Another Perspective on Patience

                Sometimes I find verses in the scriptures that make me sit up and scratch my head, because they are so counter-intuitive. James 1:3 presents such a puzzle for me. It reads: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;”

Excuse me? Did that verse just tell me to rejoice when I was “falling into temptation”? That doesn’t necessarily seem like a concept inspired by the God who said “For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” (D&C 1:31) Something more needs to be going on here. The Joseph Smith translation of the verse adds a little hint, which would read as follows:

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into many afflictions.”

The JST makes a lot more sense because the scripture is no longer telling us to rejoice in sin, but now it presents a different and equally puzzling piece of advice—rejoice when things aren't going well. That’s not necessarily an easy commandment to follow. When things are going south, my mood tends to head in the same direction, and counting setbacks as “a joy” isn’t my natural instinct.

                Today I want to submit to you a possible explanation for this passage of scripture, and some insight I’ve gleaned into the subject. My hope is that those who feel that they are “falling into many afflictions” at the moment can take some measure of peace from realizing the greatness of their situation.

                Let’s start by reading onwards to see what James does to clarify this puzzle. The next verses shed some light on the subject. “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” In other words, trials give us patience, which in turn will help us become perfected. So why should we rejoice when we are being afflicted? Because we’re learning patience! That’s a good answer (and the correct one), but it’s not necessarily one that leaves me beaming among the rubble after life comes crashing down around me. Let’s dive a little deeper, because I think that there is more comfort in this concept of patience than simply the idea that it is a Christ-like attribute that we all need.

                To understand the concept of patience, let’s talk psychology for a second. I’m not a psych major or expert by any means, but in my basic high school class on the subject, we talked about something called operant conditioning. Operant conditioning, as defined by Wikipedia, “is a method of learning that occurs through reinforcements and punishments for behavior.” In other words, it’s a way of training an organism through a rewards system. If you do well, you get a treat. If you mess up, you go hungry. Using this approach, one can train animals to do incredible things, from playing fetch to running through mazes. Operant Conditioning worked so well that the U.S. even used this approach to train pigeons to guide missiles during WWII—and it worked! 

                While thinking about this concept one day, I was struck by the thought that the way the Gospel rewards system works is a lot like operant conditioning. King Benjamin explains in Mosiah 2:22 that “[The Lord] has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.” When we obey God, we are granted blessings. Some are very obvious—such as stories of miraculous healings and monetary help. Others are more subtle—such as character improvement, feelings of peace and comfort, or small moments of positivity. Regardless of the whether the blessing is big or small, God is bound by His word to grant us blessings. In operant conditioning theory, that’s the same as giving rewards for behavior you want to reinforce.

                The thought that once haunted me was the idea that I’m no better than a rat or a pigeon in that case. If you can give a reward to a rat every time it keeps a commandment, and punish the rat every time it breaks one, you can train that rat to keep any commandment. If that’s the case, what separates us from them? More importantly, how do I show God that I truly love Him and want to do what’s right, regardless of the rewards? Where are my conscious decisions involved in this process? Take a simple analogy here: suppose every time I tried to express my love for my mother, I received a cookie. Could you ever really say “he loves his mom”? Probably not, because there is always a chance that the only reason I would do anything kind for her was to receive the cookie. My intentions are always going to be in doubt, and rightfully so.

                In the cookie analogy, the only way you could ever really know I loved my mother was if I continued to express love even when the cookies stopped coming. Operant condition theory would teach that if the rewards stopped, so would the behavior. But if I continue to consciously do the behavior, then you can know for certainty that I love my mother, because something more than the cookie is driving me. Therein the key to this concept of patience. It’s only in afflictions that we have a chance to demonstrate sincere love for God. When it seems like we are getting punished for doing what’s right, that’s the time that we can prove to God that we are more than lab rats. In that moment you can say “I obey because I want to”. It’s in that point that the most character is built, that your conscious decisions start to matter a lot more.

                And so count it a joy when times get hard! That’s the best possible opportunity, if not the only opportunity, for you to grow. It’s the moment when you get a chance to step up and use your willpower in a meaningful way. What you do in those moments proves who you really are, and what you really value. 

To be Truly Alive

               Recently, I was privileged to listen to a ten-year old friend of mine tell me a couple of his success stories in playing a one-on-one basketball against a classmate of his. As is classic for boys that age, this friend of mine tended to play up his strengths and his opponent’s weaknesses. According to the story I heard, my friend just absolutely thrashed his opponent. The most interesting point of the story though, is what my friend said afterwards—apparently his opponent had tried to play off the defeat by blaming some outside condition, and my friend came back with this comment: “Whatever dude. I beat you by like 20 and I wasn’t even trying that hard!”

                It’s that concept of “not trying hard” that I want to tackle today. Not because I blame my friend for using that as a come-back, (or even feeling like he had to rub in his victory), but because I’ve seen that same attitude in myself, and I’ve seen it a little too much when I observe our society. I find it a very dangerous attitude, and unfortunately I don’t think it’s going away unless we make a conscious decision and work at it. My goal here is try to not use too many words to explain why you should definitely try in every single endeavor in your life and why you should never, ever, ever, use “lack of effort” as an excuse.

                 My thoughts on this topic came as I ran across a verse in 1 Timothy 4:2. In this chapter, Paul is prophesying about the last days (which very much means right here and right now), and says something that struck my interest:

                “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith…having their conscience seared with a hot iron;”

                What I find interesting here is that phrase, their conscience seared with a hot iron. From my understanding, the only reason one would think of searing anything is to stop pain. Searing a wound has got to be one of the worst ways to fix an injury, and I can think of several options that I would take before I would ever think about searing any part of my body. Searing kills everything, and more or less constitutes a “scorched earth” philosophy: destroy everything rather than let it go bad.

                So searing a conscience must mean something along the lines of killing the conscience. Since searing is a way of stopping the blood flow after a serious wound, searing a wound must be stopping a guilty conscience before it gets the pain gets too bad. Or in perhaps in a broader sense, it means dulling, deadening, or otherwise killing a painful feeling before it gets too strong.

                So why would someone want to sear their conscience? I think the answer is lies in one of the core values we’ve built our society on: comfort. In the modern era, we love ease and convenience, and I very much include myself in that category. It’s great to have dishwashers, dryers, cars, rain jackets, sick days, medicines for every pain, and chocolate to drown any sorrows. We have simple and instantaneous solutions for everything. Hungry? There’s about a thousand and one solutions for that? Tired and can’t sleep? Take one simple pill and you’re out. Bored? Turn on the nearest electronic device with a screen. Lost? Pull out your iPhone. The list goes on and on.

And all of these things are awesome—don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t imagine life without them—they are very helpful. I certainly am not preaching against using the miracles of the modern age that are so beneficial to us. But I think there is a certain danger in thinking there is a simple solution for everything: because we (thankfully) don’t have to deal with a lot of pain on an everyday basis, we tend to look for the same type of simple solution when something turns wrong in life. And one of the easiest ways to get rid of a pain is ironically what I believe Paul is trying to warn us against—pretending that we really don’t care, that it doesn’t matter.

                Listen to the words of a song featured in the popular musical Wicked: “Those who don't try / Never look foolish… Woes are fleeting / Blows are glancing / When you're dancing / Through life...” Now granted, the song isn’t designed to be a serious reflection of society, but the attitude embodied in the line “Those who don’t try, never look foolish” doesn’t only exist in make believe land. That’s the exact attitude my 10-year old friend embodied—it’s not cool to fail, and so in order to save face, when things start to turn bad, just stop trying. It’s as if there is a little voice whispering in the back of our brains. You won’t look foolish if you’ve never actually put in any real effort, right? Stop trying in whatever endeavor you’re engaged, just give it up. It’s hard, and how would you feel if you fail? It really didn’t matter to you anyways. Just turn around, go back home, and go play some video games. Eat something—that’s fun, this isn’t. This is just pain.

               

                The thing is, backing down, feigning disinterest, or walking away doesn’t actually make things better. Yes, it does take away the pain, to some degree. But at the same time, it cannot bring joy. When we take the approach of dulling our senses, we’re not only deadening our ability to feel pain, we’re deadening the ability to feel anything at all. In essence, we’re searing our conscience, and I think that’s exactly what Paul was warning us about. The attitude of “giving up before we fail” doesn’t only take away the sting of failure, but it also takes away all chances of enjoying victory. It’s simply not possible to win by conceding.

In the scriptures, Lehi teaches that opposition is necessary to all good things when he said:

“And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery.” The inverse is also true: without punishment or misery, than can be no happiness. If we avoid all misery in our lives, we become stuck in the Davy-Jones-like condition of burying our hearts in the sand, simultaneously unable to experience any kind of joy. You can’t have one without having the other, because contrary to the simple answer, misery is not the opposite of joy. Apathy, dullness, lack of emotion—those are the opposites of joy, and the opposites of misery as well. Both joy and misery involve emotion, and the opposite of emotion is indifference. Therefore, joy and misery are an inseparable pair.

The give-it-up mentality can hurt us in many different areas of our lives. I’ve seen people squander real athletic talent and give up the sports they enjoy because the going got rough. I’ve seen lots of people in school who waste their future in order to avoid appearing like they’d failed.

Perhaps one of the most prevalent examples I’ve seen of the give-it-up mentality was while I was living among the wonderful people of Thailand. You see, in Asian culture saving face is a big deal, and the Thai as a culture absolutely hated being wrong, and hated being made fun of. Most all Thai children learn English throughout their education process, but sadly, the fear of misspeaking kept them from ever actually using their language abilities beyond the classroom. I would have to pull teeth in order to get grown adults to use English in the classes I taught, and despite having extensive vocab and grammar knowledge crafted in years of study, the majority of the Thai people I met couldn’t respond to a simple greeting in English.

But most dangerous of all is in the spiritual sense. Some things in life hurt. Especially sin, especially major mistakes. That is perhaps the deepest of all wounds that can be inflicted upon an individual—the burden of sin. But if we deaden ourselves to the pain, we will never have a chance to rise up. If we sear our conscience and try to bury our mistakes, we will find that there is no way to rise to the great heights our soul could once climb to.

My friends, don’t give up. The greatest thing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that because there is One who took upon Himself infinite pain, the pains you and I carry by default have to be finite. Life sometimes hurts, but you and I don’t have to spend our days wallowing in the pain. We don’t have to dwell in darkness. As we turn to Christ, all of our pain can be taken away. His invitation is clear: “Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?” (3^rd Nephi 9:13)  As we do so, I testify of the abundance of life that can result. Life is a beautiful thing, and there is so much joy to be found in it. Happiness really exists, and is there for the taking for you and I if we but look for it in every circumstance. It’s entirely possible to wake up happy every single day of our lives, and to be filled with inner peace and satisfaction—but the only way to do so is the path marked by Jesus Christ. I share my witness to the world of his goodness and reality, and of the power of His love—He is real, and He really does have the power to heal us all. So don’t delay in coming to Him!

Living in the Present

                 I don’t know about you, but I love studying about the topics of true conversion and having a mighty change of heart. I’m fascinated by the case studies that the scriptures present as they tell powerful stories about people’s ability to change. I think my attraction to the subject of conversion is based in my desire to become better, to reach higher and achieve true greatness. Therefore when someone like Paul—who is one of the best examples of a complete change of heart—talks, I listen. In New Testament class this week, we ventured into Philippians, and I was really impressed with the lecture that Paul gives in chapter three of that book. My favorite verse of that passage was Philippians 3:13, which reads:

                “…but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before.”

                What an inspiring verse of scripture. Let’s not forget who is writing this. Paul once went by a different name, a name that was the terror of early Christians. He had gone out and given his very best effort to thwart the growth of the church of Jesus Christ, casting many into prison and sentencing many to death. If anyone had a past that could’ve haunted them, it was Paul. But he shares one glimpse into the way in which he was able to sustain such a dramatic conversion: he used his energy to look forward, not backward.

                You see, Paul could’ve spent a lot of energy fretting about the past. We all know that the past doesn’t get changed very easily, and sometimes it’s easy to get caught up thinking about former mistakes. Or maybe we get caught in the “Uncle Rico” effect and find ourselves reminiscing about the glory days that have since passed us by. It’s pretty natural to dwell on things that have already happened, whether good or bad. But doing so will not help us in the long run. Wasting our time and energy to dwell on the past cannot bring us joy, and we will forfeit blessings now by so doing. We have to learn to forgive and move on, or appreciate a great experience yet continue to throw ourselves into the effort of “lifting where westand”.

                Elder Holland once taught: “The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.”

                For Paul, living in bitter regret could’ve ruined him. I’m fairly certain he was most likely subjected to the same temptations to despair and abandon hope that we all face. But Paul actively chose to “[forget] those things which are behind”, no matter how painful they were. He chose to turn around and give the future his very best effort.

                For any out there who wish to be better, the lesson is clear. Live now, and look to the future, not the past. If we consistently find ourselves dwelling on the past, we will be forced to watch the past repeat itself. No, it’s far better to look forward with faith, knowing that God can see the end already, and He is far more interested in where we’re going than where we’ve been. I testify of His love and the completeness of His masterful plan. He really can make all of the difference in our lives if we change now and don’t look back.

Is There Ever a Good Excuse?

                The shipwreck story found in Acts 27 is much more than a story of a seafaring expedition gone wrong. This past week my New Testament class studied the story in a little more detail than just casually reading it, and I was really impressed by how close the story parallels conditions in our own lives. Let me explain:

                In the story, Paul is a political prisoner being transported to Rome so that he can be tried by Caesar. After spending quite a length of time sailing along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Paul and his captors found themselves in a place called “Fair Havens” before the onset of winter. At this point the party must decide whether to stay in the havens for the winter or set forth to continue on their journey. Paul approaches the centurion who commands the party and advises him that they will lose the ship, their cargo, and some lives if they continue onwards so late in the season.

                It is the next point in the story that is so eerily familiar to me: the centurion decides not to follow Paul’s counsel. In his head he begins a reasoning process that I have gone through too many times, and comes up with the following bits of information:

·         The location where they are at is “not commodious to winter in”. It’s a little uncomfortable and it would take a little sacrifice to stay there. The majority of the party doesn’t want stay around.

·         There is another port a very short distance away (on the same landmass, no less!) that would be a much more ideal place to stay for the winter

·         The expert in the matter, the ship’s captain, advises going onwards will be perfectly safe.

·         The ship’s owner, the largest stakeholder in the matter, also advises going onwards.

·         The winds shifted to provide nearly perfect conditions to sail onwards.

Faced with all of this information pointing to the conclusion “move forward”, the centurion decides to set sail. What follows is an absolute disaster: the ship sails straight into a raging storm that causes them to lose all of their cargo, the ship, and leaves them at the mercy of the wave for 14 long and terrifying days.

                The whole story is comparable is making the decision to follow the prophet. When the prophet speaks, what will it take for us to listen? Will we be like those in the shipwreck and give more importance to factors like comfort, peer pressure, “expert” advice, short-term conditions, and the seeming ease of a path more than the advice of the prophet? For in our day those same conditions exist in most major decisions. It isn’t easy to follow the prophet; the world and it’s “experts” call it foolish, and most assuredly the adversary attempts to make the path of wrong look easy, and more comfortable.  

                I share my personal witness that God is more knowledgeable than all of the intelligence in the world. Following his path, as marked by His servants, is the way to avoid misery and sin. Undoubtedly it will not be easy or popular to do so, but if we can learn from the centurion and heed the voice of God, we will be able to avoid the shipwrecks and calamity of our own lives. 

Sight vs Faith

             Sometimes in life, it seems that we are given challenges that are seemingly beyond our abilities. We’ve all been there—where the task ahead looks greater than what we can do at the moment. It could be a new responsibility, a change of circumstances forcing us out of our comfort zone, or a difficult setback while pursuing a goal. In those times, we need divine aid more than ever, and yet often it can seem like Heavenly Father is hard to reach. I don’t want to claim for a second that I’m any expert in calling down miracles from heaven (that would be awfully presumptuous as well as a complete lie), but I do want to share some scriptural insights that have taught me something about the oft-discussed but oft-misunderstood concept of faith. My hope is that you will learn something new.

              My discussion starts and ends with Romans 8:24-25. It reads as follows:

“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Let’s break this scripture down into a couple of very important concepts that Paul teaches.

                “Hope that is seen is not hope”. Here is a very important distinction: “sight is not hope”. Alma words it a little differently, saying “knowledge is not faith”, but essentially they are saying the same thing: faith/hope cannot exist at the same time as knowledge/sight. This is a concept that is downright scary if you’re ever asked to put it into practice, because it means you can’t have any proof beforehand.

Let’s use an example here to contrast the difference that Paul is explaining, from the greatest TV show currently in existence: Shark Tank. On the show, daring entrepreneurs are brought before some brilliant business people with the goal to convince them to invest in their businesses. One of the things that is often brought up on the show what sales for the company will be in the future. The Sharks (the businesspeople) will only ask about the past sales, and they assume the future sales will be similar. I’ve seen a couple episodes were the entrepreneurs get bold, or perhaps flustered, and throw out a future sales figure fantastically greater than any historical number. They are often met with laughter from the Sharks and those watching. Why? Because such a high figure goes entirely against what we’ve seen. We say “it hasn’t been done before, so there is little chance that they’ll do it now.” We’ll call them overly optimistic or downright foolish, and we’ll tell them to start thinking rationally. That is, after all, what the world would teach us to do. We’d call ourselves ‘realistic’ and completely ignore the idea.

Paul is saying the exact opposite. He is encouraging us to have hope, and then says “look, if you’ve seen it before, then it’s not hope.” Hope (or faith) should challenge our expectations for what can happen. The best example of this are the miracles in the scriptures. We read over these incredible miracles in the scriptures and take for granted what was really going into those situation. Take the incredible events by the Red Sea for an example. In the Shark Tank, the investors would only lose a nominal amount of money if those optimistic sales predictions were wrong. In Exodus, Moses was asking tens of thousands of people to stake their lives, along with the lives of their families, on the idea that they could get away from the Egyptians. Had anyone ever just stopped a sea and turned it to dry land before? I don’t think so. At that point, Moses is exercising true faith; he knows nothing, he has seen nothing. Go re-read that passage in Exodus 14:10-31 again, paying special attention to the timeline of events. The Lord explains to Moses in verse 16 how he will split the sea. But rewind a little and you’ll see that Moses promises deliverance to the Israelites before receiving revelation, back in verses 13 and 14. I might add that he uses the very definitive word “shall” in that promise—not “oh boy, I sure hope the Lord will fight our battles” or “I’m guessing God can get us out of this guys.” Nope, Moses says “the Lord shall fight for you…”  

Here’s the principle—true faith means you just don’t know what is going to happen ahead of time. To the historical-fact based world, this kind of decision making seems absurd. They would ask “How can you do that when it’s never been done before, when you have no idea what you’re doing?” But that’s the wrong question. The better question is “does God have all power or not?” If God controls all of the elements in his hand, then past experience is a moot point—completely irrelevant. Going out into that hazy area by risking ridicule, failure, and loss by simply believing, even without evidences, without any foreknowledge—that’s true faith.

This concept of acting without knowing beforehand seems counter-intuitive to us, who have been raised with the world’s paradigm force-fed to us since birth. Pretty much every decision that we make is determined by what we’ve seen, read, experienced—by what we know. But God challenges us to act from a different paradigm, to make decisions based on what we don’t know, we just really hope is going to happen.

Think about Moses again—at the moment he promises to the Israelites that God will intervene, what does he know? According to the scriptures, not very much. He knows God had previously said that He’d look out for them, and Moses had already seen God’s hand in the plagues that swept Egypt. But up until that point, God hadn’t really made specific mention and said “Hey Moses, here’s what will happen when you happen to get trapped on the beach…” Moses doesn’t know the future any better than you or I can predict what will happen tomorrow. What is he using as the basis of that promise then? He just hopes that God will come through. He has chosen to believe, chosen to think optimistically.

Therein lies another very important concept: Faith is a choice. If you haven’t seen a miracle before in your education, in your social life, that doesn’t mean you can’t have faith. Decide right now that you will trust in God’s incredible promise that “If ye have faith…nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:30) Faith isn’t made from experience—that’s knowledge, not faith. No, true faith is springs up from a conscious decision. And make no mistake, that decision is gutsy. It takes a lot to say “don’t worry, God will make it will happen” without anything to visibly back it up. But don’t worry, there are unseen heavenly forces that are ready to stand beside you when you make that kind of faithful commitment.

                I don’t have space left to share my personal experience with this concept, but I could tell you stories of truly miraculous things that I’ve seen when I’ve tried to apply this principle. Let me briefly say that I’ve been in situations where everything seemed completely out of my control, but yet by prayer and by trying to take the same bold attitude as Moses, God stepped in to open doors that seemed locked forever.

                So take heart. If things ever seem beyond your ability, trust in a higher power. True faith can call down the power of God in our righteous causes. If you feel like your faith is lacking because you haven’t seen tons of miracles in your life before, that’s okay—just make the choice to believe. Everybody’s faith had to start with a blind leap into the unknown. My testimony is that God comes through to catch us when we leap into His arms. Choose faith and watch the miracles come for yourself!