To the Saints: A Rousing Cry

I finished a book recently. It is nonfiction, a collection of unassigned church talks that sprang from two successive requests to speak at the mission farewells of some friends, Travis Kupp and Sean Bell. This collection would not exist without their curious faith in me, so thank you Travis and Sean (They've both been back from their missions for some time now.)

I've only given the first three publicly; the other five are much, much longer than would be able to fit in a sacrament meeting schedule. Those five are essentially long essays in the form of talks (e.g. I address the audience as "brothers and sisters" from time to time). All eight of these are still in rough draft mode, which means I haven't really gone back to them very much after initially completing them and the immediate read-through for basic errors before I post them on the blog. So before I seek to get this collection published I will be going back and doing a heckuva lot of revising and editing; thus your input and/or encouragement would be most welcome.

In the end, this is part of my contribution to the missionary work we're all meant to be engaged in. I wasn't able to serve a full-time mission because of health issues, and I realized that that style of sharing the gospel is something I really don't have the capability to do; therefore, I've done this. I hope something in one of these talks can touch the reader and help them expand their perspective of our identity and destiny, and see some aspect of the gospel in a new light.

I call this collection, To the Saints: A Rousing Cry, because I want readers to catch some of the energy I feel about this work, to wake up, throw off the chains of spiritual sleep, and rise up to do our duty to God. There's a lot of work to do, and it can only be done by us.

I am also including Talk #8 online for the first time. Previously it had been shared only privately due to its extremely personal nature.

Here is what is essentially the table of contents. All the links will take you to the particular talk.

1. The God Arc
2. A Man More Precious than Fine Gold
3. The Fruits of Repentance
4. This Dream Will End
5. A Mirror of God
6. The Work is Not Yet Done
7. A New Call for Consecration
8. Ris'n with Healing in His Wings

A guide to the topics:

1. our identity and destiny as children of God
2. words of comfort and counsel to people in pain (of any kind)
3. the unending effects and global importance of personal repentance
4. comfort to those who have lost something or someone
5. about our Heavenly Father and our relationship with Him
6. the work of the holy temple
7. another aspect of consecration: specifically, our time and talents
8. the Atonement, its function and purpose (and how it has affected me)

Please read some of these when you have the time. Some of them can get quite long (peaking at ~13,000 words in "A Mirror of God") but I think they might be worth it. A good Sunday read, if anything.

Thanks,
Neal

Talk #8: Ris'n with Healing in His Wings

Talk #8 – The Atonement: Ris’n With Healing in His Wings

“All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” So says the missionary handbook Preach My Gospel. Brothers and sisters, that Atonement is real. And it is there, constantly, with the hand of the Lord, reaching out to rescue, to recover, to heal. It can catch any falling soul, destroy any sin, wipe clean any manner of disease, fill any hole or gap or wound, lift the fallen heart and fix the broken soul. I begin with that testimony. I bear witness to the power of the Atonement. I know it can do all those things because it did so to me. I am here today, I write here, I speak here, I testify here, not out of an intellectual understanding of doctrine, nor in theory or principle, but because Jesus Christ, through the Atonement, redeemed my soul, and lifted me up and out from darkness into light. He saved me. He healed me.

Allow me a secular demonstration of this principle in the form of a pop culture parable found in Christopher Nolan’s Batman film The Dark Knight. Throughout the film, the Satanic villain the Joker has been dueling Batman, our hero, in a battle for the soul of Gotham City. The Joker’s primary goal is to corrupt, to instigate chaos in the city and bring everyone down to the level of savages, to be wicked and evil as he is. At first the Joker tries to destroy Batman’s moral righteousness, but when he fails at that he goes for a different target: Harvey Dent, the district attorney who is also a hero figure, though in a much more legal and procedural way: he is a source of hope that the rampant crime in the city could be stopped. In the end, however, the Joker succeeds in bringing down Harvey Dent, the symbolic soul of Gotham, and Dent becomes a fallen man, killing five people in a spree out of revenge for his fiancee’s death, which the Joker brought about. As a result, Batman and Police Commissioner Jim Gordon face a  terrible quandary: if the people of Gotham knew about Dent’s corruption, he could no longer be a face of inspiration to the city and all the progress they’ve made in saving the city will be lost. It is in Batman’s solution to this problem that we see the pieces of the Atonement fall into place: Batman decides to take the crimes of Harvey Dent, the fallen man, upon himself, and be blamed for what he did, so that the Joker cannot win, and so the soul of Gotham can be saved. In short, brothers and sisters, the Christ figure, takes the sins of fallen mankind, and the punishment thereof, upon himself, so that the devil does not win, and claim the souls of the imperfect people for himself. We live, and we are free, and we can rise up, because Christ took the fall. That is the Atonement.

As Batman explains his decision to Jim Gordon, he tells him, “Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.” Brothers and sisters, such is Christ’s view, and so too is our faith rewarded with forgiveness when we look to Christ and repent, and thus begin the transformation process made possible by the Atonement.

Our decision to approach God humbly and repent is the trigger that starts the transformation, the seed that, through the power of the Atonement, grows into a tree-like testimony that has the potential to bear much fruit. Fruit that fills the eater with light and life, that represents the love of God, that contains more seeds that can bring forth their own likeness. Seeds that can grow more trees, bearing more fruit, and on and on and on. Note, brothers and sisters, that a simple handful of seeds can produce an entire field full of fruit and grain. That is the ratio of how much we contribute compared to how much we are blessed by the Lord, what we get out of the Atonement compared to what we put in. That is the concept of eternal lives.

And we would do well to remember that it is God who gave us the handful of seeds to begin with. He gave us the seeds, and with our faith we plant them. All of it represents the love of God, the love of our Savior. The very reason the Plan of Happiness was organized, the reason our Heavenly Father has done all that He has for us, the reason He wants us to fulfill our potential to become like Him. The reason our Savior went through the excruciating pain of Gethsemane, “how sore [we] know not, how exquisite [we] know not, yea, how hard to bear [we] know not.” D&C 19:18 — “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 — and would that I might not drink the butter cup, and shrink — ”

Brothers and sisters, there is a dash there, not a period. It is an unfinished sentence. I want you to take note of that significant detail. Stop and reflect on what it might mean. To me it is as if our perfect and loving Savior could not bear to finish his sentence, the memory of the pain was so great, a pain that literally halted our Savior’s speech. He endured such pain, and “suffered these things for all, that [we] might not suffer if [we] would repent.” And, as Brother Adam Olson points out in the September 2012 Ensign, “He knew of the depth of iniquity that would be connected to the human family. He understood the awful, inestimable price He would be required to pay...And knowing all, He still decided [we were] worth it. No matter how short I think I fall in comparison to others, no matter how little value others see in me, Jesus felt I was worth the price He had to pay.”

In The Dark Knight, Commissioner Gordon’s young son, present with him in the final scene, asks his father why Batman is running away, saying, so profoundly, “He didn’t do anything wrong.” Brothers and sisters, Christ, too, never did anything wrong. So why does He bear the brunt of our sins? Why did He have to go through the tortuous suffering in our stead? Gordon answers his son: “Because he can take it.”

Because he can take it. Christ, the Son of God, a god himself in mortal raiment, is the only Being who could have sacrificed so. An infinite and eternal sacrifice, the sacrifice of a god. And, knowing this, knowing that He alone could do it, He did it. He bore our sins, our trials and temptations, our torments and tragedies, each and every one of them, just so He could understand us, just so He could see us, and be with us, and embrace us again. Just so we could be clean enough to be with Him again, and make us whole, and make us rejoice in never-ending happiness.

He did all this because of love. And because of this love he has offered us the opportunity to repent. Mosiah 26:30 – “Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.” Take a second to think about that. Have you ever held a grudge? Usually these are for small, petty things. Occasionally they will be for big things. Either way, it is hard to look past them and forgive. Can you imagine being a perfect being, a being who has never done a wrong thing in their life, nor anything hurtful or mean-spirited or cruel, and who has given all that he is capable of giving, even his very life and every iota of love that is in him in attempt to save others, to offer them an eternity of everlasting happiness? And can you imagine him being mocked and rejected and hated and fought against by those same people? And the perfect, incomprehensible love that Being has in continuing to reach out to them, in having his mighty, saving arm stretched out still, and finally in forgiving those people when they realize they were wrong, and again offering them everything he had offered before?

        These are the lengths He would go to retrieve his children from darkness and damnation. Can we understand that level of unconditional love? I don’t think we can right now. Perhaps only a parent can come close to understanding it. But despite our inability to fully conceive of such love, we can benefit from it. Even though we don’t deserve it, even though we are all sinners, falling short of the mark, even though we fail and fall again and again and again — His arm is reached out still, and we can repent, and turn to Him. Even when we are in a state of rebellion and spiritual darkness we can turn back, and look to God and live.

And I testify to you, brothers and sisters, that you can. You can turn. You can look away, and return your gaze to the light and love of Jesus Christ. You can pull your hand away from the snatches of sin, and put it into the Savior’s, whose hand is always stretched out, reaching towards you. And from there, He can pull you up, out of that pit of despair you may be in. We are commanded to “seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life” (D&C 101:38). He is offering eternal life to us, to all the world, and to you personally, if only you search after Him. But sometimes sweeter than the far-off dream of eternal life is the simple peace He promises to those who seek his face. Brothers and sisters, the lesson of this is that if you want peace, pray.

Prayer, the most simple and basic of all communications, the medium by which repentance and humility trigger the Atonement, can bring about so much! The Savior’s voice in Third Nephi, right after detailing the consequences of wicked living, the destruction caused to all the cities who cast out and stone the prophets and were living in sin pled to the survivors, said to the people,

“O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? 14 --- Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me. (3 Nephi 9:13)

Brothers and sisters, Christ the Lord is truly risen, with healing in his wings. Healing is indeed the essence of the Atonement. Transformation. In one of the most quintessential verses representing the Atonement at work, 3 Nephi 17:7, Christ says so tenderly to the weeping Nephites, “Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them.” Think about that, brothers and sisters. His words: “Have ye any that are....afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them.” Afflicted in any manner. If there is anything about us that is broken, that needs help, that needs healing or perfecting, and if we bring ourselves to Him, He will heal us.

Indeed, Christ’s primary role in this mortal world was and is as a healer. Matthew reports that “as many as touched [by Christ] were made perfectly whole” (Matthew 14:35-36). His three-year ministry giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf was a type of his true, ultimate ministry: the work of the Atonement. And it is this healing, transformative power and work that I bear testimony of today, with my own story of darkness and light.

Brothers and sisters, there is only one future ahead of us: the future we choose, one choice at a time. There are other futures, of course, possible but non-existent; they do not exist literally and we will never know them. This is why our choices are so important. It’s the only chance we get to make them. And then it’s burned into our Book of Life.

        The Atonement, however, can change the ending of this book, and change it for the better, for God is a master novelist. He can weave, out of a story plagued by failures and doubts, losses and regrets, a happy ending. True are the words of the hymn, “Thy best, thy heavenly friend, through thorny paths, leads to a joyful end” (Be Still My Soul). Such He did with my story.

My dark times began with brief flirtations with pornography in my early teens. It was driven by one simple thing: curiosity. How much other sin occurs in our lives, and especially in the lives of our young people, from that feeling of curiosity alone! Within a few years, it had locked me in its clutches, and I became addicted. My agency had been taken away, or rather, it had been given away. Unbearable guilt soaked my mind constantly. Guilt coupled with fear. Of course no one could know what I was struggling with. Not peers, parents, or priesthood leaders. What shame would it be for others to know! It was something I had to deal with on my own. But of course I had no idea how to properly go about doing anything to help it. It attacked again and again and again, and though I knew it was wrong, and told myself I’d never do it again, that it was stupid, a stupid problem that I would never indulge in again, it continued, and the guilt and fear mounted. They were so great that I avoided my annual priesthood interview one year by taking sleeping pills so I’d be asleep at the time appointed for the interview. I was able to get out of that one, but the next year I was caught by surprise and ushered in from a social situation to the interview to become a priest. It was finally there, years into my sin, that I confessed to a bishop, simply because there was no way out of it but lying, and while I would avoid telling the truth sometimes, I would never tell someone a direct lie, and certainly not a bishop. That confession, however, didn’t fix anything. In fact, now that I had been specifically told not to take the sacrament, I started staying home from church to avoid the public shame. Despite my inactivity, however, I never stopped believing. I never turned fully away from God to embrace my sin and go off on my own track. I never accepted my behavior as harmless or normal. I knew exactly where my soul was: in darkness. I just didn’t know how to find the light. Scared of what it would take.

Around the time this problem came up in my life, clinical and chemical depression also emerged. My family has a long history of this emotional frailty, and it is no surprise it appeared at the time it did. I had also been gaining a lot of weight, and being a late bloomer did not help with my self-image. My spiritual suffering thus combined with my fragile emotional state to create a near impenetrable sense of self-hatred. I felt myself so worthy of disgust and loathing that I was even ashamed to merely be in the presence of a girl, let alone talk to one or look one in the face. I didn’t deserve it. I was beneath them. Beneath everyone, yes, but especially girls. Fat, unattractive, unworthy and in all ways repulsive, especially to myself.

I discovered that Hell for me is in comparisons. Comparing my own self and situation with those around me (or at least the surface of those around me) destroyed me. It still does from time to time. I would look at everyone else, how successful they were, how those guys had to shave, could talk with girls without looking away, could even garner their attention, and could take the sacrament, could administer the sacrament, and go on missions, and hate myself all the more. They were the right kind of priesthood holder. They were good in the sight of God. The way I never could be.

The most embarrassing and shameful moment of my life came in a Sunday School class when I was around sixteen. The teacher, for reasons I cannot remember or even fathom, addressed each of the males in the class in turn and asked what office of the priesthood we were. So there, before all of my peers, including girls, I had to let out my dark secret, that at sixteen I wasn’t a priest, but still a teacher in the Aaronic priesthood, because I wasn’t worthy to advance. I didn’t explicitly tell them that last part, of course, but it was the obvious implication. They all got to know, by inference, that I was addicted to pornography.

For my senior project in high school I wrote a novel. Its purpose was penance. A character in the story suffered from a similar problem of compulsion, and he overcomes it in the end. Overall it is a story of symbols, meant as a message, or rather a warning to society of the problems of sexual and pornographic indulgence, of living without rules or religion and doing whatever one wants to do. That was how much I knew what I was doing was wrong, and how much I wanted to repent. I just didn’t know how to. It is a curious aspect of chemical depression, that it has the power to make it impossible to feel the Spirit, to make one feel spiritually dead, cut off from the Lord. I felt that way for six years. Alone.

But in reality, we never truly are. Christ knew what I was going through. He knows what all of you are going through, what you’ve gone through. He knows the problems, the symptoms of the problems, and so is uniquely qualified to answer your, our, prayers. He too was alone, or rather, felt alone. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said the following in his beautiful April 2009 General Conference address: “...that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone” (“None Were With Him”).

That is what those of us struggling with the powers of darkness must realize. Even though at night you can’t see the sun, you can almost always see the moon, shining. The light of the moon is actually light from the unseen sun, proof of the sun’s continued existence---and in the allegory, God’s presence---even when we can’t see it, or Him, directly. But how difficult it is to internalize that fact! Partly because of the untreated depression, partly because of my spiritual state, I considered suicide, and often. But never entirely seriously. I wanted the pain to go away, the loneliness, the sin, the repeated attacks from the chemistry of my brain, but three things kept me from ever attempting it: one, I knew, knew that God was there, and I wasn’t supposed to do that; two, it would break my parents’ heart forever; and three, it would, of all things, leave my cat alone and friendless. My cat was like an angel to me, sent into my life at almost the exact same time my dark times began, and a near-constant presence through them. Indeed, later in my life, when I was ready to move out and begin a life away from home, she disappeared suddenly, and I never saw her again. I know that God took her home to Him because I no longer needed her and it was time for me to find a higher companion, my eternal companion. I have no doubt that that cat will be among the first to greet me when I pass into the next life.

Brothers and sisters, God has a plan for all of us. He had a plan for me. He is a master novelist who knows the end from the beginning. As Neal A. Maxwell reminds us, “having faith in God means having faith in God’s timing.” There was a timing to all this, a plan and miracle God had waiting. For six years I struggled and fought and failed and fell, again and again and again and again. A never-ending cycle. But there came a certain week in June where, it seemed, all at once, Christ, through the powers of the Atonement, shattered the shackles with which I was bound, and freed me.

For the last six or seven months preceding that week in June, things had been getting worse with my depression. My bipolar disorder fully emerged and I was living with a particular type called “mixed state” bipolar. People with typical bipolar disorder swing back and forth from extreme mania (high energy and optimism) to extreme depression. But mine did something else: both extremes would hit me at the same time. This meant that at night, my mind raced so fast that I couldn’t sleep (the manic side), and it raced with horrible, miserable, self-hating thoughts (the depressive side). It was hell. I found ways to cope with it, but it was getting worse. The depression fed the sin, and the sin, of course, fed the depression.

And so, as I said, God had a plan. I received first word of it in church one Sunday in late spring. A voice told me: get medication; when you get medication, everything else will fall into place.

I don’t know if the happy and hopeful feeling I felt in church that day was the Spirit or my mania or both, but I now, finally, had a ray of light to follow. Later that week I called my psychiatrist, who I had not seen in a very long time. (Years ago I had been on some medication but in my pride I rejected it because I didn’t want to be dependent on something artificial for my health.) Unfortunately, my psychiatrist didn’t answer the phone and I had to leave a message. One thing about him was that he didn’t call back too reliably, and so weeks went by without word from him, and I returned to my previous state of mind.

But then came the Wednesday of that miraculous week in June, and I got a call. My psychiatrist had an opening that day, within a few hours, and would I like to come in then? I certainly would. And so I did. And by the grace of Christ, the first medication we tried turned out to be exactly what I needed. So many poor souls dealing with mental disorders have to try several different medications until they find the right one, and that journey can be stressful and full of unexpected emotions and issues. But I found the right one on the first try. Miracle number one.

Then on Sunday a friend of mine, the only one whom I had talked about my problem with, issued a direct order: go talk to the bishop. The change that was being wrought in my soul at that time made this idea completely...possible. Utterly terrifying, yes, but also utterly necessary. Completely unlike the past six years had been. And so I made an appointment with him that very day, and confessed my sins to him a couple of days later. That caused miracle number two.

And somehow, my chains...were broken. I can’t tell you why that week, out of all the time that had passed, was the week, but that past Thursday, the day after getting on medication, was the last indulgence. The addiction was cut off (though, as with alcoholics, it will never leave me totally in this life). I gained control over my life, control over my soul. I was freed by my Savior. After three weeks of worthy living, I took the sacrament again, for the first time in five or so years. And because of that fact, I now truly understand the sacrament. It became the most important part of the week, the reason I went to church: to appreciate the sacrifice of Christ, to be grateful for it and to always remember Him.

I began other changes immediately. I started exercising, and I took pleasure in it, losing a total of about sixty pounds. I also switched from glasses to contact lenses. Cosmetic changes, to be sure, but reflective of the change inside me, and as a result I stopped hating myself. LDS speaker Brad Wilcox said in his talk “His Grace is Sufficient,” “The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can be cleansed and consoled but that we can be transformed.” This is what happened to me, inside and out. A friend who left on his mission while I was in my previous state came home and literally did not recognize me at first, my countenance had changed so much. My previous life, defined by self-hatred, stagnation, and failure, was transformed by the power of Christ, by the power of the Atonement. I shed the natural man and was reborn spiritually. Christ had healed me. Had transformed me.

Within a few months I was ordained an elder and received the Melchizedek Priesthood. [It is a bit of personal trivia that I was never ordained to be a priest; I ended up going directly from teacher to the Melchizedek Priesthood.] I wanted to try to repay the Savior for what He did for me, and soon I knew it was finally time to go about preparing to serve a mission. I was writing in my journal one day and I wrote, “I want to serve...” and then pondered what words should follow after: “a mission” or “God.” Both would work, but I ended up writing “I want to serve God and go on a mission.” This may be inconsequential to most people, but to me it was very important, for when I looked up D&C Section 4, the quintessential missionary scripture, it repeated back to my the phrasing I knew was influenced by the Holy Ghost: “Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work” (D&C 4:3, italics added). Reading that verse and taking note of that exact word choice was confirmation to me that I should start working on my papers. And so I did.

They were officially submitted by that next May, and I looked forward to finding out where I would go. But the weeks passed, and the call didn’t come. After much time, my stake president inquired as to what was going on, and discovered what has become one of the biggest ironies of my life: the medication that I take for bipolar disorder, the medication that saved my life and helped put my soul in such a state that I could be worthy to serve a mission, caused a red flag to go up in Salt Lake; those who take that particular medication are generally not allowed to go on missions because of what conditions they take it for. And so, after months of patience and quiet work and prayer, I was asked by my stake president how I felt about not going on a mission and moving on with my life.

Someone else may have taken this news as a wonderful excuse not to have to serve the Lord. But I took it and continue to take it in the exact opposite way: instead of merely serving the Lord for two years, I must serve Him with and throughout my entire life. He healed me, and freed me, and so I must help Him heal others, free others, by bringing them to Christ and helping them access the power of the Atonement.

Brother Wilcox quotes his friend Brett Sanders, saying: “A life impacted by grace eventually begins to look like Christ’s life.” Brothers and sisters, this is our goal! Joseph Smith once said, “Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive. God does not look on sin with [the least degree of] allowance, but … the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs.”

Thus, as the Atonement takes its effect, and we are gradually brought to be one with Christ, we become like Him, and see God’s children from his point of view, and seek to retrieve those eternally important souls back from the abyss and place them in the arms of Jesus, where they can be healed and transformed.

Brother Wilcox provides an allegory for the Atonement, undoubtedly familiar to some: “Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher... Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn to her child and ask for something... Practice! Does the child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. It is how he takes advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his life at a higher level. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but in seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve. And so she continues to call for practice, practice, practice.”

A mentor of mine, Stephan Peers, elaborated on this point. He told me once that “One of the great aspects of the Atonement is not so much that Jesus takes on our sins. It is why he does and what he asks us to learn from it. Basically, we try to do what he does: lift burdens. As he did, you see the burdens of others which much more clarity when you have experienced you own...When we are in the depths [of pain and despair], and we look up and the Lord says, This is how it works. Whom do you want to be? THAT is when we get bold and strong and learn to lift others, and have discernment, and learn to carry burdens, magnificently most of which are not ours.”

So because I was forgiven and given mercy, I too want to show others that same mercy. I understand how hard and awful and miserable it can be to be locked in a perpetual grapple with sin, and how a person struggling with addiction can really and truly be good at heart. These struggling souls are not bad people in their hearts; they are simply in the devil’s hands and so  must do what he wants them to do. Their agency has, almost entirely, been taken away. And so I ask you, brothers and sisters, not to look down on those fighting against this enemy. I needed, and they need now, love and understanding. They need to know they’re not alone. They need to know, you need to know, that change is possible.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said the following in his beautiful April 2009 General Conference address: “Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are. Truly the Redeemer of us all said: ‘I will not leave you comfortless: [My Father and] I will come to you [and abide with you].’ “

Brother Wilcox said, “The older I get, and the more I understand this wonderful plan of redemption, the more I realize that in the final judgment it will not be the unrepentant sinner begging Jesus, “Let me stay.” No, he will probably be saying, “Get me out of here!” Knowing Christ’s character, I believe that if anyone is going to be begging on that occasion, it would probably be Jesus begging the unrepentant sinner, “Please, choose to stay. Please, use my Atonement—not just to be cleansed but to be changed so that you want to stay... The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home but that—miraculously—we can feel at home there.”

Thus the purpose of the Atonement is to change. As President Thomas S. Monson said so powerfully in October 2012’s General Priesthood Session, “Men---can---change.” The Atonement’s healing powers can purge those parts of us that are worldly and mortal, that are of the natural man, and replace them with divinity, with godliness. Though we all have been sinners, though many of us may now be puppets in the devil’s hands, we can become like Jesus, a being like Him, perfect in all things, and most importantly in Christlike love.

Brothers and sister, we owe Him so much. We owe Him not just two years, but our entire lives. Let us show Him our gratitude for His infinite sacrifice, His infinite blessings. Though we can never hope to repay Him completely, we can show our appreciation by doing what He did, becoming like Him, and helping others access the freely offered gift of salvation, of healing, of heavenly transformation. There, in Christ, is hope. For all of us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Talk #2: A Man More Precious than Fine Gold

My second ever talk. Given a few months after the first one at the missionary farewell of Sean Bell.

Talk #2 - A Man More Precious than Fine Gold

Let me preface this talk by saying that I will not be speaking to all of you today. Though I think this message can apply to everybody at some point in their lives, it was designed for a specific portion of you. I don't know who you are, but I know what you're going through.

You’ve all heard of Bruce Wayne. Bruce — who is known better by the name of his alter ego, the super-hero Batman, as I hope we’re all aware — had a terrible accident in his youth involving bats, an experience so scarring that he developed chiroptophobia, a fear of bats. A short time later he is, as a direct result of his phobia, walking the nighttime streets of Gotham City with his parents, and they are assaulted by a thug. The robbery goes horribly wrong and young Bruce is forced to watch helplessly as his parents die on the street in front of him. He comes to blame himself; if not for his fear, they wouldn’t have been there, and they wouldn’t have died; they could still be a happy family. Now both of his parents are gone, and Bruce’s life has been shattered.

A tragedy, right? Bruce Wayne’s story can easily be categorized as more painful than most, filled with scars, suffering, and severe psychological trauma. I think we can all agree on that. But I’m going to put it on pause for now, and we’ll come back to it in a few minutes.

What I intend to talk about today is what philosophers call the Problem of Suffering, a theological dilemma that has been debated for centuries. The question is this: how can an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly benevolent God exist when there is so much suffering in the world today? How could such a God let all that pain and misery happen?

It’s a good question and a fair one. And the answer is something most people asking it wouldn’t expect.

In the film Shadowlands, Christian apologist CS Lewis describes in a speech a horrific traffic accident that killed 24 people. He then asks some “simple, but fundamental questions: Where was God on that December night? Why didn’t He stop it? Isn’t God supposed to be good? Isn’t He supposed to love us? Does God want us to suffer?” He pauses for a moment here and then says, “What if the answer to that question is Yes?”

We are all familiar with the concept of touching a hot stove. A little girl reaches up in curiosity, presses her fingers against the red ring, and begins to scream and cry until her mother rushes in, puts ice on the burn, and points out the obvious lesson. The child has now learned never to touch a hot stove again.

Now, what would be better — that she knows the pain of intense heat once, and never touches the stove again? Or that she touches it, leans on it, lies on it without feeling any pain at all while she is slowly burning to death?

I apologize for that terrible image, but that is a potential consequence of the lack of ability to feel pain. Physical pain is built into our systems to make us aware that there is a problem somewhere in our bodies, and it needs to be taken care of. When I broke my leg jumping down a flight of stairs at a seminary party six and a half years ago, the pain was telling me to get to a hospital, get the broken leg mended. If I had not felt that pain I would have continued on in life a cripple.

CS Lewis says, continuing on from before, “I suggest to you that it is because God loves us that He makes us the gift of suffering. Or to put it another way...pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

It is clear that while the idea of physical pain certainly applies to Lewis’s words, it is not precisely what he had in mind. I believe what he was speaking of was spiritual pain. If you didn’t receive any stimulus from sin telling you it’s wrong, you’d be inclined to keep doing it. In Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk “Lessons From Liberty Jail,” Elder Holland says: “Of course sinfulness does bring suffering, and the only answer to that behavior is repentance.”

Then he says, “But sometimes suffering comes to the righteous, too.” Certainly the prophets throughout the ages can attest to that, and we ordinary folk can as well. Heartache. Heartbreak. Disappointment. Injustice. Unfairness. Rejection. Betrayal. False friends. Financial struggles. Being a victim of selfishness, of indifference, of pride. Not to mention any physical disabilities or mental disorders or emotional frailties we may be born with. Our lives are rife with all these things, even if we’re living the commandments. So why is that?

I will repeat Lewis’s words: “It is because God loves us that He makes us the gift of suffering.” Notice those precise words: “because God loves us.”

Lewis goes on to say, “You see we are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of His chisel, which hurt us so much...are what make us perfect.”

This is the principle of adversity. Of opposition, and how we react to it. To demonstrate this principle I will give you a couple of brief examples.

A baby bird, when hatching from its egg, must be allowed to emerge on its own strength. Without the experience of breaking out of its own shell, the bird may not have the ability to survive on its own.

Muscles only grow when they experience trauma. When we exercise, the muscles in our limbs break down and develop tears in the tissue itself. As we rest, the muscles gradually grow back, and actually become stronger than they were before.

So yes. There are lessons to be learned from pain, inherent in the process itself. Lessons God feels it is worth the pain to know. Lessons God teaches us because He loves us. Strength God grants us because He wants our eternal progression more than our temporal comfort. And not only will these experiences make us stronger, but they will develop within ourselves a greater and more full appreciation for what joy and happiness truly are.

Adam and Eve once lived in the Garden of Eden, in perfect, simple happiness, never knowing the bitter side of life, the side of death and decay, only the sweet, the side of light and life. Consequently they could not progress. It was only after the Fall, when they were cast into the lone and dreary world that they were able to have increase, to bear and raise children, to learn the lessons of life, to discern the bitter from the sweet, the pleasure from the pain, the good from the evil. One cannot know joy without knowing sadness.

In Shadowlands, after Lewis’s wife, with whom he shared only a tragically short time, passes away, he asks, “Why love, if losing hurts so much?” — and thereafter shortly answers, “The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal.”

In other words, brothers and sisters, lights can be beautiful — but it has to be dark for you to be able to appreciate them. Sometimes — MANY times — it will feel like it’s not worth it. No experience is worth that much hurt.  No joy is worth that much loss. I have been there before. I know what that mindset feels like. I also know that it is a lie.

We must know and understand that God is in control, and that He knows what is best for us, and He will NEVER give us something we cannot handle nor something that is not worthwhile. Those crashing waves and billowing winds may attack us as we sail through that storm of suffering and uncertainty. But as it says in hymn number 124, “Be still my soul: the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.”

Elder Holland says: “Whenever these moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us. When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry “Where art Thou?” it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us—where He has always been! We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there. Our prayers are heard. And when we weep He and the angels of heaven weep with us.”

1 Nephi 21:15-16 reads: “For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.” On the palms of His hands has He engraved His love for us. In the prints of the nails in his hands and feet.

He will be there for us to find, always. But it is we who have to start searching out first. I hope we have all noticed that when we’re in distress we tend to pray more, or we should pray more. For without that distress we would have no reason to talk to God, and talk to God we must. We cannot obtain salvation, be it spiritual or emotional, on our own power. We can’t get there based on our own limited vision. In April 2009 General Conference, President Thomas S. Monson, our prophet of God, quoted the words of M. Louise Haskins:

   And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

   “Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!”

   And he replied:

   “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

   That shall be to you better than [a] light and safer than a known way.”

In order to successfully face and conquer the darkness of this world, we must put our trust in God, and depend on Him. We don’t and can’t always know why bad things happen to us. Sometimes — most times, even — we can’t see with our mortal, non-spiritual eyes why something has to be. In such times we must throw up our shield of faith and endure the onslaught of life’s fiery darts with patience, having faith that the trial will end as we put our trust in God.

That trust is very important in a trial, for sometimes pain is not a lesson but a test. A test of our obedience, a trial of our faith. In fact this WHOLE LIFE is a test: 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.” A time of testing, a time to see if we will do all the things the Lord expects from His special sons and daughters. When we are wading through those black waters of adversity on our way to dry land, will we turn to the Lord, and keep His commandments, follow His guiding light? Or will we give up and sink below the surface, submerge in short-sightedness, fall in faithlessness, drown in disbelief?

The test is frequently one of faith and fortitude. We are promised all the righteous desires of our hearts. I know that I’ve said before and I’m sure many of you have as well, “I will give or do anything for [a certain situation to be the case].” I’ve said it many times, both to myself and to my God in prayer. But one of those times I was answered by the Holy Ghost. The answer was in the form of a question: “You say you would give anything. Would you give time?”

That question struck me. Would I give time? Would I wait for the Lord to show His hand, and be patient until then? Again, we are promised that we will one day obtain all the righteous desires of our hearts. I say I would give anything to have them. But would I be willing to wait for them? Sometimes waiting can last a long time, and we can’t see the ending. In such times we may doubt God’s love for us. So often this feeling of despair is attached to our desire for romantic love. I want to make one thing absolutely clear to you as a singles ward today, and that is this: Whether or not you’re in a relationship is NOT an indicator of how much our Heavenly Father loves you, nor of your worthiness before Him. I know the despair and loneliness that can be felt in such a state. The perpetual heartbreak one is often in because of “the pangs of despised love,” as Shakespeare calls it. Sometimes we look at others who seem to be so happy, and we wonder why we can’t have that happiness too. Why it’s easier for them than for us. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “Faith in God includes faith in God’s timing.” As painful and as trying and as depressing as that timing can seem, it is in the end for our benefit. We forego something Good now for something Great later, even if we might not know it at the time. God sees the future where we cannot. And in the end we will thank Him for that.

Elder Holland again: “When you have to, you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experience with the Lord in any situation you are in. Indeed, let me say that even a little stronger: You can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experience with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life—in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced.”

I have an absolute testimony of the truthfulness of this concept. If our life was painless and easy, we would never ask for help, and thus we would never grow, nor would we have a reason to draw closer to our Heavenly Father. It is then, in the times we have fallen, that we are at our most humble. It is then that we learn the most about ourselves, our capabilities, our strength, and also about God, and our relationship with Him. It is then that God is able to shape us, to form us, to organize us into something profoundly different, something superior, something stronger, something finer. In 2 Nephi 23:12 Christ says through Isaiah, “I will make a man more precious than fine gold.” For metals like gold to be refined and be given their true quality they must be cast into a fiery furnace, where their final impurities are removed. Said Robert Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie, “It is in the flames of difficulty that the tempered steel of faith is forged. Ease does not call forth greatness.” And greatness is, in God’s kingdom, what we all aspire to achieve.

Elder Holland again: “When what has to be has been and when what lessons to be learned have been learned, it will be for us as it was for the Prophet Joseph. Just at the time he felt most alone and distant from heaven’s ear was the very time he received the wonderful ministration of the Spirit and wonderful, glorious answers that came from his Father in Heaven. Into this dismal dungeon and this depressing time, the voice of God came, saying:

“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. [D&C 121:7–8]”

John 16:21 — “A woman when she is in travail [in other words, childbirth] hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”

A man. A man more precious than fine gold. Our adversity and afflictions will be but a small moment. A small moment in our minds, in our memories. And then we will no more remember the anguish, but we will have joy, and we shall be exalted.

If we can see matters with that kind of long term perspective, if we can accept that we do not know everything right now, and if we can trust that the Lord’s timing is best, we will triumph all the easier, we will conquer all the more.

To further illustrate the importance of perspective, I will share another example from my life. A couple of years ago I was at the Oakland Temple for Ward Temple Night. I came out with Brother Jim Mattson, and we stopped to look at the glorious view over the bay area that I hope everyone here has had the chance to take in. You can see the Bay Bridge, and then San Francisco across the bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge too. The view oversees many cities, and the temple itself seems to take on the figurative responsibility of a lighthouse, a beacon to both lost souls and temple-worthy latter-day saints, and even to airline pilots who use the temple as a reference point, a guiding light when landing at night.

Brother Mattson related to me a thought he had while looking out over this marvelous view. He pointed out how the closer we are to something, the worse and more chaotic it seems to be. Down in the impoverished and crime-ridden streets we see up close the misery and hopelessness of these people’s lives. Families torn apart, parentless children wandering the streets, rival gangs in perpetual conflict with each other. There on the streets misery is cheap; it is easily come by and just about everybody has it. But if you take a step back, say to the temple grounds while overlooking the city and its myriad lights, nothing is actually as bad as it seems. It is peaceful to look upon, almost even beautiful. You want to say to these people that it’s going to be okay; look at the bigger picture, take a step back and know that everything is going to work out in the end.

Think about that idea. And now think about the perspective of our Heavenly Father. How far away His view is. How calm and peaceful His outlook is. How much more knowledgeable and in control of all things He is. How of all people, He alone is qualified to tell us that Yes, it’s going to be okay. And He tells us exactly that. In fact, He tells us that it’s going to be more than okay. If you live the way He wants you to live you will achieve everlasting happiness, eternal life and eternal love, and all things that He has.

The oft-overlooked fifth verse of How Firm a Foundation contain words to truly treasure, both as sublime poetry and as comfort and inspiration.

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

Remember the words: I will make a man more precious than fine gold.

It is often the best of men, the ones who are indeed more precious than fine gold, that have been called to endure the worst tribulations. And that brings us back to Bruce Wayne and Batman. We have already established that as a child Bruce went through terrible psychological trauma. But what are the results of that pain? What are the fruits of that suffering? Think on it, and you’ll realize they are many. His experiences with Gotham’s criminal underbelly inspire him to fight back, and fight back he does. In direct response to his fears he strengthens himself, building up his personal power — both physical and psychological — and goes about systematically destroying the criminal world, one bad guy at a time, eventually neutralizing countless super-villains who want to bring more pain, more crime, more chaos to Gotham City. He becomes a one-man army against the forces of evil in Gotham. And in the end of the film The Dark Knight he even becomes a Christ-figure, taking upon him the sins and crimes of a guilty, fallen man for the sake and salvation of the people of Gotham. Batman is the ultimate fictional example of sacrifice and the fruits of pain and adversity.

So what are some of the fruits of our pain, our adversity? We don’t live nearly as dramatic lives as Bruce Wayne does. (That I’m aware of, anyway.) But we learn things and change just the same. Perhaps the most essential trait we gain is that of empathy and compassion, and the ability to help others go through pain. A great man once pointed out to me that we see the burdens of others with much more clarity when we’ve experienced our own. We become more sensitive to the needs and feelings of others. And consequently we become less inclined to add to others’ burdens, and instead help to share them, to make another’s lot easier, thus taking part in the glorious work of the Atonement.

Service and helping bear each other’s burdens is one of those profound ways we can change our attitude and obtain a different, higher perspective. Our attitude can really change everything. The power to alter it is one of the greatest tools the Lord has blessed us with in our endeavor to endure. My very good friend Joe Harris, who has endured a variety of major health issues the entirety of his life, once said, “Just because I’m in pain, doesn’t mean I have to be miserable.”

My favorite verse in all of scripture is Doctrine and Covenants Section 123 verse 17: “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power — ” notice that word, cheerfully “ — and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for His arm to be revealed.”

This latter part of the verse provides us with a perfect, concise demonstration of the Atonement. We do everything we can to solve our problems and persist through our difficulties with the best attitude we can muster. And then we pray, and ask God to do the rest, utilizing the Atonement for our pain as well as our sins. And then He does: our Savior Jesus Christ will step in, and make up all the difference, and catch us before the fall.

Both the present and the future can be dark and uncertain. We may not know when a given trial will end, or if it ever will. In such times we must understand that it is not God’s intention to remove from us our trials, but rather to help us endure them, help us come off conqueror, help us overcome every challenge we face and every problem that comes our way.

Christ willingly suffered our pains and afflictions — every single one of them — just so He could do that, just so He could understand, just so He could help. If only we humbly ask Him for help in bearing our burdens, He will do so. I can testify to this personally. He will not take them away, but He will help share the load. In Preach My Gospel it says that “Everything that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” The Atonement, as broad and epic and as encompassing as it is, can be and very much is something entirely personal. It can be about solely you and your Savior. He went through it for you. For He knows you. He knows your name. He knows your feelings, the thoughts and intents of your heart. And He knows exactly what you are suffering, and what help you need to endure it. Ask Him to help bear the load, and keep asking in all of your prayers, and you will one day find that that trial, that fiery furnace, is over. And you have overcome; you have conquered. And you will have become, in the Lord’s eyes, more precious than fine gold.

In closing, let me just say that it — meaning life, our time of testing, and the refiner’s flames we are meant to go through — can hurt like Hell, literally. Disappointment. Despair. Sorrow. That which attacks our will to go on, perhaps even to the extent that we would rather end our lives early than continue on through that hallway of hell (though I hope none of you have had to go through that). But, as Winston Churchill once said, if you’re going through Hell, keep going. And you will finally arrive at those figurative gates of heaven. For it will all end someday. The pining, the weeping, the wailing. The burning, the carving, the purging. And then it will be as it says so tenderly in the Book of Revelation, chapter 21 verse 4: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be anymore pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Press on. Have faith. Be patient. Endure it well. It is worth it. It is ALL worth it. I promise you this, and say all of these things, in the name of your Savior and of mine, Jesus Christ, amen.

Talk #1: The God Arc

My very first talk, given at the mission farewell of Travis Burr Kupp. By far my shortest.

Talk #1 - The God Arc

You’ve all heard of Luke Skywalker. In the story of Star Wars, Luke starts out a as a moisture farmer on the barren planet of Tatooine, but ends up becoming a key player in the rebellion against the evil empire, and eventually a classic, quintessential hero. The adventures and battles he faces on the way to this hero-dom is called the Hero’s Cycle, a literary and mythological concept first formed by Joseph Campbell, author of a book called “Hero With a Thousand Faces.” In the book Campbell details the various trials and stages a would-be hero has to go through to obtain that status. This cycle was based on myths and stories and legends of old, in which every hero, he found, to one degree or another, goes through similar experiences. George Lucas, the writer and creator of Star Wars, followed this cycle perfectly with his protagonist Luke Skywalker. And the timeless nature of that story is one of the primary reasons the Star Wars movies (and I’m speaking of the original trilogy here) are so universally loved.

So that was the Hero’s Cycle, or Hero’s Arc. There’s another arc I’d like to talk about, however. I like to call it the God Arc. It is about Man’s potential to become like Heavenly Father. Just as Luke progressed through various stages of character development in his unconscious quest to become a hero, so must we advance through different stages of existence, even different states of being, in our conscious quest to join our Heavenly Father in all His glory and domain.

Paul in the Book of Acts called us “the offspring of God.” In Romans chapter 8 he writes, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Christ in the Book of Mormon says “Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.”

It started with a plan. We call it today the Plan of Salvation. The Plan of Happiness. A plan to take us from blurry-eyed intelligences all the way to exaltation and eternal life in the presence of the Father. This plan was presented to us before we were born into this world, when we were mere unembodied spirits. In that state of being we lived with Heavenly Father as His literal spirit children. He had a spirit as we do, and as it is an essential part of us, so is it an essential part of Him. That was our first stage of development, to be spiritually born to heavenly parents. This is where our potential to become like Heavenly Father began.

In that pre-earth life, our first given estate, we made certain choices that allowed us to be sent to this earth and be given bodies. Once just a spirit we then became a full soul, which is both the body and spirit together. This was our next stage of development, our next state of being. This is also an essential part of godhood, for we know from Joseph Smith’s First Vision and other modern-day revelation that God Himself is tangible and has a body of flesh and bone. We were created directly in His own likeness. To use the exact wording, in His image, and in the image of His Only Begotten. In other words, we look generally like what He looks like. Fully-grown, adult human beings.

But we don’t share attributes in physicality alone. We also share similar traits of character. We feel emotions and passions as God does. Love is the most prominent. And sadness, too, for God feels sadness just as we do. It has been said that mourning is the deepest expression of love. We feel sad because we love. If He wasn’t ever sad, He wouldn’t truly love us, for we all make mistakes and turn away from Him and His way at some point in our lives. Sadness is a godly attribute. One emotional trait that we don’t share, however, is fear. We have heard that fear is the opposite of faith. When we are told not to fear by the Lord it is not a suggestion or word of comfort. It is a commandment. We are commanded by the Lord to “doubt not; fear not.”

We hear constantly about other godly attributes that we can apply to our everyday lives. And the reason we hear them constantly is because we really need to practice them. To actually make an effort to foster those traits in ourselves and in how we act and in how we think. Traits like faith, hope, charity, virtue, knowledge, humility, diligence, obedience, and, my personal favorite, patience. We are given opportunities to practice patience all the time. With both other people and inanimate objects. Take, for instance, a stoplight. You’re in a hurry to get somewhere and waiting for the light to change. It’s not turning green and your blood pressure is rising. Stress is increasing. You become irritable and more liable to curse at that filthy, dumb, stupid [bleepity bleep bleep] red light. Why won’t it change? It’s really an inconsiderate stoplight. It has no regard for those in a hurry. Okay, there it goes. Finally. Now you can go. Now you can move forward. But now you’re in a horrible mood and you can see how impatient you were. Whereas if you showed some patience, and accepted that there are some things in life that you cannot change no matter what mood you’re in, you could have felt a lot more peaceful, a lot more calm; you could even be more receptive to the Spirit, and your day would be considerably brighter. Having patience and suffering long is what “enduring to the end” is all about, after all.

It is after we receive of the ordinances of the Gospel, after we show our faith in Christ and repent of our sins, after we live righteously to the ends or mortality and endure to the end — that we can advance to our highest state of being: the state of exaltation. The attainment of a celestial glory, an everlasting happiness, a perfected state, both physically and spiritually. An inheritance of all that the Father hath.

But how is this possible? The whole crux of the Gospel, what every doctrine is founded upon, is, as it says in 1 Nephi 10:21, that “no unclean thing can dwell with God,” or in the presence of God. And as Paul says, we are all imperfect, we have all fallen short of the mark. And here we see the primary problem of our life on earth, and then the glorious solution that the Plan of Salvation has provided us. Yes, it’s true that none of us can reach the next state of being on our own. But God has not left us alone. He has provided a Savior to rescue us from those imperfections. That Savior is Jesus Christ. It is by His power and His sacrifice and His Atonement that we are able to move past this problem. And not just His acts alone, but also by His love.

Because the Gospel is really all about love. Notice how it is such a small and simple thing that is required of us. All we have to do is love God and keep His commandments. That’s all. It’s not much. And we don’t even have to be perfect in that endeavor. We just have to try. We are asked to do relatively little in comparison to what’s at the end of all this. None of us really deserve the happiness that is promised us. A finite, mortal sacrifice for a pay-off that is eternal. It’s too much. We haven’t earned it. And God knows it. He knows we don’t really deserve it. But He’s given us this way, this salvation anyway. That is how much love He has for us. A love that it will take us a very long time to truly understand, if we ever do.

We must take absolute and total advantage of this gift He’s given us. This gift of salvation, this gift of love. This potential for perfection, for eternal increase. Because it should be pointed out that this is potential. Potential does not entail success or accomplishment. It does not mean that it will, in fact, happen. Take, for instance, another stoplight allegory. A car is again sitting at a stoplight. It has the potential to drive sixty miles an hour, but it’s just sitting there idly, waiting for its turn to cross the intersection. And if you never press on the gas pedal, it will never go. You have to exert some kind of effort for it to reach that mile-a-minute possibility. Without any input, you too would be sitting there idly. Something Heavenly Father never wants us to do. But He can’t force us into this. And fulfilling the potential God has in mind for us is definitely not as easy as putting your foot on the gas pedal.

Such a blessing as eternal life is, of course, conditional. We have to do our part. We have to live the way He wants us to live. Keep His commandments. Work hard every day. Love Him and love our fellow man. Become like His Son Jesus Christ in persona, and then one day be like Him in totality. He wants this more than anything. He is our Father, and He loves us more than anything else He has created in ocean, earth, or sky. As it says in Moses 1:39, this is His work and His glory — “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

He is a god. We are His children. Alma 32:31 says that “Every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness.” Now, seeds don’t look anything like the trees that produced them. If you didn’t know any better they would be totally separate things in your mind. Likewise, an embryo doesn’t look very much like a human being. In fact it doesn’t look anything like it. But nonetheless, that is how we all started out. That was our physical beginning. Taking it a few steps further, a baby doesn’t look very much like a human being either. But we don’t call a baby any less of a human just because it has not reached that stage of adulthood and maturity. It is a human — just not developed yet, not fully mature. But when it finally does, it has the same basic form and bodily functions as its parents. Kittens grow up to be cats. Puppies turn to dogs. So what do children of a god turn into?

Author and Christian apologist CS Lewis somehow knew of this very doctrine, and said concerning the matter, "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.”

Exaltation. Supreme happiness. Supreme love. Sealed to your family, to your spouse, to your parents, to your children, from all eternity to all eternity. Given the power to create worlds. To know all things. To do all things. To have all things. All that the Father hath. It is our right and privilege to inherit the kingdom of God if we live righteously to the ends of mortality. By the Atonement and power and priesthood of God, we may achieve this state of being. And we will be in the presence of the Father forever.

General authority Vaughn J. Featherstone related the following story:

“Many years ago I heard the story of the son of King Louis XVI of France. King Louis had been taken from his throne and imprisoned. His young son, the prince, was taken by those who dethroned the king. They thought that inasmuch as the king’s son was heir to the throne, if they could destroy him morally, he would never realize the great and grand destiny that life had bestowed upon him. They took him to a community far away, and there they exposed the lad to every filthy and vile thing that life could offer. For over six months he had this treatment—but not once did the young lad buckle under pressure. Finally, after intensive temptation, they questioned him. Why had he not submitted himself to these things—why had he not partaken? These things would provide pleasure, satisfy his lusts, and were desirable; they were all his. The boy said, ‘I cannot do what you ask, for I was born to be a king’. ”

Brothers and sisters, that is what we were born to be: kings. Queens. Rulers and Creators. For we are children of the most high, and heirs to a heavenly throne. Remember this fact in your daily lives. Remember it when you say the things you say and do the things you do. Remember it as you press forward and endure to the end.