D&C 123:17 – Therefore, dearly beloved, let us cheerfully do all that lies in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

Are you trying to find meaning and purpose in doing “all that lies in your power,” as we are encouraged to do in D&C 123:17? On its own, the scripture sounds positive and optimistic, but it was received at one of the darkest moments in Mormon history. In March 1839, most of the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were gathered in Missouri. They had all left their homes in the Eastern United States or in Europe. They had all given up physical possessions and property, and many had sacrificed relationships with friends or family in order to live their religion and follow Christ.

The state of the Saints at the time was so dire, the persecution so fierce, that we know the Prophet Joseph Smith cried to the Lord from a filthy, freezing cell in Liberty Jail, “O God, where art thou? . . . How long shall thy hand be stayed . . . and thine ear be penetrated with [the cries of thy people]?” (D&C 121:2). He pleaded with the Lord to intervene. He said, “O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas . . . stretch forth thy hand . . . let thine anger be kindled against our enemies; and, in the fury of thine heart, with thy sword avenge us of our wrongs” (D&C 121:4–5).

The Lord’s response to this plea for vengeance is one of the most humbling we have in scripture. God said, “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment” (D&C 121:7).

It was from the same jail cell, in the same horrid conditions, and in response to the same plea for vengeance that the Lord encouraged the people to cheerfully do all things that were in their power, and then to stand still and wait on the Lord. In fact, how did the Lord respond to the Saints’ plea for the Lord to stretch forth his hand with his sword and avenge them of their wrongs? When they asked for vengeance for what Joseph described as the “whole concatenation of diabolical rascality and nefarious and murderous impositions” (&C 123:5). do you know what the Lord said?  He told them to make a list. I’m not kidding. The task they were told to do cheerfully was to “[gather] up a knowledge of all the facts, and sufferings and abuses put upon [you] by the people of this State” (D&C 123:1). And that was it. How could the Lord expect the Saints to be cheered by that response?

He expected it because he also gave them a reason. When the Lord gave them the task to account for the wrongs—to channel their hurt and pain into making a record—he also explained that he would use that record to save souls. He said, “There are many yet on the earth . . . who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men . . . and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. . . . Let no man count them as small things; for there is much which lieth in futurity, pertaining to the saints, which depends upon these things” (D&C 123:12–15). The Lord adds, “You know, brethren,  that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm” (D&C 123:16). I doubt those early Saints had any idea how many lives would be touched and changed by their efforts to record not only the wrongs against them, but the revelations and blessings they received. But we know. We would not be here if they hadn’t, so in a very real way, our ship has been steered by their very small helm.

Week Two: How to Enjoy Life

Week One: Learning About Happiness in the Patagonian Fjords 

I love the story of Jesus healing the man who was blind from birth (in John chapter 9), because of its wonderful insights into the Savior’s perfect ability to love and heal us.  John wrote, “Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind” (John 9:32).  John was trying to call our attention to the distinctiveness of this particular miracle.  While wondering about why this event was different from Jesus’ other healings, I realized the reason stemmed from basic principles of neuroanatomy and brain function.  We don’t really see with our eyes—we see with our brain.  Our eyes are sensory organs that take in variations in light and details from the world around us, and then transform that information into electrical impulses.  These electrical impulses are sent to some very specific areas in the back of the brain (the visual cortex and surrounding areas) that allow us to see and make sense of what we are seeing.  While our eyes and the visual cortex of the brain are formed from birth for the very particular task of seeing, our vision and understanding of what we see develop as we interact with our environment.  Normal vision is acquired in much the same way language is, during sensitive periods in early infancy, when a baby’s brain is primed to develop visual skills and understanding.  For infants born with cataracts that prevent normal sight, surgical intervention occurs as early as possible, ideally within the first two to three months of age.  The longer the wait, the greater the risk of permanent visual impairment because those parts of the brain which are supposed to do the work of “seeing” don’t develop in the same way, and are encroached upon by other working senses.

Applying this modern understanding of neuroanatomy, we can appreciate the complexity of Jesus’ miracle.  It is more than just the man’s eyes that needed healing.  In the handful of modern examples of individuals who have sight restored to them after years of blindness, there are no available accounts of restoration of normal vision.  Individuals have been shown to develop some aspects of sight, but tend to have reduced visual acuity and lingering object perception problems[1].  The visual strengths that follow after surgery can take weeks and months to develop.  This does not appear to be the case in the biblical account.  The Savior anointed the man’s eyes with clay and told him to “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” We are then told that the man went and washed “and came seeing” (John 9:7).  For this miracle to occur, the Savior would have had to do more than heal his eyes, he would have had to heal his brain.  The Savior made up for a lifetime’s lack of visual input—almost instantaneously.  He restored, or completely repaired, the man’s whole visual system.

Isn’t that a profound foreshadowing of later events?  Through his atonement, Jesus can completely make up for our lifetimes of weakness and sin, and through his death and resurrection, he will restore to us perfected physical bodies.  He can and will make us whole again.

And yet another sweet bit of familiarity comes from this story. When the man was later repeatedly asked by the Pharisees how this miracle could have occurred, the man defended Jesus and defended his works: “Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. . . . If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:30, 33).  This man’s genuine testimony resulted in him being cast out.  But John was able to capture his words: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25).[2]

John wrote that miracles such as these “are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31).  I am grateful for the light of his gospel, which allows us clearer vision and understanding, and for his atonement—his healing power and mercy—extended to even a wretch like me.

1. Sight Restoration, by Pawan Sinha & Richard Held, in F1000 Medicine Reports 2012; 4:17.  Accessed April 24, 2013.

2. Amazing Grace, text by John Newton, 1725-1807.

When I was a sophomore in college I received a package in the mail from my mother. When I opened it up, it had four things inside: newspaper for padding, a summer sausage, a lime, and a Post-It sized note that said, “Cut sausage into quarter-inch slices. Squeeze lime over top. Now that’s FLAVAH!”

My mom is the queen of making the best of it. Our family has never had a lot, so it was unlikely that I was ever going to get a package in college with new clothes or a computer or really anything useful, actually. But when my mom realized how delicious a slice of summer sausage was with lime on top, she couldn’t stand the idea of her daughter a thousand miles away missing out.

There is a real power in simply trying to enjoy life. We know life can be hard. In fact, Mormons (and maybe religious people in general) have developed a whole vocabulary about how hard life can be. Does “the dark and dreary world,”ring a bell? How about “state of probation?” or “seeing through a glass darkly?” Anyone wanna visit the “terrestrial world” with me? You get it. We’re on this side of the veil. It’s not always going to be good.  But it is in this environment that we are promised it is possible to be cheerful. Don’t you think God must sometimes feel like a parent on a vacation with a bunch of grumpy teenagers who do nothing but complain and wish they were home with their friends? Can’t you imagine him saying, “Get over it! You’re here. You’re not going anywhere. You can choose to be happy or miserable. Can’t you just try to have a good time?”

My friend Christy works for an investment management firm. Most of the time she works in her normal office doing her normal job, but a couple of times a week she works in the call center at night where people call in to ask questions about their 401(k) plans. Let’s just say nights in the call center of a retirement services company are not exactly a non-stop party moment to moment. Well, Christy has taken to instigating late night group exercise sessions, just to shake things up a bit and stave off boredom. She and her co-workers take turns being in charge of leading the group in one cubicle-sized exercise routine, such as outstretched arm circles, or head-bobbing, or fake bullet-dodging a la The Matrix. Keep in mind that all of this takes place while they’re connected to their phones with headpieces, ready for the next call.

I read an article recently about four grown men who have been playing a game of tag for over 20 years. They now live in different parts of the country, but for one month out of every year, the game is on. These four adult men spend the entire month petrified that their old buddy from college who lives hundreds of miles away is going to pop out from behind a bush and tag them and they will be stuck being “it” for the next 11 months.

For years, my sister and a couple of my friends and I have been passing around a ridiculous stuffed cat as a prank. We hide it in each others’ freezers or showers, or stuff it in a piece of luggage when the prankee is not looking. It’s disgusting, but you know every time I get duped into taking that stupid cat home with me, it puts a smile on my face.

My sister and my dad will text each other every once in a while out of the blue with funny lines from movies they both like.

I once saw an old man dressed up as an old dirty swan walking through a crowd of tourists, apparently just to make people laugh.

There are endless ways to bring some spice to your life and some joy to those around you. It’s actually pretty simple.

Week One: Learning About Happiness in the Patagonian Fjords 

Week Three: Finding Meaning and Purpose in Dark Times

Doctrine and Covenants 123:17 – Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all that lies in our power and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

This winter I was on a ship in the Patagonian fjords. In January, when it’s cold and gray in Boston, it is the height of summer in Chile, and it is spectacular. The sun was bright and the air was warm. The water was clear and calm. Chile is, of course, long and skinny and forms the southwestern-most edge of South America, and as you move farther and farther to the south, the land touching the Pacific starts to break apart into a thousand pieces. The water in the fjords is a frigid mix of saltwater from the ocean and glacial runoff from the Andes. It is a pristine place—hardly touched by human influence.

My destination was the southernmost city in South America, the port town of Punta Arenas, which sits on the Strait of Magellan. For four hundred years, until the Panama Canal was opened in 1914, The Strait of Magellan provided the only naval passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was through the Strait of Magellan that the world was first circumnavigated.

As I stood on the shore in Punta Arenas staring across the Strait, I was thinking about Magellan and other early explorers. I got caught up in the beauty of seafaring expeditions as a metaphor for living as D&C 123:17 instructs us—cheerfully doing all we can, and trusting the rest to God.

I thought about what it takes to get on a ship and sail into the unknown. You need resources. You need equipment, food, a crew, knowledge, experience, etc. Without these things, it would be foolish to attempt the journey. But even with all these things, the forces of nature—which are completely beyond your control and only marginally within your power to predict—have the power to destroy you.

Our everyday lives are not unlike getting on that ship. We do our best to gather our resources—what we have learned, what we own, who we know, what we believe—but we reach the limits of those resources all the time. We are brought to the frontier of our own capacities frequently, and there we have the choice to look out on the unknown with fear or with a sense of excitement. Helen Keller said, “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature…. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

But here’s the problem—life doesn’t always feel like an adventure. We all think of Magellan as a great explorer and it’s easy to romanticize his story. But I’m pretty sure living on a ship in the sixteenth century was no cakewalk. And besides, he wasn’t on that ship alone. What about the poor deckhand? What about the cook or the guy who was in charge of cleaning up after the captain’s dogs? Doesn’t our capacity for cheerfulness and a positive outlook kind of depend on who we are, and our circumstances?

Well, actually, yes it does. The fact is, it is easier for some people to be cheerful. Social scientists who study happiness say that being happy is part genes, part circumstance, and part skill. The supposed divisions are 50/10/40—genetics/circumstance/choices. About half of a person’s propensity to be happy can be accounted for simply by who they are—by the genetic cards they were dealt. But being fifty percent happy is like not being happy at all, as far as I’m concerned, so let’s talk about the other fifty percent. Ten percent of your likelihood of being happy is due to basic survival-related circumstances like health issues or having your basic necessities met. I think ten percent is a shockingly small percentage to predict happiness for something as basic as having enough food. But I have known miserable rich people, and happy people with practically nothing, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised.

That leaves the remaining forty percent to choices that are completely within our control. Forty percent is a lot. And the things you should choose if you want to be happy are, not surprisingly, exactly the things the gospel teaches us to seek and develop. Most importantly, the experts (and everyone with common sense) say that having close relationships with family and friends, and giving service and compassion to others makes you happy. Other big contributors to happiness are physical activity, experiencing frequent moments of being “in the zone,” (so focused on something that you become completely absorbed in it), and having variety or play in your life.

Basically, this boils down to doing things that matter, or doing things that are fun.  Or, if you’re really good, doing things that are fun and that matter.

Post Two: http://www.mormonperspectives.com/2013/05/14/how-to-enjoy-life/

Events like the Boston Marathon bombing make the woes prophesied in the scriptures seem all too real. The horror and tragedy that can be inflicted upon many by a few is truly depressing. It is quite natural to react with anger and fear and hate. That is what they expect of us. They want nothing more than for us to despair and wail and perpetuate the bile they have heaped upon us.

Let us not give in. The weapons against terror and hate are hope and love. We can mourn the fallen and injured out of love, not fear that it could have been us. We can strive to make the world safer through understanding, not revenge. We can find closure with forgiveness rather than waiting for an imperfect justice.

We cannot produce peace by reshaping the world ourselves, but we can reshape ourselves to find peace in the world. That is how we win this war. We defeat those who would terrorize us by building our own unshakable peace, knowing that we have done what we can and will not live in fear of what we cannot control or predict.

“And on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14)

Originally published at thelogicalmormon.com

Inauspicious beginnings.

You break and fix me.

Beautiful snow you come to hate

Until you learn the miracle of spring.

I came to terms with grief and depression.

No one can change my price.

A hundred spiritual awakenings,

Thousands of Green Line prayers.

You taught me the practicality of my dreams until they existed.

(I never liked baseball until Fenway Park.)

Your innovation will far outweigh this tragedy.

Mourn and fight for justice.

Help and Heal.

Long ago you taught me to be resilient.

Long ago you turned me to God.

Circle Jamaica Pond with lanterns.

Play with nephews on the green.

Get your immigrant children to college.

Run and row.

I know, I know, overeating is pretty lame.  It doesn’t make someone look glamorous, has no associations with hard partying or Las Vegas, and you can’t even make a good film montage about it.

But, an addiction is an addiction is an addiction.  Whether an addiction takes the form of substance abuse (alcohol, narcotics, nicotine) or is a behavioral addiction (gaming, pornography, exercise, eating) it all stems from the same place—the brain.  Addictions (in whatever form) hijack the dopamine pathways of the brain, the part of the brain that signals pleasure and inspires humans to seek after good things.  When the brain receives supranormal stimulus (like drugs, porn, or high fructose corn syrup) it prompts a massive spike of dopamine.  The brain, noticing the dopamine volume has just been turned up to eleven!! lowers the overall volume of the entire system.  If the surges continue over time, the total dopamine level of the brain continues to drop until an addict needs the substance to feel normal, or in advanced cases, to feel anything.  As we all know, an addict will continue any destructive behavior if it temporarily normalizes their dopamine levels, and he or she will remain vulnerable to this urge for many years after seeking recovery.

Of course, not everyone will develop a problem.  Some people will be able to see the slippery slope they are on and will walk away before it gets out of hand.  Some people have healthy ways of dealing with stress, distress, and change, and aren’t as susceptible to the allure of unnatural dopamine spikes.  But some people, particularly those from addictive families, have inherited lowered dopamine levels and unhealthy ways of dealing with the world which can lead quickly to addiction.

So, what does this have to do with Mormons?  Well, you may have heard of the guidelines known as the Word of Wisdom.  In this revelation, received in 1833, the members of the church were warned to avoid certain substances and encouraged to eat a diet rich in grains and seasonal produce.   The prohibited substances include alcohol, tobacco, and “hot drinks”, commonly understood to be coffee and tea.  Over the ensuing 180 years, the reasons for these guidelines have been variously discussed and understood, but one of the primary doctrinal motivations for abstaining from booze, cigarettes, and a daily cup of coffee has been an effort to avoid addiction.

How did I, a Mormon, end up in Overeaters Anoymous if this health code, the Word of Wisdom, is intended to keep folks healthy and addiction-free?  Well, there are lots of reasons.  Foremost is the fact that I come from a family where addiction is prevalent.  That might sound like I am saying “My brain chemistry made me do it!”  but what I mean is my family isn’t great at knowing how to deal with feelings and stress without substances.  My parents (who I am convinced only got married because it was the first time they had ever met anyone with a compatible level of crazy) were and are staunch supporters of the Word of Wisdom because of the addictions they grew up around.  But, just because they know how NOT to be addicted to alcohol or tobacco doesn’t mean they knew how to deal with problems without it.  What they didn’t know they couldn’t teach me, so while I am awesome at saying no to cocktails or sweet tea, I’m lousy at saying no to donuts.  I spent most of my college years as the designated driver/drunk wrangler because alcohol was not a worry, but really struggled when a roommate gently pointed out that ice cream probably wasn’t a healthy solution to all my problems.

I listened to my roommate.  I swore off ice cream, put it on my internal “Do Not Eat” list, but the compulsion didn’t go away.  It just changed shape, and that shape was usually food.  I turned to food because it is pretty much the only vice a Mormon can get away with.  (There was a brief flirtation with tacky romance novels—a.k.a. porn for women—but the writing in those things is terrible! No, thank you.)

Another thing Mormons believe, like those of many other faiths, is that through scripture study, prayer, and meditation we can take problems to God and be guided by him to solutions.  Over the years I practiced this principle and took my cloudy thoughts and unfocused misery to God, trying to listen and to follow his council.  I got answers, but for a long time I couldn’t figure out what they meant.  Phrases I heard at church would ping in my ear.  Scripture verses would thump me in the head.  Songs would hook me and I would be humming them for weeks.  Messages kept coming, but I couldn’t piece them together until I downloaded a little book to my Kindle. It was one of those cheap $.99 books I love so much and it was written by a man who talked about his struggles with compulsive eating.  The book was funny and short and fairly alarming because I identified with everything he said. The critical moment, though, was at the end where, instead of offering a diet like most self-help books for fat people, he simply said (and I’m paraphrasing), “You can’t do it by yourself.  Ask for help.”

If the scriptures had thumped me in the head before, that phrase was a bolt gun.  I sat on that idea for months before I had the courage to actually do something about it.  Instead I went to church and read my scriptures and got pinged and thumped and hooked until I finally went to a meeting.  At that first meeting I didn’t know what to do or where to sit or who to talk to, but everyone was very kind.  During the hour that followed all those nice people told their stories, shared their struggles, and proceeded to say all of the phrases that had pinged me, use all the scriptures which had thumped me, and made me feel all the emotions from the songs I had sung for weeks.  It was pretty overwhelming and it made me cry a bit.  Everyone was very sweet about that, too.

Now I’m in recovery.  I go to meetings, have a sponsor, and am working the steps so I can deal with everything in a healthier way.  I’m better, and most importantly, I am drawing closer to God and learning how to rely on his power.  It’s hard work, but it’s good work and there are loving people to help me.

The message I hope you get from me is this: being a Mormon didn’t keep me from having a problem.  Being a Mormon meant I knew I had to listen to God when he gave me the solution and that it helped me to have the faith (eventually) to follow his path.

Growing up in the Church in St. George, Utah, Easter Sunday was the only part of Holy Week noted and was generally commemorated by three things: a new tie before church, a possible talk about the Resurrection or Atonement at church, and an Easter egg hunt after church. Other than that, it was a week and, really, a Sunday no different than any other.

Christ Washing Peter’s Feet by Ford Madox Brown

But over the years I’ve been able to celebrate some of the Holy Days with other faiths and have come to cherish the special week-long focus on the Savior’s final acts.

Years ago, on a Palm Sunday in Gibraltar, I followed the sound of singing to a large sun-bleached Anglican church. A large procession of people was circling the church, holding palm fronds and singing hymns in commemoration of the triumphal entry of Christ from the Mount of Olives down to Jerusalem. In this triumphal entry, Christ teaches us that humility and love are to be praised, not political or economic power and dominion. And there are lessons for believers today in the reaction of the multitude. Would we recognize Christ were he to arrive in our city today? How do we demonstrate honor to our Lord? Do we confidently proclaim his reality to the questioning city?

During another Holy Week, while living in Delhi, a Catholic friend invited me to the Maundy Thursday mass. Inside a dusty yellow church completely packed with worshipers, we commemorated the Last Supper and the institution of the sacrament. During the mass in India, the priests invited up the sick and poor from the congregation and washed their feet and blessed them while the congregation sang Latin songs with Hindi accents. At this mass, I realized that when Christ instituted the sacrament it was done in the context of service and brotherly love. The sacrament is a means to unite Christ’s followers together over a meal so they can know and serve one another.

There are probably no people on earth who celebrate Holy Week with as much passion and pageantry as Southern Spaniards. On my mission in Spain, I was able to watch the mysterious, mystical processions of the relics and statues as they wound their way through the medieval mazes of Andalusian cities. The celebrations occur all week, but Good Friday is the most important day, the day Christ was scourged and crucified.

During the procession of the statue of Christ in his suffering through the streets of Malaga, women from the balcony sing mournful songs called Saetas. They express the pain that Christ and his followers experienced and seek to find deeper connection with and appreciation for Jesus by contemplating what he underwent. I think in our tradition, we lose something important by focusing so much on the triumph of Christ, that we may forget the cost.

Last year, while living in Kyiv, Ukraine, my wife and I were able to attend the Holy Saturday vigil and wait all night for Easter dawn. It was held at an ancient Orthodox monastery and thousands and thousands of people came to spend the night together in a courtyard singing, praying, and receiving blessings from the priests. People brought baskets of special breads and symbolic foods to be shared and eaten communally. And everyone held candles, reflecting the light of faith within. All night the people waited for dawn and when the first light was seen, everyone shouted with joy and proclaimed, “Christ is risen, he truly has risen.”

These experiences have caused me to consider my own celebration of the Holy Week. I believe that for Christians, Holy Week can be a temporal focus of our faith. If we let it, we can draw spiritual strength and inspiration by being mindful of the events of this week and grow in devotion, compassion and love.

When I turned eighteen the first thing I did was move out.

This is a common scenario that is repeated by millions of people that come from all kinds of homes with very different parents. Why do we feel this need and motivation to leave our parents after spending so much time developing relationships with them, and why would our parents allow us to leave home when they have sacrificed everything for us our entire lives?

The simple answer is so children can become independent, experience life for themselves, and reach their potential.

Just as a child leaves their physical home when they turn eighteen, we all left a greater home before coming to this earth. Before this life here on earth, we all lived with God, our Heavenly Father.  We were just spirits with no physical body whereas God had (and has) a physical, but glorified and perfected, body.  We were taught by him and strived to be like him.

Our Heavenly Father knew we could not become like him and reach our full potential unless we left his presence to experience things on our own, just as a parent knows their child cannot learn and grow without leaving their physical home when they get older. Because of this, God created the earth and provided a way for us to come to earth and receive physical bodies to house our spirits and to be tried so we could learn and strive to reach our potential to become like God.

Personally, I am grateful for this understanding of a pre-earth life. It changes the way I view myself and the world. I place more worth in myself, knowing that I know God, that he is my Heavenly Father and that he loves me as his child. This also helps me view life in a different way; this life is not the beginning, nor is it the end. It is just a second act in a three-act play where I need to prove myself to my Heavenly Father by the choices I make and the way I live my life. This gives my life purpose and meaning.

Just as I was excited and looked forward to returning home to be with my parents during breaks and at the end of my college experience, I am even more excited to return home to my Heavenly Father. Just as I hoped to make my parents proud of what I accomplished in school and life, I hope even more that I will have made my Father in Heaven proud of what I have accomplished here on earth.

–M. Dean Egan http://www.tenfolddean.com/#!photography—-/vstc2=mormon-sites