The Hope of God's Light - AF 12th Ward Sac Mtg Talk 9/22/2013

Light Cleaveth to Light

A week and a half ago, NASA announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which was launched in 1977, has entered interstellar space. The craft has traveled almost 12 billion miles away from our sun, and has exited our solar system. Nasa is communicating with it and receiving data from it on a daily basis.
Think about that. Scientists & engineers were able to build a small vehicle, -- which would fit into bishop Merrill's office, --- and launch it into space 36 years ago, way back when Jimmy Carter was president. A gallon of gas was 59 cents, Fidel Castro had just taken control of Cuba, and people wore bell bottom pants on purpose. That was a long, long time ago.

Like a cosmic Energizer Bunny, the NASA Voyager has kept going and going. The signal strength of the transmitter it uses to communicate with people on earth is 23 watts. That's a little less than the light in your refrigerator. So it's not very powerful to begin with. By the time that 23 watt signal reaches the earth, it has weakened to almost nothing --- less than a billionth of a billionth of a watt. Traveling at the speed of light, it takes about 17 hours to reach the earth. Yet, Nasa scientists are able to receive and understand the signal.

Our Heavenly Father's ability to transmit signals to us is not measured in watts, but if it were, it would be infinitely more powerful than your refrigerator light. We need not have any doubt whatsoever that our Heavenly Father has the ability to communicate with us, instantly and personally. He is able to impart light and truth to us through the Holy Ghost, so that His light can chase the darkness from our lives.

Missionaries throughout the world are bringing the light of God's hope to the  lives of his children, as He hastens the work, in preparation for the Second Coming of His Son.

This morning two senior missionary couples and two young Elders who have just returned from their missions, gave their report to the stake presidency and High Council. It was a spiritually rich experience to hear how their labors are blessings the lives of our brothers and sisters all around the world. Brother and Sister Jepson who have been in England, serving as Church Agricultural Service Missionaries, spoke of the change of hearts and attitudes towards the Church, among the farming communities in England, as they've seen how the church cares for the farms we own there. All of the profits from the wheat and canola oil production of the farms are set aside to provide cash donations to disaster stricken areas throughout the world to help pay for rebuilding efforts.

Elder McKay Ballard, the son of Diane and the late David Ballard, spoke of his work in Australia. One family he taught was from Iran, and they shared the partial translation of the Book of Mormon available in Persian.  Through the Book of Mormon and the missionaries, they saw and felt the light of God and were converted, and 8 of their Iranian friends also joined the church as a result. The light and confidence that was easy to see in Elder Ballard's face was inspiring.

Elder Jones, who just returned from the Ghana, Accra mission, spoke of the initial struggle he had as he coped with the challenges of his mission. At one point he asked the Lord why he was there, suffering and unable to sleep under a mosquito net in the oppressive heat, made worse by regular periods of electrical outages.  He looked us in the eye and said "I received an answer. I heard a voice in my mind, so clear and strong that it pushed out all other thoughts: it said "You are not here for yourself. You are here for the people of Ghana. They are my children."  As I listened to and watched this returned missionary, I had no doubt that that was a pivotal experience for him. It reminds me of President Hinckley's experience as a young Elder. You remember the story. Young Gordon B. Hinckley was discouraged and in a letter to his father, said "I am wasting my time and your money." His father wrote back, telling Gordon to forget himself and go to work. And he did. And he didn't stop working for another seven decades or so. Like young Elder Hinckley, Elder Jones also forgot himself and went to work. He went on to serve the people with all he had to offer, and as a result he deeply loves those people. I could see it from the light in his eyes.

Forgetting ourselves and bringing the light of the restored gospel to our brothers and sisters is the antidote to today's toxic popular culture, which teaches us to turn our attention inward, until we are incapable of seeing anything outside of ourselves and our own narrow interests.

Chase Darkness From You

Elder Uchtdorf taught this to us last April:
"There may be some among you who feel darkness encroaching upon you. You may feel burdened by worry, fear, or doubt. To you and to all of us, I repeat a wonderful and certain truth: God's light is real. It is available to all! It gives life to all things.¹ It has the power to soften the sting of the deepest wound. It can be a healing balm for the loneliness and sickness of our souls. In the furrows of despair, it can plant the seeds of a brighter hope. It can enlighten the deepest valleys of sorrow. It can illuminate the path before us and lead us through the darkest night into the promise of a new dawn.
This is "the Spirit of Jesus Christ," which gives "light to every man that cometh into the world."²

Nevertheless, spiritual light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to the Light of Christ. Spiritual light cannot be discerned by carnal eyes. Jesus Christ Himself taught, "I am the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."³ For "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."⁴

So how do we open our eyes to the hope of God's light?

First, start where you are.

Isn't it wonderful to know that we don't have to be perfect to experience the blessings and gifts of our Heavenly Father? We don't have to wait to cross the finish line to receive God's blessings. In fact, the heavens begin to part and the blessings of heaven begin to distill upon us with the very first steps we take toward the light.

The perfect place to begin is exactly where you are right now. It doesn't matter how unqualified you may think you are or how far behind others you may feel. The very moment you begin to seek your Heavenly Father, in that moment, the hope of His light will begin to awaken, enliven, and ennoble your soul.⁵ The darkness may not dissipate all at once, but as surely as night always gives way to dawn, the light will come.

Second, turn your heart toward the Lord.

Lift up your soul in prayer and explain to your Heavenly Father what you are feeling. Acknowledge your shortcomings. Pour out your heart and express your gratitude. Let Him know of the trials you are facing. Plead with Him in Christ's name for strength and support. Ask that your ears may be opened, that you may hear His voice. Ask that your eyes may be opened, that you may see His light.

Third, walk in the light.

Your Heavenly Father knows that you will make mistakes. He knows that you will stumble—perhaps many times. This saddens Him, but He loves you. He does not wish to break your spirit. On the contrary, He desires that you rise up and become the person you were designed to be.
To that end, He sent His Son to this earth to illuminate the way and show us how to safely cross the stumbling blocks placed in our path. He has given us the gospel, which teaches the way of the disciple. It teaches us the things we must know, do, and be to walk in His light, following in the footsteps of His Beloved Son, our Savior."

Those "10 Things" lists that get passed around online are usually pretty cheesy and not very useful. But I think this one is quite good. It's from a guy named Justin Freeman, whose bio description is "Great at stuff nobody pays for"

What are the top 10 things that we should be informed about, in life?

1. Realize that nobody cares, and if they do, you shouldn't care that they care. Got a new car? Nobody cares. You'll get some gawkers for a couple of weeks—they don't care. They're curious. Three weeks in it'll be just another shiny blob among all the thousands of others crawling down the freeway and sitting in garages and driveways up and down your street. People will care about your car just as much as you care about all of those. Got a new gewgaw? New wardrobe? Went to a swanky restaurant? Exotic vacation? Nobody cares. Don't base your happiness on people caring, because they won't. And if they do, they either want your stuff or hate you for it.

2. Some rulebreakers will break rule number one. Occasionally, people in your life will defy the odds and actually care about you. Still not your stuff, sorry. But if they value you, they'll value that you value it, and they'll listen. When you talk about all of those things that nobody else cares about, they will look into your eyes and consume your words, and in that moment you will know that every part of them is there with you.

3. Spend your life with rulebreakers. Marry them. Befriend them. Work with them. Spend weekends with them. No matter how much power you become possessed of, you'll never be able to make someone care—so gather close the caring.

4. Money is cheap. I mean, there's a lot of it—trillions upon trillions of dollars floating around the world, largely made up of cash whose value is made up and ascribed to it, anyway. Don't engineer your life around getting a slightly less tiny portion of this pile, and make your spirit of generosity reflect this principle. I knew a man who became driven by the desire to amass six figures in savings, so he worked and scrimped and sacrificed to get there. And he did... right before he died of cancer. I'm sure his wife's new husband appreciated his diligence.

5. Money is expensive. I mean, it's difficult to get your hands on sometimes—and you never know when someone's going to pull the floorboards out from under you—so don't be stupid with it. Avoid debt on depreciating assets, and never incur debt in order to assuage your vanity (see rule number one). Debt has become normative, but don't blithely accept it as a rite of passage into adulthood—debt represents imbalance and, in some sense, often a resignation of control. Student loan debt isn't always avoidable, but it isn't a given—my wife and I completed a combined ten years of college with zero debt between us. If you can't avoid it, though, make sure that your degree is an investment rather than a liability—I mourn a bit for all of the people going tens of thousands of dollars in debt in pursuit of vague liberal arts degrees with no idea of what they want out of life. If you're just dropping tuition dollars for lack of a better idea at the moment, just withdraw and go wander around Europe for a few weeks—I guarantee you'll spend less and learn more in the process.

6. Learn the ancient art of rhetoric. The elements of rhetoric, in all of their forms, are what make the world go around—because they are what prompt the decisions people make. If you develop an understanding of how they work, while everyone else is frightened by flames and booming voices, you will be able to see behind veils of communication and see what levers little men are pulling. Not only will you develop immunity from all manner of commercials, marketing, hucksters and salesmen, to the beautiful speeches of liars and thieves, you'll also find yourself able to craft your speech in ways that influence people. When you know how to speak in order to change someone's mind, to instill confidence in someone, to quiet the fears of a child, then you will know this power firsthand. However, bear in mind as you use it that your opponent in any debate is not the other person, but ignorance.

7. You are responsible to everyone, but you're responsible for yourself. I believe we're responsible to everyone for something, even if it's something as basic as an affirmation of their humanity. However, it should most often go far beyond that and manifest itself in service to others, to being a voice for the voiceless. If you're reading this, there are those around you who toil under burdens larger than yours, who stand in need of touch and respect and chances. Conversely, though, you're responsible for yourself. Nobody else is going to find success for you, and nobody else is going to instill happiness into you from the outside. That's on you.

8. Learn to see reality in terms of systems. When you understand the world around you as a massive web of interconnected, largely interdependent systems, things get much less mystifying—and the less we either ascribe to magic or allow to exist behind a fog, the less susceptible we'll be to all manner of being taken advantage of. However:

9. Account for the threat of black swan events. Sometimes chaos consumes the most meticulous of plans, and if you live life with no margins in a financial, emotional, or any other sense, you will be subject to its whims. Take risks, but backstop them with something—I strongly suspect these people who say having a Plan B is a sign of weak commitment aren't living hand to mouth. Do what you need to in order to keep your footing.

10. You both need and don't need other people. You need others in a sense that you need to be part of a community—there's a reason we reflexively pity hermits. Regardless of your theory of anthropogenesis, it's hard to deny that we are built for community, and that 'we' is always more than 'me.' However, you don't need another person in order for your life to have meaning—this idea that Disney has shoved through our eyeballs, that there's someone out there for all of us if we'll just believe hard enough and never stop searching, is hokum... because of arithmetic, if nothing else. Establish your own life—then, if there's a particular person that you can't help but integrate, believe me, you'll know.

11. Always give more than is required of you.