The Beautiful Thing Is That It's True

          There are a lot of well-thought-out ideas in the world.  For centuries there have been men who have spent their entire lives thinking about their own existence, dissecting it various ways, and coming up with theories about what exactly it is.  They tried to tackle life at its roots, taking nothing for granted and having no assumptions.  All their powers of reason were focused like an arrow on the single objective of understanding.

          But the one assumption they never broke down, the one stipulation they never considered, was that the way to discover truth about life was not through reason at all.  We know things in our hearts, not in our minds.  The entire functionality of our lives is based on using knowledge that cannot be proven.  We know that the sun will come up, that oxygen will still be breathable, and that our watches will continue to tell time properly.  If we follow our train of logic far enough into its foundations, however, we inevitably find that our knowledge is based on assumption.

          The thing that makes the way that the universe functions superior to other ideas is not its logic, poise, or presentation.  It is the fact that it's true.  If it weren't true, it wouldn't be of more use to us than any other idea we could come up with.  Truth is like this line:

          A person might feel like they have all the logic under the heaven that tells them that the line is really a square or a squiggle or a rectangle, but all that can never destroy its truthfulness or identity.

          Throughout my life, the barrier between myself and the line has grown more translucent.  Things that were once legitimate questions have faded into obscurity.  Although I am not perfect and do not have a perfect understanding, there are things that I believe, not because they are logical or because I have been brought up that way, but because I can discern their existence.  I can see them. 

          I think it is interesting how Christ phrased a description of discovering truth, "For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matt. 13:15-16).

          Jesus never once asked his disciples to logically probe the Gospel.  Rather, He asked them to open their spiritual eyes and look.  What naturally fell onto their retina was the truth.

          The idea of eternal families, of opportunities to help others with great power, of happiness and joy, and of the great change in our natures brought about by the Lord Jesus Christ are not just great ideas.  What makes them beautiful is that they are true.  And that truth is discernible.

          President Ucthdorf once said, "Today we can see...distant galaxies.  We know that they are there.  They have been there for a very long time.  But before mankind had instruments powerful enough to gather celestial light and bring these galaxies into visibility, we did not believe such a thing was possible.  The immensity of the universe didn’t suddenly change, but our ability to see and understand this truth changed dramatically. And with that greater light, mankind was introduced to glorious vistas we had never before imagined."

       I can see that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that there really are prophets in our day and age, and that the power of the priesthood is real.  I have used that power.  It is the power that makes all that is important in life binding and legitimate.  I know that through that power, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living Church by which we may be saved.  Everything that it stands for embodies truth which is eternal.

I see it with every step I take.

"The Light that Failed," by Bart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode