One of the main desires of my life has been to know truth. For some reason, maybe it's a God given gift or some sort of curse, I have always sought to understand certain things. Those things come with a direct correlation to things I care about. If I don't care, I won't understand and I won't seek out guidance. And by guidance I mean guidance by a spiritual source. This blog though political in nature will absolutely address natural law and things of a spiritual and religious nature. Natural law by definition is the doctrine that human affairs should be governed by ethical principles that are part of the very nature of things and that can be understood by reason. These principles are universal and lend to the condition that we must create a society based on ethics vs. what society determines is important. In other words, it doesn't matter if society deems a certain behavior acceptable, natural law is bound by universal truth, not human desires. However, there is a place that I like to call a blind spot. A place that both temporal and natural law don't consider. That blind spot is inexplicitly God and his love for us.
Break time. This post is way more serious than I ever like or want to be. But bear with me while I get out my thoughts.
I believe that all people are on a continued search for a feeling that left us when we were born to this earth. Before we came here, we knew truth, we knew each other and most importantly we FELT pure, perfect LOVE. And now we are searching for what is missing, perfect love. It doesn't matter if you are religious and believe you know all the answers or if you believe science has those answers. There is a blind spot. Science may explain somewhat the need for love among humans and religion explains it to a point, but religion relies heavily on condition and science ignores emotion. Both flawed answers and both not fulfilling the need in it's complete form. And I say that as a religious person. I love my church, but dare I say that Mormons have a long way to go in learning about what the pure love of Christ truly is and should be. People from other religions can speak for themselves, but for me I feel that a lot of LDS folks preach the atonement but hate when Mormons have to use it. They live such perfect lives that they themselves never need to experience that oneness with the Savior. I have actually heard Mormons profess guilt for "giving the Savior some of His pain" on the cross. This is false and a foolish tradition.
How do we feel the pure love of the Savior? I'll get to that.
While we are in this school of life, we are essentially on a quest for truth and love. As infants psychology has taught us that attachment is the most important experience for a baby. Without this first love experience comes a myriad of emotional issues. Love and bonding before diaper changes, nursing and bathing is the most important development in childhood. Without this most individuals go throughout life trying to justify self love and act out inappropriately out of confusion and pain. Without attachment and parental validation, humans turn to society to see how it is they can be loved by others. Some lash out and inflict pain on others because of anger, pain and emptiness.
What does society tell us? To be loved you must be attractive, thin, have big muscles, drive a nice car etc etc. You must have a lot of money. You must have great talent and ability. You will be sexually desired by many and therefore sex becomes love and the list goes on and on. I don't want this to be a topic about sex, but let's just say society has merged sex and love. The better looking you are, the more loved you will be. It is a lifetime of disappointment and a quest for temporary fulfillment and fraud. Some people even equate God's love with these things because if you have them then you are "blessed" a term used by many to denote privilege in God's eyes.
Again, how do we feel the pure love of the Savior? The scriptures tell us to "Be ye therefore perfect." I would say most religious people have a checklist of commandments personal or otherwise that they think makes them perfect. They are perfect tithe payers, perfect church attenders, perfect in their behavior, their language, temple attendance, visiting teaching etc. etc. All important things. But not what the Savior meant. I believe he meant, Be ye therefore perfect even as I am....in love.
More than anything our fellow men need to feel our love for them. They need to feel the love they have been missing since arriving on our great planet. This is when we lose each other in our congregations. When we stop feeling the love we long for everyday of our lives AT CHURCH, we go elsewhere and continue our search. Are we at church to be seen or to uplift? Are we at church to announce each others sins or to become one with Christ and his Atonement? It's great that Mormons are so perfect in their obedience, but when will they strive for perfection in their love for others? I see a lot of LDS people posting their picture perfect lives and not enough hey I live in the gutter sometimes too, posts.
There are those who are starving for pure love. There are those who will say that we are human and aren't capable of divine love. I disagree. We are commanded to be like Christ. I don't recall Christ calling out the Roman soldier before he healed his child. To the contrary, he knew his heart and how great his faith was. He healed his child and never questioned the worthiness of the soldier. Each of us, Mormon, non-religious or atheist is in charge of helping our fellow beings feel love. This is the closest thing to heaven that we can offer. With pure love comes great power and change.
We will feel the love of the Savior by being like him. We can mirror his actions.
I think in this world feeling the pure love of Christ comes in flashes and in moments. It is a constant striving. We are in a state of spiritual death and searching for the comfort of God. Our souls long to be with him and while we are here we are asked to help each other feel that love.
Now this is far more squishy than I ever want to be. But it's on my mind. We need not be perfect to feel the love of God. And when you feel it on occasion, you know it. Perhaps there are things in your life that make you feel far away from this love, but know it is not God who is away.
I'm not preaching because I am the great lover of people. I am not. I will be the first to say I love who I want and shun who I believe is a certain way. This is for me. What I am working on. What I need. What I am trying to understand. I don't fully understand why I feel the way I do about certain things. I want to know the Savior better and so this is where I am heading. It's a difficult thing to offer this to some and have it completely rejected. And so I feel what God feels. His love is rejected on a global scale and now I have a portion of divine empathy or so I suppose, but that is a different story.....
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