Of Words and Challenges

June 7, 2023 Leave a comment

Photo by Jesse Orrico on Unsplash

Based on an actual conversation at breakfast, between two people, whom I will call Sally and Jim:

Sally:  I got the word today on just 3 tries.

Jim:  That’s great.  What was the word?

Sally:  Shout.

Jim:  But that had none of your usual start letters.

Sally:  And that was helpful.  You learn a lot about the structure of words through this exercise, interesting things, especially about five-letter words.

Jim:  That could make for a good educational tool, beginning with middle-school kids.

Sally:  If you could get the kids actually to do it.  They might find it too challenging these days.

Jim:  Good point.  Too many are quick to avoid challenge, and too many others quick to accommodate the evasion of challenge.

Sally:  And unhurried to reward those who are willing to take on a challenge.

Jim:  Education is supposed to be about challenge.  Engaging challenge is a great way to learn.  If you don’t, the more you evade challenge, the more challenges you will have.

Sally:  There are challenges we can avoid, and should avoid.  But life is challenging.  It’s supposed to be.  Challenges will come, looked for or not.

Jim:  Yep.  You can avoid some, but not all.  The learning is in how to manage challenge, how to face it, and how to overcome it, if you can, and how to cope if you can’t.

Sally:  Some of the biggest challenges come from those who are selling to people, especially young people, that they can avoid all challenge.

Jim:  Who promise ‘challenge-free’ paths of life.  They offer making this ‘The land of the safe, and the home of the careful.’

Sally:  Where is the joy in that?  The better path, the path of fulfillment, is in ‘The land of the free, and the home of the brave.’  Not only do we overcome challenges. . .

Jim:  . . . and help each other face them . . .

Sally:  We grow, and many things that once seemed challenges no longer are.  Then we can take on bigger and better things, becoming stronger, more able, more fulfilled by accomplishment.  All the while, more compassionate, kinder, more charitable.  That is why God sent us here.

Jim:  It’s in the scriptures, “there is an opposition in all things.”  We discover the joy in life, find and live a joyful life.  Not an easy life.

Sally:  “Having no life,” without the challenge of opposition, as the scriptures teach.  But very loud, persistent voices promise challenge-free, problem-free, easy lifestyles.

Jim:  They promise.  The challenges come as the promises are not kept, not delivered as advertised.

Sally:  And then the challenges multiply—and accumulate, and hang around.

Jim:  To be faced by a weakened people, in ‘The land of the safe, and the home of the careful.’

Sally:  A life of constant challenge but few achievements.  And plenty of frustration.”

Jim:  Again, where is the joy in that life?  A life missed.

Sally:  Where has that ever worked?  Nowhere.

Jim:  In the end, not even for those who promised it.  Life gone amiss.

Sally:  That might be tomorrow’s word.

Filed under abundant life, culture, demagoguery, education, God, joy, life, mediocrity, opposition, tribulation Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Of Charity and Forever

May 12, 2014 Leave a comment

The more I ponder, the more I am brought to the conviction that the pure love of Christ, what the scriptures call charity, is the purpose of life and its highest ideal. So much of this life is designed to provide the opportunity and conditions for developing charity.

Consider this description of charity, provided by the ancient American prophet, Mormon.

And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. (Moroni 7:45)

The Apostle Paul offered a very similar description in his first letter to the Corinthians, where he explained that faith, hope, and charity are closely intertwined (see 1 Corinthians 13).

On this earth, in mortality, man does not come by charity naturally. It seems that to develop charity its opposite must be possible, too. As one connects us with heaven, the other ties us to the world of death. We see abundant evidence that this is so.

Where is the man or woman who naturally possesses all of the traits that are part of and unified in charity? We are all drawn to traits the very opposite of charity, to suffer as briefly as we may, to be frequently unkind, often puffed up, normally seeking our own, and surely too easily provoked, thinking plenty of evil, bearing perhaps some things but far from all, with limited hope, and of weak endurance. Gloriously, we all to some degree by our efforts and with the help of others rise above these evils and exhibit and make part of our natures some portion of the elements of charity. Most people seem to mix the two opposites to varying degrees.

God reaches out to lift each of us up and above our mortal nature. Charity is a gift from God, one that He bestows upon those who qualify to receive it by demonstrating their willingness to receive it and live by it. The more we desire it and live by it, the more that charity remains with us and becomes part of us and changes us. When the Spirit of God comes upon us and enters into our hearts and fills our minds, we taste, we experience charity for a time, in all of its aspects, all unified together (the virtues of charity are of a kind and part harmoniously and mutually reinforcing). For a time, the virtues of charity become our virtues.

Thus Mormon counseled,

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God. . . (Moroni 7:48)

That is what it means to be a “son of God,” born of the Spirit. By following Jesus Christ, living as He would, the gift of charity is bestowed upon us, enabling and teaching us in our hearts and minds how to live like Christ, to do the works that He would do, giving us the power to believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. As we experience personally the pure love of Christ our nature changes and we become progressively like Christ.

The world provides ample opportunities to exercise and develop those virtues that we know in spiritual vision but which we need to practice in fact to make ours, to make ourselves into their image, the image of Christ. We are surrounded by evil, by hardship, by difficulty, by those who need our help. Reaching to heaven, charity enlightens us to know how to conquer evil and gives us the power to cope with hardship, overcome difficulty, to bless, promote kindness, relieve suffering, and “endure all things.”

Yet we fall short from time to time, we lose the vision, we turn away. Sin is any and all that would keep us from developing charity. Repentance brings us back by allowing us to change, to seek and qualify for forgiveness of our sins through Christ’s redemption and again be ready for our hearts and minds to be filled with the gift of charity by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Once more we exercise faith, we gain hope, “but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13). We may keep charity forever, and as we experience charity in this world we personally learn what forever means.

Filed under abundant life, charity, divine nature, eternal life, faith, God, heaven, Holy Ghost, hope, Joseph Smith, knowledge, life, opposition, repentance, revelation, salvation, sin, spirituality, suffering, works Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,