handle the shafts and whirlwinds of adversity and contradiction as they come to us. When those times come, we cannot be living on borrowed light. We should not be deceived by the clear-cut labels others may use to describe circumstances that are, in fact, not so clear. Our encounters with reality and disappointment are, in fact, vital stages in the development of our maturity and understanding.
The traditions which buttressed man's behavior are now rapidly diminishing. No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do. Soon he will not know "what he wishes to do ." More and more, eh will be governed by "what other people wish him to do."
Viktor Frankl, who wrote with deliberate optimism that by being left completely free to define the 'why' of our own lives, we are responsible for (and have the opportunity for) giving our lives the meaning we desire
And speaking of biases, some feelings of doubt and inability to feel the spirit are caused not by intellectual problems but by behavioral ones.
As you continue your search for faith, he said, please keep the commandments. Otherwise you will bias your search. If the affections of your heart are attached to the vices of this world, your head won't make you-perhaps won't even let you- believe in the virtues of God's world.
On the other hand, what does 'contingent trust' look like? We have mentioned the returned missionary who said he had left the Church because "the Church just didn't meet my expectations." His expectations-his personal view of what was best for himself-defined what he would allow the Lord to ask of him or do for hime. His trust was contingent.
They tell us that in this day of both the internet and the international church, we need to do a better job o introducing our children, young people, new converts, and others to the process of learning how to deal productively with complexity.
So neither the extreme optimist nor the extreme pessimist is of much help in improving the human condition, because people can't solve problems unless they are willing to acknowledge that problems exist while remaining loyal enough to do something about them.
That increased visibility also sends a message about the value, in today's world, of having open minds and open hearts based on a prepared stance that is as wise as a serpent yet as harmless as a dove.
First suggestion: faithful questions are valuable. Having a curious mind is a pathway to understanding and growth. However, there may be some who mistakenly assume that LDS culture disapproves of people who wonder.
As we enter stage two, however, it's good to remember that becoming a doubting Thomas is not the end goal of discipleship.
Being realistic is better than not seeing reality but as we've seen, a myopic preoccupation with complexity can easily become a rigid pessimism that also blocks the search for truth.
As one friend said, we don't want to be so closed-minded that we look at the world through a soda straw; but we also don't want to e so open-minded that our brains fall out.
God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge...that we may be exalted with himself.
And the apparently authoritative criticisms of those stories represent stage two-casting doubt on the stage one assumptions. Such criticism can propel readers from simplicity to complexity so fast that they not longer believe what they once did.
Their problem is not that they know too much about church history, but that they don't know nearly enough. And they have been conditioned by the oversimplifications of social media to expect a short answer to any question.
But when listeners hear only the negative half-truth, they sometimes shift the burden of proof, so that (perhaps egged on by critics who don't disclose their motives) they put the Church on the defensive and in the wrong, until the Church can explain the more nuanced reality-and they may not keep listening to take in the nuanced explanation.
Because he didn't know who biased his source was , he hadn't filtered it to protect his innermost spiritual sense.
The critics don't have to prove anything; they just have to make someone doubt, which is infinitely easier than producing conviction.
...we will learn for ourselves that by proving contraries, truth is made manifest.
If we an resolve our ambiguities with a believing attitude, our faithful choices will lead ultimately to our sanctification.
J. Golden Kimball said we can't expect the Holy Ghost to do our thinking for us.
Our professor, West Belnap, said to me after my class presentation, "Well, some of our people have it in their heads, and others have it in the hearts. I think it's best to have it in both places."
Faith in God is both the first gospel principle and an essential check against unrestrained liberty and reason.
If we trust in God, we will need to limit our liberty to the bounds He sets.
Simply knowing something will not sanctify us; it won't make us capable of being in God's presence. And our sanctifying circumstances won't always be rational. By its very nature, faith ultimately takes us beyond the boundaries of reason. So if we condition our faith on rationality, we might shrink back from a sanctifying experience-and thus not discover what the experience could teach.
If we are not finally true disciples, it won't matter much what else we are.
What are the odds that a tornado spinning through a junkyard would create a flyable Boeing 747?
Without God our universe is so wildly improbable that faith in God is more rational than disbelief.
But Abraham replied, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
There is something about forcing people to be righteous that interferes with, even prohibits, the process that righteousness in a free environment is designed to enable. Righteous living causes something to happen to people.
The process of becoming Christlike is more about acquiring skills than it is about learning facts and figures.
We can plead with the skeptics to just try Alma's experiment and see, but they often want us to 'prove' the faith proposition before they will submit themselves in ways that seem to them a loss of their freedom.
Those who just close their eyes for a while to see what blindness is like aren't motivated to exert themselves at a deep enough level to learn what the stick (a blind stick) can tell them. Why not? Because unless you are blind, you don't need to know.
Something will happen to one who honestly tries, and thereby discovers that a core purpose of our mortality is the opportunity to develop the skills, the capacities, that are necessary for us to live int he celestial kingdom.
We don't know if , when, or how He will deliver us in the short terms, but when we meekly yield to Him our non-contingent trust, He will always deliver us in the long term.
Some may leave the Church over personal issues that are later resolved. Then they have a change of heart and come back. Sometimes by then, after they have raised their children outside the Church, they discover that while their children agreed with their problems about this Church, their children won't accept the solutions they have found.
...when we confront serious, hard questions, we can keep growing from innocent simplicity through complexity to refined simplicity-and how, in that process, our choosing to trust the Lord by performing acts of sacrifice allows Him to open doors for us. That's what giving Him the benefit of the doubt looks like.
His answers illustrate how, when we choose to give the Lord the benefit of the doubt, our righteous desires will help us find, understand, and teach a plausible pattern that supports some divine instruction-knowing that we can almost never 'prove' conclusively that the pattern has a divine source.
People on the extreme sides of these questions seem very certain about the right answer. But some people would rather be certain than be right.
...he has encountered his share of unaswerable puzzles. When that happens, he has said, "I just ask myself, 'what can this teach me about God?'"
Faith is prized within the Christian tradition because it involves trust that would not be needed if the existence of God were subject to a mathematical proof. What God is seeking is not our intellectual assent so much as a relationship with us...Faith is a greater blessing than proof because it gives us a relationship with Jesus. All good relationships are bound together by love. And love is always an expression of Faith...We are changed by what we love more than by what we think.
Nourished by his love for the Lord and the Lord's love fo hin, he was changed more by that love than by his thinking.
As one friend said, "not all uncertainties need to be resolved intellectually. Blind faith is simple, easy and ultimately dangerous, but the benefit of the doubt is something earned by thought and experience that is then lovingly, charitably given to others, not because you have to," or because of plausible evidence, "but because you love and trust" the Brethren-just as God extends "the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him" (Mosiah 29:20) "giving each one of us the benefit of what surely must be some well-founded doubt" about our ultimate worthiness.
Yet our choices to believe can't-and therefore shouldn't -always count on complete rational support.
We take some guidance here from what president Spencer W. Kimball said about Peter denying Christ three times. Perhaps the standard interpretation is correct-Peter denied knowing Christ because he was human, weak , and afraid. On the other hand, said President Kimball, it is possible that the Savior's statement was not a prediction but a request for Peter to deny knowing Him in order to ensure Peter's future leadership for the Church.
Those who criticize the Latter-day Saints for blindly following their leaders don't really understand the origin and meaning this spirit. They seem unable to grasp that those shining eyes are not "the outcome of cunning calculations" but are the fruits of intensely personal convictions developed through thousands of private stories and struggles.
Let's talk about uncertainty. We'd like to suggest a three-stage model that builds on a perspective offered by the distinguished American judge Oliver Wendell Holmes: " I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity. But I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity."
If this is our paradigm, faith can be both blind and shallow, because it lacks awareness and careful thought. These limitations can keep us from extending our roots into the solid of real experience deeply enough to form the solid foundation needed to withstand the strong winds of adversity.
He imparts to His hearers only what they are ready to hear. Milk comes before meat.
The question of having moral beliefs is decided by our will. If your heart does not want a world of moral reality, your head will assuredly never make you believe in one.
Belief and doubt are living attitudes, and involve conduct on our part...if I doubt that you are worthy of my confidence, I keep you uninformed...as if you were unworthy of the same. If I doubt the need of insuring my house, I leave it uninsured...if I believed there were no need. At such times inaction counts as action, and when not to be for is to be practically against; here neutrality is...unattainable.
And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.
Suppose you are climbing a mountain, writes James, and at one point your only escape is to leap across a deep chasm. "Have faith that you can" make the terrible leap, "and your feet are nerved to its accomplishment. But mistrust yourself...and you will hesitate until all unstrung and trembling...you roll into the abyss. Refuse to believe, and you shall indeed be right," for you will perish. "But believe, and again you shall be right, for you shall save yourself. You make one or the other of two possible universes true by your trust or mistrust-both universes having been only maybes" before you made your choice.
The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. Therefore, the meaning of life is to give life meaning.
The tension between the real and the ideal is not a threat to our safety but is the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled.
But believing precedes understanding. Understanding does precede believing; "because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God" (Mosiah 26:3)
The very meaning of the invisible wold may...depend on the personal response we make to the religious appeal...if this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained fort the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight-as if there were something really wild in the universe which we are need to help redeem; and first of all to redeem our hearts from atheisms and fears. For such a half-wild, half saved universe our nature is adapted. The deepest thing in our nature is this...dumb region of the heart in which we dwell alone with our willingnesses and unwillingnesses, our faiths and fears.
The choice to be believing at this sage is very different from mere blind obedience. It is, rather , a knowing and trusting kind of obedience. Instead of asking us to put aside the tools of an educated, critical mind, this attitude invites us to use those tools, coupling them with our confidence in the ideal, so we can improve the status quo, not just criticize it. Call it informed faith.
The challenge with those who remain fixed in innocent, idealistic simplicity is that their perspective may not yet have grappled with the realities of what Holmes calls 'complexity. That's why he wouldn't give a fig for the untested idealism of naive simplicity.
Some people still in the early simplicity of stage one just don't see a gap. They somehow filter out any perception of the differences between the real and the ideal. For them, the gospel at its best is a firm handshake, a high five, and a smiley face.
If we don't grapple with the frustration that comes with facing bravely the uncertainties we encounter, we will lack the deep roots of spiritual maturity.
Christ came to earth so quietly, so peacefully-a light that "shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not...But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name". (John 1:5, 12;) It was all part of a plan carefully designed not to compel belief.
Our uncoerced choices set in motion the process of becoming like Him.
...we won't let the issues we don't yet understand get in the way of the fundamental truths we do understand.
"Principle of intelligence" may refer to facts, information, and the laws of the universe. But it especially refers to Christlike capacity and skills like self-control, obedience, compassion, patience, and unselfishness.
He is aware of those who yield with ultimate trust to their conviction that His expectations and hopes for them are, in the long run, better than anything they are capable of 'expecting' for themselves...He understands...how hard it is for us, especially in times of affliction, to accept His will when we really can't understand its implications...He identifies with our fears and anxieties.
...In today's culture, a provocative and unsettling idea runs directly counter to [the instinctive desire to belong]. We could call it the waning of belonging - the growing assumption that in order to remain completely free and unshackled, no one should belong to anyone else. Children don't belong to parents; husbands don't belong to wives; nobody belongs to anybody. Thus many today honestly wonder whether the bonds or kinship and marriage are valuable ties that bind - or sheer bondage.
Others in this stage may see the gap, but they choose - whether consciously or not-to ignore the terra firma of reality, thereby pretending that they have eliminated the gap, with all its frustration.
As time goes on, however, our experience with real life often introduces a new dimension-a growing awareness of a gap between the real and the ideal, between what is and what ought to be.
Neither side can persuade the other on the basis of external evidence alone. Could it be that the Lord planned it that way-so that we are not forced by the circumstances to believe? There are so many things he could do to rend the veil.
Instead of telling or showing Nephi the entire vision at once, the Spirit led him-one question at a time-helping him discover for himself each scene and what it meant.
We value what we discover more than we value what we are told.
When our idealism has been rattled by abrupt confrontations with realism, our attitude about what has happened is more important than what has happened.