How many fingers do you see?

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In the 1998, a film called Patch Adams was produced. The film was about a doctor who went through self discovery. In it there is a scene where the doctor's hand is grabbed by the patient, and he boldly asks Doctor Adams, "How many fingers do you see, Ed?" The doctor says four as he refers to his own four fingers. The patient saw the solution and pointed out that the Doctor was wrong. There is an exchange and the Doctor (played by Robin Williams) sees what the patient (played by Harold Gould)  sees, all the fingers.

Satan wants us to think we are the problem and not sin, and by getting rid of ourselves, we solve things, but that is not so. We are not the sins commuted as much as dirt is on clothes are not the clothes are not the clothes themselves. Christ wants us to see Him in our lives, but as much as He is holding our hands and whispering through the Holy Ghost's comforting words, we seem at times not to harken (profoundly and deeply listen) or behold (to watch with full intent). We let the coolness distract us, or troubles overwhelm us so that when Christ takes our hand and says to us, "How many fingers do you see, son... daughter..." We can start to see eight, His hand in ours, and that He has been here the whole time.

When I saw the film back in the day, I marveled at how such a scene changed the man. He began to see people and solutions, not problems and sickness. Our Savior sees us as the same. He doesn't look to heal the ailments that are in our way but to heal us, sometimes in our ailments, so that we look beyond our ailments and see Him. The scriptures are full of examples of simple men who have trouble but see the Savior in their lives. 

Sometimes, like a parent who loses their child in a mall, we wander off and lose our way; we lose the vision of what God has in store for us. We then have to rediscover the Plan for us, rediscover the scriptures or Atonement, and work on our spirits to behold and harken like the prophets. It takes time. Maybe we wondered because, not of sin, but career, family, injury, or just grew apart. I would encourage you to reconnect with God. Go back to the fundamentals, namely faith, repentance, covenant renewal, and prayer. Build the spiritual muscles you know you have and reconnect with a loving parent looking for you. Call out so He can hear you. Remember the words of the Centurion, "I believe, help me, my unbelief."

Have a great week. You got this.

Succour and Strengthen

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At times we are called to endure a hard trial. The scriptures say many are called but few are chosen. Perhaps that is because of how we addressed our trials. Do we bear with patience and wait for relief or do we mop and complain or council with the Lord in our trials?

I recently called an old friend, Gordon, he reminded me of a time where we were scouting up in the mountains of Utah. We we getting merit badges and just swamped out boats for our canoeing badge. The water was a cool 70° but it seemed ice and I swam to shore instead of getting back in the boat. I asked to go back to camp and in doing so, got lost. When I was found, I was severely sunburned as I had only a bathing shorts on. The other scouts did their best when I was discovered to succour my burns and give me comfort.

It was a comfort being found but I still had to endure the healing time it took. The same can be said for times when we leave the hearth of the gospel. Like my sunburn, it takes time, little by little to heal and regain strength. While the Lord may succour us and run to our side, He cannot take pain, but comfort us during the pain.

When Alma and Limhi went through their experiences as in the Book of Mormon (Mosiah 18-24) they were strengthen. The Lord heard their cries and comforted them. We are no different. Our daily lives are chalk full of things to overcome and it makes us the people we want to be. 

Once we have been taught to succour we can succour others. It's a humbling experience but it shows us how much the Lord cares for us and for others. We race to help and lift because we have felt a similar experience. I know we can share and make the experience of others a building opportunity. Old things are destroyed so that new things can take their place. If we see it as a step to God, we will ensure it well. 

Sunday School 19 - Mosiah 11-17 - Noah Blindness

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This post is one of the hardest. I love Abinadi. I listened to podcast after podcast and the theories of age, relationship to Jacob, who posed the first question to him but in the end it was his message of Christ that Mormon focused on that is important,though side note, I love the painting of the ripped man standing with confidence before a king with jaguars on his left and right still cowering in fear.

I'll start with a poem...

If

Rudyard Kipling

1865 – 1936

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you; 

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too; 

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, or being hated, don’t give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream, and not make dreams your master; 

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to broken,   And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch; 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; 

If all men count with you, but none too much;If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and which is more you’ll be a Man, my son!

This poem reflects every man and woman who sought God, preached of His Christ and some with a burning Holy Ghost who was their companion.

The question put to Abinadi was all about the Devine nature of Christ and echoed all of us. That message was that the fleshy carnal devilish side of us that learns pain and suffering, weeps tears of sorrow, must be subject to your Devine side, much like the Savior, who like a child asked if pain and sorrow of Gethsemane could be taken away. 

Our souls consist of two images. A child subject to a Father and an adult that must make decisions for ourselves. Sometimes our Father in Heaven cannot make the tough decisions for us but we must make them ourselves. Jesus was perfect and Devine and could of forgone the Atonement for himself but he chose to be the Savior, to be the man he was meant to be. He fulfilled the will of the Father and became a father to us all by allowing himself to suffer and die but because he was Devine, took what was rightfully his, his life and then offer the same to all of us.

Bur I seem to be sidetracked and I'll connect it to the prophet. 

The other image is the temporal and the eternal (the flesh and the Spirit). How many times do we on impulse, like a child, turn to temporal things. When do we listen to the old soul inside, the part of us that's been around for hundreds of years, the older wiser side of us.

Whilst he was on trial, the priests used Isiah as a crutch to show that they we teaching the Gospel of peace and that the people were happy. They were attempting to show that the king was an example of kingship and "goodness", for there was nothing that the king was doing that he kept the people from doing also. Drinking, drugs, parties and sex had become a common place. Nevertheless, they still had a temple and churches, sacrificed at the altar and outwardly kept the law.

Jeremiah 29:13 says,  "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

In another part of the scriptures the Apostle says...

(2 Corinthians 3:1-3) "Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Abinadi challenged the priests and king. He desired them to see the Savior in all that they did and pleaded to turn from their wickedness. I marvel how only one saw the error of his ways, pleaded for the prophets release and left his old life because what he had learned changed his life. He took the time to write everything, preach everything and put his life on the same line as Abinadi. His career was over. He left friends, family, concubines, gold and silks, the alcohol and parties, all for the message of a dead man and a Savior who was to come. 

We are sometimes as sheep to the sheerer and the lamb to the slaughter. To the sheerer, sin and transgressions need to be cut away as they big us down and impede our ability to do simple things that we could otherwise do. For some, we think that it is a death sentence like being sent to the slaughter. Cutting away sin, I suppose could be like that as it is painful. Alma, knows all about that. Abinadi's message changed his life. The course correction was painful but he would not turn back.  Perhaps he pleased with God to make it less so but we must be adults and endure our experiences. Could we turn back to our sins like a pig to slop, yes, but we are encouraged to realize that slop called sin doesn't feed the soul and looking for a new source of nourishment is nessisary. Like the Prodigal son it then becomes a journey, with hopes and fear only to be meat with a father who runs to us. Is it the Savior, the father of our souls and redemption or the Father who is father to our spirits? Could it be like Joseph Smith's experience and be both?

Two years ago I blogged (or was it a letter to a missionary?) about fire. I compared the fire of the Holy Ghost to fire of Abenadi and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. I pointed out how it didn't matter if they lived or died as the fire clearly had removed their impurities. More so, their testimony burned as bright as the flames around them. Abinadi knew who he was meeting. Perhaps he was among the dismissed priests of Zeniff. Regardless of consequence they were steadfast. We need to be the same.

Is the scriptures written in the head or heart? Outside or inside?

When it came to the priests of Noah it seemed that they knew how to connect doctrine dots but they lacked the ability or refused to do the work of anchoring themselves to the doctrine. Again they went to the temple, or church all day he time but some how there was a disconnect. We have seen examples of this today. Saints that took a wrong turn in their life because the gospel was written on their figurative lapel but not on the heart. They could quote scriptures but could not pray with full purpose of heart. Pray for those struggling, who smile on the outside but are dying inside.

It's interesting that Noah made it ok because "it's in the law" vs. it's right because it is of God. The civil and moral code of the law was separated like church and state. Somehow it justified and right, because it was legal. Abinadi had to hide and run about preaching because good had become bad and wickedness was now thought as righteousness.

Am I king of my house or am I subject to the king of my home and ruling thusly? 

When Noah was challenged in the prophet's trial, he failed to realize his role. King Benjamin saw it when he read Alma's record some years later, but it seemed that Noah thought he was the "bees knees" and that popularity was more important than responsibility. The temple teaches us that we covenant to be obedient to God and rule with that same covenant obedience, so that our children will know to whom they can turn to for redemption. Noah wanted so much temporal power he refused to surrender to a higher power. We cannot make the same error or we will see generations of descendents walk away from the Savior. Again be the adult, when child like ideas and a quick and easy pass wants to slip in.

We have two ways to approach the gospel, connect dots or connect to God. When we connect the dots, it's outside of us. We talk the talk but when trial comes we lean on our dark side for relief and escape. The two approaches are so close it's a wheat/tare situation. Sometimes we don't see friend from foe. We have a Noah/Abinadi moment. We cannot see who is on the Lord's side and who is speaking for us and to us. A big hint, the Prophet, as much as you think they might be disconnected, see ahead of us like a watchman on the tower. They have a vision we barely catch. I know it is hard if you have no testimony but if you do, you will catch a glimpse of what they see.

Did the priests of Noah ask to understand or accuse. Alma showed a understanding spirit, do we do the same? We have seen people stand on a street corner judging because of one line of a prophet and fail to pull in all the data of a talk. Noah's priests were trying the same. Let us be like Alma, adjust to change, push against our temporal side that screams to be childish and devilish and listen to the ancient spiritual side of us, the child-like side that boldly declares I AM A CHILD OF GOD AND HE HAS SENT ME HERE, the side that was with the Savior and a loving Father in Heaven. We need to listen to the Holy Ghost daily and he will lead us. The three will lead us home. God bless us as we see God to be part of our lives is my prayer, in the name of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ amen.