Heart Health

After I had several posts that were pretty positive and faith affirming, I was going to spend three posts going over three somewhat related topics.

They are all factors where there is an increased danger of situations where very traditional preparedness skills and supplies can be helpful, but also where it would be easy for church members to miss the increased threat.

Then there was a horrific domestic violence mass killing in Utah, and I saw a bunch of people resolving to lose 50 pounds for the New Year/New Me, and I felt compelled to respond.

There was one more issue related to past few posts that creates a natural transition to the increased threats, and it is really important, so that's where I hope I can say something useful today.

It is not about literal cardiovascular fitness, because that is a temporary thing. For many of those diseases there are medications or therapies or surgeries, but even if those fail, death and the resurrection will eliminate those issues.

Instead, this is about that symbolic function of the heart, where it loves. If your heart is not full of love -- not just the love of those who are intimately connected with you, or similar to you, or seem attractive -- if you do not have the pure love of Christ and feel that for others, then you cannot be saved in the Kingdom of God.

There is a lot of scriptural evidence for that. The classics are 1 Corinthians 13 and Moroni 10, but it is not limited to them. 

In these last days, when men's hearts shall fail them, what do you think that failure is?

Sure, it is easy to hear that as referring to fear; things are scary and people don't feel like they can handle it. 

It this pandemic that leaves a lot of blood clots in its wake, and sudden organ failure, plus loneliness and isolation -- because even if you are trying it can be hard to balance the physical need of safety with the emotional need of companionship -- that can be another way that hearts can fail.

Scriptural passages can have multiple meanings that are relevant for a number of readers, as well as individual meanings influenced by the Spirit.

(I really like this article, especially the section on Isaiah 52:15, for that: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1990/01/the-bible-only-4263-languages-to-go)

I think it is reasonable to consider the kind of failure it would involve for people who profess to follow Christ to not have charity, and how that would make everything else worse.

A class on Roman history taught of a sickness that was going around at the same time as the missionary efforts of the early Christian church. It was a disease that responded well to human care, and it is thought that those Christians receiving ministry from their fellows and recovering may have helped the new faith increase in popularity.

(This was referred to as the Antonine Plague, and generally thought to have been smallpox, though there are some votes for measles.)

Are we helping to heal each other?

Are we feeding the hungry, or withholding because they will just spend money on drugs? Or maybe they wouldn't but they would get lazy if they get too much help, and besides they must have made bad choices to need help now.

Last week we were running errands, and my sisters noticed a man glaring at our masks. He did not recognize us, but we used to be in the same ward.

Even if we were foolish for wearing the masks, should that create such hostility?

Whom do you love? How do you show that love? Is your heart soft enough for a still, small voice to pierce it?

The reason I think this is a good bridge between what we have been covering and what we will cover is that the fat-shaming that leads people to obsess about weight loss also makes it very easy to judge other fat people, and believe they are not worthy of love or acceptance or health care or comfortable seats or to be seated next to someone who is thin. They find it completely justified because it is for health, only it doesn't work that way.

There are lots of fat people, but their efforts to not be fat can prevent building solidarity. There are not nearly as many transgender people, but they are also heavily targeted.

Transphobes will make all kinds of arguments about basic biology (often missing key points) or how it devalues "real" women. That's a small enough group that it may not affect you or anyone you care about, but there is a problem beyond the abuse for either group.

(JK Rowling hates both.)

Hate spreads. 

You might think that you can love most people, but not these two or that other one, or just this group over here. That might sound logical, but it will spread. No matter how unpopular the group is, or self-loathing, your hate will grow and spread. That is why focusing on a some of the less obvious groups works well, to just get in that foothold. You might be surprised at how quickly it starts to include believing in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories or resenting not being able to say the N-word.

Your better qualities will be diminished as you get angrier and more aggrieved. Your heart hardens.

And that makes everything worse. It makes the world more dangerous for everyone, not just that groups you cling to hating. 

Love can spread too.

Love will refine and elevate. 

It seems totally obvious that a churchgoing person, Latter-Day Saint or otherwise, would know right off that carrying around that judgmental anger is wrong, and the target "deserving" it is not really an excuse, but there it goes, again and again.

The scriptures remain quite clear. 

There is also a promise there, an exhortation to "pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love." (Moroni 7:48) 

Perhaps charity does not come naturally to you, but it can be obtained.

Consider it essential.