Why Imagination is Vital to Faith

If you have stopped believing, it is possible that you have stopped imagining what is possible.

When Jesus started his ministry he had a barrier to entry that he crossed by engaging his listeners in a way that made them think about and question the possibilities.  He came in a time when the leadership had stifled questions. They had done this by threatening all who opposed them with death. Very few people were willing to think out loud. John 6:13 says that “No man spoke openly of him (Jesus) for fear of the Jews.”

Jesus was bold in declaring his message despite the well-known threat of death (John 6:25). The people who listened to him questioned his education and learning. They were sure he was a fake because he came from Galilee. But a few questioned this assertion and remembered that he was born in Bethlehem. (John 7:41-42)

Jesus circled his listeners with puzzles that distracted them from their certain resistance and got them thinking about what he might intend. He said, “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.” (John 7:34) They imagined that their problem would disappear if he killed himself. (John 8:22)

The officers said, “Never man spake like this man” and imagined the Prophet who was to come. (John 7:46) They questioned him, “Who art thou?” and he answered, “Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.” (John 8:25)

Poetic words with layers of meaning and especially hidden meanings would have been used by people who were afraid of the authorities. Jesus was not afraid. Yet, the people, hearing this kind of language, began to wonder what it could possibly mean. Within the attitude of wonder is the ability to believe. Their resistance came down. Their certainty became uncertain. And “As he spoke these words, many believed on him.” (John 8: 30)

He saw their faith beginning and he told them that they need to believe and act. “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32) In an oppressive society, freedom is a dream. Jesus promised freedom and the people began to hope a little that what he said was true.

The conversation turned to legitimacy. The Jews were at odds with their half-breed neighbor Samaritans and Roman rulers. Jesus said to them, “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.” (John 8:40) There were those in the establishment that clung to their legitimacy. But there were those in the audience that started to think about the difference between how Abraham acted and how the Jews acted. Later, Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: he saw it, and was glad.” (John 8:56) Can you imagine Abraham rejoicing? Can you imagine what he saw that made him glad?

To imagine the joy is to begin to wonder how a society of people oppressed by their Jewish leaders and Roman rulers could be free. Jesus came to free them, not from their rulers but from their sins. His potential to remove chains that bind leads to unsurpassed joy because it is permanent.

Expectation leads to despair. Unlike imagination, expectation demands that what is imagined become real. Jesus can make it real but we cannot control him. We must submit our will to his. Jesus offers us hope and he expects us to continue with him without knowing how or when our hope will become real. Stay open. Believe. It’s real!

Image credit: Abraham and the Angels by Aert de Gelder in the public domain

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Day 12: Good, Better or Best

This is Day 12 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.

The fact that life has choices means there are more than a thousand ways to go about it. In giving us a world of choices God surely knows that some will be bad, some will be good, and some will be "best." His written law, the ten commandments, his beatitudes and other parables point the way to the choices that lead to the "best" outcomes. His prediction is that "few there be that find it (meaning the best path)." This speech encourages us to be strategic about our use of time and resources so that we are on the best path.

1. Read the Speech:

Speech

2. Take the Quiz

Quiz

3. Personal Challenge Statement: I will take responsibility for my past choices by making better choices today.

4. Goal: Make a plan to align your inner desires with your outward choices.

5. Dig Deeper: Best Family Councils
Do You See Small Enough?
Course Correction

image credit: flickr/Steven Guzzardi

Ecclesiastes - a Book about Hope for those who Despair

The son of King David, who wished to remain anonymous, wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. His purpose in writing this book is to explore the purpose of life and his own hopelessness.

As humans we focus on aspects of life that are expected to bring happiness. The author had the luxury to explore many aspects of life because of his wealth and his conclusion is that much of what is supposed to bring happiness is “vanity” or of a fleeting nature.

In chapter 2, he says, “I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure…I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine.” His conclusion was that it was a folly or mistake to go that route towards “happiness.”

The Ideal Man

There is good and bad things about idealism. Good ideals capture our imagination. For example, everyone wants to go on vacation to a place that looks picture-perfect and so when people go on vacation, they only post their best pictures. Mommy bloggers have presented a picture-perfect image of crafty DIY motherhood. This has both entranced readers and disgusted them. Jesus said “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt 5:48) Some have discounted this as obviously impossible. I say that the Father is the ideal and we should strive for the ideal.

The bad about idealism is when it is used to hide from reality. People often hide by painting a picture of perfect bliss beneath which they live a dual life. Idealism can cause disenchantment. People often express disappointment with my church because the people don’t live up to the ideal that is preached from the pulpit. Every girl who has wanted to marry a “prince charming” has had to face the reality that men are imperfect and women aren’t princesses.

This post is about the ideal man. It is for those who want to live the ideal not for criticizing people who are less-than-perfect. Without ideals, we would never prioritize good, better and best. With ideals we put our effort towards tasks that match our priorities.

Choose to Be Happy

This life is full of choices. We may choose to be friendly or prickly. We may choose to work hard or to take it easy. We may choose to believe God or to believe the hypotheses of men.

Choices are the gateways to paths that lead us to different outcomes. People who say they have no choices have forgotten that choices made in the past have led to that outcome. People who feel discouraged by life have made choices that led to that discouragement. I know this may sound harsh. I have been discouraged myself and I really had to search for which choices I made that took me there.

The Battle of Jericho Revisited

Joshua led the Israelites in a decisive battle against the walled city Jericho.  After sending spies in to scope it out, he received divine help in overthrowing it.  His instructions were to march with the Ark of the Covenant around the city once a day for six days.  On the seventh day he was to march around the city with the Ark of the Covenant seven times and on the seventh time, the shofar (ram’s-horn trumpet) was to be blown and the people were to yell loudly.  Miraculously the walls fell down.  This event became memorialized in the Jewish calendar as the Feast of Trumpets.

I want to explore how this story could be applied allegorically to other situations.  There are many kinds of walls.  We build them to protect ourselves.  (See Hiding from Love by John Townsend).  Sometimes the walls we build end up inhibiting our freedom to move forward in life.  

For example: I have a fear of being abandoned.  So when I meet a new person that I’d like to have for a friend, I experience anxiety at the thought of rejection.  I approach friendship tentatively.  If there is any competition, I withdraw.  This fear has become ridiculous in that it prevents me from present happiness.

In order to break down the wall of fear, I might need to circle the problem.  I might read a book on the subject.  And reading can give essential insights into difficult problems, but it might take more circling.  I might need to consider my self-defeating thoughts.  I might need to accept my characteristics which are off-putting and decide that whatever others think, I love myself.  I might need to set some goals for meeting people and learning to be vulnerable (See Daring Greatly by Brene Brown).  And still, the walls may not come down.  

How many of us give up when one or two of our solutions are unsuccessful?

And what about that going seven times on the seventh day around the wall?  As we become more and more focused on a problem, we begin to gain emotional momentum.  This momentum is in the faith and hope needed to overcome the wall (See Getting Unstuck by Pema Chodron).  When we yell, with God’s help, the wall will come down.  

I think that often we have conflicting motives.  We want something but another desire conflicts with it in some way.  The yell that brings down walls comes from the unified voices of all our desires.  No longer are we conflicted.  No longer is there anything else that we want.  

God works miracles when we are finally ready.

Image credit:  By the Providence Lithograph Company [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

You Know It's Love When...

What all kinds of love have in common 

From 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; 

This story was written by a family member and read by Laura Schlessinger on her radio show:

“When I was growing up, I used to wish my parents would divorce, and we would go live with my dad.  My mother was manic depressive schizophrenic, so she was not mentally capable of raising my brothers and sisters (six in all)….My father played both mother and father.  He would go to work, come home, fix dinner, clean the house and then play with us.  I never heard him complain about his life.  She was extremely hard to live with and unrelenting because of her disease.  She had very few good days (as we called them) but my father always treated her with love and respect.  Everyone who know our situation said he was a saint.

“I once asked my father why he didn’t leave her because of all the pain she caused all of us.  He expressed the following: that she, before her illness, was an amazing woman whom he loved dearly.  When she was at her worst he thought very hard about leaving (this was about 1961), but decided he couldn’t because we would all be put in foster care and no one would take care of her.  He said he put his trust in God to help out on the bad days.  It was truly for better or for worse….

“My mother in the last few years of her life had mellowed more and had more better days than bad.  They lived in an assisted living facility for the last two years of their lives.  The nurses told us they had never seen a more loving couple than my parents.  When the nurses woke them up each morning, they were cuddled together.  My mother worried about my dad as much as he worried about her.  They were married 55 years until they both passed away within two months of each other.”

charity envieth not; 

You cannot make someone love you, make them change, or control what others say and do.  Envy can come into play when you see something someone else has that you want.  Envy is also when you want someone to do something different or love you differently.  Loving relationships are full of contentment and approval.

~

charity vaunteth not itself, 

Some kinds of love have strings attached.  If there is an expectation of appreciation, admiration or attention, the kind or loving action is being used to elevate the giver.  It is also not loving to expect a loving action in return.  Love should not be used to buy, manipulate or form friendships or alliances.

Real love doesn’t debase the self either.  If the love given to others means neglecting yourself, the gift is not good.  Love comes from the overflow of good things not from emotional poverty.

The Holy Spirit of God

This post is about what the Holy Spirit feels like to me.  It is a description of my experience.  I hope to inspire you to study this topic and come to know what it feels like for yourself.

The Spirit Feels Like Joy

When I make a decision and it happens to be the right one, the Holy Spirit sometimes feels my heart with joy.  When I’m about to make the wrong decision, the Holy Spirit sometimes puts a sinking feeling in my heart or an unexplainable anxiety.

The Spirit Feels Like Love

When I serve someone with no thought of reward, sometimes the Holy Spirit fills my heart with God’s love.  Once I taught a Sunday school lesson to teens and at the end I told each student I loved them as they went out the door.  That day I felt more love for them because I extended myself beyond my comfort zone and said that particular phrase.

The Spirit Feels Like Peace

In sacred places, the Holy Spirit’s presence is peaceful.  I also feel peace when the Spirit is telling me “good job.”

The Spirit Fills My Heart with Patience

Sometimes I want things done quickly.  I’m a fast mover.  I fret about things when the process takes longer than I would like.  As I step back and exercise faith in God’s timing, the Holy Spirit gives me a patience that doesn’t come naturally to me.

The Spirit Interacts More With Me When I am Meek

The ability to listen, accept guidance, let go of expectations, change — all these things work well when looking for and feeling the Spirit.  I feel the Spirit more when I’m not certain and I’m looking for direction.

The Spirit Feels Gentle

When the Spirit corrects me, I feel He is gentle — unless I’ve already made my choice and it’s the wrong one.  Unlike humans, the Spirit is not loud, critical, angry, insulting or harsh.  The Spirit  helps me to see where I have made a mistake while I still have a chance to fix it.  His corrections are often barely perceptible but if I listen I can change course easily.

The Spirit Feels like faith

When I have a sense that the Holy Spirit is with me, I am filled with faith.  Doubt doesn’t come from the Spirit.  Sometimes I take a small step in the wrong direction.  I feel it.  I try not to take big steps without some kind of confirmation.

The Spirit Gives Me Hope

When a trial is going on and the end is not in sight, sometimes the Spirit gives me hope to hang in there.  Sometimes I sense that the Spirit sent a person who has hope to stand beside me.

The Spirit Feels Like Power and Authority

Strong impressions from the Holy Spirit are rare, but when they include a confrontation with evil they feel powerful.

The Spirit Feels Like the Rushing of Mighty Waters

Once I had a spiritual experience while reading Psalms 18 that I attribute to the Holy Spirit.  It felt like an overflowing rush of water as in a waterfall.

The Spirit Manifests like an Idea in a Dark Room

Situations can get particularly troubling and when I ask the Lord for help, sometimes he responds by giving me a new idea that I’ve never had before.  I believe that the Lord speaks to my mind through the medium of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit Feels Like Growth

The way a seed swells before it grows is similar to how my heart feels when I feel the Spirit.  One time the seed of “Abiding in the Lord” was planted in my heart.  I didn’t understand it at the time.  Later it began to grow and I felt the truth of the idea.  I think the sense that something is true and that I am growing in my understanding of it comes from the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit Sometimes Presses

When the Holy Spirit wants me to do something that I wasn’t planning on doing, I sometimes feel a sense of pressing from a thought or feeling.  Once I kept getting an old widow’s name in my head.  I decided to stop in and see her.  When I got there, she was grateful because she had asked the Lord to send me.

The Spirit Constrains

This is like being pressed above but it is the sense of the word “no” in my head.  I find that these kinds of impressions are usually urgent.  While this type of impression is maybe the easiest to discern, it isn’t the most common.  The Lord expects us to make choices based on our knowledge and understanding without always giving us specific instructions like “no.”  

The Spirit Brings Things Back into Our Memory

This works very well for students who study and prepare for tests on Monday but don’t study on the Sabbath Day.  I’ve also had this happen while studying the scriptures.  The Holy Spirit will use a verse to bring to mind another verse and if I follow the impression I often get a train of new ideas.

The Spirit Teaches

Once I made a choice to sacrifice some of my personal time to go and help to janitorial duties at the church building.  The Spirit rewarded me by teaching me something new on a subject I was pondering.

The Spirit Edifies Gospel Instruction

During a Sunday school lesson I sometimes learn something altogether startling while teaching what I have prepared.  The students are also eligible to receive spiritual insights while being taught if they are aware and open to it.

The Spirit Guides

Sometimes I receive a prompting which leads me to make a discovery and maybe find more along the same line.  This is more subtle than an experience where the Spirit teaches me something directly.

“For the Holy Ghost to be fully operating” in our lives, Ezra T. Benson said, “we must keep our channels clear of sin.” 

He warned, “If our channels are  not clear of sin, then we may think we have received inspiration on a matter when it is really promptings from the devil.”

  Source

Verses for Further Study:

Romans 15:13, Galatians 5:22–23, 1 Corinthians 2:9–11, John 14:26, John 14:27, John 16:13, Luke 12:11–12, John 16:8, John 15:26, Exodus 31:3–5, D&C 50:13–22, John 14:26

Image source: Flickr/ Hickory Hardscrabble

Inviting Revelation

Ephesians 1:17-19

The spirit of wisdom and revelation comes as a sacred feeling or impression.  If you want to experience this, but haven’t there are some things that you can do.  No one can force God to communicate with them, but when prepared, the flow of ideas from heaven is natural.  If you once had the spirit of wisdom and revelation but now no longer enjoy it, there may be some reason that God has hidden his face.  He is the greatest teacher and uses both sun and shadow in his individual tutorials.

Preparatory Steps to Invite Revelation:

• Slow down. Find peaceful places, linger there, practice being aware. “Be still, and know that I am God.” Ps 46:10 

• Set the Mood. Soft sacred music can create an atmosphere that invites revelation. Jesus sang a hymn before entering the Mount of Olives. Matt 26:30 

• Recognize. Sacred moments happen to everyone but are often ignored. When a baby is born or a person dies, the place feels holy. Special events sometimes evoke a sense of sacredness. 

• Be reverent. “Remember that that which cometh from above is sacred, and must be spoken with care, and by constraint of the Spirit.” D&C 63:64 

Course Correction

I run.  I choose a course and prepare to run it.  If a friend goes with me, that is fun.  While we share the course, we are unified in purpose.  Can you imagine running a course with a friend who was resistant to the course?  A disagreement about the direction, pace or duration would necessitate a change of plans.  Either I would have to compromise my course or we would have to part ways instead of running together.  While running, we might pass another runner going in the opposite direction.  Their course being completely different would have different results.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  He is making himself equal to the course.  Anyone who runs with him is sharing his course.  Anyone who disagrees with the direction he is going would have to part ways with him.  I can’t imagine Jesus changing his plans to accommodate one person’s ideal course.  He is the ideal course.  Others are running in other directions and will end up somewhere else.

Then Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  I look at the commandments as par for the course.  If I resisted a commandment for whatever reason, I would have to split with Jesus.  I really can’t run with him if I’m going somewhere else with my life.  I can certainly choose to go somewhere else, but not with Jesus.

This doesn’t leave much wiggle room for worshipping wealth, profaning God’s name, breaking the Sabbath, lying, stealing or coveting.  Jesus talked about all these common sins.  He also talked about being merciful, pure in heart and a peacemaker.  Each of his teachings are part of his course.

I know He saved us when He died on the cross.  His death promises us a resurrected body and a new life.  What it doesn’t promise us is that we will abide in his love on Earth.  Jesus said, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” (John 15:10)

In my own life, I’m willing to run the course with Jesus, but I’m resistant to abiding in his love as shown by others.  I avoid the warm fuzzy rewards that people give each other and me.  I don’t feel loved by those around me because I have built up a resistance to it.  I have a negative belief that praise and gratitude are for someone else and not for me.  I have thought about why I avoid this positive feedback.  I think I must have questioned someone’s authenticity when they praised me.  I became emotionally allergic to their words.

Resistance in myself is evidence of an injury.  I don’t want to go where it hurts.  Jesus says, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  I allow the pain to stop me from trusting that the course will take me to the glory God has planned for me.  Jesus says to me, “don’t allow that because I will give you peace.”

Jesus said, “Love one another.”  I’m ok with loving others, just not receiving love.  I know it doesn’t make any sense but this is what I’ve observed in myself.  My resistance causes tension in myself.  It’s hard to trust with this kind of emotional allergy. 

So I run the course and resist slightly.  I want to go where Jesus is going so I make myself keep going even though it hurts.  (I do that in my physical run too).  Over time, I have tried to understand my resistance and where it comes from.  In time, I’ve come to new conclusions and my perspective change has lessened my resistance.  I think that faith is running the course.  Hope is believing it leads to glory.  Love is what I give myself when I acknowledge my fears and resistance.

All I Want is Clarity

I have been blind for many years.  Because what I had was not what I wanted, I focused on what I didn’t have.  I chose not to see the good in my life and only focus on what I lacked.  This type of mindset obviously leads to despair.

To change this mindset, I have been working to open my eyes.  What we interpret about what we see determines how much we see.  We sometimes allow an automatic or cultural response to blind us.  I became unempathic to the situation in front of me.

Karla McLaren puts it this way, “No matter how much trait empathy we have, our empathy can drop to near-zero when we interact with someone unusual or unexpected. We’ve all experienced this empathy drop when a person or group we don’t agree with appears on the news; in fact, it’s completely normal to believe that people who are unlike us are suspicious and incompetent. It’s nearly automatic for us to drop our empathy in the presence of difference.

“We are all, every day, engaged in mind-blindness against people we do not agree with or comprehend. We are all unempathic about some people and some groups, and it is a normal feature of human nature to be unempathic toward people who are not like us. This is why it’s so important for awake people to challenge stereotyping and prejudice.”  Source

Jesus, “the rock of offense,” came into the world, “that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.”  (Isa 8:14, John 9:39)  Why would Jesus’s message make some people blind?  Well, it was so unexpected that they immediately put up their “mind-blind.”

There are always two ways to interpret a situation — favorably and with acceptance and with skepticism and rejection.  With respect to Jesus’ message, a skeptical response results in blindness and a choice to disassociate.  I do not think there is no hope for the blind.  Rather, the light will be greater and more obvious in contrast to the “dimness of anguish” they currently inhabit.  (Isa 8:22)  Isaiah promises that eventually the light will shine and it will be “great”.  (Isa 9:2-3)

Here are some ways that we are blind by choice:

• We try to deny the truth
• We forget what happened
• We ignore other people’s feelings
• We distract ourselves
• We blame others for our emotions
• We repress our emotions
• We minimize our responsibility and inflate the role someone else played
• We "cast out” people who make us feel guilty
• We go to sleep rather than face the reality
• We drown out memories with TV
• We “move on” to other relationships
• We procrastinate
• We fantasize what we don’t have
• We don’t appreciate what we do have

image courtesy ilhu industries

We choose blindness over awareness to minimize pain, guilt, the nagging feeling that we ought to do something to help, and even to protect ourselves.  Often we have no idea that this is a choice we have made because it was a learned response.

  

I’m not immune.  I’ve done it too.  Shame is not the solution.  We need to move in the direction of awareness.  We need awareness of our own needs and feelings.  We can offer awareness of others even if we don’t have a solution.

Clarity comes when we face our fears and approach the truth.  It is possible to see double-vision on any issue.  We can see both our fears and the possibility that this is where we need to bloom and grow.  Reality is what we do have and who we are — right now.  Seeing reality is knowing and accepting the truth.  After seeing the truth we might want to judge ourselves harshly.  The healthy response is to love ourselves.  This is a learned response.  It is the beginning of all love.  Next we must believe that God loves us and has our best interests in mind.  If we have faith in His guiding hand, we will have “power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in [Him].” (Mor 7:33)  We will be able to bring down the “mind-blind” and see the potential for good in what we do have. 

Shifting our perspective to the potential for good is the beginning of hope and the opposite of despair.  I have some strategies that I’m using to shift perspective.  One is a Gratitude Journal.  In this book, I record at least one good thing that happened at the end of the day.  This helps me to see over time the pattern of good things in my current reality.  In terms of my marriage, I have created a document where I visualize the good in my spouse with words, pictures, and symbols.  I also use this document to imagine the good things that we have in our future.  If my “mind-blind” was toward the reality of God, then I might choose to focus on His good attributes, document His blessings as responses to my requests and even the little miracles that happen without my asking (like car accidents that don’t happen and storms that don’t do damage).

You can go from despair to hope!  Seeing is a choice.  Seeing is loving.  Love is real.

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 light and safer than 

a known way.”

So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly 

into the night.

And He led me toward the hills 

and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Image courtesy opus moreschi

If you have this habit, please get help.  Porn causes blindness.

This is a short video about a woman who was blind and what it was like for her when she began to see again for the first time in years.

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Poem Source - "The Gate of the Year" by Minnie Louise Haskins

Cover image of eyeglasses courtesy 0four

Spiritual Self Reliance

In this post: spirituality is learned, the Bible as a conversation between prophets, new possibilities

My baby is learning to walk.  He relies on me to hold his hands and he takes teeny tiny steps forward.  He wants to go forward but he doesn’t quite know how unless he’s crawling.  But none of us crawl.  We all walk.  “There has to be a way,” he thinks.  So up he goes and along the couch he inches.

Walking spiritually can be much the same.  Prayer is learned by imitating someone else and imagining God listening.  Reading the Bible can be a slow process much like inching along a couch.  Exercising faith in unseen things can feel a lot like stumbling blindly in the dark.

I remember the first time I read the Old Testament in the Bible.  I got bogged down in the seemingly endless chronologies (family lineages along tribal lines).  I wondered why there were so many proverbs.  I was unimpressed to find that First and Second Kings were “repeated” in First and Second Chronicles.  I finished the OT like I finish long-distance runs — exhausted.

A lot has changed since that first read.  Now when I read the Old Testament, the words ooze sweet honey into my heart.  I read the words and the poetic images don’t just fly over my head, I catch them.  I can remember now where I’ve seen that imagery before and how it was used.  I connect the dots between one prophet and others that came after him.  It’s like one prophet said it and another one caught it and threw it to a third.  Then I come along and see them playing with words and I join them.  It’s thrilling to be in a conversation with the prophets in the Old Testament.

The Vineyard in Isaiah 5 - from my sketchbook

For example:  In Jacob’s blessing to his sons, Judah is compared to a lion.  Then when the King of the Moabites sees the children of Israel defending upon him, he asks the prophet Balaam to bless him but the prophet says that Israel will rise up like a great lion (Num 23:24).  Then Isaiah picks up the image when he says that lions will roar at the Lord’s vineyard.  When I read these verses and others like them, I am transported into a world where lions were a ferocious predator to be feared.  The word pictures convey the intensity of the prophet’s warnings better than any string of expletives.  

So how do I go from crawling to walking to running in my spirituality?

Crawling is hearing, believing and relying on the faith and testimony of others.  It is not about knowing answers to the many questions.  There has to be a way and somehow I will find it.

Walking is like putting the steps together to gain individual truths.  Each person “has the responsibility to know for himself or herself with a certainty beyond doubt that Jesus is the resurrected, living Son of the living God.” (G.B. Hinckley) This comes inch by inch.  It starts with desire.  It includes a serious study of the scriptures.  It takes deep thinking, sincere asking in prayer and maybe more.

Running is transforming spiritual understanding into perspective, motivation and a foundation for growth.  It is confidence that the principles work every time.  It is a reason for hope.  It is a protective shield against darkness and confusion.  

I have seen the excitement in my baby’s eye when the freedom to walk opens up a whole world of possibilities.  I know it takes time, but it is worth it.  It is exhilarating!

If you liked this post, you might also like My Personal Connection to the Children of Israel