The Greatest Work

In an election year, each candidate has some carefully crafted “talking points” — oft repeated goals.  What actually gets accomplished by an elected official is complicated.  An elected official’s productivity can be compared to our own.  Our real intentions are not in the things we talk bout but in the things we actually do.  And some of the things we do are just escape routes to avoid the real work at hand.

In people with addictions, the intention may be there, but the mechanism for choosing what actually gets done is broken.  An addiction is stronger than will power.  It must be dealt with before any of the real work can be done. This post helps to identify the real work that can both bridle the passions and lead to a full recovery in people who are looking for relief from addictions.

There are two kinds of work.  The natural appetites are called carnal, and all of us must work to feed ourselves in order to survive.  The work that is spiritual or altruistic requires a determined effort because it is not required for survival.  I believe that the real work in life happens in and for people, first in families, second among friends and co-workers.  A good balance is maintained between the real work and those tasks that appease the appetites by choosing to prioritize real work with lasting value to society.

This post answers the question why soul-enlarging spiritual work in families should be a higher priority than carnal work.  Work among people, specifically family, is the closest imitation of God’s work.  God has said, “My work and my glory is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man.” Moses 1:39 The work done in families includes teaching, correcting, developing patience, forgiving and learning to repair relationships.  The pain caused by broken families shows how important it is to succeed in this work.

We are immortal, but this life is mortal or temporary.  After we die you won’t have our wealth or status but we will have the truths in our souls that we gained by living and working in families.  These truths and the work by which they are gained should be a higher priority than acquiring wealth or appeasing the appetites.

The family is the ideal place to learn and develop virtues like faith, hope and love.  Specifically love emerges as an expression of lots of virtues.  For the unmarried man or woman moving from relationship to relationship, love is mixed with selfishness.  Ideal love comes from a pure, unselfish heart. 1 Tim 1:5 Family responsibilities demand an unselfish response.  Family responsibilities also moderate the natural appetites to eat, drink and have sex in excess.

We are all natural or carnal until we begin to choose spirituality and develop the virtues Christ exemplified.  “The natural man is an enemy to God.” Mos 3:19  In family life, parents guide and correct children to avoid the lusts of the flesh while they are young.  This gives the seeds of spirituality and virtue a chance to grow and develop.  Children taught in this way reach adulthood with virtuous principles and habits which protect them from unknowingly falling into the trap of trying to appease the carnal desires.  Adults who received no family protection and training have discovered how easy it is to prioritize the appetites over spirituality and how futile it is to try and appease the appetites.  To those who try to choose both the spiritual and the carnal, Jesus said, “no man can serve two masters.” Matt 6:24

The soul of a human being has two parts.  One is immortal and spiritual; the other is mortal and carnal.  Paul teaches in 1 Cor 2:11-14 that the natural man or carnal aspect of the soul cannot understand spiritual things.  It follows that to understand spiritual things and develop virtue, a person must gain mastery over the carnal aspect of themselves.  Christianity teaches that the resurrection will restore the physical aspect of the soul to its original state.  What is not as clear is that the spiritual aspect of the soul will also be restored to the state of mastery developed during the mortal experience.  Alma teaches this principle in Alma 41:11-14 which may sound similar to the Buddhist teaching of karma.  Essentially, the soul is resurrected to an evil spiritual state if the person chose evil with a perfected physical body or it is resurrected to a spiritual state of righteousness if the person chose righteousness with a perfected physical body.  Choosing the carnal over the spiritual has an eternal consequence in the state of resurrection achieved.

A story is told in the Bible of a woman who was brought to Jesus.  She had been capitalizing on the sexual appetites and the Jews expected Jesus to condemn her because that behavior is forbidden in the Mosaic law.  Jesus did not condemn her at that time because she was still mortal and she still had the opportunity to change.  He told her to repent when he said, “Go and sin no more.” (John 8) This story gives hope to all who have spent time and money appeasing the carnal appetites.  Change is possible.  Addictions can be bridled.  Following the path Jesus walked requires nothing less.  He submitted to the will of the Father and so must we.  (Matt 7:21, Matt 12:50, John 5:30, 2 Ne 31:7-15)

The spiritual work done in and for families should be a high priority. It imitates God’s work.  It enables the acquisition of truths that have eternal value. It enables the development of ideal love by moderating the appetites. It protects and prepares the rising generation for adulthood. It enables the soul to reach it’s highest state of mastery. It also helps those who want to regain mastery of their appetites channel their energy and resources into more productive areas.

12 Steps to Change: An addiction recovery program

image credits: used with permission

The Emotional Appeal

I am going to recount a story that I heard on a podcast "The Poetry of Propaganda" by This American Life.

The Columbian government has long been fighting a war with rebels  by the name of FARC who hide in the jungle.  After years of trying to use force to overpower them, the government tried a totally different tactic.  They hired an advertising agency to come up with a campaign to convince rebels to defect.  One year, the agency tried putting Christmas lights on a tree near a major road into the jungle just at the time of year when many rebels miss home and family.  Another year, they floated lit balls down the river which contained messages from home.  A third example of their ingenuity was the campaign that included finding a childhood photo of a rebel and putting it up in the jungle with the words from their mother, "you will always be my baby."  Of course the only person who recognized the photo was the one rebel for whom it was intended but the campaign was very successful.

In each case, the intent was to pull at the heart strings of a real person not "the enemy."  That real person had feelings, wishes and desires which were identified.  Many times, it was home and family that drew the person away from the FARC and back into society.  The government provided a protection program to help the rebels reintegrate without being harmed in retribution.

Just think about what it takes to persuade a person.  The government could have tried rewarding the rebels who defected with cash.  The government could have tried appealing to their patriotism.  Their could have been sermons broadcast over the radio talking about hell, fire and damnation for all rebels. They could have tried to kill all the rebels with ammunition and guns.  But what worked best, was an emotional appeal and a promise of no rejection from their mothers.

All of us are in a rebel encampment so to speak on Earth.  Our Father is hoping to convince us to defect and come back to Him.  The pressure to stay with the group and the fear of rejection are strong reasons not to listen to Him.  He reminds us that we are his children.  He loves us and he will forgive us of all that we have done wrong.

Defecting is painful and difficult.  We have to give up our crutches -- the anger that protects us, the addictions that numb us, the fear that cripples us -- and just let ourselves go into God's arms.  Defecting might mean that we take the scorn of our friends, the possibility of being disowned, the soberness that comes when parties are declined, as we embrace the tranquility of prayer.  Our church family may never fully compensate for the natural family ties that were broken.

As a child of a religious convert, I saw the effects of a massive religious realignment on the family ties.  They were strained.  They healed slowly.  In some cases they never healed.  What price will you pay?  What level of commitment is required to fully transition into a godly kind of life?

I can say for sure that opposition will fly in your face like a tornado unleashed as you try to change.  That kind of opposition indicates that the stakes are high.  The battle for souls is real and while God uses warmth to invites us, the devil uses fury and power to dissuade us.

My reasons for living a Christ-like life in a world of glitter and glam are simple.  I feel better when I'm focusing on my relationship with God.  I act better when I'm thinking about eternal truth than when I'm focusing on myself.  I have weathered fierce storms in life and I attribute my strength to the rock of Christ on which my life is built.  I have experienced anger and depression, fear and abandonment but these things were temporary.  What lasts and endures in my life is the testimony deep in my heart that Christ lives.  His gospel is the absolute truth.  This life is preparatory phase that tests our convictions.  It is not the only reality and death is not the end.  I know that after I leave this mortal world, I will be resurrected and judged. God will know me and I will know him. Family and faith matter; money and fame don't.  I believe that this life's test is only possible because Jesus Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf so that we could be redeemed.  Whatever I am asked to give, it is less that what He gave.  I am working on being willing to give all that I have and am for Christ.

Image credit: Silvia Andrea Moreno / Flickr

Salvation is the Greatest Gift

My Christian friends sometimes tell me that if I believe, I will be saved.  I agree with them.  But what I believe about salvation is way more nuanced than just believe and be saved.  If anything, the Book of Mormon teaches a black and white view of salvation.  It talks about heaven and hell.  Either you go to one or the other.  This is true and I agree with this but the revelations published as the Doctrine and Covenants gives me more of the shades of grey in between salvation and damnation.  You might wonder how there can be shades of grey if I believe in heaven and hell. Let’s just say that heaven and hell is the short answer and pertains to what happens to the soul before the final judgement.  The eternal outcome of the soul will be as nuanced as there are shades of good and evil because the judgement will be just.  And even in the nuanced version of salvation, if you think that any kind of separation from God is hell, then there is a way to see the Mormon doctrine of “degrees of glory” as black and white too.

The Lord Jesus Christ offered his blood as a sinless sacrifice for the salvation of all the children of God.  In my theology, there is both a physical death and a spiritual death.  Physical death comes from the Fall of Adam and Eve.  The spiritual death comes from sin.  Jesus Christ’s sacrifice atones for both types of death but in different ways.  When it comes to physical death, Jesus Christ’s death breaks the bands of death and everyone of every race and creed is redeemed from this death by receiving a resurrected body whether they believe or not.  This salvation a free gift.  Jesus offers salvation from spiritual death but we have to repent of our sins.  Sins are choices, and our agency is inviolable in heaven.  So if we don’t want to give up our sins, God will not make us.  We cannot be redeemed from the effects of sin if we don’t voluntarily give up the sin.  Here’s an example…how effective is it when someone takes away an addictive substance from another?  You don’t really think God will take these things away from us, do you?  However, he will not tolerate sin in his presence so we, if not redeemed at the Judgement Day, will have to dwell apart from him.  This is technically hell, even if the glory to which we are assigned is a peaceful place.

All of God’s children who have lived on Earth fall into one of these categories with only a few like Judas Iscariot, Christ’s betrayer, being in the category of Son of Perdition.  This chart is based on the words of scripture not my own philosophy.  You can read any of these scriptures online at www.lds.org/scriptures

The concept of “Degrees of Glory” is not original to Joseph Smith.  Paul mentioned them.  However, Joseph Smith saw in vision details about them.  His vision persuades us to make the effort to make our faith real by actions that express it and show our commitment to God.  While no amount of effort will be sufficient to merit salvation, Christ has already committed his life to stand in mediation for us before the Father at the Final Judgment.  He will recognize us by our actions and we will recognize him.  In Matthew 7:22-23 we read, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  

I hope that in studying this topic with me, you have a clearer understanding of salvation.  I also hope that if you receive no gifts at Christmas, and if life is generally bad for you, that you still have Christ’s great gift — salvation from physical death which is free to all.