Hearing the Voice of the Lord: by Gerald Lund

My Bishop has counseled me that as I search for answers to all of the questions I have about the existence of God, that the Spirit is the only completely trustworthy litmus test for truth. “Rely on the Spirit,” he says. What makes it hard is that I don’t know if the Spirit exists. I believe that He MAY be there, prompting me. I believe that there MAY be unseen forces waging a war of good and evil. I can say confidently that good and evil are very real to me (though sometimes blurred by complicated circumstances), I just don’t claim to know of this spiritual realm. So, when I asked a member of my Stake Presidency for reading in my quest to help me understand this theory of the Spirit, he suggested I give this book a try.

What I didn’t like:

Lund’s style just left me with uncomfortable feelings. This is probably because he states many things as if they are absolute truths just because they are established church doctrine. I, for one, do not view established church doctrine as infallible, so I don’t see eye to eye in these instances. Then when he gets into examples of how I may be able to find and recognize the Spirit in my life, there’s frequently a “This feeling may be the Spirit, but maybe not.” Half the time I sat there thinking, “So am I just supposed to guess?” He basically asserts that if you get a hunch to do something, and there’s a good outcome if you do it, then it was probably the Spirit giving you the hunch…but wait! Not necessarily! A good outcome doesn’t rule out coincidence. (So much uncertainty! grr…)

I had been hoping to learn why the Spirit is so difficult to discern from general human thoughts and emotions, but that didn’t happen for me. I know that it’s difficult, and Lund just reiterated that for me. My dilemma is that there are 2 camps. One tells me my good feelings come from the Spirit, which can’t be proven it seems. The other camp tells me my good feelings and promptings are nothing more than human emotion, mechanisms for self-preservation. Both are theoretical in my mind, though I tend to find more comfort in the idea of a universally-good life guide. What I’ve concluded thus far is that we just have to use our best judgement in life, which is what I already try to do. I try to choose love. I try to choose kindness. I try to choose understanding and sympathy and service. Maybe the Spirit’s involved in influencing my decisions for good, I just don’t have any way of proving it to myself.

Ok, here are a few quick bright spots for me.

What I liked:

– All of chapter 4. It’s short, but as someone who tends to be skeptical of other people’s spiritual experiences, it softened my stance. It also just reaffirmed to me that spirituality really is a mystery, and we don’t all understand it in the same way.

– Section titled This Can’t Be Right!, pg 83. I liked this as an example of someone who came across a principle that didn’t make sense, but they kept their mind open, kept looking, and found clarification. And I ABSOLUTELY agree with the conclusion that they made. (the church of Christ is not limited to the LDS)

– Section titled So How Does it Work?, pg 54. This was interesting in an oh-that’s-how-they-do-it kind of way, similar to when I watch How It’s Made on the Science Channel. 🙂 It’s a little inside scoop on how a Stake Presidency is chosen.

That’s all I’ve got for now. May update again if I skim back over more of the book and anything else jumps out.