joshhansen.net

Category: gospel

  • We Are Children of God

    What does this mean? Here are some ideas:

    The all-consuming fire of God’s love

    There is simply no end to it. I don’t claim to understand it because my imagination of love is generally limited by the degree to which I am able to love. But I can believe in the unendingness of his concern and his care.

    Confidence in self and faith in the future

    Father in Heaven plans and works continually for our good. It’s difficult to fathom because we often assume he is subject to the same limitations that we are, but he comprehends in exquisite detail the consequences of the happenings in our lives. He knows what he wants us to be. Don’t you suppose that each day angels are dispatched to set in motion the chains of events that ultimately bring great blessings into our lives?

    You are never alone

    Angels and the Holy Ghost are also sent to comfort us, to guide other people to help us, to helps us to live lives more fully and happily than we would on our own. Do you ever get the feeling that left up to your own devices things wouldn’t be going so well? Well, that’s because they wouldn’t be, and you aren’t left to your own devices!

    No farewells

    We will see our friends and family again when united before God’s throne. Of course we will say ‘goodbye’ to people, and we will miss those who step from mortality to immortality before we do. But there will be reunion! The tears we shed upon parting in this life will be dried in the next as we renew the sweetest associations we enjoy here.

    Life without an ending

    We will, in our happiest state or better, exist continually from now onward into eternity; death need not destroy our relationships, our personality, our hopes, our selves; we ought to treat each other well, because we could influence the quality of other people’s eternal existence by what we do and say; for those whose existence here makes them wish there was an end, there will come and end to their suffering.

    We can be so much more

    Let us lift our heads up to see a brighter vision, a nobler view of ourselves. In spite of our failings and deficiencies, in spite of the weaknesses that to us are blatant and inexcusable, because we are children of God we can be—we are—good. We can be kind, we can discover truth and fight to defend it, we can love fervently and endure hardship for the good of those we care for. [In Old English, God literally means good, after all. Children of good! How could we become something that our parent is not?]

    We can choose to follow him

    Because he is worthy of our trust and of being followed and emulated. Because there is no better companion for traveling the roads of our lives.

  • Sense and Sensibility

    Just watched “Sense and Sensibility” last night. The most striking thing to me in the story is how the main character (Elinor?) acts with perfect reservation and propriety throughout the whole movie, even at times to her own detriment, or at least the detriment of her social situation. We see her enduring, putting up with things, submitting herself to the “higher good” even when it doesn’t benefit her directly.

    Then, in the culminating moment, when she discovers that her true love – Edward – is not married, all of her trials and sufferings become worth it, for the object of them all finally falls within her grasp. Her gratitude, excitement, and joy are so overwhelming that she simply breaks down – really breaks down – and a lifetime of pent-up frustrations and struggles burst forth in tears of relief and joy. Such exquisitely sweet release from sorrow!

    I’ve seen similar, though certainly not quite as dramatic, things in my own pursuit of “love requited”. But the greatest implications are of a much more general scope. Each of us, except maybe the most hardened psychopaths whose consciences have been somehow silenced, has regrets for past mistakes. Through life we accumulate a baggage of frustrations, disappointments, hurts, and feelings of remorse and sorrow. Some bury these things in their hearts by turning cold toward the world, or claiming that they are above the shackles of human emotion and act on cool rationality alone. Those who refuse to so directly give up their humanity do it indirectly – through the bottle, or lives of waste or extravagance. Anything to distract oneself from the bitternesses of mortal life.

    But for each of us it is possible for a moment of release to come, just like the enduring Ms. Dashwood. When we humble ourselves to the point where we are able to accept the notion that Jesus Christ has suffered for our sins, our sorrows, and our pains, we will be able to transfer the bitter baggage we carry onto the shoulders of He who is merciful.

    “And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.” (The Book of Mormon, Alma 40:12)

    And from Isaiah: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5)

    I am no religious zealot. I do not accept the notion of Christ as the Savior of mankind just because it’s a nice idea, or because my family does, or because I know nothing else. I accept Him because his Atonement for us all completes a picture that is otherwise hard to reconcile – the balance of justice and mercy, the relief from weakness and pain that is so needed in this world. I accept Him because his Holy Spirit tells me in my heart that He lives! Why does the world reject Him, when what He has to offer is exactly what they need?

    Pax in terra. It will come no other way than one heart at a time.