Simple complexity

I was inspired by Daniel Hill again, though I think this will only be one post.

He asked recently "If you were trying to summarize the mission of God to one sentence, what would you say?"

http://pastordanielhill.com/2015/02/03/if-you-were-asked-to-summarize-the-mission-of-jesus-to-one-sentence-what-would-you-say/?

His thoughts are good, and I appreciated his wanting people to not be glib with it, because this is an important mission, children and followers need to understand it, and it is easy to look find conflicting messages.

I almost felt guilty that I had such a simple answer that came to mind so quickly:

"For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."
-Moses 1:39

Then the more I thought about it, the more I realized was in there.

Here is the level at which I had previously thought about it. Christ's resurrection means that we will all be resurrected, bringing to pass the immortality. His suffering for our sins means that we can be free of them, and thus eligible for eternal life. Fulfilling these two aspects of the Atonement brings the mission to fruition. It's important to know and understand, and true, and you have it all together in one short sentence.

There is more in there when you look at it. His mission on earth contained those two events, but also contained the organization of the church, teachings that were captured in the scriptures, his life as an example for us to follow, and the lives that he touched individually. Those are all still relevant to the mission, but then it is expanded.

This includes some of the other phrases that Hill mentioned:

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:11

"...The Kingdom of Heaven has come near." Matthew 10:7

You can find many other scriptures where Jesus refers to the Kingdom. Many were parables that told us what the Kingdom of Heaven was like. For all of their differences they were all true. Reflecting on that may tell us many things. Reflecting on reclaiming the lost will certainly teach us many things.

There may even be important lessons in reflecting upon the difference between being man, with personal concerns, and being God, where the primary source of purpose and satisfaction comes from saving persons.

So it is interesting for me to see that yes, that is a simple and complete answer in one way, but on another level complete is ever-expanding. There will always be more, and there is complexity within the simplicity. It sounds like paradox, but it isn't.

Answers

I am going to refer to The Secret History of Dreaming again, because it correlated to something in my regular scripture study, when I was reading about Abinadi's testimony and death.

K'ang-hsi was an emperor in 18th century China, and a man given to study. He relied on many sources of information, but he also believed in verifying. Unlike many royals, he believed in being open to unwanted messages.

"My diviners have often been tempted to pass over bad auguries, but I have double-checked their calculations and warned them not to distort the truth: the Bureau of Astronomy once reported that a benevolent southeast wind was blowing, but I myself calculated the wind's direction with the palace instruments and found it to be, in fact, an inauspicious northeast wind; I told the Bureau to remember that ours was not a dynasty that shunned bad omens." (Moss, p. 42)

I admired the wisdom at the time, and at least in this book that was reinforced later by stories of Aztec emperors punishing those who dreamed of the coming invasion and destruction. Then I got to reading about Abinadi.

This was also influenced by a speaker I had listened to many years ago at an enrichment conference. He showed how that really seemed to get prophets killed, in both the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon, was when the prophesied that Christ would be killed. They were looking beyond the mark, so that they could only see the Second Coming, and not the first.

This time I started to think about why it would be such a cause of outrage. I believe the speaker had focused on the aspects that would have seemed blasphemous, saying that a god could be killed. It would be a pretty big accusation of sin, but the people hearing the prophesy aren't going to be the one's doing it. I'm still not sure I fully grasp that, but it did strike me how important it is to be able to listen to things that are hard to hear.

You may be called to repentance when you didn't think you were sinning. That is not fun. It is very important to hear that message.

You may be praying for the end of a trial and receive word that it is going to go on longer. That will not feel good, but if you receive the message you can prepare, and because you leave yourself open you can receive comfort.

You may be warned of upcoming struggles, which can bring fear or sorrow or resistance, but listening will give you the tools that you need to endure.

We have to trust God. There is a plan. That plan involves suffering, but that suffering develops us. It gives us agency, and it provides healing for the results of that agency. There is comfort and restoration. There is reunion. We need to trust in that.

One of the greatest things about mortality is that we are not completely cut off from Heaven, and that while we do treasure the words of prophets, they are not all we have. We have the ability to receive personal revelation and guidance. It is beautiful and helpful. It will also sometimes be something we don't want to hear.

Listen anyway.

Preparation

I have been reading recently about dreaming. One of the more interesting accounts was from The Secret History of Dreaming by Robert Moss. It described the process for those dreaming at the temple of Asklepios.

Asklepios was a god of healing, and people would come seeking healing, often for medical issues but not exclusively. As part of their preparation there were actions that they would take, like bathing, changing their clothing, and making an offering. There were also visible markers in the designs and architecture of the temple that would serve as reminders of the purpose of the visit.

I believe in the power of dreams, both as a vehicle for communication from God and as a way to be aware of what's going on in your subconscious. I don't believe in the Greek pantheon, and so there was a tendency to not want to take that part too seriously.

That's not to say that I didn't believe that the supplicants could receive answers or healing. We believe that God is no respecter of persons, and we believe in personal inspiration and revelation. Answers should have been possible. Looking at it from those eyes, it occurred to me to take a second look at the preparation.

It was a set apart place, designed specifically to focus the mind on the purpose. Washing and changing clothes can be symbolically important. They are trying to be clean and set apart. That is reasonable to do when you seek a blessing from God.

Making an offering is reasonable. It can be a part of acknowledging gratitude for what has already been given despite still wanting more. It can also help bring one into the frame of mind where one is ready to take action. Some people would be healed in the night, but it was very common to find a necessary course of action. You might need to be ready to change.

We can just ask for blessings in normal prayers, and we do that, but there is greater blessing in taking time to listen. Hearing can be easier with a separate place. Maybe sometimes we need to prepare more.

It can be easy to over-ritualize things and fall into a Pharisee trap, where we focus so much on the steps that we forget the spirit, but there can be steps to get more in tune with the spirit. Taking time to reflect on what will help, and why, is worthwhile.

This blog started with emergency preparation, but it expanded as it recognized that there are a lot of factors that go into our ability to handle things physically and spiritually. You can prepare for dreams too. I have had a few dreams in the past few nights that have given me insight, and I haven't really been doing anything that different. There may be a time to do something more drastic, but even a little shift in focus can be profitable.

Literally?

I recently read Spiritual Progression in the Last Days by Blaine Yorgason.

It wasn't everything I hoped it would be. Some things felt oversimplified and some felt obvious, but different things hit people differently, and I know the book has still been great for other people.

One thing that I am trying to incorporate is praying for my family in the middle of the day.

Yorgason takes it from Alma 34:21...

"Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening."

I have read that scripture many times. That section is one of my favorite passages in the Book of Mormon. I thought of it as a commandment that you should pray for your households regularly and frequently, but I never would have interpreted it the way Yorgason did:

"Praying at least three times daily concerning our families must be added next (see Alma 34:21) if our prayers are to be mighty in faith." (p. 66)

Really? I thought. Your prayers can't be mighty if they are only morning and night? I thought that he was being overly literal, and that is not the only part in the book where I thought that.

However, that's the part that I am trying to incorporate. The reason is that while I do pray in the morning and evening, I do that when I am getting up and when I am going to bed. There is the family prayer that we do together, and there are prayers over meals. There are also times when I just need to pray.  Regardless, my main prayers are waking up and going to bed, and I am not at my best at those moments. I am tired and my head is fuzzy, and it is probably easy to forget things. Since I need to start my day or go to sleep, it is easy not to wait for an answer. Adding a third prayer may make a difference there.

I don't know that it would have to be mid-day. It could be very reasonable for me to pray right after getting off work, which would be evening technically, but I am changing my focus for the day, from work to personal life, and that could be a good spot for a prayer.

That actually encapsulates my overall reaction to the book. The book is about having your calling and election made sure. I am not sure that I learned anything about the topic that I didn't already know, but it did remind me that it is easy to be casual with our spiritual paths, even though it is important enough that we should not be casual, and so I have been thinking about that, and the book did help with that by getting me thinking. Are there other books that would have worked better? Probably. It's still something.