Beach Haven

Not long ago I was asked to speak at our church in Centerville, GA. The topic assigned was The Book of Mormon. The way I discussed it has to do with architecture. For example, Jesus Christ is the ‘chief corner stone’ of Christianity. Here’s just one scriptural reference:

Ephesians 2:19-21
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

In Spanish, instead of ‘chief corner stone’ he is referred to as the ‘principal angle stone’. In either way of looking at it, the first corner stone laid for a building determines both the location of the building and the direction in which it is oriented. All other parts of the building are oriented, or referenced, to that first corner stone. Without that stone, or rock if you will, the building has neither place nor direction. Perhaps another way to say it is without Christ there is no Christianity. The gospel would not exist without Him. Christianity would have neither place nor direction.

Similarly, we have The Book of Mormon. From the Introduction of The Book of Mormon:

Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. That’s the same river where the priesthood and baptism were reinstituted to our church in this dispensation. Pennsylvania is also where most of The Book of Mormon translation took place. If you’ve ever gone to the visitor center the church has near the town previously known as Harmony, now called Oakland, you would note how all of these early events took place within a short distance from the river. Pennsylvania is called ‘the keystone state’, a moniker that reaches back to colonial days. As one of the original 13 British colonies in America, and later as one of the 13 states, it is physically between the northern colonies with more industrial economies formed by New York and New England, and the southern colonies that were more agricultural producing raw materials for the North and for export. Pennsylvania then and today has both a large industrial base and lots of farmland.

I'm told that an arch is the strongest architectural device in holding up building walls and roofs. In fact, it is the arch that gives the discipline architecture its name! The keystone is the upper-most and center stone in an arch. Remove the keystone and the arch falls along with any walls or roof it was meant to hold up. Just as if you remove Christ then all of Christianity falls, so too if you remove The Book of Mormon, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints falls. We claim it to be given through a modern prophet of God. If The Book of Mormon is false, then Joseph Smith is a false prophet. If it is true, then Joseph must be a true prophet, and the church established through him must be a true church, the true church.

Just as no stone building stands without a chief cornerstone or keystone, so too all we latter-day saints believe rests on the chief cornerstone of Jesus Christ, and the keystone of The Book of Mormon.
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I regularly read a monthly publication from my church. The periodical is called The Liahona and is published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Earlier this year I was reading the January Liahona. I reviewed the article “Slow Reading: Seeing the Savior in the Scriptures” by Ted Barnes.

Here’s the link:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/01/06-slow-reading-seeing-the-savior-in-the-scriptures?lang=eng

It made me think of a scripture I was ‘slow reading’ at the time. By that I mean I looked at the words closely and considered their various possible meanings, searching for Spirit-led insights. In speaking of early American people, The Book of Mormon says:

2 Nephi 1
5. But, said he, notwithstanding our afflictions, we have obtained a land of promise, a land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord.
6. Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.

(Mike’s note: This would seem to include all who come to America through whatever means.)

7. Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.

Plenty to unpack here. I read this as regardless of how or when someone comes to this land they will be blessed if they keep the commandments such that the land will be a land of liberty. If iniquity becomes more the norm, then this land will be cursed. Despite such cursing for the majority when iniquity becomes the norm, the land will still be blessed for those who are righteous, however much a minority, since the word used above is ‘forever’.

I wonder about this pattern in the limited historical knowledge we have of people coming to the Americas. In The Book of Mormon there were the Jeredites who arrived in the wake of events of the Biblical Tower of Babel. As they began to decline and self-destruct, the family of the Israelite named Lehi (dividing into factions of Nephites and Lamanites) were next. They were later joined by the Mulekites who came after them but who had lost the gospel as a people. They were saved from destruction by the teachings of the Nephites. Eventually the Nephites were destroyed by their Lamanite relatives as they had rejected the gospel after having it for so long. The Nephite people had the gospel and the Lamanites had strayed because of early decisions by their ancestors. Lamanites had power over the Nephites for in the end as we read in Doctrine and Covenants 82:3 “…he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation.”

One assumption of mine is that Asians migrating south mixed with those Nephites who left the main body of their people having migrated north, after which no more is known of them. Later, their decedents likely mixed with Lamanites. In either case, the Lamanites eventually encountered Europeans who were led here. Like the other people chronicled in The Book of Mormon, the Lamanites too were decimated and driven. However, in keeping with God’s promises to Lehi and Nephi, the Lamanites have not been completely destroyed, but still live among us. After the Europeans came, they were joined by free and enslaved people from every part of the globe. 

What of this pattern? Are the people now flooding our southern border a manifestation of yet another cyclic iteration? Have the modern American people drifted so far from the values of Christianity that we too risk the land becoming cursed for our sakes? Will we be supplanted by another people? I’m not saying all people in America have to be Christians. We are a diverse nation and that has shown to be a strength to us since before we were a country. I am advocating here for those basic values that have come to define our way of life regardless of one’s belief or non-belief. I understand these values are Judeo-Christian in origin, but other cultures hold similar values.

I’ve heard many speculate about these topics lately in the news. Specifically, there is a great deal of debate about legal and illegal immigration. I’m not sure raising alarm is the primary way we regular every-day Americans should react. Rather, along with voting our conscience, as the scripture says above, “unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.”

The best way I can gain comfort in a time of turmoil is to trust in Jesus Christ. As I do my best to live the Gospel, however imperfectly, I can have confidence that His promises are sure. I can share the gospel with those who have a long American pedigree, and recent immigrants alike. If they live righteously then they too can find the blessing of liberty here. That said, an aspect of living the gospel according to one of our articles of faith states that “We believe… in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law” (Articles of Faith 1:12).  Whether long-time citizens or in the process of becoming one, accepting evil over good will add to the cursing. Whatever lays ahead in the future for our country, I believe my own personal future will be sure to the degree I put my faith in Jesus Christ by serving Him.
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Not long ago, my wife and I attended the temple with some friends who were receiving their own ordinances including being sealed to each other. It was a nice opportunity to support them and their extended family. While listening in the temple I noticed something I hadn’t before, so I came home to look at a few scriptures. Here they are:

Moses 3:15 And I, the Lord God, took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.

Abraham 5:11 And the Gods took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.

Genesis 2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Here is a pattern I hadn’t noticed before. I had imagined the garden as a place where there was no labor. They just gathered food and spent lazy days, learning at some level but limited until the fall. I still think that part is true, except for the ‘lazy’ part. In each of these scriptures, and in the temple, Adam and Eve are commanded to dress and take care of the garden. That sounds like they had to do some work. Although the work would not have been as difficult as after the fall, yet work in tending the garden, maintaining it, was still a part of their existence. God tells them to have joy in it. I had always taken that to mean for them to have joy in simply living in the garden. Now I think that the joy came not just because they partook of the food and peace of the garden, but because they had to do some level of work to fully enjoy the fruit. Without the work the joy would be less, or maybe not at all.

This feels much like our own lives. The greatest growth comes through challenges. For me, our work doesn’t cause blessings, but it is a show of faith that then brings blessings through the Savior. I hope to be willing to do my little portion of work so that I can find joy in living where God has planted me. 
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I jog some days. When I do, generally I have something playing in my ears. This morning, among other things, I listened to one of my regular podcasts. It’s called Nature Podcast and is published by the scientific journal called Nature. This particular episode is titled Audio long read: So you got a null result. Will anyone publish it? The article was written by Max Kozlov and read by the podcast host Benjamin Thompson. What an interesting concept. Most journals, including Nature, are looking for scientific studies with some sort of positive correlation outcome. Something that has a new or novel conclusion. However, experience teaches that most scientific efforts result in a negative correlation, or null outcome, just like any other human endeavor. I’m reminded of how many failures the Edison company had coming up with a working filament for the lightbulb before finally getting one that worked. We now tell ourselves this famous story, but until there was a working light bulb, nobody had any interest in telling the story of all the other versions that didn’t work. Had they never gotten it write would there be any interest in the failure and likely death of the company? Even with success, are there articles that review each failure and speak to why they failed? I believe not. It seems like we just lump all the filament failures into a number to show how many times the experimenters in Edison’s employ failed as a tail about persistence paying off.

Kozlov points out, among other things, how journals are in the business of attracting readers. The article notes how there are some sites in cyber space where these negative results are published, but with few submissions and little readership. As I listened to the long read, I was reminded of several other famous arguments made in the past. For example, Robert Merton famously wrote on scientific norms in an attempt to explain what motivates scientists. Many have since argued that Mertonian norms depict an optimistic list and suggest counter norms that seem more realistic to the authors. One could make the argument that any set of norms ascribed are a function of the subjective preferences of the list constructor.

Another argument that came to my mind was that of the 'Matthew effect', an idea also coined by Robert Merton. This assertion touts that those who get published gain some sort of credibility which then makes their future findings more likely to be published. The idea is from the biblical book of Matthew when the statement in one of the parables asserts to him who have shall be given more, and to him who has not shall be taken away even that which he has. Now, of course, these New Testament ideas were not about scientific credibility, nonetheless Merton makes hay from the idea. Taking it a step further, Margaret Rossiter added a feminist perspective asserting that women in this predicament are even less likely to get published or recognized for their scientific research, dubbing her argument the 'Matilda effect'.

The Nature article shares several unintended consequences of this propensity to only publish positive findings and ignore null outcomes. In the environment of ‘publish or perish’ people who have null research outcomes are likely to drop efforts and not document them. There is a reinforcing relationship between readership levels and publication levels of negative findings. Also, there are likely missed opportunities in that some researchers might find inspiration in null findings to move the research in a different direction. These avenues could be missed if they don’t hear about the research. When such findings are not shared, others may also waste time by conducting the same failed research unawares. As with Nature, it seems to me there ought to be some way to encourage publication and consumption of null-finding research. 

Pausing is something I’d like to mention in this note. Reading in the book of Moroni (within The Book of Mormon) I recently noticed something. In Chapter 2, Jesus gives the apostles power to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost. He tells them that before they enact the ordinance they should, “call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this ye shall have power…”. In Chapter 3, He gives them power to ordain brethren to the priesthood. Verse 3 notes, “After they had prayed unto the Father in the name of Christ…”. In both cases the holders of the priesthood are to pause long enough to pray before they enact the ordinance.

I have often done this myself, and have seen others do it also. I hadn’t thought of it as an instruction or requirement to do so, only a way to bring the Spirit. Yet in both of these chapters, saying a prayer as a precursor to the ordinance is part of the ‘manner of’, meaning part of the expected process. In the first case, Jesus specifically instructs the brethren to do it. In the second case, it is written as one step in the process.

The practice of making time to pause and pray can be applied to anything we face. It could be for seeking guidance and assistance in completing a difficult task like taking a school exam, giving a speech, discussing a family problem, or approaching the bishop for repentance. Taking a prayerful pause can also be taken after getting through something such as any of these same examples. Taking pause can be done during a moment of pondering, or while noticing your blessings. Pausing and praying doesn’t have to be something prescribed. We don’t have to go find a place to formally kneel if it’s not available. We can just take a moment to bow our head, whisper our prayer, and collect our thoughts wherever we are. We can also consciously seek a moment of privacy where kneeling and verbal prayer are possible. In my mind, the latter is preferable.

As an example, in my recent working life I have been a speaker at meetings of a committee of the NPR Board of Directors. It was a part of my job I did almost every month. Some time just before the meeting starts I would close my office door and bow my head to ask for Heavenly Father to inspire me with the right words. I did that even though I already did as part of my normal morning prayer. I still had to do my part to be prepared for the meetings, but He helped me recall the information I needed during the presentation and in response to questions that will come up from board members.

I recommend we each take advantage of the blessing God has given us, the blessing to pause and pray with whatever life brings us. Even when we are in a hurry and have little time, taking a moment will make the outcome better.
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When our children were small, we had a series of home evenings in which we created a family vision statement. After a few discussions, we came up with this: “Wisdom through knowledge, integrity, and service.” We called it the ‘we kiss’ rule since we arranged it in a way that the first letters of each word formed the acronym WKIS. I’ve written several articles over the years related to this statement. Generally, anything I write to the family eventually ends up on this web site. I always thought we left out something spiritually inclined from the statement. To be fair, in our discussions the word ‘integrity’ was intended to include living a Christ-like life.

Fast forward some decades and in 2022 I had been thinking a lot about it. I listened to people (including family members) who say something like, ‘I’m a spiritual person but not a religious person’. By this they would clarify that organized churches are not for them. I considered how to add something about spirituality to round out the ‘we kiss rule’ with the second ‘s’. I thought also about just saying ‘and the Spirit’ meaning the Holy Ghost since I have been very focused on the need for the influence of the Spirit in our lives to help see our way through the fog of human reason or rhetoric. I finally decided that the Spirit is not our focus, but the Savior is our focus. I updated for myself the statement to be ‘Wisdom through knowledge, integrity, service, and the Savior.’

For those who may argue that being spiritual is good enough and I might have used it for my final ‘s’, here is the way I argued this point to myself. The reason I think I was uneasy with the long-standing earlier version is that while the goal of wisdom is what we agree upon, the mechanisms of knowledge, integrity and service are all three about characteristics I might develop in myself. In other words, the goal is to be achieved through my own efforts. Sadly, one need only to look around and realize readily that dependence solely on oneself only gets you so far. So many people essentially follow that method and yet arrive far short of what could be called wisdom. Just the fact that they all seem to land at a different idea of what is wise or true is evidence enough of variation from a universal. That we’ve even come to use phrases like ‘my truth’ or ‘your truth’ for what we used to understand as one’s perspective regarding truth, not universal truth itself, shows that such an approach is insufficient.

So, Mike, why not then just add spirituality at the end of the phrase? Isn’t that what you want to encourage in people? Well, surely spirituality is important, but it seems to be not enough. I would argue that for the same reasons as above. Organized religion, too, can be a seen as insufficient if one looks at how many different churches exist, even just within the Christian community. Here is where I would argue that we cannot then depend on just adding one more personal characteristic such as spirituality or religiosity since doing so still means we seek wisdom only through developing our own personal characteristics. In that way of looking at things, we are simply deciding which personal characteristics should be on our list of wisdom-getting tools. Since none of us is perfectly equipped with any characteristic we might add to our list, this approach of self-growth simply isn’t, and will never be, enough. That’s why this last letter in the new and improved ‘we kiss’ acronym has to represent something or someone outside of ourselves that does represent a perfect knowledge or understanding. I argue the scriptures point us to Heavenly Father, but through His son Jesus Christ. For Christians (and in truth which I could argue another day), His is the only name given to us that will lead to perfect wisdom, perfect truth. Adding spirituality assumes we can achieve the goal of wisdom alone. I am arguing that if we approach it that way then the amount of wisdom we gain will be severely limited. When we include the Savior, a perfect being can make up for our shortfall and bring us closer to perfect wisdom despite our imperfection.

Sorry if these babblings seem trivial or rambling. For an old, slow guy like me, these thoughts hold weight and are important. I’m sure you will read this and either say to yourself something like ‘no duh Mike’ or will instead judge me off point. I hope someone reading this will at least find it confirming of their own thoughts even it is not new ground.

In a recent Sunday School class, we were discussing the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I noted something different that had escaped me in the past.

Luke 22
41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
45 And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,
46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

He prayed on his own. In prayer he reconciled his will to that of Heavenly Father. Maybe that is the point of prayer. Not to ask God for what we want, but to come to understand what he wants and then adjust our perspective.

After Jesus bent his will to the Father’s, then God sent an angel to strengthen him. How often do things work out better for us once we choose to accept his will over our own? Then as the agony increased so did the earnestness of the prayer of Jesus. Similarly, sometimes life has to become more challenging for us to find inspiration by praying more earnestly.

Finally, when Jesus turned to his disciples he found them asleep. Do we sometimes feel like there is nobody to help us? Others often seem unwilling or unable to assist in our hour of need. Yet, in this case it says they ‘slept for sorrow’. I’m not completely sure what that means, but perhaps it means they were overwhelmed by all that was happening, and did not have the strength to continue. How often do we assume that when others don’t seem helpful, it means they are not motivated or don’t have sufficient faith? In some cases that may be true, but it is just as likely they have some burdens of their own preventing them from helping to lift our burdens.

The pattern that Jesus experienced on the night he spent in Gethsemane can be a pattern that we ourselves might consider.

​This is a slightly modified version of a story I wrote back in March of 2008 for the print version of the BHP.  Enjoy.

Fairview. It's interesting how a single word can churn up so many thoughts and memories. In a small town in eastern Pennsylvania in the early seventies life was blue collar. Houses were old and small. The people were wonderful and terrible.

Much of my life on Fairview Avenue revolved around the alley behind our house, the open grass lot next to the volunteer fire station just down the block, and Fairview Elementary.

Fairview Elementary was an old box of a building. It was solid red brick. The front doors were at the top of a tall set of concrete steps. The basement was half above and half below ground. It housed the cafeteria and the boiler room. The other two stories were classrooms, hallways and bathrooms. We didn’t get lockers. Each classroom had its own closet where we each had a hook for our coat and shared shelf space for a lunch box if we didn’t eat the cafeteria food that day. Most of the building was surrounded by an asphalt playground. It was on a street corner and the property stretched from Fairview Avenue to the alley. Behind was an empty grass lot across the alley. On one side was a neighbor’s house. In the narrow strip between the school and the house was a bit of rocks and weeds bordered by a tall chain link fence. Poplar Street ran the length of the playground and crossed Fairview Avenue. This is where I learned to fight. It's where I learned to avoid some people. It's where I fell in love the first time. It's also where I learned the nature of a lie.
 
I was ten. During the summer I had my first broken bone. Along with friends, I had been jumping off the banister on the front porch of our house. I'd done it hundreds of times before. Then came the one time when something didn't go the way it had so many times in the past. My arm went down before my legs. When I picked up my arm to look, I saw a perfect Z shape before the swelling started and turned it into a grapefruit. Both the bones in my left forearm had been broken.

The plaster cast went on. It went from my hand all the way above my elbow. Over time the cast filled with signatures of friends and family. It was my first real experience with a hospital. I remember sitting forever with my balloon arm wondering when they were going to do something. I remember being asked if I wanted my name in the paper.

I had never thought of such a thing. My name in the paper. Wow! Looking back, I understand this was just a standard hospital blurb in the weekly paper. In the more modern time of confidentiality and HIPAA this would likely never happen, but back then in small-town America it was business as usual. The idea both flattered and repulsed me. I would be known by all, but what would they say? Keeping my mind busy helped me to lower the crying and whining I had been doing because of the pain. I survived. Six weeks later, after all the itching, the saw came out, the cast came off and the summer went on. Then came fifth grade.

Fifth grade. The same kids were there from fourth grade. Radell Harding was there. She was a typical blond skinny, budding young lady to others. To me she was sighs and blushes. The game of the school day was kick ball. This was no wimpy little kids' kick ball. This was cut-throat and blood-loss-at-every-game kick ball. Bruises and scrapes were common. Glory and shame for the entire school year road on every game. Fights broke out every couple of weeks. It was wonderful for ten-year-old boys. I got my licks in like the rest. I also sometimes took and gave during the occasional spill-over fight that happened in the neighborhood when all the teachers were gone.

One of the best things for a boy to be able to do at Fairview was to work with the Janitor. I was on the crew. It was great because we could get out of class for the work. We also stayed some extra time in the boiler room. When the work was done, we'd sometimes agree that we were still busily working when we were really tossing paper into the boiler and watching it catch fire, or concocting other risky and destructive behaviors. The janitor was crotchety and rebellious like we were, and we all loved it.

Sometime just before Christmas my name came up for another fun assignment, milk detail. As fifth graders, we all got the chance to get out of class for fifteen minutes or so to go get boxes full of milk cartons and distribute them to the classrooms just before milk break. My turn would begin just after the holiday break in January. I was looking forward to the excuse to escape class each day, but not as much as I was looking forward to the holiday break. I had two things in mind for the holiday, sleeping in and snowballs.

At church there was a buzz. It was Sumo Tom, an unusual name for an unusual boy from an unusual family. The Tom family and our family were good friends. Their kids and those of my family were roughly the same age. Sumo was a year younger than me. They had horses and dogs. We had a dog, but that was it. Jesse Tom was the family patriarch. He was Hawaiian, real native Hawaiian. I was told he was some relation to Don Ho. His wife was Ethel. She had fire-like red hair that matched her personality from my childish perspective. I always thought she looked Irish, but I don’t really know. Sometimes our church put on talent shows. She would dance Hawaiian dances. It always seemed odd to me. She just didn’t look the part. All the kids in the family had cool sounding Hawaiian names.

Sumo fit his name. He was large and round shaped like the famous wrestlers. He had a happy disposition, and all us kids at church liked him. It was Sumo that caused the buzz at church. Just as school was getting out for vacation he had suffered appendicitis. He had to go to the hospital and have his appendix removed. We all got to see the scar. The girls were repulsed. We boys were sudden admirers of the cool stitches. Over the break I thought about appendicitis. Why couldn’t I have it too? I could be cool like Sumo when I went back to school. Oh well. Too bad.

After enjoying our week of frozen heaven, it was back to the grind of Fairview Elementary. My home room teacher was Mrs. Stout. I remember the name because just like Sumo, her name matched her person. She was older, probably not too far from retirement, a real seasoned and experienced teacher, a real veteran. We all knew that she knew her business.

“Welcome back class,” said Mrs. Stout. “How was your vacation?” The conversation went on between the instructor and her students. Each kid was taking their turn describing their Christmas presents, or visits with relatives. I kept thinking on what I would say. Then it struck me. Just one person ahead of me the wild thought crept in. I had no real time to actually think it through. I probably wouldn’t have anyway. Then my turn came. “I got my appendix out,” I blurted. An excited rustle passed through the nervous class.

“You did? When?” She asked.

“Just after Christmas,” I returned. I could see the admiration building in the faces of the other kids.

“Hmm, I didn’t notice your name in the paper.”
Bang! You could have knocked me over with a feather as the saying goes. All I could say was a weak, “What?”

“The paper. When someone goes to the hospital, they write something about it in the newspaper,” she said quizzically.

My face must have changed several colors. My heart raced. My mouth got dry. I was searching. Then it came to me. When I had broken my arm I remembered they asked me if I wanted my name in the paper. “Well, I told them not to print it,” I answered.
“Why not,” she continued.

Heart thumped and sweat came again, then a flash. I got it. “Well, I didn’t want anyone to worry about me, so I told them I didn’t want my name in the paper.”

Whew! I’d dodged a very big bullet. How did I manage that? Someone was looking out for me. Later that day came bullet number two. It happened during recess. One of the kids had a brother who earlier had  his appendix out. He told of the stitches and the large scar that resulted. “Hey Mike, show us the stitches!” I hesitated. They weren’t necessarily looking for proof. I wasn’t before the Inquisition, but it felt that way. Of course they were just being like I had been with Sumo. They wanted to see it because it would be cool. My mind again had to race. My heart was thumping. My body heated as I trudged through the sticky swamps in my mind pushing for the answer. The answer as to why I couldn’t show them my stitches. Then it came. Sumo was again my inspiration. I remembered he had to pull off a rather extensive amount of bandages to show us his stitches.

“I can’t. It’s all buried in bandages, and they told me I can’t take them off,” I proclaimed.

A collective sigh from my admirers was followed by my own sigh of relief. They seemed happy with assurances they could see the scar later whenever the doctors let me take off the medical wrappings. I was hopeful that I could push it off long enough that they would all forget about it and not ask later. In this I was right, but as it turns out, I was not out of the quagmire yet.

Milk duty, important words. Mrs. Stout reminded us it was time for the new roster of assignees to take on the responsibility to make sure we all got our daily dose. Ah, that half-pint of cold delicious vitamin D and calcium. She read the names then stopped when she came to mine. “Oh Michael, you can’t do this can you?”

“Why not?” I quizzed.

“Didn’t the doctor tell you no lifting until you were all healed up from your operation?”

“Wadaya mean?!” I’m sure she caught the frustration in me.

“Whenever a person has an operation like yours, they are not allowed to lift heavy items for fear the stitches might rip open when you strain your stomach muscles.”

“But the milk crates aren’t heavy!” I grimaced.

“Nonetheless I can’t let you do it. You’ll have to bring in a note from your parents when it’s OK for you to lift things again. When I get that I’ll try to work you into a future milk detail schedule.”

“How long will that be?!” I protested.

“Well, I’m no doctor,” she replied, “but I’m pretty sure the normal time is six weeks.”

I don’t know how many shades of red my face turned. I was red from fear of being found out. I was red from anger because I couldn’t get out of class for milk detail. I was red because I had no idea how I could convince my mom to write a letter that I was over my nonexistent operation enough to get on a future milk detail.

Six weeks! How could she know that? It couldn’t be that long, could it? Six weeks is forever! My thoughts kept stirring. Then I remembered it was the magical six weeks I had to wear that plaster cast when I broke my arm. Maybe Mrs. Stout was right about that. Dang, why do grownups always have to know so much? The solution was going to take me some time. Six weeks of time to be precise.

So, I needed a note from Mom. Hmmm. This would be difficult. How can I get this done? Well, I was sure she wouldn’t write it. So I guessed I’d just have to write it for her. This would take some real finagling. I needed something that she would write so I could copy it. I needed something that said more or less the same thing as a permission note.  Then it hit me. How many times before had Mom written an excuse for my being out of school? Every time I was… SICK! Of course that was it. I had figured it out.

I picked a day to be sick. I did a great job at being sick. I don’t know if she completely bought it, but she bought it enough to let me stay home. Of course, while my parents were at work I had all day to figure out what my milk-carrying, no-appendix-problem note would say. I was smart enough to have my “sick day” about a week before the six-week banishment was up. Sure enough, the next morning before going to work, Mom wrote my excuse for being home sick the day before. I had about an hour from the time she left until I had to be at school. I spent the whole time feverishly creating my forgery for milk duty. I carefully wrote over and over again using the sick note for my model. After what seemed like about a hundred tries, I got a version I thought sounded like the sick note and looked like her hand writing. I went to school and hid the forgery. A week went by. I handed in the permission slip “Mom” wrote. Mrs. Stout added me to the next rotation of milk duty. I was saved.

This is a totally true story. Well, I suppose a few caveats to that assertion would apply. Remember I was a 10-year-old. So the perspective of exactly how things were came from the limited understanding of someone of such a tender and inexperienced point of view. Adding a sort of questionable-ness to all of this is the fact that decades have come and gone since these events. If my understanding was shaky to begin with, it’s even worse now.

As I have recollected this experience in life over time, I’ve decided that in all likelihood Mrs. Stout understood what was really happening from the very start, or at least early on. I can envision in my mind teachers hanging out in their hallowed lounge where no student can enter. I see them in my mind laughing as they told and retold the story of the kid who pretended to have his appendix removed. In fact, I’ve even gone so far as to imagine my masterful forgery hanging on the lounge bulletin board for a reminder to all the teachers.
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I did learn something from all this. As it turns out you can’t tell just one lie. Usually lying is an attempt at gaining something when, in reality, by lying you lose freedom. Trust is easy to lose and hard to regain. I wish I could say I never lied again after all that, but I can say it’s been a very long time since I’ve lied. Telling the truth, as it turns out, takes less work. You don’t have to remember what you said to whom. You just have to tell things as you remember them. That’s what I hope I’ve done here. No foolin’.

During conference last April I had an interesting experience. On that Saturday I was traveling from Washington DC to McDonough GA on my motorcycle. In my helmet I have wireless communications with my cell phone. While riding down the freeway I was able to listen to conference. In particular, while listening to the portion of conference when we are asked to sustain general offices by raising our hands, I did so at 70-ish miles per hour on the back of a large motorcycle. It may sound silly. Nobody knew I was raising my sustaining hand. It was not being recorded anywhere, yet I think it was.

Revelations 20
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Though nobody in this life is recording everything I do, there is a record kept in heaven. I want it known that on that particular Saturday I sustained those called to lead our church. I don’t do so blindly. I’m well aware that like all of us, none of them are perfect. I have also spent some time reading biographies and listening to their teachings, and I’m always amazed at how blessed we are as a church to have God select such wise people to lead us. Not only do they have wisdom, but they also clearly have the Spirit about them to elevate their words.

Why else do we sustain leaders in the public ritual the way we do? We are exercising ‘common consent’ (for example D&C 26:2). Not that we are voting, but are choosing to accept. More than accepting, we promise to sustain through our faith. Pres. Eyring’s talk in April 2019 really clarifies for me.

Here is the link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/34eyring?lang=eng.

Among other things, he notes, “By raising your hand to sustain, you make a promise. You make a promise with God, whose servants these are, that you will sustain them.” He explains that sustaining means acting in faith to support them. If I receive a calling or assignment from a Bishop, I sustain the Bishop by doing my absolute best to fulfill that calling or assignment. Here are a few examples he shared directly related to missionary work, “When you accepted a missionary’s challenge to pray to know that the Book of Mormon was the word of God, you had the faith to sustain a servant of the Lord. When you accepted the invitation to be baptized, you sustained a humble servant of God. When you let someone place hands on your head and say, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” you sustained him as a holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood.”

Raising my hand that day while riding down the freeway on a motorcycle was my way of renewing my covenant with Heavenly Father that I have faith in Him by sustaining those He has called as leaders of His church. It doesn’t matter if one listens live, or a recorded version hours, or even days later. In my mind making the commitment is important, so I raise my hand.

My wife and I try to attend the temple together when I’m here in GA, then I do what I can to attend in Washington DC when I’m up there on my own. I’ve had many wonderful spiritual experiences in the temple over many decades now. I think lately I get even more from it. This is because since my mom passed away some years ago, I have shifted from doing work for those ancestors she has found, to doing work for ancestors I myself have found. When she would supply the names, I felt happy to represent my ancestors, but I would say I feel closer to those whose work I’m doing now. It’s clear they are aware and helping me figure things out with their records. Michell is helpful when documents get more complex. She has been doing family history for as long as we’ve been married. She was even director of the family history library in Lincoln, NE for a number of years when we lived there.

To me, the temple is a blessing both because of the family connection I feel, but also because of the gospel insights and spiritual lift that comes from the work. This is true even on days when I leave the temple late in the evening and have a tiring drive home after. I really don’t seem to notice the fatigue until I get home. I assume that others have had similar experiences in their gospel-related work. I feel close to those I serve directly, and despite long hours, I often feel carried by the Spirit. Wearing ourselves out in the service of Heavenly Father is the best way to use the gifts He has given each of us.
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Earlier this year I had the assignment to speak in the Centerville Georgia Ward of our church. The assigned topic was about being spiritually prepared to receive revelation. There were several specific recent quotes from President Nelson included in the note assigning me to speak. Aside from sharing several personal experiences, below is list of notes I used to form the heart of the talk.
 
We Believe
All God has revealed, all he does now reveal, and we believe he will yet reveal many great and important thing pertaining to the kingdom of God

• Revelation is not just to the prophet for the church, but for ourselves in our own individual lives

 
Need Holy Ghost
"Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost." President Russel M Nelson April 2018
 
Seeing miracles won't be enough.
Faith precedes the miracle. We recognize miracles as miracles when we have faith to see them.
There are many scriptural examples of people who saw miracles, then explained them away.
 
President Russell M. Nelson, has said: “We live in a world that is complex and increasingly contentious. The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages. If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men, we must learn to receive revelation."
 
1 Nephi 8 (Book of Mormon)
26 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.
27 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit. (meaning the gospel)
28 And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.
 
1 Nephi 11 (Book of Mormon)
35 And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof…
36 And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world…
 
My work experience has been in media and academia. Many among those I have associated with there are honestly looking for truth but are limited to intellect and reason only. Like the three blind men and the elephant one can be factual and miss truth. Some once-accepted facts are later shown to be not factual. We must rely on the Spirit.
 
Science example:
Law of gravity – man cannot fly - lesser law (less information) - Newtonian physics
Laws of aerodynamics – man can fly - higher law (more information)
 
Gator Navy approach - The 4 A’s of Operations

• Plan - consider options ahead of time - study it out - seek, ask, knock, feast - to Oliver Cowdary "you took no thought save it were to ask me" (Doctrine & Covenants 9)
• Arrive - here you are, be present in family, church, work, studies, whatever you do (put aside distractions)
• Assess - look, listen, ponder and pray
• Adapt - align more with God

Isaiah 55 (Holy Bible)
8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

• Act - keep the commandments, fill callings, serve others, fill ministering assignments, be in it

John 7 (Holy Bible)
16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
 
Go and Do
Want spiritual experiences in the temple? - go to the temple
Want to see miracles? - serve
Want clarity/truth? – it comes ‘line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little’ - work for it every day
 
Think verbs, not nouns - act, do but don't overdo
Doctrine & Covenants 10
4 Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end.
 
The Savior is our example:
John 5 (Holy Bible)
17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Acts 10 (Holy Bible)
38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good,
 
Our actions don't save us, but they show and grow our faith. More faith means more gift of revelation by the Holy Ghost.
The key is faith that the Savior will make up the difference after all we can do.
 
Where much is given much is required. - so where less is given less is required
Revelation comes at the level we are ready to receive it. People who are new to the gospel can receive revelation even with little knowledge or faith.
 
President Russell M. Nelson has extended a simple, powerful invitation: “My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. … Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.”
 
 

As Christmas quickly approaches, I hope each of you is also able to enjoy the spirit of the season. It’s the time of year we remember the birth of Jesus Christ. I remember my experience as a missionary at Christmas in Spain. Though it’s been more than 40 years ago, the memories are clear. It was both trying being away from family, and wonderful watching the gospel at work in the lives of people. I remember similar times away from home in the Navy, or for work, but nothing matches my time serving God.

I’ve been thinking about the talk Pres. Russell M. Nelson shared in 2022 titled ‘What is Truth?’. This topic has been close to my heart for a long time. It’s what drives me to seek wisdom, ‘even by study and by faith’. My PhD studies focus a lot on the intersection of facts, perspective, and truth.

About five years ago I noticed a bump on my forehead. It grew slowly, but noticeably. After nearly a year I had a doctor take a look. It was clear that it was under the skin and attached to my skull. As the doctor looked it over, he called my bump a lesion. He ordered up an ultrasound followed by an MRI. After the ultrasound, the bump/lesion name changed again to an occlusion. An ultrasound essentially looks at one side of the occlusion. That was the incentive for the MRI. After the MRI, the name changed again to an osteoma. It was described to me by the doctor in another way. He called it a benign bone tumor. The nature of the thing on my head never changed, but the technical tools used to look at it, and the names those tools inspired changed. So too did my level of stress over what it might mean for my future health. In the end, there is no health risk. Its growth stopped. If I ever want to have it go away, they can cut open my forehead and grind the bone. Sounds gross, and it’s not all that noticeable as it is. In fact, if I don’t mention it people generally don’t even notice. However, if I point it out, a person can’t help but notice.

This all seems analogous to truth to me. Truth does not change. It simply is, regardless what we call it, what we use to discover it, or how we feel about it. In my academic studies a large question is whether truth is 'discovered' or 'manufactured'. In the gospel sense, we seek truth through study and faith. For me, faith means doing. We can certainly understand some things intellectually. I assume you have met people who are ‘convinced’ of gospel truths, yet fail to commit. That’s because they are not willing to exercise faith by acting on invitations. What one believes is not the same as truth necessarily. It’s our individual responsibility to seek. Just like my bump, people often don’t notice the gospel until someone points it out to them. Then they can’t ignore it. They are forced to accept or reject. They can’t not consider it once they hear the word. That’s probably true of any idea, whether it be true or false, but gospel truth is only confirmed through BOTH study AND taking faith-based action.
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On occasion I consider my blessings. So many of those thoughts can easily turn to worldly things. Quickly overshadowing such ideas is recognition of all of my family. More joy and challenge comes from them, and the way Heavenly Father has chosen to bring each of them into my life.

I want to point to something I am particularly thankful for. It is my testimony of the influence of the Holy Ghost. Here is why. Over the years of my academic, work, and church life, and just my life-life, I’ve heard so many ways of thinking, so many ideas about what evidence is and what it shows. I’m convinced we can be convinced about almost anything when we rely solely on logic and reasoning. Which facts are actually factual becomes more and more in question when one turns them around from many angles. I’m thinking about the lyrics to a Doobies Brothers song that says “The wise man has the power to reason away what seems to be.”

This is where the Holy Ghost comes to be so important to me. When it comes to the most important issues, those that have to do with the eternal, knowing truth from ideas is critical. There are plenty who question whether truth is real or just a social construct. Is truth independent of us? Can ‘your truth’ and ‘my truth’ in some way coexist? I put these words in quotes because the idea of relative truth is so prevalent in American culture these days. The plea for us to coexist more and more becomes ‘you should just accept me as I am.’ Many of these same coexist-proponents become the opposite of tolerant when others express opposing views. I’m not necessarily talking about politics here, though it certainly plays out in that arena. Rather, I’m talking about just about every idea in any arena that people hold dear to themselves. I’m also not considering in this short note ways we can all get along.

What I’m more focused on here is how I try to ferret out truth. Understanding ideas implies taking the time to understand them; study, not shallow study. I personally don’t expect the Spirit to testify about every idea I hear in order to know if it’s true or false. When I stack up ideas about what I already know to be true, then I don’t need constant reassurance, though occasional reassurance is welcome, and it happens. When I consider ideas that are interesting, but not overly important from an eternal perspective, then I don’t seek spiritual confirmation. I also don’t assume that God wants me to gain all knowledge in this life. My mortal capacity is just too limited. I take that to mean it’s ok that there is way more that I don’t know than I do know today. There is time for much of that learning later. All that said, I regularly seek and receive truth affirming guidance from a loving and living Heavenly Father by way of the vitally important gift of inspiration that comes through the Holy Ghost. At this point in life, I believe without that comforting, still, small voice I would be lost in many ways. There are too many conflicting ideas purported by apparently reasonable people using apparently sound reasoning. One can’t even judge ideas solely by the people who advance them, meaning ‘good’ ideas come from ‘good’ people. That puts one in the difficult position of deciding who or what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. For example, the founding fathers of the United States are favorite targets these days, yet the ideas of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are strongly persuasive if one actually takes the time to read them.
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For me, I’ve learned to discriminate truth from ideas in terms of the gospel through study, living the precepts, and listening to the whispering of the Holy Ghost. I see this as building on a sure foundation.

This post relates to the Sunday morning October 2022 conference talk by President Nelson titled, “Overcome the World and Find Rest”. There were probably four parts to the text. I will focus on two that linked together. The fist was about power. I’ve always felt uncomfortable with the idea of power as it relates to the gospel, because I always thought of power from the world’s perspective, as in gaining power over others. After reading the book Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister I've changed my mind some. Callister wrote of power from a Godly perspective. He notes how God has all power, and part of why we are here is to learn to be like Him. He notes how spiritual gifts are forms of godly power. Callister encourages each of us to seek spiritual gifts as a way to become more like Heavenly Father. President Nelson’s talk lasted eighteen minutes. In that time, he used the word ‘power’ or a derivative fourteen times.

What is God’s power? To what power should we aspire? I argue it is faith. Hebrews 11 for example gives a long list of miracles wrought through God’s power, the power of faith. Obtaining faith in this life is so important that our memory of pre-earth life has been removed specifically to help us develop it. President Nelson encourages us to overcome the world through Christ. Overcoming something implies gaining power over it. President Nelson equates overcoming the world with 'putting off the natural man'. Those of you who have read former blogs may remember some time ago when I gave my way of thinking about doing just that. Here's the link: 

​https://bhaven.org/blog/natural-man

President Nelson's talk could be framed in the language of ‘will’. The natural man says, “I do my will because is it my will.” In putting off the natural man, we say, “I do His will because it is His will.” In this case we recognize the difference between Him and us, and we want to change. So, we try. Trying is repenting, failing at times, and repenting again, pinning our hopes to the power of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So long as we try and repent, we are in the act of putting off the natural man. This is my understanding of ‘enduring to the end.’ At last, Christ lifts us to the Celestial in which we can say, “I do His will because it is my will.” At this point we are not putting off the natural man, but have come to put on a different nature. A godly nature. A nature no longer to be ‘put off’. 

I continue to work in Washington DC, and trek back and forth to GA. When spending a weekend in DC, I attend church at the Aquia Ward in VA. When I’m not in GA, I stay on our boat that we keep in a marina on the Chesapeake Bay. The commute into DC takes about the same amount of time as it did from our home in Stafford, VA.

Last year, I had an assignment to speak at the Twin Oaks ward, discussing the Plan of Salvation. The week before, as I trekked from Solomon’s Island (where the boat is) to attend the Aquia ward, I was thinking about all the change in life, and how it relates to the Plan of Salvation. My basic conclusion is that the Plan of Salvation is the definition of change.

Change can be positive or negative. Change implies a shift in direction, scale, or both. For change to be considered positive or negative depends on the relationship between where you are and what your goal is. You may remember the concept of a vector from your high school geometry class. Words like positive, progress, improvement, etc. all imply that a change, a difference, a delta, is taking you closer to your ultimate goal. Words like negative, destructive, variant, etc. imply change is pointing you toward some place different than your goal. What makes the difference between positive and negative is what your stated goal is.

Heavenly Father’s goal for us is to learn to become as he is. You know, “For this is my work and my glory…”. Part of that process is for us to experience and learn through that experience. Learning only helps if the result is a changed trajectory that takes us closer to His goal for us. Our goal should be the same as His. If we change our goal either deliberately, or through our little choices every day, the resultant change is negative from Heavenly Father’s perspective. Positive change is good in that it draws us closer to His goal by aligning our goal and actions to His.

In the pre-earth life we progressed (changed) through choices and learning, but without a body we could only go so far. Here in mortality, we continue the process through choices that include repentance, gaining the covenant path, then continuing along that path. If the goal is to become like Heavenly Father, and we were not fully that way as spirits (no physical body for example) then change was a must. If we are not like Him here, then change is still a must. Another word for positive change could be ‘growth’. If we are to grow to become as He is then change must be continuous until we reach that goal. The changes required of us are defined in the plan of salvation to include faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring as we continue along the covenant path. This is how I have come to consider the plan of salvation as the plan exaltation, or the plan of change, or the plan of growth. The covenant path then, is a part of the longer path of exaltation.

I don’t know if that makes any sense, but it’s how I’ve come to think about the role of constructive change from a gospel perspective. I’m sure you will have even better ways to understand the plan and our part in it.
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I serve on the board of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA). It’s an industry group that addresses international government policies that relate to television and radio broadcasters. The board meetings are often in NYC at the headquarters of NBC at ’30 Rock’. I’ve been there many times before for similar efforts. When I travel between DC and NYC the train is my preferred way to go. It’s just as fast as going through airports, and it gets me closer to where I’m going in Manhattan. It’s also much cheaper. Since the train offers Wi-Fi, I can be productive as well. On one of those trips last year I decided not to concentrate so much on work and took some time for pondering. What follows is not new, nor profound, but is a sketch of where my thoughts led that day.

​Many years ago, I saw an amusing note on a gas-station bathroom wall in Wyoming. It said something like, “The bottoms of our septic tanks are higher than the top of the tallest building in Denver.” Having lived in Leadville, CO in years past, I could appreciate the sentiment. My mind then recalled when our children were young, and we visited Mount Rushmore. Up close it is very impressive. As we left the site, we stopped at a roadside lookout a few miles away. From that distance the carvings seemed quite small in comparison with all the mountains and largess of the surrounding nature-scenes as a whole. In essence, on the train to NYC my thoughts revolved around perspective.

Immediate demands for one’s attention are at times necessary, such as earning a living. When those demands are less necessary they seem fleeting, such as checking on the number of ‘likes’ on a recent post. What about long-term focus? These attention-demanders can help us grow. The risk is they can become too worldly. Examples include exercise for better health or financial management for stability later in life. Not bad. Maybe even important. Yet, again, do we think long-term about worldly issues only?

What about an eternal focus? Does it cause us to ‘forget’ the things of this life? I would argue that eternal perspective makes our insights on the other two foci (immediate and long-term) more truthful. If we manage to have an eternal perspective, at least occasionally, our immediate demands might also include daily spiritual efforts like living the commandments, reading scriptures, and praying. You know, the ‘primary answers’. In terms of making our long-term investment of time more truthful, an eternal perspective might entice us to consider more effort with family history, attending the temple, fulfilling and magnifying our church callings, or finding ways to offer service. In my train-thoughts I was equating eternal perspective with the idea of being 'in the world but not of the world'.

I think maybe the immediate and long-term life demands are about the ‘what’, while having eternal perspective might be more about the ‘why’. Both the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ can be summed up in the two great commandments to love God and our neighbor.

My first introduction to the idea of perspective that I can actually remember came from a song and cartoon on Sesame Street. It was called “That’s About the Size”. The song is all about our physical perspective in relation to physical objects. It can equally apply to our philosophical perspective in relation to ideological subjects.

Here is the link to the Sesame Street song from all those years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ABxl46Ovv8
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Last May, my wife Michelle and I were supposed to speak in the King George Virginia Ward of our church. Sadly, they had some sort of sewage issue in the building and church was cancelled that week. The topic was to be about how when we receive a calling or assignment in the church we also receive all the priesthood authority and power that goes along with that calling or assignment. I think perhaps the concern for this topic is that some may feel that if they are not an ordained holder of a priesthood office they are somehow ‘less’. Of course nothing could be further from the truth. A calling or assignment by definition is a delegation of priesthood authority and power.

What is priesthood authority but the freedom to exercise all the rights and responsibilities we have in a given capacity? We find those rights and responsibilities given in the church handbook of instructions and in the scriptures. I can look in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) as well as in the handbook and find all sorts of definition around my role as a member of the stake high council and as the then stake young men president. Some of these are very specific, others are written with a lot of leeway allowing me to seek revelation and take action without constantly seeking specific guidance from the stake presidency for example. A person who does not hold priesthood office is limited from some delegated authority such as conducting some ordinances, but that does not mean they have no priesthood authority. Even those who do hold priesthood office do so also through delegation and are limited in some things.

What about priesthood power? That’s not the same thing as authority. The authority describes our rights and responsibilities. The power is the capacity to carry them out. The power of the priesthood is God’s power delegated to people in order to serve. Hebrews 11 is an example of a description of what God’s power is. It starts right out explaining that God’s power is faith. Verse 3 reads, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” We can read that as through our faith we come to understand, or that through his faith He did what he did. I would argue both interpretations are true. How did He frame the worlds? By faith! Then the chapter goes on to share a long list of men and women who did great things through faith, which is God’s power shared with them. We can all exercise priesthood power in our callings by exercising faith through acting in our callings to the best of our ability, then having the confidence that the Lord will step in and make up for when (not if) we fall short. This post is a perfect example. I’m sure my words leave much to be desired, yet I have hope that the Spirit will spark within the reader unique thoughts that are much better communicated than anything I might write.

The other day I was considering personal struggles I see in the lives of people I know, and occasionally in my own life. My mind was led to an idea I worked on many years ago. I jokingly called it the ‘faith-o-meter’. The idea is a sort of continuum that spans from no faith on the left, to the prophet Alma’s entreaty to find a “desire to believe”, to having belief. Next comes faith, as in acting on the belief. Then finally at the extreme right I put ‘knowledge’. My positioning ideas on the faith-o-meter continuum is not a political statement. One of the points I came to back then was that we are not always in the same place in the continuum on all things. We might have faith in the Plan of Salvation, a belief in spiritual gifts, and a knowledge of the Law of Tithing. Alma’s faith-as-a-seed sermon speaks about coming to a “perfect knowledge” of “that thing” (Alma 32:34). Where our focus is, there is where we progress from left to right on the faith-o-meter.

So why did this trigger in my mind over the trials I’ve been seeing. In a word, hope. Back when I came up with this faith-o-meter idea I struggled a lot with where hope fits in. There is hope the verb, and hope the noun. For me, hope the verb is weaker, as in ‘I hope it’s true’. In that sense it seems somewhere on the left side of the continuum, maybe between a desire to believe and belief? The noun version, however is something I’ve struggled with for a long time. The word turns up in many places in the scriptures. For me, I’m thinking the noun version is not in one spot along the continuum, but is the outcome of the continuum. The further one moves from no faith, toward ‘a perfect knowledge’, the more hope one has. For example, Alma also says “if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32: 21). In this case the verb hope means to me that one has hope (noun) as an outcome of faith.

The news of the world and what we see around us in the personal lives of others or ourselves can cause discouragement. That’s the opposite of hope. The phrase that came to my mind in this string of thought was in 2 Nephi 31:20 “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.” The verse goes on to talk about enduring.

​I hope each of us stays grounded in the truths of the gospel and we don’t allow the ‘wisdom of the world’ to discourage our faith that leads to a “perfect brightness of hope”. 

I continue a lot of back and forth between DC and GA. One positive about driving all that distance is I get about 10 hours of alone time since I’m almost always by myself. I take advantage of listening. Sometimes that’s the radio. Sometimes it’s a podcast or music. I have a lot of reading for my school so I sometimes download a softcopy of an academic paper or two, then allow my phone to read them to me as I drive. At times I pray and ponder. In those moments I have felt Heavenly Father share some insights that have been important to me, if meaningless to others.

At times both the drive and my listening are interrupted. On one trip, Michelle and I were in separate cars. We occasionally chatted with each other through calls and texts. Don’t worry. We both have the tools we need to do hands-free texting. I would also get messaged from others at work asking about one thing or another. Those communications make the drive less burdensome, but can also interrupt my train of thought, my listening. Yet, sometimes those interruptions themselves can be an answer in one way or another. This particular drive was interrupted twice with backed-up traffic. Once in NC and again just south of Fredericksburg, VA. It was tempting to be grumpy. If we had some sort of deadline I might have been. We had no deadline and neither of us let the backups throw us. Thankfully we didn’t. In both cases the traffic was backed up because of pretty bad accidents. We could see just how bad as we slowly passed by each accident eventually. Clearly, those involved had more to worry about than we did with our minor inconvenience.

Not long after the drive, my stake assignment at the time took me to the King George ward conference. One of the speakers was Sister Avery from the Hartwood Ward. She is the Stake Relief Society President. She is also a bee-keeper. In her talk she noted that she has four hives and something like 40,000 bees. Her operation is small from her perspective. By small, she means her bees produce about 60 pounds of honey in a year. To me that sounds like a lot of honey. But what does it take for the bees to make that amount? Sister Avery described how each honey bee will create only about one-twelfth of one teaspoon of honey throughout its lifespan. The honey each creates is not even for itself, but for the next generation of bees in the hive.

There are a number of lessons this example immediately brings to mind. For Sister Avery, bees represent industry and sacrifice. The conference theme was ‘one work’ meaning any effort we do for others on either side of the veil is all part of the same work. Missionaries are focused entirely on bringing others unto Christ with love, sharing, and an invitation to those who have not yet accepted the gospel. They likely also do some of that same work among less-active members. The other area of focus we should all typically look to is family history and temple work.

Two ideas came to my mind as Sister Avery spoke. One reminder to me was that this is His work. We do our small little part, our one-twelfth of a teaspoon, but it is Him who enables the 60 pounds. The other idea that came to me was how this sort of ratio holds true for us as individuals as well.

2 Ne 25: 23
… “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

Even for ourselves, we do our best, but our efforts are such a small amount compared to what He does for us through His grace. 
​

In a church talk late last year I had an assignment to share something from fall 2021 general conference that particularly touched me. (Yes, I know this is now 2022. I originally wrote this entry a year ago and I’m just now getting it uploaded.) God speaks in all languages. By languages I don’t just mean English or Spanish. I also mean the languages of our thought process. For example, some think in the language of the arts, or of administration, or of science, or of any of the many ‘ologies’ of study. Each discipline of thought has its own language and way of understanding. So too is the language of the gospel, but truth shows up in each of these may disciplines. God speaks to me in several languages, but one of the languages he uses at times is math. The talk by Elder Clark G. Gilbert is an obvious choice as he used math explicitly in his talk about “The Parable of the Slope”.  As true principles turn up over and over again in every discipline, I managed to see math in other talks at conference as well. Since we all think in different languages I believe that is why we have been encouraged to “liken the scriptures unto ourselves.”

The talk I referred to in my talk was the shortest of them. It was President Nelson’s welcome to conference. He said, “I invite you to listen for three things during this conference: pure truth, the pure doctrine of Christ, and pure revelation.” Where is the math in that? Again President Nelson, “Contrary to the doubts of some, there really is such a thing as right and wrong. There really is absolute truth—eternal truth.” Do you hear the math now?

In electrical engineering we often use tools called “truth tables” and “statistical analysis”. In the last quote above both are referred to. A truth table is a list of several independent variables, typically discreet variables such as true/false, on/off, 1/0, yes/no, +5V/-5V, etc. When each input variable is “true” or its equivalent, then the output (dependent variable) is also true. A discreet variable has a limited number of potential values. In the case of electrical truth tables each discreet variable is limited to two states. President Nelson noted two specific examples, right/wrong, truth/error. The idea of error is implied since if there is absolute truth, then anything else is not.  Here is an example of a gospel version of an electrical truth table. If the Book of Mormon is true scripture then Joseph Smith is a true prophet since God would not reveal scripture to a false prophet. If both the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His true church since a true prophet would not be the means to establish a false church. You see how that logic form works?

Then what about statistical analysis?  Where was that in the talk? Well, that comes from another form of dependent variable. Instead of discreet variables that have a limited number of values, continuous variables have an infinite number of values between two extremes. Each extreme is referred to as an absolute. There’s that word President Nelson used. The example I used speaking in church was the amount of food I planned on eating at Thanksgiving. One absolute could be zero. I might choose to eat nothing. Well that certainly wasn’t going to happen. The other absolute would be the maximum capacity of my old-man stomach. Between these two absolutes is an infinite quantity of potential food amounts I could consume. I’ll get to where this part fits the gospel in a minute.

I’ve heard people say that Heaven is like the top of a mountain. Any path to the top is ok so long as the goal is the same. I remember many years ago when Adam Savage, one of the hosts on the TV show Myth Busters often wore a shirt that said, “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” In the field of Philosophy of Science a prominent practitioner named Thomas Kuhn coined the idea of scientific paradigms. To Kuhn our current paradigm explaining what we see in nature stands so long as it seems to answer our questions. Eventually we raise questions our current paradigm does not explain. Then, some smart person comes up with another paradigm that does explain our questions and that becomes our new truth until we find more questions the new paradigm does not explain. Each change in paradigm is called a scientific revolution or a paradigm shift. For Kuhn, then, we are not considering truth, or even if the new paradigm brings us closer to truth; only that it seems to answer the questions we have today. A paradigm is a story we tell ourselves, an agreed upon context. 

Are we not blessed with the combination God has given us, the combination of the scriptures and the Holy Ghost? One could argue the scriptures are simply a form of paradigm, but that idea leaves out direct revelation through the Holy Ghost that testifies of truth to each of us in the language God knows we will understand.

So what do the scriptures tell us about truth? Here are a few samples:

• “Straight is the gate and narrow the way”
• “That no man shall come unto the Father but by me, or by my word”
• “I am the way, the truth, and the light”

Many truths or one truth? Many paths or one path? May ways or one way? Truth, the path, is measured as a discreet variable. There is only one absolute truth, one path. Our alignment (our variableness) with that discreet truth is continuous.  We may wander in the space between true and false. Our understanding of truth could be represented as a percent of the whole. Do we have all truth today? No. “We believe all God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” All the gospel we have received is true so the truth of the gospel is 100%. Our understanding individually is between 0% and 100%, and the total truth received through the gospel so far is also between 0% and 100%.
In Star Wars, one of the famous sayings of Yoda was, “do or do not, there is no try.” Does that jive with the scriptures? Such a phrase seems like an attempt to change our performance or understanding from a continuous variable to a discreet variable. In other words, if we fall short by even a little, it is the same as if we have failed completely. Such a philosophy is tempting, but in the world of discreet variables, it is false because it leaves out repentance and the atonement of Jesus Christ. Do we fail to make 100%? Yes, all the time. What are we to do then in gospel terms? When we repent, the grace of Savior moves us from the continuous variable space between truth and error to the discreet of absolute truth. The atonement makes us holy. To be made holy means to be made whole, or complete, or sacred. In every case we fall short on our own, but are made whole through the power that comes from His sacrifice. As with Elder Gilbert’s talk, the trajectory or slope matters, not a particular position along the slope. So using Yoda’s vernacular, alone we ‘do not’. Only with the Savior can we ‘do’.

Pres Nelson stresses this paradigmatic shift from Yoda’s absolutes of self pass/fail to the gospel’s absolutes of fail alone, pass with the Savior. In his talk he said, “There has never been a time in the history of the world when knowledge of our Savior is more personally vital and relevant to every human soul.”
​
So there you have it. Math in what seemed initially to me as a simple welcome-to-conference talk of only about five minutes. As I thought about it, the talk for me had much more depth than it at first appeared.

I hope my mind is at least sometimes turned to counting blessings. Life for my wife and I has lately been turbulent. I’m not referring to what is going on out there in the world, though that is clearly turbulent. I’m more referring to the addition of occasionally moving household goods through a 10-hour drive while continuing our normal hectic life. Despite the added weight on our shoulders (literal and figurative) we continue to do what we need to. We can feel the Lord carry us on particularly difficult days. How much more of a blessing need one to be grateful for?
 
Recently, I have been talking with a long-time friend of mine. He lives in New Mexico. His life has taken a difficult turn, and he is really struggling with seeing anything positive. In particular he asked me an interesting question. “What have I done to deserve all this?” One can read this question in to opposite ways. The first could be a person honestly willing to admit they have something for which to repent, but they are simply unaware what it is. Such a question can also be understood as an inverse statement. The person may be lashing out with the thought that they have no culpability. The question-statement may simply mean, “I don’t deserve this.”  

The conversation brought to my mind two examples in the scriptures that depict each of these sentiments. The negative example comes from The Book of Mormon. Nephi accounts of a typical reaction of his brothers after being admonished: 

2 Nephi 4:13 
And it came to pass that not many days after his death, Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael were angry with me because of the admonitions of the Lord. 

There are plenty of similar examples all over the scriptures. At the heart of this negative reaction to criticism (justified or not) is pride.  

Now think of an opposite example. During the last supper, Jesus told the apostles that one of them would betray him. How did their reaction differ from that of Laman and Lemuel? 

Matthew 26:20-22 
Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as he did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? 

This reaction is humble, not prideful. Each considered if under some condition they might become a traitor. Each was willing to recognize his own weakness.  

How do we react when confronted with something within ourselves that could use change? Another word for change is repentance. I can only speak for myself. At times I channel my inner Laman and Lemuel. Other times I lean more toward the attitude of the apostles. Maybe in some experiences I’m some of both of these at the same time. Perhaps our efforts to focus on our blessings rather than our challenges helps us to be more humble. I’m not saying we only suffer because of our own guilt. I am saying we sometimes do, and should be willing to at least consider the question… is it I? ​
​

Autumn is my favorite time of the year. Maybe it’s because I can identify as I’m in that part of life, but the cooling of temperatures somehow feels refreshing to me. The days grow shorter which means my running workout tends to be in the dark more and more (early morning or after dinner). Michelle and I are beginning the process of moving back to our home in Georgia. For us this will be a long process over some months. We’ll have to endure some separation. We’ve been through it many times over the years. Since our marriage we moved six times (this will be number seven) which has always involved some separation. My work has also taken me away from family often, occasionally for extended periods. This move feels more real now as when we arrived at the house in Georgia it was for all intents and purposes empty. We are taking advantage of the emptiness to update some wall colors and repair a thing or two.

Change is something we’ve grown accustomed to, but it is still challenging. When the future seems unsure to us we can fret. This is definitely where faith comes into play. Despite the challenge and fretting associated with change, it’s also brought some incredible growth for me personally, and for both Michelle and I as a family. I will leave comment on how the moves were for our children up to them to say. It all seems to me like a mixed bag, like everything else about life.

Some of my favorite cartoons over the years have been the Calvin and Hobbes series. Interestingly enough, as part of my post graduate studies I’ve learned that both of those names belong to well-known philosophers of science. Fitting that a recurring series within the cartoon has involved scenes where Calvin (a rebellious young boy) and Hobbes (a stuffed tiger that is alive in the eyes of Calvin) are streaming out of control down a deadly mountain (usually in a wagon or on a snow sled). As they careen toward certain destruction they nonchalantly discuss some philosophical idea or another, usually punctuated by a horrendous crash. There’s something to be said for this pattern, though generally I tend to philosophize post catastrophe as I try to make sense of whatever just happened. I won’t claim to succeed very often, if at all, in making sense of things. Like Calvin and Hobbes, I think it’s fair to say most of my personal catastrophes tend to be self-inflicted. I have plenty of scars to attest. I generally refer to my scars (seen and unseen) as ‘stupid marks’. I guess we all learn in our own way. I don’t know about you, but my learning process seems mistake-driven by and large. The mistakes are generally my own, though not always.

Moving offers an opportunity for clarity. Do I really need all these things? There is so much in the house that needs to just be tossed. I scratch my head and wonder why we have some of this stuff in the first place, and why we persist on holding on to much of it. There has been some therapeutic value in removing some of the clutter of life. If nothing else, clearing things out brings back a pleasant memory or two as we sift through the accumulation. How much clutter do we all carry in our inner person? Are there things we should just leave behind? Are there others we should cling to in order to stay grounded in testimony, in identity, in family?

Here is at least one example of something of inestimable value to cling to:

1 Nephi 8:24
And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.

The iron rod is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Search for those things of value to hold. Let go of those that do not add value to your life.
​

Bissonnette, Andréanne. 2020. ""Caged Women": Migration, Mobility and Access to Health Services in Texas and Arizona." Journal of Borderlands Studies 1-22.
 
Andréanne Bissonnette described to us the concept of the ‘golden cage’. It’s a zone from the US and Mexico border internal within the first 100 miles inside the US side of the border. Within that zone there are numerous checkpoints. Within the golden cage, presumed migrants can be stopped and questioned without probable cause. If a migrant attempts to leave the zone they risk running the checkpoints, yet healthcare is essentially impossible for them within the area.
 
Bissonnette also pointed out that healthcare is difficult outside the golden cage for a host of reasons. Many lack of insurance. Fear of accessing healthcare, lack of language skills, and fear of having their immigration status checked at a clinic are examples of difficulties. Many immigrants are often unaware of where to access medical care. They may believe they need insurance for COVID vaccine.
 
Location matters. There are different laws from one state to another. Despite what laws exist in a given state, application of laws varies among locations within a state. Hesitancy by migrants to access healthcare could cause them to wait until a health issue becomes acute, putting increased strain on trauma centers and emergency rooms in locations with high migrant populations.
 
One area of a conversation I attended with Bissonnette was about how healthcare might encourage circular migration. On either side of a border different types of healthcare are available. For example, some medicines may require a prescription on one side and not the other. If an immigrant has a US social security number (their own or one they have assumed) they may be able to better access some aspects of healthcare on the US side of the border. With or without it, there may be better access on the Mexican side to other types of healthcare. An immigrant may be motivated to live closer to the border if they have healthcare needs that would be better addressed on the Mexican side.
 
I’d like to combine the ideas of healthcare and circular migration to question the concept of the golden cage. In class I shared my experience working in a high-end hotel while an undergraduate student. Much of the housekeeping and janitorial staff at the time were Hispanic. One day the US immigration services (‘la migra’) showed up at the hotel in force. They went through the hotel checking identification for Hispanic staff. This was well outside the golden cage region so they must have had some sort of warrant based on previous investigation, or at least one would hope that was the case. I saw the officers load about a dozen young male Hispanics into a large van waiting outside the hotel about an hour after they first entered the building. I had been friends with many of those taken away, often practicing speaking Spanish with them.
 
Several weeks passed, then suddenly these same employees were back working at the hotel in the same jobs they had been taken from. I asked several of them what had happened. Their answers were all the same. The US immigration officers had transported them back to Mexico City. From there they used their own money to visit family for a few weeks, then made the same journey they previously had in crossing the border into the US and back to the hotel. Management at the hotel allowed them to resume their jobs using the same documentation previously on file with Human Resources. One could question that management ethic, yet it is likely not unique to this specific employer. Clearly this was a circular migration. The original migration to the US was economic-based. The migration back to Mexico was forced. The return to the US was again economic. They were obviously not limited in mobility by the idea of the golden cage.
 
How about healthcare? The hotel did offer health insurance to full-time employees. I have no idea if any of these young men were full-time or part-time, but with whatever documentation offered to the hotel that was good enough for employment, one would presume the same documentation was good enough for the employer to provide the insurance benefit. It’s clear this same documentation was not good enough for immigration service officers. At the same time, one could imagine that young healthy people with no healthcare mandate as we have today might simply opt out of health insurance, perceiving no need as so many other young people do.
 
Given this experience, it’s clear there are reasons for circular migration that are completely unrelated to healthcare. In fact, healthcare in my example likely played no part of migration in either direction, and may have had nothing to do with the thoughts of these migrants.
 
In the case of these particular young immigrants, the checkpoints of the golden cage were basically meaningless. They were able to easily circumvent them at least twice. The fact that so many who cross the border illegally end up in literally every part of the US is itself evidence that checkpoints are not effective in containing migrants within the 100-mile zone. In this sense, perhaps healthcare does act as some incentive for migrants who feel a need to access clinics south of the border. Mobility may be possible for longer distances from the border, but likely becomes more difficult as distance from the border increases. If this is true, the golden cage might be less about being ‘trapped’ by check points and more about the cost and time required to voluntarily engage in circular migration for healthcare purposes, or any other motivation.
 
One related point, as many migrant workers have some documentation, valid or not, which allows them to work, they can also share their earnings as remittances to family in their home country. That may also mean they manage a bank account that allows them to transfer money. In the case of my former hotel associates, having a bank account would have facilitated accessing funds from within Mexico needed to return to the US. That same money and documentation, one could presume, could permit them to access healthcare outside the golden cage. This particular community was close knit. Most were bilingual. It’s very likely they shared information with each other on how and where they could best access healthcare if needed. The bilingual skill was not true for all of them, and there are plenty examples of migrants who don’t speak English, but I wonder how strong the language impact is. So long as some of the community can research on behalf of others, the language barrier may be less impactful. In the case of long-term migrant residents where their children grow up in the US, children become the interpreter on behalf of their non-English-speaking parents. I have seen this over the years where fairly young migrants must help their parents navigate a number of services. This can reverse family dynamics by reversing family roles.
 
My conclusion is the idea of a golden cage may be less impactful than Bissonnette’s research suggests. It’s true my logic is based on anecdotal experience and may be lacking, but the experience is real and not isolated.

In August my wife and I were both asked to speak in our sacrament meeting in the Aquia Ward. We were to discuss how we as a people need to be united, and with less conflict. Given all that is going on around us, I understand the motivation our bishopric felt in making that assignment.

Our ward is quite unique in that we have a diverse membership. We have people who don’t speak English as a first language. Aside from the US, our members hale from Africa, Latin America, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and Asia. We have members who have experienced military and judicial conflict. All of us experience interpersonal conflict from time to time. In my talk I shared a story about a close family member who went through months of interpersonal conflict with a member of their ward many years ago. Happily, they had a solid relationship with a home teacher who had been diligent with them for many years. This home teacher was able to help resolve the differences. I am very grateful for this dedicated home teacher. Just a few months after all was resolved, the other person involved in the conflict died. Had this home teacher not acted as a peace-maker the people involved would not have become reconciled.

The Joseph Smith translation of Matt 7 reads:

• 1 Judge not (unrighteously), that ye be not judged.
• 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

My experience has taught me that in most disputes neither side is totally right or wrong. It’s more likely that all parties bear some responsibility in a conflict. I read a caution in the above scripture. I can judge a circumstance completely true, and yet judge people involved harshly. Should I feel justified in harshness if someone is actually guilty of something? Should I show leniency? Justice or mercy? I believe the Lord allows us our agency here, but warns that our approach to how we perceive others will color how we ourselves will be viewed when our time comes to make our accounting for this life. Temporal things are by definition temporary. It’s true some things in this life have eternal consequences. Do we plead for God to pour out justice on others while at the same time beg for mercy upon ourselves? That seems like a double standard. Another word for double standard is hypocrisy. 

Moses 1

• 39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

If this is God’s work, then what is ours? Should it not be to focus on this same goal? God doesn’t say he seeks the condemnation of his children. If this is so, then neither should we.

From the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5:

• 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
• 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

I hope that I can emulate that home teacher from all those years ago who was a peacemaker through his diligence and love. I hope that I will be strong enough to seek mercy for others, and allow God to determine when justice is called for. I don’t mean we should not acknowledge wrongs or work to make this life better. We have public institutions to do the work of justice. I do mean that if I am here to learn to be like Heavenly Father, it seems the more difficult attribute to gain is mercy rather than justice. Offering mercy lowers conflict and encourages repentance from what I’ve seen over the years. Seeking justice tends to encourage defensiveness and increases conflict. There is a balancing act here. We are justified to defend ourselves from the hurtful actions of others, yet we need to find a way to allow God to have the ultimate say on culpability.
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Foucault, Michel. 2008. ""Panopticism" from Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison." Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts (Indiana University Press) 2 (1): 1-12.
 
​One of Foucault’s central arguments about the motivation for a panopticon is that a facility (prison, hospital, school, etc.) could be open to the public for random ‘inspection’. Proponents suggest this approach could counter the risk of a ‘Potemkin village’. One obvious counter is the practicality of actual inspection. All of those environments are intended to be secure either from or for those inside.

Foucault’s work was published in 1975. Technology has changed dramatically since then. Although the physical domains he spoke about remain, much of security is more about the virtual domain today. Many government and financial institutions stress the need to monitor (surveil?) in a global version of a virtual panopticon. We all now wonder, who is watching us through online technology, or when, or how? Are we at risk of violence from the other ‘inmates’? Will someone enter our virtual ‘hospital room’ to hold our ‘treatment’ hostage?

It seems as if one could make the argument that in our current state-of-the-art, all the same arguments for and against the physical panopticon exist. Those in power can justify ever-increasing levels of intrusion in the name of security. Those out to take advantage of the vulnerable constantly look for ways around the system. Most of us are less versed about the technological means and must make a decision between varying levels of security, access to services, and freedom. Another direction could be to opt out of online life. Like the Potemkin village, that is becoming less and less an option. As physical businesses become ever more virtual (or at least hybrid physical/virtual) our ability to remain ‘old-school’ (offline) continues to decrease. Pandemics also discourage use of cash in favor of a third-party account.