I have many well-wishing friends who seem dissatisfied with the choices I have made and the life I live. I also have many well-wishing friends who understand that what I value is different from what other people value. That’s completely normal. What I wrestle with is that when you don’t seek after the things of the world, the people of the world don’t really know what to do with you, and because it is they who are uncomfortable with your choices, they will seek to make you miserable for being different. I find it ironic because they all seem to be fascinated with being unique and famous and standing out, which is why they dress their bodies and their Facebook pages and their cars with whatever random quesquilia they can find.
Several years ago, I started coming to a realization in this matter. I turned to close friends and spent time on my knees with my Maker trying to find out if I was off kilter. One of my friends told me as he watched women reject me that if he were female I was the kind of man he would seek. An ecclesiastical leader told me that he felt I was like a finely tuned radio, and that I was unlikely to be receiving the wrong messages. One day while praying, I felt impressed with the following scripture from the 15th chapter of the Testimony of John: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” I realized that was God talking to me- I was not looking for the world, and so the world didn’t know what to do with me. I would get upset about things I saw on Facebook and forget the quiet whisperings of the Comforter, and so I was the cause of my own distress.
Today in Sunday School we read a scripture I had not noticed before. “Thou shalt lay aside the things of this world and seek for things of a better”. That’s a COMMANDMENT. It’s a tough one too, particularly today for some people with the SuperBowl in full swing. How do you lay them aside when they are so much a part of our current reality? All around us we have people who clamour for greater pay, nicer houses, more attractive mates, more exciting vacations, and the like, and so we get caught up easily in the quest for things of no worth and that cannot satisfy. Likewise, we concern ourselves with the cares of the world- with war, poverty, disease, unemployment, politicis, etc., forgetting that those things grow out of man’s decision to seek for things that are of little worth. It’s hard to imagine God or a better world; sure we talk about it all the time, but nobody’s ever been there, at least not anybody I actually know personally, and so it’s more abstract than our current bout of influenza, troublesome upcoming presentation at work, squabble with a neighbor, or broken appliance that demands urgent attention.
Turning to God makes you unpopular. Frequently the things of God ask you to ignore the things of the world because they are either not urgent or not important. The people in the world don’t like the notion that their ideas and endeavors and opinions are irrelevant, and so they usually attack the people of God, not necessarily because they dislike them but because the people of God make them feel like they might not be right after all. Some small fraction of them also mock you because they would like to have your faith or diligence or testimony without having to do the work necessary to become like you. Remember that people make fun of things they envy. People drag other people down when those people have something that gives them better hope and prospects. It’s an ego thing. They think you don’t value them. What you really do when you act on inspiration is show that you value God more.
For the things of God it makes very little sense to turn to other people for answers. People like to think they are important, and they are, but they are not the most important thing when it comes to things of God. More often than not, they will try to trump the advice and impressions we receive as revelation. Why do we allow that? Do they ask God? Do we let the opinions of interested albeit uninspired people get in the way? Is it even in their purview to receive revelation on your behalf? They will take it personally because they care about you without reciprocally realizing that, unless you are a mechanic, they will not ask you for help or advice in fixing their car. God is the expert on things of God, and so His opinion and counsel are always the best. It is fine for regular folks to share their opinions and help you work through something, but as the consequences are yours, the decision is too. The only person who should be able to trump you is God, and so if you take something to Him after consideration and thought and preparation, and then He vetoes it, that holds weight. If not, Paul advises us to “cast not away therefore thy confidence which hath great recompense of reward.” Jeffrey Holland tells us that “if it was right when you prayed about it, had faith in it and lived for it, it is right now”. God himself told another modern prophet, “Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can a man have than from God?”
I know it can be hard to have confidence in the revelations of God. The people around us seem so much more concrete because we can see them, smell them, and hear them in a way to which we have become accustomed. If you find it hard to push forward, know that others have walked that path before you. I look to Elijah frequently, because he thought he was the absolute last person to still believe in the God of Israel and felt so very unworthy of the calling to which God lifted him. It got so bad that God sent him Elisha as a second witness, and He will do the same thing for you. For the past two years, here, at work, with my friends, and everywhere I can, I have worked as hard as I know to turn people to the Lord. I have told several people who know me well and think highly of me that in the world towards which I am working I expect to be average at best. I do not have all the answers; my mother taught me where to find them, and now I pass on that direction to you. Seek better things. Inquire of the Lord.
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