Over the past 3 years the purpose of this blog has been to share spiritual insights and thoughts I've had. I've stayed away from lengthy posts and "sensitive" topics. However, I've had many things on my mind for a long time about my generation and the challenges we seem to face. I've written a few posts, the first of which follows:
Part
I: Did Not I Speak Peace to Your Mind?
I
want you to think back on your earliest memory of receiving a witness
by the Holy Ghost of the truthfulness of some facet of the Restored
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Is that experience still a vivid memory? How often do you think back on it? Now
compare your “spiritual maturity” at that time to where you feel
you are at now. How have you changed? Have you grown? Have you progressed?
The purpose of this life is to grow, right? We're to gain
experiences; learn how to master the natural man, find joy in
relationships and service, accept Christ, and live His teachings.
What is an intrinsic aspect of growth? I would say that it is an increasing level
of difficulty. Think on your educational, physical, intellectual, or
professional advancements. My experience in college was definitely
more challenging than my high school experience, and consequentially
much more rewarding and enjoyable for me. Similar parallels can be
drawn regarding progress in the areas previously mentioned.
When we first started out on these journeys we began
with the basics; we created foundations through our experiences to
build on. We probably still continue to build on them, but in most cases, to keep growing we must continually increase our effort and dedication. It
requires more effort to keep progressing.
Now back to your first experience with the Holy Ghost. I would say that
for a majority of us that first witness was fairly simple. It may
have been an overwhelming feeling of peace or love. That “simple
witness” was the foundation for our testimony. We felt
something, and it pushed us to act on the things we were being taught
and try and live that life we felt God wanted for us. I'm not trying
to generalize everyone's spiritual life and experiences, but I am saying that the level of effort it took to get those first
witnesses won't be enough if we are to continue progressing.
Heavenly
Father wanted to give us what we needed to start on our spiritual
journey, but it's likely been years since then and He's probably hoping we've grown up a little in the meantime. Casual experiences with the Gospel or the minimal effort won't lead us to any kind of
revelatory or edifying experiences. And we need those experiences to grow. God wants
us to move past that initial foundation and keep building upward. He wants us to be agents to ourselves and to be the impetus in our own spiritual growth. He doesn't want to have to hold our hand through ever single little thing. He requires much more effort from us.
Today's
generation faces a strange environment. The demand on our attention
is intensely divided and our ability to focus on a singular thing is
stunted. We switch been apps constantly, refreshing to see if there
are new notifications, reading headlines and the first paragraph of
news articles before jumping to a YouTube video that is 4 minutes long (waaaaay too long, I don't have time for that – I've got important
things to do like sift through all the crap on my timeline) and
jumping back to send a Snap that will disappear after 5 seconds. We
struggle to unplug and meditate, to ponder, or give ourselves
entirely to one thing. I've sat in a room full of friends where every
single person in the room is checking something on their phone. We
replace real experiences with digital interactions. Social media can
be used for great good, and I'm not here to condemn it, but I am saying
that our generation - the “Millennials” - faces a unique set
of challenges and struggles that are woven into the fiber of our
society and environment, and there is no getting around that.
So combine our stunted attention spans with the increased effort
required to grow in the Gospel and we've got a difficult situation on
our hands. Many of us are not truly dedicating the time and effort it
takes to have spiritual experiences and commune with our Heavenly
Father and Jesus Christ. And because of that we second guess or
marginalize our first or past experiences with truth and the Holy
Ghost. So when we're not feeling the Spirit like we used to, and
we're not relying on our foundations, and we come across something we
“don't like” or “makes us uncomfortable” in the Gospel, we
lean towards doubt and criticism. Feel free to disagree with me – I
don't think I'm 100% right, or that this applies to every individual
– but I'm trying to make sense of the struggles my generation
faces. There are obviously other factors that play into this, and
lead people to turn away from the Gospel.
But
I feel like if we would discipline ourselves and sacrifice the time
and effort it takes to have real experiences with the Gospel (attending the temple, fulfilling callings, actually studying
the scriptures, having real conversations with God), remember the
peace that God has spoken to us in the past, and rely on those
answers when faced with doubt, we would be able to shake off the
spiritual numbness we're experiencing. We could keep progressing, we
could find greater happiness, and we could find many of the answers we seek.
In
D&C 6 the Lord says to Oliver Cowdery, “cast your mind upon the
night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know
concerning the truth of these things. Did
not I speak peace to your mind concerning
the matter? What
greater witness can you have than from God?.
. . Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”
I
want us to have lives filled with happiness, and I believe that it is
through living the Gospel we are able to do that. Remember how you
felt, lean on that when you are doubting; dedicate your time, your
heart, and yourself to finding answers; build on that first testimony and don't give
up or think that God has forgotten you or that you tricked yourself
into believing he exists. He is there and he will answer your
prayers.