Why Faith is the Opposite of Pessimism

  

        Earlier this week I was feeling a little down on myself because several things weren't going the way that I wanted them to.  Somewhere in the midst of rehashing some pent-up angst and agonizing over frustrating circumstances I realized that I wasn't handling things as well as I had just a few days before.  I noticed that there wasn't much that was fundamentally different than what I had been up against before.  Nothing much, that is, except for one thing.

          Just a few days before, under a similar amount of pressure and against equivalent odds, I believed absolutely unquestioningly that things would work out for the best, win or lose.  In fact, it reminded me of a quote that used to be taped to my parent's bathroom mirror: 

          "I believe I am always divinely guided.  I believe I will always take the right turn of the road.  I believe God will always make a way where there is no way."

--Norman Vincent Peale

          Take another look at that second statement:  "I believe I will always take the right road."  Isn't that a bit egotistical?  Or at least a little unrealistic?  Who in their right mind thinks that they will always take the right road?  Yet in this statement I see something of the fundamental core of faith.  The key is understanding exactly how much God is in control of things.  I know that He understands me well enough to construct circumstances that will lead me to make the right decisions.  All of my mistakes and shortcomings have already been taken into consideration and planned for.  So my faith in Him translates directly into unshaken confidence in my own decisions.  It makes it possible to accept the fact that I feel insecure and keep moving forward, even when the future feels dark and menacing.  Often I don't have any idea which is the right road, but I do know that whichever one it is will be the path I end up taking, because God will lead me there.

          The reason that I am so sure of this is because, deep in my heart, I want my will to be God's will.  And that desire reaches across the light years of space between us and pulls us closer together.  That aspiration connects my divine destiny with reality and allows God to become the power by which I shine.

          I do believe that I will always take the right road.  I believe that I will always have the words to say and the places to go.  I believe that the pathway to truth is a part of me and that it will lead me in the way of light and salvation, for myself and for others.  The pathway is fraught with uncertainty.  It is full of twists and turns and curveballs the likes of which I could never have come up with on my own.  But it is also full of peace and righteousness and miracles and hope.

          That moment of realization sitting at that small wooden table in my apartment when I comprehended that I had to choose between faith and discouragement was a turning point of sorts.  Within only a few days I would have to rely on the Lord in a way that I had never before trusted Him.  A moment when I had to cry, "Without Thy help I will fall.  Help me fly."  And I did.  And He did. 

Those are the moments life is worth living for.

Darkness and Light

          We live in a world dichotomized by extremes in darkness and light.  Our daily experiences reek of both forces as they battle to take control of our lives.  The difference between the two seems obvious.  Night and day, to be exact.  Yet at the same time it is often difficult for us to distinguish between the two.  Why?

          Maybe part of the reason is because we neglect the light that is within us.

          The light of Christ illuminates the world and gives guidance and direction to all things.  Over time, exposure to the light changes us to the point that there begins to be light within our hearts.  Not the light of Christ, but our own personal light that has formed inside of us through the grace of Christ.  When we stare out at the world we strive to interpret external symbols as either light or darkness so we know what influences to allow into our lives and which decisions to make.  At the same time, it is the light inside of us that is to guide us in the absence of words from heaven.  Luke 11:34 reads, "The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness."

          In other words, if we allow light to permeate our souls, our whole body will be full of light and we will be able to make correct decisions in the absence of immediate inspiration.  However, if we "neglect...that gift that is in [us]" and try to run our lives solely on external light, we will soon find ourselves plunged into darkness.  Elder Oaks quoted William E. Berrett when he said, "Those who pray that the Spirit might give them immediate guidance in every little thing throw themselves open to false spirits that seem ever ready to answer our pleas and confuse us. … The people I have found most confused in this Church are those who seek personal revelations on everything. They want the personal assurance from the Spirit from daylight to dark on everything they do. I say they are the most confused people I know because it appears sometimes that the answer comes from the wrong source.”

          In order to influence others and rear an eternal posterity, at some point we will need to stop being merely consumers of the light and begin to be its producers.  That cannot happen if our actions are just the products of the forces around us, even when those forces include revelation.  The pursuit of perfection is a team effort between ourselves and the Lord:  His inspiration and our agency, neither outweighing the other.  I don't know precisely why it works the way it does or why exactly it is so dangerous to live lives on blind faith, but I do know that the absolute greatest protection against deception is to take in inspiration from God and then act in obedience  according to our own intelligence, light, and agency.

          There is not always only one right answer to a question. The Savior once told Peter, speaking of John's decision to be translated, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? For he desired of me that he might bring souls unto me, but thou desiredst that thou mightest speedily come unto me in my kingdom.

 I say unto thee, Peter, this was a good desire; but my beloved has desired that he might do more, or a greater work yet among men than what he has before done.  Verily I say unto you, ye shall both have according to your desires, for ye both joy in that which ye have desired."

          Peter used his agency one way and John used his another, but they were both acceptable before God because their desires were good.  In a similar way, in terms of decisions of what career to have, who to marry, or what kind of person to become, there may be a variety of answers that are pleasing to the Lord.  Sometimes we just need to strike out upon the water and trust that things will work out in a way that will positively benefit everyone involved.

          I know that the Holy Ghost and the light of Christ are both real.  I know that they are there to help us make decisions that we would be incapable of making correctly on our own.  But they are also tutors, designed to help us to stand up on our own two feet and walk.  The day that we meet the Savior in order to have our own personal interview, it will be our own feet that step across the threshold into His presence.  And that, in reality, is what the Plan of Salvation is all about.

Souls, Symbols, and Sacrifices

          Throughout the scriptures, God has often incorporated symbols in His messages to us.  Symbols can often have multiple meanings, which can represent multiple facets of truth simultaneously.  That this is true is evident in visions, such as the Vision of the Tree of Life, and parables, such as the parable of the ten virgins.  Gospel ordinances, scriptural analogies, and temples are all full of symbols.  It is one of God's principle method of teaching.

          It is my belief that God is just as active at using the world around us as a teaching implement as He is crafting verses of scripture.  Oftentimes experience is far more poignant an instructor than mere words, written or spoken.  This being true, is it unthinkable for Him to incorporate symbols in the world around us that are designed to teach each of us personally the things that we need to know to reach our Divine potential?

          In a recent BYU devotional address, Brother Parker from the BYU religion department identified several universal symbols of Christ, such as the way that the Earth orbits around the Sun, representing our need to rotate around the Son, and the way we symbolically die and resurrect every time we go to sleep and wake up.  Such symbols are all around us, instructing us as to how "all things denote there is a God (Alma 30:44)."  Everything about the world around us is a symbol of Jesus Christ.

          This thought leads to a simple, logical, yet deeply important question:  Is the way I live my life a symbol of Christ?  Does everything I do testify of Him?  For Abraham, our forefather, the answer was yes.  Born into a kingdom of idolatry, Abraham brought light to a darkened people, just as Christ did.  From what scripture we have access to, the sacrifice of his son, Isaac, may be the act that best symbolizes the Atonement.  I believe that if we knew his life better, we would see in many of his smaller acts tiny representations of Christ's own ministry.

          When questioned why we do not incorporate the symbol of the cross, President Gordon B. Hinckley once recounted, ”I replied that the lives of our people must become the most meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship."  Why?  Because the highest form of love is emulation.  It would be blasphemous for any of us to say that our works are as great as His, but the sweat and tears we spend on a act similar to His honors Him in its symbolism of His acts.

          Now, if our lives are to become metaphoric of Christ's, what is the single most important thing we should focus our heart on?  The greatest moment of Jesus' life was the Atonement, during which he offered a deeply personal, selfless sacrifice for the salvation of others by uniting His will with God's.  As He has sacrificed, so should we sacrifice whatever is necessary to aid the salvation of others.  When our hearts are ruled by love, sometimes we don't need a direct command from the Spirit in order to know what God's will is.  Simply loving others is not enough to aid their salvation, but using that love as a motivating power to crush the limitations of what we are willing to do in order to submit our will to His works miracles.  Miracles are a sign that our lives are in harmony with God's will, for, "there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity."

          I know that as Sons and Daughters of God, pure divinity can run through our veins and out our hearts, bleed from our pores through selfless sacrifice and rush into the lives of those we love like the arms of Jesus that clash them tight and as He whispers in their ear that everything will be OK.  When we truly love as God loves and recognize our opportunity to positively influence others, there is nothing in all this world or in eternity that would not be worth the price.  Absolutely nothing.  That sacrifice which is symbolically offered in the name of Jesus Christ can change a person's life, worlds without end.  It is the only thing that ever has.