Serenity Prayer

When I first heard about the Ft. Hood shooting, it made me angry. I wanted to do something about it. By that time, however, there was of course nothing I personally could do to change anything about what happened. So, I came to accept the fact that although tragic there was nothing I could do about that particular event and I let it go. I have applied as much as I am able that same principle to other things in my life over which I have no control.

The Year of Our Lord 2009 has challenged me in many ways, and although I have grown the growth has sometimes come at great cost and pain. My one consolation through all of the perterbations and usurpations has been that I did the best I could with what I had and that I acted on promptings from God. I did what I controlled, and then every day I hand the ruins to him and ask him to make something of them.

May God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I opine missed opportunities this year, but not those that I missed. I seized upon every opportunity to do the things in my life that really mattered to me. That other people elected to stay at the station or board another train entirely is up to them. During some of my darkest days and from some of the most unlikely and unexpected places, God has brought people into my life to buoy up my faith and speak comfort and hope to me. I thank him for those tender mercies. I thank those people that they were the miracle for me.

I know where I am headed. Maybe the route changes from time to time, but I make the connections, hold the conversations, go to the places, do the work, and assimilate the concepts to which I feel inspired, and I have the proud consolation that God approves of what I do with my life. I echo the sentiments of Abraham Lincoln who, of his own literal fight, said:

But if, after all, we shall fall, be it so. We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that 'the course approved of our judgments and adored our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, and in death, we never faltered in defending.

It takes a great man to face great obstacles, to run where the brave dare not go. It takes a great man to do what is right even when, at least in a Newtonian way, he sees no fruit of his labors. I will die doing what is right. I know my place. It is time you learned yours.

Tender Mercies

Over the past few weeks, I have been struck by a particular and favorite verse of mine. At the end of 1 Nephi 1, Nephi tells us the theme for his entire record that he will write, and he says, "I Nephi will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are on all those whom he hath chosen because of their faith to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." As I think about my own journeys, privations and trials, I think of the times when I have seen the Lord's hand and felt his Love in my own life as I struggle across the wilderness. Although there may not be Labans, brothers who beat us with a stick, broken bows, or storms while we sail on ships, there are plenty of rough seas, adversarial people, and dashed dreams that combine in our minds to hedge up our way and dampen our faith. In those times, I remember Nephi.

There are tender mercies. I cannot tell you how many times I have been spared from what I wanted and discovered that if I had received what i wanted it would have made my happiness harder, if it was in the aftermath even possible. Sometimes, I have been sent help in the nick of time. Sometimes, I have had doors open which I did not expect and miracles happen for which I did not ask and of which I was not worthy. Yet, they came anyway because of faith. What times in your life have you seen the Lord bless you with tender mercy in spite of the choices you have made? Write about them in your journal.

Faith is more than just a declaration of belief. Faith is a lifestyle. Like Nephi, I have often "been led of the Lord, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do". Yet, like Nephi, I went and did, for "I know the Lord God giveth no commandments unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them whereby they may accomplish the thing he commands of them." You show your faith in the choices you make every minute of every hour of every day.

Out of faith comes might and deliverance. I recently read about how Alma and Amulek broke their bonds and the prison tumbled to the ground. Then there's Jericho. This past summer, I had several Courageous Conversations with friends that on the surface seemed to end badly for me. In the end, they flatly rejected my words and concern. I said what I felt led to say anyway, for I considered to do anything else a betrayal of friendship. As I watch where they take their lives, I realize that I was "cursed for my sake", cut off from their lives as a means to spare me from the consequences of their choices until they learn for themselves to know good from evil.

In the end, no matter what storms you may face, the Lord has a land of promise for you. If you remember my last message, Elder Holland promises in his talk that you will inherit your goodly land as you remain true to the truths that your parents have cherished and for which martyrs have perished. May you find strength and comfort in Christ as you cross the wildernesses of life. May you recognize his hand and feel his love always. Godspeed, and all my best wishes.

Responsibility Must Be Taken

There is a good reason many are called but few are chosen. There is a good reason why there are few real leaders, lots of managers, and many more shrupshire sheep. Responsibility is not something that can be given. Responsibility must be taken and taken seriously.

People want things to be given to them. We live in a your-way-right-away generation. Some of the people I teach or with whom I go to church act as if to say, "I'm an adult. Give me what I deserve as an adult." To which I respond, "Prove you're an adult by taking responsibility".

Young people today just go hang out. They say they are living life to the fullest, but they aren't really living life at all. They exist. Their days may be filled, but they are not full. They may seem to have everything, but they bewail what they lack.

As I seek an eternal companion with whom to make a family, I meet with some odd resistance. From, "I wish I could find a guy like you" to "you intimidate me" to "you're a good guy, but...", ooh that infernal codicle, I find that women want a good guy but won't do what is necessary to deserve one. I know some who refuse to lose weight, want to just have a good time and "hang out", read only when they must, prefer movies to the theater, and think that my 32" waist isn't skinny enough.

I really like this quote from "The Notebook":

I am no one special. Just a common man with common thoughts. I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but in one respect I've succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived. I've loved another with all my heart and soul and for me that has always been enough.

Choosing to avoid drugs- that isn't an accomplishment. Choosing to drive responsively isn't an accomplishment; staying in school isn't an accomplishment. It's just life. Saving a portion of my income isn't a special action; living within my means isn't noteworthy; it's common sense. I am an ordinary man. Everyone else has surrendered what they want most for what they want at the moment (M. Russell Ballard).

"I am not a hero. I am not an angel. I am just a man, a man who's tried to love her, more than any other, in her eyes I am (Her Eyes by Josh Groban)." I love and I am loved, and love is something I take seriously. It is my highest choice and the righteous desire of my heart. Someday God will lead me to a woman I deserve (or her to me) because I put him and his kingdom first as he asked.

Genuine Idiots

On the expiry of the Bush Tax cuts:

"It's not a tax increase, it's an elimination of a tax decrease." --Congressman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

George Orwell would be proud.

Stupor of Thought

As people around me, well-meaning though they may be, attempt to dissuade me from what I know to be right, I have put a lot of thought to the concept of revelation. In some particular matters of late, I reflected a few weeks ago in my journal, "I have felt burnings in my bosum and never a stupor of thought". Elder Jeffrey Holland said "Beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now."

When God speaks of revelation, he promised us how to tell if it comes from him. If it is true, he will cause that our bosum shall burn within us, and if it is wrong, we shall have no such feeling, but a stupor of thought. It is, in my experience however, much more common that people speak of doubts and fears than genuine stupors of thought. They retreat from good things many times based on these fears, which are founded not in truth but in things that have not happened and may never happen to them at all. Most of the time, your fears don't turn out to be accurate predictors of the future.

In Letter XV of the Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis speaks of this phenomenon. The devil wants us to live in the future. The past is real because it happened, the present is real because it lies before us and the future enflames hope and fear. To quote him on the matter at hand:

He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present—either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure...In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity.

The devil wants us to constantly fret about the future, about things concerning which we generally have no knowledge and thus create misery within us, "a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now". The devil wants you to think about what happens to you; God wants you to think about what you do.

If something is true, then it always was true and always will be. If something is true for you, God will provide you the means to accomplish the thing he commands of you. My cousin told me back in May that God never commands men to do the impossible; some things just take a little longer.

When you come upon a decision that is incorrect, God will lead you away from it. At times when I have pursued something that ran contrary to his will, I found myself easily distracted from it by other things...ooh, look a butterfly...

Elder F Enzio Busche spoke on this matter. He said that God will give you correction and direction. Questions may arise, but "if something is wrong, God will give you clarity, but never doubts". Doubts are not the answer. If something is wrong, God has promised that he will cast the thought from our minds entirely.

Our enemies desire our destruction. They will pull all the tricks they can to keep us from our highest choice, from our mission in life, and from a fulness of happiness. Their opposition intensifies when we approach important crossroads in our lives. By this you may know in part that what you do is right. Opposition and struggle are almost always guaranteed when we stand on the cusp of greatness. To close, with Elder Holland again, "Trust in that eternal truth. If God has told you something is right, if something is indeed true for you, He will provide the way for you to accomplish it."

Stand for truth. Stand for right.

Faith in the American People

As I watch the Tea Parties, posts on Facebook bewailing Rush and Beck, et al, and the desperate daily demagoguery on the part of the administration and the Democrat party to convince you that their agenda is right and is working, I gain faith in the American people. Over the last few weeks, I have thought about the great opportunity this time affords us, and for the fact that there is a resurgance of political activity in America even in the dark times.

About a week ago, Mark Belling sat in for Mark Levin on his radio program and put this idea in my head. This morning, I read Mosiah 29:26 where Mosiah tells the people why judges in lieu of a king. he says: "Now it is not common that the voice f the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law--to do your business by the voice of the people and if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgements of God will come upon you."

The majority of Americans still desire that which is right. They oppose amnesty, universal healthcare, and socialism. They may not know what to do, but they do not agree. It is, as Reagan said, "a little intellectual elite in Washington", those bureaucrats and elected officials who think themselves wiser than we all, who plan our demise. Again to quote Reagan, "the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan".

I don't really like Glenn Beck. I think he talks a lot and acts too little. However, he motivates some other people to act. Think what a difference it would make if you would talk to the people around you, those who just don't know any better, those who vote with their parents, those who listen to posters instead of actually reading what the politicians say, and get them to think for themselves. Most human mistakes are made when we let other people tell us what to do. Nobody has your best interests in mind as much as you. Talk to your neighbors and get them to think for themselves.

Take Danny Tarkanian, candidate for Senate against Harry Reid. I have read his website. He seems like a nice guy, and he is far better than Reid. However, in the words of Daniel Webster, although he means to rule well, he means to rule.

The Constitution was established to free men from bondage. It took almost 100 years to end slavery, but it did end it, and we were the first society to abolish it forever. We went to war with ourselves to do it.

There may be a time when the strength of America fails, but it is not today. Fear has never been our master; doubt has never been our guide. We shall continue to spread freedom's prose until it has crossed every ocean, penetrated every clime, resounded in every ear, and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

Godspeed the right.

Rush Limbaugh on God and Government

I thought this worthy of repeating. I will memorize it.

RUSH: If I may get serious with you for a moment. The left, if you believe them, believes that there's one species on the planet destroying it. Now, all mammals exhale carbon dioxide. But somehow only man, only human beings' carbon dioxide is destroying the planet. It's only man in all of his endeavors, particularly Capitalist Man, Western Culture man. Those are the culprits! We are the real culprits. We are destroying the planet. We are the one species on the planet that's destroying it. Why does the left think this? I'll tell you what I think. We, human beings, are the only species who have the capacity to know and understand the concept of God. No other species has the slightest clue. A fish doesn't even know it's in water. A dog doesn't know it's a dog. And who the hell knows what cockroaches think. I don't even want to contemplate it.

To know God is something unique for all species on the planet. It's us. We're the only ones who know God, who can conceive God and all that that means. Therefore, to the left, to know God is the single most destructive part of the human mind. That's what has to be destroyed. Faith in God, belief in God, that's the real enemy -- and there are many enemies of the left, but that's the first. You go to any communist country and the first thing they do is wipe God and religion out of everybody's mind. The State becomes God and whoever is running it at the time becomes The Messiah. There is no God other than The State. See, God put us here to procreate, to experience his gifts. The left, in order to ultimately succeed, has to end our understanding of God's existence and purpose. Therefore, we're not going to fix this economic mess until we fix or moral mess.

Our country is in a moral shambles, and until we fix the moral destruction that has crept over our culture we're not going to be able to really fix anything else -- and when you start talking about fixing the moral mess, then you really cause the left to rise up and come after you. So the strip all this stuff away and what's at the root of it is: A belief in too many people in something other than The State, something other than the government. If you strip away God... 'Cause a human being has to believe in something, a higher power. Even atheists, they've got something that has a higher power. It's a tree or whatever. It could be another human being. It could be institution that human beings put together but there's gotta be something. If you strip God out it has to be The State. So that's what's happening. That's really at the root of this.

A Week at Sidewalk Level

The best test of any policy change is to apply it to the sidewalk level. A friend of mine recently pondered the implication of the taxation scheme under discussion by the administration, and more commonly known as Marxism wherein they take from each according to his ability and give to each according to his need.

He said: "While I do understand the concept of wealthier people 'contributing' more to government programs (such as healthcare) - this is precisely the same as saying their cover charge to get into a nightclub or their price for a hamburger should be higher because they make more money. It seems fair when talking about taxation and expressed in percentages but maybe it isn't."

Variable price on a pack of gum depending on your paycheck makes no sense. What would be the point of earning twice as much money as I do now if I then had to pay twice as much for every commodity? That's a null-sum game. It would be nice if those who could do more did so, but that runs expressly contrary to the laws of God.

God asked Israel for the tithe. That means 10% of your increase, regardless of what you earned. He asked from time to time, like when the temple was built, that those who could do so would donate of their increase to furnish and decorate it, but it went out without compulsory means. God makes commandments with promise. Government issues orders on fear of penalty.

The biggest problem with compulsory government policy is that it disinsentivizes people to excel. If you are going to be punished for increase, it dissuades you from the attempt. On the other hand, those who make policy remain largely unaffected by it. The federal government will not suffer from universal healthcare because they have exempted themselves from it. Many people don't actually work for money, and they pay no taxes, yet they benefit from all the social programs into which working and striving individuals contribute under threat of duress. I know that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) says taxes are voluntary. I dare him to try and not pay.

The president needs to spend a week at sidewalk level. He condescends when he wishes to cheerlead in chief, but the people to whom he promised kitchens, cars, jobs, and "Obama money from his stache" in Michigan still wait.

Anything, But

Obama says he will do anything to save jobs. That's a lie. He won't cut taxes.

Taxes are going up.

My car registration last year was $42. This year it's $55. I drive a 95 Saturn.

Look at your utility bills, your health care costs, and everything else you pay. When the prices of commodities rise, sometimes it's because the taxes have gone up, and the manufacturers pass that cost on to you. Look at cigarette prices. If they raise taxes on that, it's only a short hop before they raise taxes on something about which you care.

Companies don't pay taxes. People do.

Spiritual Sickness

My friend Thom posed a good question today. What does it mean to be spiritually ill, and how does one recognize that? Most people, as in the forgoing suggestions, choose to commiserate or ignore the situation entirely, but whether you are "religious" or not, there is a spiritual component that, if deficient, robs man of well-being and the fulness of happiness. Thom and I agree with the Founding Fathers in a Creator, and whether you believe in Him or not, being in tune with the spiritual energies affects your well being just as whether you believe in it or not gravity does too.

As to the issue of spiritual illness, I propose the following interstitial thoughts: Spirituality concerns our connection with the intangible. So, in a sense, spiritual sickness affects the unconscious and unseen world. Spiritually ill people cannot grasp concepts, define them, or stick to them. Things like loyalty, fidelity, and bravery take on opportunistic definitions, situation-specific, and ephemeral as the ether. They are blown about by every wind of doctrine. They know not what they believe let alone believe that anything in which they do not believe affects them. Think of it as an "it can't happen to me" mentality. Light, energy, truth, and power remain out of reach for them, and they are dark, literally and figuratively speaking.