Chastisement: A Love Story [Graphic]

Context

[dropcap]In Elder’s Quorum we were recently discussing Elder Christofferson’s talk on Chastisement from April General Conference. In his introduction he quoted a talk given by Dallin H. Oaks in October 2000 General Conference entitled, “The Challenge to Become”. He said,[/dropcap]

“The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.”

As I was pondering Elder Christofferson’s use of this quote by Elder Oaks in his opening statements, it occurred to me that the idea expressed by Elder Oaks is a key reason chastisement and rebuke are so good for us. It is because it is not about what we do in this life, but what we become that receiving correction is so valuable.

Personal Story
In high school and after my mission in college, I worked in fast food to pay the bills. I found that I was the recipient of two types of feedback:

Constructive feedback from supervisors and managers that helped me become a better employee (and eventually a manager).
Feedback that only focused on pointing out anything and everything I had done wrong.

Now in hindsight, I realize that my personal biases and preparedness to receive feedback had two general types:

I was eager to learn and improve and graciously accepted the feedback as useful and instructional.
I found the feedback frustrating and annoying because it felt impersonal, self-serving or just downright picky.

The Graphic

Returning to Elder Oaks, he identifies two different paradigms of judgment. There is what we have done and what we have become. Consider this in terms of chastisement. When we give feedback to others, are we focusing on their actions, what they have done, or are we trying to help them become something better? Likewise when we are the recipient of chastisement, do we take it as a personal attack (focusing on what we have done) or do we take it as something that will help us become better?

To, illustrate this idea, I present the “Do/Be Matrix: Giving and Receiving Chastisement”

Ask yourself, when I find myself in one of these categories, what does it look like? How do I normally behave? Considering questions like this can help us increase our awareness which provides the Spirit opportunities to teach and instruct. I’ll share below some of my thoughts:

DO/DO

Sometimes we approach feedback, we take an ‘eye for an eye’ kind of approach:

Oh like you should talk . . . last time you took all the hot water and made us five minutes late to church!

Neither side hardly gets anything out of this kind of exchange and a lot of times results in someone going too far and hurting someone’s feelings.

BE/DO

D&C 121 counsels us to follow our reproof “afterwards [with] an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

“That he may know that they faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death,” (D&C 121:43).

This is the best description that I can think of that helps us move from Be/Do to Be/Be.

DO/BE

My thoughts turned to the experiences of the many of the Nephites during the great Nephite-Lamanite wars in the Book of Alma. Alma 62, verse 41 reads:

“But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility.”

While all the Nephites had relatively the same experience (To Do), some had allowed that experience to bring them closer to God (To Be). Others became hardened, slipping into the DO/DO category.

BE/BE

In April 2011 General Conference, Lynn G. Robbins shared the following,

“Through discipline the child learns of consequences. In such moments it is helpful to turn negatives into positives. If the child confesses to a wrong, praise the courage it took to confess. Ask the child what he or she learned from the mistake or misdeed, which gives you, and more important, the Spirit an opportunity to touch and teach the child. When we teach children doctrine by the Spirit, that doctrine has the power to change their very nature—be—over time.

“Alma discovered this same principle, that “the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword” (Alma 31:5; emphasis added). Why? Because the sword focused only on punishing behavior—or do—while preaching the word changed people’s very nature—who they were or could become.”

Consider for yourself what each of these zones of the Do/Be Matrix look to you. By being more aware, you will be in a position to focus more on the ‘be’ and facilitate true gospel progression.

Thanks for reading.

Free lunch?

[Dropcap]Chris Anderson, editor and chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail, recently published a book entitled Free: The Future of a Radical Price. In this book, Anderson explores the market’s tendency towards a free price. Everyone everywhere is offering things free.[/dropcap]

But is it really free? Can you truly have a free price? No strings attached?

Short Answer: No. Long Answer: Yes

In physics we say for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,

which in economics we call a cost or we say, “there is no free lunch.”

In LDS theology, we say that we don’t believe in ex nihilo creation.

Companies are finding innovative ways to offer more value and pass off the costs of production (to say, for example, advertisers or corporate sponsors), allowing companies or individuals to offer a lower or free price for their goods or services. Even Chris Anderson took part, practicing what he preached by offering for a limited time his book for free (the unabridged audio book is still available for free).

This idea lends us a couple of gospel insights:

Principle #1

When our sins our forgiven by Christ, they do not disappear. No, every sin, even in the least degree, was paid for with His precious blood. When crimson turns to wool and scarlet to snow, it is done at a great price:

By Carl Heinrich Bloch

” . . . how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.

For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;” (D&C 19:15-16).

Looking back, from time to time I have fallen into a sort of light-mindedness about the atonement. Do we sometimes forget the cost because we don’t have to pay the full weight of it? Next time you find yourself humming through the sacrament hymn, take a moment to consider what the words of that hymn are trying to teach about the great cost Christ paid for you and me.

Principle #2

Satan will do all that he can to make sin appear free: no strings attached. It is a subtle sleight of hand, shifting the up front costs of sin away, making it more readily available than ever.

What did it used to take to consume pornography? It was hard to find and expensive to come by in whatever form. Now it is virtually free to consume. You can find it in the music on the radio and the shows (and commercials) on television. Consider what it takes to find it on the internet: all it costs (up front) is a few clicks. It is cunningly convenient and so ready to access.

But there is no free lunch: not from the adversary. No pass from the costs that sin extract from us. There are terrible consequences that result from sin that none of us can ignore. It is a debt that quickly compiles interest with no escaping the collection agent. If we cannot break the cycle, we find ourselves reposes-ed with little agency and spiritually bankrupt.

Conclusion: “Long Answer: Yes.”

And yet, when we feel sin closing in around us, the Lord reaches out and says, “Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price,” (2 Nephi 26:25).

But like Enos, we ask, “Lord, how is it done?”

“And he said unto [Enos]: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole,” (Enos 1:7-8).

In a world of scarcity and no free lunches, there is one way, one truth, one life that if followed, leads to a world free of sin, sorrow and suffering. What a miracle the love of God is that despite so great a cost, Christ paid it and offers us the benefits so freely. Those who argue that there are strings attached don’t realize that those are lifelines cast down from a loving Father in Heaven to lift us up to him.

I close in the words of the hymn,

I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt!
Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?
No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy-seat,
Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet.

How wonderful, indeed.

Thanks for reading.

Please share your thoughts below or contact me.

Get Rich Quick Schemes

[dropcap]In preparation for this post, I did a little experiment. If you type, ‘get rich quick’ into Google, you will get 39 million results in a tenth of a second. “Make Money Fast” returns 250 million results in .16 of a second. “Work from Home” returns 849 million results. “Fast money” returns 923 million hits in .14 seconds.[/dropcap]

What is it about us humans that loves the idea of being able to get a whole lot of something for nothing?

We had someone in our family who was always sharing with us the next ‘big thing;’ The grass was always greener on the other side as she touted this or that scheme. None of the schemes ever really panned out but I observed that it produced a lot of instability in her life.

Mission Pic: Random Communist-Era art in Romania: reminiscent of the Great and Spacious Building, no?

The other day, as I was reading in the Book of Mormon, I came across a phrase I never had noticed before. In Nephi’s detailing of the Tree of Life Vision, he states that the large and spacious building represents, in part, the vain imaginations of the world (See 1 Nephi 12:18).

I suspect that vain imaginations could apply to many things, but I think it certainly applies here. The idea we can get something for free is a rather vain imagination in my book.

Consider this quote from Elder Holland, then President Holland of BYU. He shared this newspaper clipping in a devotional address in 1982:

Utah’s large Mormon population has become a prime target for con artists and swindlers who annually gyp the state’s residents out of hundreds of millions of dollars. . . . Federal prosecutors say the state has gained a national reputation as “test market for scams. If it works here, they take it on the road. . . .”

“It has happened time and time again. . . . –It’s very easy for people to bridge the gap from unbelievability to believability if church affiliation is used.” . . .

The investor lists were drawn up on genealogy sheets used by church members to trace their ancestry. . . . Mormon leaders denounced the scheme in a stinging editorial which asked, “Why do people take chances like this? Why do people gamble?” One answer: “Their greed gland gets stuck. . . . [I]n this culture, financial success is often equated with righteousness.” [Peter Gillins, Sunday Star Bulletin and Advertiser, Honolulu, January 10, 1982 Quoted by Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Inconvenient Messiah”]

As dangerous as these scams might be for our financial security and our temporal future, consider what scams Satan presents to us on a playing field of much higher stakes. With eternity in the balance, he certainly tempts us with scams of the heart that compromise our integrity and leave us spiritual destitute.

In the financial world we’ve seen individuals and firms engage in risky behavior, seeking the bigger buck. In the short run, these scheme’s made millions. In the long run these schemes have proven hollow. They have wrecked financial and social havoc that we are still experiencing the aftershocks of.

So yes, there will be those who take shortcuts and seem to prosper, but remember, as Latter-day Saints, we are in it for the long haul: the eternal long haul. Let’s not be afraid of the work that is sometimes required of us. I’ll end with a quote by Elder M. Russell Ballard:

“It has been my experience that there is not one great and grand thing we can do to arm ourselves spiritually. True spiritual power lies in numerous smaller acts woven together in a fabric of spiritual fortification that protects and shields from all evil,” (Be Strong In the Lord, July 2004 Ensign).

Final Question: What do you see as some of the adversary’s top get rich schemes today?

Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Introducing Scarcity

In any discussion where economics is involved, scarcity is bound to come up. As an economic term might be unfamiliar to you but in this life it’s a pretty common thing.

Scarcity is shortage. It is lacking in something. We feel it when we get sick (lack of antibodies to fight an infection); we feel it when we procrastinate (lack of optimism or motivation); we feel when we fight or argue (lack of charity or patience); and we certainly feel it when we’re humble (lack of pride or stubbornness).

On Monday, we might call it ‘wishing the weekend was longer’. On Friday night it might be called a “blind date”. And when Sunday comes, we’re likely to refer to it as “Opposition”

In All Things

Lehi taught us that “it must needs be , that there is an opposition in all things,” (2 Nephi 2:11). Think of it, if our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ in their infinite love and grace are at one end, what could possibly be at the other end? What is more opposite of infinite than shortage? The everlasting life in all it’s glory sits at one end of the spectrum and the ever-lacking lies at the other: and somewhere in between turns the days of our lives . . .

The adversary would love it if we experienced the vast shortage of love, life and joy that he experiences. Paul taught us that the love of money is the root of all evil. Perhaps so it is with scarcity. Scarcity in and of itself is not bad, but when we love it more than the abundant life that Christ’s atonement and teachings offer us, we’re in trouble. We’ll discuss in the book and later in the blog, how scarcity is vital to the Plan of Salvation. It allows mortality to be the testing ground that it is. It’s part of the perfect plan to optimize our spiritual growth. It’s important, then, to keep scarcity and opposition in it’s proper place. If we can understand it better, we can use it to our benefit. It can become a powerful tool for character-building.

So, let’s end on a question: what’s a scarcity you are experiencing in your life? How might it be an opportunity for growth?

Leave a reply below or e-mail me at james@gospelnomics.net

Be Ye Therefore . . . (GRAPHIC)

The following diagram is based on Matthew 5 & 3 Nephi 12. The diagram begins with 3 Nephi 12:1 as the starting point and works outwards following the words of the Savior. As the chapter progresses the diagram moves out to the outer shell. The theme in each slice corresponds in a sort of parallel way (hence the double circle). For more background, see below.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Reading this Diagram (Based on Mathew 5, 3 Nephi 12)

The center corresponds with 3 Nephi 12:1 and works outward stating the beattitude and the resulting blessing, as you move to the outward circle, the diagram states the old law on the inner track, the ‘old law’ is summarized, with the new law summarized on the outermost track. Each of these correspond with the inner circle principle, culminating in the injunction from the Lord, to be perfect.

Backstory

Blessed are . . .
Blessed are. . .
Blessed are. . .

Have you ever struggled with Matthew 5? It’s a beautiful passage full of words to live by from the Savior, but for whatever reason, I always seemed to struggle to get a sense of the continuity and the heart of the message.

For a long time for me it felt like a bunch of good gospel principles strung together almost, dare I say, almost haphazardly. There’s nothing wrong with that but it didn’t line up well with my faith and conviction in Christ as the Master Teacher. Either by looking beyond the mark or not looking far enough, it bothered me that I was missing something. I set out to do something about my problem.

In hindsight, I did two things that helped me get started:
1. I referred to 3 Nephi 12 for comparison.
2. I noticed that Mathew 5 ended with these words:

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
~Mathew 5:48

Be ye therefore perfect . . . alright, so what is it about this passage that helps me then, to become perfect? I am a visual guy, so I sat down and started sketching what I was reading:

About half way through I realized there was a sort of symmetric pattern emerging. You could call it chiastic or a sort of inverse parallel-structure . Because the gospel is an ongoing process, I organized the concepts I saw into a wheel with the corresponding principles aligned. The circle works outward, based on the opening statement of Christ in 3 Nephi 12, inviting each of us to “come unto him.”

Yes, A Blog

When I sat down in Fall of 2010 to start writing a book, I could have hardly anticipated the monster that would take over my life.

It has changed how I view life and observe the world around me. Suddenly in every facet of life there is a new angle, a new perspective, a new application for living. A book done right is only a mere opening of the mind: it unlocks new doors, inspires new thoughts and poses new questions.

Where are these doors to lead? and what of these new questions?

And hence, a blog.

You won’t need to have read my book to follow along here. Here’s a chance you and I can really have to discuss gospel principles and how they effect life. Something we can hardly do effectively in a book.

Gospelnomics: A Blog is all about finding patterns and principles in life and seeking to apply them in our lives. These might come from history, from economics, from literature or music. We have the chance to get up to our elbows in enjoying the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ using the world around us to strengthen that testimony. Let’s share experiences that encourage one another to do a little bit better. Let’s find ways to help each other grow.

James Valentine

Digital Strategy Consultant and Sketchnoter

Menu

Tag Archives: gospelnomics