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My graduate thesis examined the question of whether folks follow a particular theology for relating to those outside their faith when engaging in interfaith dialogue or is it done more on the fly, accidental? I discovered that it is almost always accidental, even by those who thrive in academic circles. It’s only after and in retrospect that they can make sense of their activities in light of their beliefs. Most claim some sense of being led or called to engage or cooperate with others. When we experience our crises of faith doesn’t it make more sense to process them–move through them–in prayer and service, applying our convictions to our context? This might sound reasonable, but I encounter many who refuse to act because they can no longer sincerely do so. It may sound strange and dissimilar, but a similar excuse is given by adolescents for not applying proper grammar rules: “It sounds fake to talk that way”. Properly understood, “fake-it-til-you-make-it” can be a highly practical and recommended approach to life. Perhaps no life better illustrates this than Jesus’. “Fake it until you make it” can be a horrible idea, if it undertaken in a disingenuous manner – but I agree totally that it is a wonderful thing, if it simply means “try to be what you want to be until you become what you want to be”. The key, imo, is the humility to acknowledge openly that you aren’t yet what you are trying to be and the perception to do so in a way that doesn’t create unrealistic expectations and facades for those around you. Ray, Yeah, “fake” has an unfortunate connotation, even when you understand my intent. But it begs the question: how do we get from point A (King Benjamin’s assessment that we are all “unprofitable servants” and “enemies to God”) to point B (Jesus’ dual commands: “be perfect even as your father in heaven” and “what manner of men ought ye to be? even as I am”)? But, this is another post.
Stimulating thoughts, once again. Thanks.
Nathan
It seems to me that the getting from point A to point B is important because that’s what is best for us and for the world we live in. To say we’re “unprofitable servants” is to assume that there’s a Heavenly Father that knows us personally and is disappointed in as as a child that has not lived up to his/her potential and that in becoming perfect there’s a Christ that is our elder brother who want’s us to become as perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. We do what is asked of us and give what we covenant in terms of time and talents and to what end? Hopefully to make the world better and in the process make ourselves better. But to please God and Christ? Who knows. When advocating the priority of “doing” over “thinking” it strikes me as necessary to be aware of one’s motivations for action. One thing I have to guard against is doing or serving for the praise or acceptance of others. Of course, it’s better to do the right thing for less than the ideal reason than to not do it at all, but it’s also better to strive to improve our motives–to evaluate them. When I encountered Kant’s deontoligical or duty ethics it hit me with force. For a while now I have lived by my conviction that duty is the highest or purest motivation for right action. (At first this struck me as cold and obligatory, but in time I embraced it.) Many say they want to be cared for by others out of love, not duty. But the highest form of love IS duty. We cannot allow “love” to be reduced to a feeling. Love is what we do, not how we feel (although strong and pleasant feelings are associated with love, I believe it is a mistake to reduce it as such). The ancient Greeks used 5 different words that are translated variously into English as love:
philos(friendship or adoration); storge(familial affection); eros(romantic and sensuality); agape(used by the apostle Paul to describe the kind of love God has for humanity and that we should strive to develop for one another); and pornea(objectified lust). The first four are variously identified as virtues and the final as a vice. In an effort to be more precisely ethical, some have argued that it is healthy/human to be enrichedby feelings and emotions, but not to be informedby them. I think of all the things parents do for children everyday that they DON’T “feel” like doing, but do anyway because they “love” them: change diapers, discipline them, read to them, etc. Certainly there are times when our hearts are in the right place, but this isn’t always the case and we shouldn’t wait to act until we can do so affectionately. Perhaps there’s no better illustration of this principle than Jesus’ prayer and choice in Gethsemane. In addition to cautioning us against using one another as means to some other end (relationships with humans are an end in themselves), Kant argued that doing the right thing is always its own reward. This can sound like a recipe for smugness (a certain South Park episode comes to mind), and I guess we have to recognize that is always a risk. But doing what’s right is, in my opinion, the fullest expression of what it means to say we are created in God’s image. There is a certain type of “knowing” that is only experienced in the “doing”. We needn’t get into all the complex issues associated with the varieties of existential philosophies to appreciate this. In fact doing so usually stunts or eliminates progressive discovery in this vein.
When I am sufficiently centered and do what is right
becauseit is right, I avoid much of the emptiness that comes with seeking for others’ approval and acceptance. The best ways to increase my self-awareness in this regard are the old standard, pat-Sunday School answers: ponder, pray, journal, etc. And perhaps because this is so simple (and, I admit, boring) its easy to let down my guard. And more often than not, I find my thinking is divorced from my doing. I appeciate this concept of “doing” over “thinking” a great deal. For years I have found myself almost “stuck” in the need to think through and reconcile LDS historical and doctrinal issues. I do so from a much more positive mindset today than in the past but I continually feel prompted by the spirit to replace the time I spend with the mental struggle of “thinking” through these concerns by “doing”. I regularly feel the Lord telling me that He approves of my testimony as it is, accepts that there are things related to the LDS faith that I currently struggle with or cannot accept, and that He is now expecting me to get up and “do” in the form of service and love for family and my fellow members as well as nonmembers. I have a hunch that through love and service I may find answers and insight that pondering, researching and stewing will never provide. Thanks Nathan!
Idaho Coug wrote:I regularly feel the Lord telling me that He approves of my testimony as it is . . .
I don’t know that this thought has ever occurred to me before now. That the Lord approves (and by inference, disapproves) of our convictions. It makes sense. I just think I’ve always been too independently framed for such a thought to fit in my brain. Nice.
Idaho Coug wrote:I regularly feel the Lord telling me that He approves of my testimony as it is, accepts that there are things related to the LDS faith that I currently struggle with or cannot accept, and that He is now expecting me to get up and “do” in the form of service and love for family and my fellow members as well as nonmembers. I have a hunch that through love and service I may find answers and insight that pondering, researching and stewing will never provide.
Thanks Nathan!
Perfect! In my experience, I’ve found that this avenue doesn’t give you the answers, it just makes the questions much less important!
Rix wrote:In my experience, I’ve found that this avenue doesn’t give you the answers, it just makes the questions much less important!
…or that sometimes the answers are just that I am asking the wrong questions or over-emphasizing a particular question.I’ve often heard it said that when we search for the answers to life’s greatest questions we rarely find them, however, if in the pursuit we can help clarify the question then we’ve made a meaningful contribution. To help ground this principle in the everyday context, I share the following personal story. I was a 24 year-old RM, serving as an officiator in the Orlando temple every Tuesday. I gave concerted effort in prayerfully seeking God’s guidance on the matter of whether my girl friend was the “one”. I didn’t get the lightning bolt experience I had with other critical decisions. I reasoned that if any man lacked wisdom, I did, but since asking my father in heaven wasn’t working as I expected, I turned to my dad. My father, the former bishop and professional engineer surprised me with his counsel. “You’re not asking the right question. You’re wanting God to make your decision for you. Furthermore, your asking him to play favorites, as if he loves one of his daughters more than others. Son, I recommend you decide what
youwant and then ask heavenly father if he will blessyour decision.” That guidance has also served me in making other major, life decisions. I also believe this principle deserves consideration from those who no longer pray because they sense/fear only themselves in the act. Thanks again for the stimulating comments.
Nathan
P.S. For the record, my wife doesn’t much care for my story. She finds it overly mechanical, even if she finds me irresistible.
Nathan wrote:“Son, I recommend you decide what
youwant and then ask heavenly father if he will blessyour decision.” That guidance has also served me in making other major, life decisions.
This is great advice. And I think by taking this approach, it helps us learn and grow the most.I have done this at times in my life, and at one point, I approached the Lord with what I wanted to do and asked if that was right, if He would bless that choice.
I received no answer. No feeling of confirmation, no peace it would all be ok. Nothing. So I moved ahead and found the result was not great. I have struggled from that scenario because I thought I expected God to warn me against making a “wrong” choice and that He should have either answered or else it should have worked out ok. It made me really wonder if He even hears my prayers or if it is just all in my head.
However, I think I have come to realize that it is less about avoiding mistakes, and more about learning to adapt to situations in life, good and bad, and learn from those experiences. I think He allows me to stumble so I can grow from that (I don’t believe He trips me up, I am capable of doing that on my own). There are also times when I have felt he has directed me to avoid problems and I’m grateful for those blessings. But just because I don’t get an answer 100% of the time, doesn’t mean He doesn’t love me or doesn’t hear my prayers, just that sometimes I need to remember that bad outcomes are going to be a part of life. And I can feel love in my heart for God and others despite them.
Heber, In line with the theme of this post I would share an insight I’ve gleened by experience–the hard way, if you will. Waiting to act until you recieve your guidance is understandable, but when this wait and the related disengagement with the world around us isn’t always necessary. I believe action with prayer is a wise combination. On purely theoretical issues maybe all the action one can do is “work it out in your mind”. But most issues allow me to labor while I search and wait for guidance. I’ll say this much–the things I prayed to know when I was younger seem silly by comparrison to my current quests. I only hope the same is true of the things I pray for now when I’m 60.
Nathan
I think this whole thread is an expansion of the idea that we learn by study, and by faith. Faith and action are almost insperable. Faith motivates us to action, and as a result of this action, we learn, and often, our faith is strengthened by this knew knowledge, so we do again.
I learned many things by doing. One was how to help others have encounters with the Spirit. At one time, I would consciously use the 6 ways of inviting the Spirit in various missionary and post-mission Church teaching moments. (These 6 ways were prayer, scripture, testimony, spiritual experiences, expressions of love to God and man, and music, as found in Preach My Gospel). However, I soon learned that sometimes, these approaches would not work, or would have minimal impact.
Upon reflection on the least successful attempts at inviting the Spirit, I realized the effort I put into preparing the audiences for the spiritual encounter was a key determinant. Also, my own attitude about my role in facilitating the encounter was important. If I took the time to humble myself during my preparation, and right before I delivered the lesson i was giving, dropping all desires for self-aggrandizement, then my ability to invite the Spirit was definitely strengthened. Also, the way I prepared and primed the group to be in a similar state of mind tended to increase the spiritual power of the lessons tremendously.
After a while, I was able to invite the spirit relatively consistently as long as I obeyed those two principles of deep humility and preparation of the audience.
None of these things came by study — beyond learning about the 6 ways of inviting the Spirit. They came from experimentation and consistent effort to consciously invite encounters with the Holy Ghost in my audiences. i believe I qualified for knowledge about what I did right and wrong as a result of the fact that i was DOING.
It reminds me of the scripture “That which is of God, is light,
and he that continueth in God, receiveth more light, and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day”. Nathan wrote:I’ll say this much–the things I prayed to know when I was younger seem silly by comparrison to my current quests. I only hope the same is true of the things I pray for now when I’m 60.
Nathan, that’s a really interesting comment. Do you think that is because the issue was silly and you were worrying too much about things in the past? Or what would you say is the reason your past issues you prayed for are less poignant to you today?SilentDawning wrote:I learned many things by doing.
I think that is a good truth as well…I think one thing I realized as I got older is that my expectations were that God would hear my prayers and make sure I learned by doing things right all the time…that I’d be more efficient and effective in my life. But I think there are times when I learn by failing and feel the effects of being less efficient, but that I believe God sees me and how I’m developing, not my efficiency rates…if that makes sense.
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