God is the Creator. Satan is the destroyer. Our Heavenly Father delights in life, abundance, creation, and an infinite elan for all His creations. The devil rejoices in death, destruction, scarcity, and a finite destiny for what God creates.

When I see photos and video footage of people cheering away because of the death of others and the destruction of property, freedom, and peace- it is sad.

I believe it is no stretch to think that God weeps when people are destroyed- even those terribly opposed to Him. At times God, in an act of mercy, sweeps away the wicked to prevent them from further damning themselves by committing more awful acts. It's a difficult thing to get our heads around, but it is nonetheless true. All the while, God hopes for something better in the lives of all people-- that we will choose to follow Jesus Christ, become more like Him, and rely on His Holy Grace.

In the Book of Mormon, there are people who delight in the destruction of their brethren (Alma 17:35), and this is what set me to thinking about this today.

35 Therefore they did not fear Ammon, for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to their pleasure, for they knew not that the Lord had promised Mosiah that he would deliver his sons out of their hands; neither did they know anything concerning the Lord; therefore they delighted in the destruction of their brethren; and for this cause they stood to scatter the flocks of the king.

Nope- I'm not talking about a home finance program. I'm referring to the plea from the Psalmist. Those of you have been reading my blog for a while know of my love for the Psalms. They are a continual lift to me. Below is a short one (Psalms 143) that is filled with great inspiration.

 

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

7 Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the away wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

9 Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.

10 Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

11 Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.

12 And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

We know that the Savior is a man of supreme power. He carried the entire weight of human suffering and death on His shoulders...alone. Is He "tough"? You bet. The toughest of the tough. He is the only true Super Hero.

Yet, He is also a man of infinite kindness, gentleness, and compassion. One could say that He is tender- not inspite of the things He suffered, but, at least in part, because of the things He suffered.

The Savior has a soft heart.

Our risk is to develop hard hearts. When our hearts harden, they become rigid, inflexible, difficult to move, and we are not open to feelings of love and goodness. It is from these that real strength and power can come.

The ancient prophet, Alma, conveyed these words from the Lord (Alma 12:34):

34 Therefore, whosever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest.

There is no honor in being stubborn. Being stoic is fine as long as we are nonetheless seeking to receive the Grace of God and striving to be like the Master. We must keep our hearts soft and avoid cynicism, sarcasm, anger, and the cold distance that is increasingly in fashion. This is not to say that we become bawling, melodramatic fools. Rather, let us conduct ourselves with quiet dignity as we humbly serve the Lord and steadily improve in serving humanity.

We live in an age where the possibility of "space tourism" is no longer science fiction. Traveling around the globe for business and personal visits is fairly easy and surprisingly inexpensive. Many people consider themselves, "well traveled".

But, in our expanding travels are our souls also expanding? When I have traveled as part of professional obligations, I met many people who traveled much, were wealthy, and had many of the luxuries of our time. Yet, they often seemed so unhappy beneath the surface.

In contrast, others in history with dramatically less in the things of the world had souls that encompassed so many in a circle of love and understanding.

Martin Luther King became an inspiration to many- not just because of his great speeches but also because he was willing to submit to rude demands and the chill of a jail cell for the freedom of others.

Joseph Smith, in the suffocating, dank, and grim Liberty Jail in Missouri received this wonderful revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22):

22 Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing.

Alma, the ancient prophet, describes the conversion of a group of people to the Lord Jesus Christ. They accepted His grace and covenanted to follow Him in every way. Here's how he puts it (Alma 5:9):

9 And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved.

Let us expand our souls-- not by attempting to take everything the world can offer but by giving ourselves to God completely.

One of the best questions I was ever asked was when I was a freshman in college in 1988. One of my professors, Dr. Lambert, had welcomed me to his office as I had concerns about a grade he had given me on a paper. In my pride, I was attempting to convince him that he was wrong about my grade on the paper. He paused and looked at me most kindly and asked a stinging question, "Are you here to learn or not?" I said I was. He then added, "Then, I suggest you listen to the feedback I've given you and write a better paper next time."

It is no exaggeration to say that this was a special turning point in my life. Since that very moment I have tried to improve my teachability-- to be willing to learn. It has not always been easy. I've still let my pride get the better of me at times. But, those occasions are rarer all of the time. I have much to learn.

We cannot come closer to God without being teachable. We need to set aside our self-perceived brilliance and consider ourselves fools in the presence of the Creator of the universe.

Jeremiah 35:13

13 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the LORD.

And Doctrine and Covenants 50:21

21 Therefore, why is it that ye cannot understand and know, that he that receiveth the word by the Spirit of truth receiveth it as it is preached by the Spirit of truth?

In John 1:3 it says:

 

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Here, the Greek uses the word λόγος . It is well known that this is the root whence we derive words like "logic" and "logistics". Jesus is the Creator. He spoke, and the world was.

In the Book of Mormon, Jesus confirms this doctrine when He responds personally to a prayer of a magnificent prophet, Alma. The Savior says in Mosiah 26:23:

"For it is I that taketh upon me the sins of the world; for it is I that hath created them; and it is I that granteth to him that believeth unto the end a place at my right hand."

One of the unique doctrines highlighted in the Book of Mormon is the link between the Creation and the Redemption. Only Jesus Christ could be the Redeemer for many reasons, one of the chiefest among them that He was the very Creator of all things He reclaims through His redemptive power.

See this article by Elder Bruce R. McConkie: Christ and the Creation.

I've been thinking about my mother very much. She passed away nearly four years ago, and life has not been quite the same since. I pray for her even now- that she is never alone. I know she is not. One of her very favorite passages is this one in John 14:27--

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

The world offers peace through other ways. Many dream of winning the lottery, of making it big. Then, they will have peace. While it is true that poverty, difficulties, challenges, worries, and disappointment can rob us of some measure of peace- they cannot take away the special peace that Christ grants. It is not subject to the powers of this world. We must take our pain, our hurt to Him. I promise that He will never let us down.

So, as I ponder my broken heart at the passing of my mother as I do so very often, I find peace just as she surely does now. I know she misses me as much as I do her. We're both thinking of the same passages.

I was recently chatting with a friend, and we were discussing obedience and following the Lord. He said something that I want to pass along. He remarked, "If a person is spending a lot of time trying to sort out gray areas, trying to decide whether some act is over the line or not over the line- then one is way too close to the line."

There is peace when one is well on the Lord's side of the line. Elder Russell M. Nelson said the following in the March 2002 New Era magazine:

Praying helps us to face trials in life. Prayer centers our attitudes precisely. With that focus we do not wander to the right or left through land mined with traps of temptation. Disciples do not flirt with danger at the jagged edge of disaster. Experienced mountain climbers do not lean toward the dangerous edge but toward safety, with ropes and other safeguards to secure them to those they trust. So it is with us. When we climb mountainous challenges of life, we should lean toward our Master and be yoked with Him, clinging tightly to the iron rod of the gospel, to family, and to trusted friends.

President David O. McKay taught this about edges: “Many of us through selfishness are lingering near the edge of the animal jungle where Nature’s law demands us to do everything with self in view” (Conference Report, Apr. 1957, 7).

President James E. Faust issued this solemn warning: “Living on the edge can also mean being perilously close to the Bottomless Pit. …

“Some of you may think that you will discover your strengths and abilities by living on the edge. … There will always be enough risks that will come to you naturally without your having to seek them out” (Ensign, Nov. 1995, 46).

The Lord said, “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (D&C 6:36). I have learned that such faith gives emancipating power. Facing God first lets us decide firmly what we shall not do; then we are free to pursue what we ought to do.

All along during the ministry of Jesus- He knew He must leave this world to complete His work (John 13:1).

We, too, must depart from this world- first in our hearts. According to the normal laws of physics we cannot be in two places at once. We are either in one place or in another. So it is with our hearts. We have either left the world, or we have not.

God has continually asked His followers to leave, to be on the move. Abraham fetched Lot and his family and left the wicked city. The children of Israel left Egypt. But, soon they complained to Moses that they regretted leaving. They had not left in their hearts. While they had physically moved- in their hearts they were still in Egypt.

The Book of Mormon is also replete with examples such as these. In fact, it's initial characters begin the record after they depart from Jerusalem. In the ensuing narrative, there are other people who depart from cities and places because in their hearts they had departed from the world. They were living somewhere else in their hearts.

"And it came to pass that they dpearted out of the valley, and took their journey into the wilderness." Mosiah 24:24

We are told that we must live a celestial law in our hearts to live in a celestial world when we cross to the other side of mortality. Put another way, we need to behave, to the best of our ability, as if we live somewhere else- in a heavenly world. To do this, we must take our journey to follow the Lord fully and completely.

In our day and age, as people try to excuse wrong or destructive behavior they often remove God from the picture. This is usually part of an attempt to suppress or evade guilt or shame. I have heard people say, "Well, if what I felt to do was wrong, why did God create me with that desire? He's supposedly perfect, so why create me with the impulse to do something wrong?"

God does not give us wrong feelings, drives or impulses as part of some cosmic joke or experiment. We are children of God with divine lineage directly to God. But, in this life it suits Him that we face the influences of the flesh to prove our moral character, to demonstrate how much we want to be with Him. The Book of Mormon and the Bible teach that we are a marvelous creation, but they both also teach that we have many drives and impulses, some of which are truly carnal.

From Psalms 8:5--

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

And from the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 16:5--

5 But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God…is as though there was no redemption made….

I could find similar teachings from any book of scripture really.

I recall Victor E. Frankl's book, "Man's search for meaning", a truly existential work I read 25 years ago in high school. It is filled with such morality and divinity despite its sad context. In his hunger while in a death camp in World War II, he would not give in to his desire for food at the expense of someone else. So, he gave his bread to a woman who seemed more hungry to him.

In this life we may have some drives or desires that are stronger or harder to harness than others. We may face stronger desires in one area than another person. But, conquering our desires is not really about self-control in the end. We must believe in a higher power- the highest power even Jesus Christ. It is through His redemptive power that we can overcome the influences of the flesh. It is through Him alone that we ultimately exercise faith unto salvation.