Jesus Wept

I was reminded of this verse in Relief Society today. It has been reflected on in many different ways and at many different times by others. The meaning that has been most powerful to me though, especially at the end of my mission (which was the most difficult era for me) is how it displays Christ's compassion. If you haven't read it recently, check out John 11. This is where Lazareth dies BECAUSE Christ tarries despite his family's pleas to come and heal him. We know now that Christ tarried in order for Lazareth to be considered truly dead by Jewish law (they believed it took 3 days for the spirit to leave the body) and thus prove His divinity by raising Lazareth from the dead, but they didn't know that. For them they waited anxiously, wondering why the Lord could possibly "tarry" while such a trial was at hand. I am sure the moments were agonizing, as their eyes searched the road for any indication that their Savior would come to them in this their time of greatest need. Yet He did not come, and seemingly, all was lost. I find it interesting, because when Christ did arrive, Mary and Martha both expressed Faith in Him AND His plan. One testifies that had Christ been there "my brother had not died" but that she KNEW that her brother would rise again in the Resurrection, that in the end it would be OK. She had the testimony of the Plan of Salvation LONG before Christ had officially conquered death. But the Resurrection must have felt a long ways away. Comfort felt far away. Hope felt far away. At that moment Christ knew that in a matter of SECONDS the very cause of sorrow for Mary/Martha would become an incredible joy as Lazareth came forth from the grave. Despite this knowledge, despite that to Him and His eternal perspective their pain may have seemed silly or short sighted, He did not say "It is going to be OK, be patient and get with the program, I'm about to wake your brother up" or "use your faith to cheer up and realize this isn't permanent" or "no matter how much I tell you guys about my power you still have cause for sadness?". What he did do was weep. He wept not for Lazareth or his death, he wept for THEIR pain, THEIR sorrow, THEIR discomfort. He knew they didn't know what lay ahead, He knew that they felt like Lazareth was gone until the second coming, He knew that they felt that this pain was unbearable and would last perhaps until their own deaths, He knew that they FELT pain DESPITE their Faith. So He wept. He wept with them.

I cannot even tell you the comfort it gives me to know that Christ can comfort me when I fail to see the big picture despite His ability to see it. He weeps with us, He really does, even if we are moments away from the greatest miracles of our lives. He weeps because He knows we felt alone because He "tarried" to better prove His divinity to us. He weeps because He knows how it feels. Most of all, He weeps because He loves us.

The Science of Faith Part 2

The Science of Faith Part 2

Faith and the Scientific Method

Often I think we see faith as vague and impossible to prove. The more I have studied my own faith and its growth I have come to understand how simple and logical faith is and can become. Really it is just as simple to come to know the truth of a spiritual principle as it is to come to a scientific one; and the process is essentially the same. In Alma 32 we learn about how faith can grow (like a seed), and when you look at it, it is nearly identical to the scientific process that I am sure many of us who have suffered through middle science are familiar with: ask a question, form a hypothesis, complete an experiment, gather results, and form a conclusion. Here is the same process related to faith:

Ask a Question(Alma 32:27): the search for any truth must begin with a desire  to know something we do not know or understand something we do not yet understand. Without that curiosity we will be unmotivated to fully go through the process that must be completed if we are to know something for ourselves. Whether it is which laundry detergent works best on my whites or is or isn't the Book of Mormon the word of God, unless we sincerely want to know we cannot ever know for ourselves for we will lack the will power we need to find out. And most importantly, we must carefully define what it is we really want to know. If our quest is vague our answer will be as well. There must be little room for gray area or we will never really know for sure (yes or no question or either something is or it isn't).

"if ye do not cast it out...(then) it will begin to swell within you" Alma 32:28

Form a Hypothesis(Alma 32:28): Once we have carefully defined what it is we want to know we must form a hypothesis; an "if then" statement based off of careful and reliable research. I may look at the active ingredients of detergent to determine which will work best and how I will know it worked best. I may read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon to understand what it is I have to do to know it is true and how I will know it. If I wash a shirt with a stain of equal size once with Tide and once with Purex then the stain will be smaller after I wash it with Tide. If I read the Book of Mormon every day for a month, and pray to know it is true, then I will feel increase of joy, peace, and understanding in my life (Galatians 5:22-23)

Complete an Experiment(Alma 32:37-40): This is the tricky part. I don't know about ya'll but when I was a kid I often was kicking myself during this part of my middle school science projects. I always forget about day 3 of 10 to do the daily things I needed for an experiment. I was the kid that two days before the science fair I realized that the two plants I was testing out hadn't actually ever been watered or even looked at and thus, I speedily had to make up results... In order for us to really get solid results we have to be diligent and consistent in running our experiment. Just as it is unfair to say one detergent works better than the other if we only complete half the steps of our experiment, it is unfair to determine a spiritual idea is false if we have failed to truly go through every step it asks us to to know. We must do the "if" of our "if then" hypothesis, that is read and prayer every day and reflect on how we feel as we do so, only then will we get fair results.
Gather Results(Alma 32:42-43): After we are finished with our experiment we must look over what happened and gather all the facts. We must compare red stains for how faded and how big they are in comparison and record the differences. We must reflect on how our month went and how we felt as we prayed to decide if we feel more peaceful or not after reading the Book of Mormon. We simply gather as unbiasedly as we can the facts we see before us. Until we do that we cannot form an opinion.
Make a Conclusion(Alma 32:34): No matter how clear results may look we still have the choice within us to make a conclusion. It is up to us to "taste of the fruit" of the seed we planted in order to decide if it is good or not. It is so important to open our hearts to what we see and more importantly feel in order for us to know what is right and true. This is one of the most vital steps for it is the last step that will make or break our faith in any given principle. It is what determines what we do and don't believe. This is the step in which our "faith becomes unshaken"-as we repeatedly see the results and are able to form conclusions from the results of our actions.

Faith is simply defined and built. God is a God of order and reason and He has laid out a way for us to know for ourselves, all we have to do is diligently follow the way He has so beautifully laid out for us to follow. If we do so we will know truth for ourselves, as assuredly as we can know anything else, for there are no more powerfully witnesses than the witness of the Spirit and the tangible results he brings into our lives as we act in faith. Through Him we truly can know "the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5).

The Science of Faith Part 1

The last few months I have been studying faith and how we can build it. As I was studying I began to notice how much science and faith were alike. I have decided to do a couple three blogs on what I have found.

Part One: Precision and Accuracy

My senior year I took a statistics class and was educated in the difference between accuracy and precision. Accuracy is how close you get to somethings true value. Precision is how often you get the same results over a period of time in the same situation. Both are vital to getting valid and useful results.  I was thinking about how this relates to our faith.

The Stripling Warriors-Alma 57:21

In order for our faith to bring us true results we must be both accurate and precise. We must make sure our actions match up perfectly with what we are asked to do; we must be exactly obedient or accurate. We must also place our faith IN Christ and not anything else. Only when we are accurate in our faith can we expect and have an assurance that God will do His part. Like a function or machine what we put into it directly correlates with what we get out of it and thus the more accurate our actions or Faith in Christ become the more we are able to receive the blessings of the Lord (1 Nephi 1:20, Ether 12:6) and feel confident in His presence (Doctrine and Covenants 121:45)

In addition to accuracy we must make our faith precise or in other words consistent. Over time our actions must continue to fall close to the mark or we will never be able to enjoy the long term blessings of faith. When our actions are consistent we reap the results of these actions shaping us to be not just act more like our Savior. In short, when our faith is precise we become precisely what we came here to be-more like our Heavenly Father.

I know that though faith takes self-discipline, hard work, and diligence that if we treat it with the same deliberateness, dedication, and carefulness as scientists do than we will receive powerful life-altering results. Faith really can change our lives if we pay attention to the small details (Alma 37:6-7) that allow us to be both precise and accurate. True faith will always bring us blessings-for we have the greatest scientist telling us so: God.

Additional Scriptures:

Accuracy: Alma 57:21
Precision: 2 Nephi 31:20, Mosiah 2:41
 

The Door of the Sheep 2

A few months back I posted a blog about Christ and His Atonement having the power to make doors through all the walls we face in life. This concept has been on my mind since then and when I was reading some of my brother's favorite versus something new stood out to me. It is found in 1 Nephi 21:14-16:

God gave us walls not to succumb to them,
 but to overcome them through Christ

"But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me-but he will show that he hath not. For can a women forget her sucking child, that she should no have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget thee, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."
Christ isn't just mindful of our mistakes and sins, He is perfectly mindful of our walls; those things that hold us back, our natural weaknesses and shortcomings. The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't just about making us clean, it literally has the power through Christ to make us better-to become new creatures. When my older brother left on his mission he shared this verse with me and since then it has been one of my favorites. It is Ether 12:27:
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."
We all come with weaknesses and shortcomings, but we have them for a reason. We have them because they help us be mindful of Christ as He is mindful of us, and if we turn to Him in Faith, He will make our weak things become strong. He is not only mindful of walls, He has the power to make them walls of protection rather than walls of damnation-from a weakness to a strength. Weaknesses are one of the best ways we learn to rely and turn to Him. He knows that learning to rely on Him is worth anything we will go through because in His hands we can become far more than we could become of ourselves. He truly has the hands of a master carpenter of souls, and we have the choice to place ourselves in those hands.

Don't Punch Your Sister!

When I was a teenage grump, I did something I will never forget; I went into a barbaric frenzy. Why? Well, in my defense, I was provoked, but I guess it was still no excuse. I was about 15 years old and my family and I were skiing up north for the day with some relatives. My little sister, who was about 10 at the time, and our cousin Kaden who was about 9, were all headed down the mountain for our last run. For some reason we began throwing snowballs at one another as we headed down. This exciting game soon escalated into my little sister Jess deciding to hit me with her ski pole. To this day I still don't know exactly why that upset me so, perhaps I was just not in a state of inner-peace in general, but I became unhinged right away. Seeing my playful smile turn rapidly into a face resembling a half starved and rabid wolf, she began to quickly ski down the mountain with me right behind her yelling. Many a helpless onlookers watched us as we headed down, Jessica hopelessly trying to get me off her tail. Eventually, we got to the bottom of the hill and there was literally no where for her to go; she was stuck. I caught up to her and grabbed her pole and began hitting her repeatedly with it with one hand and throwing snow down her back with the other hand. If you ask Kaden about it it still gives him the shivers remembering the awful scene. I took a sibling argument to a whole new level.
The vengeful blood-lust lasted only a minute or two, but the aftermath lasted a lot longer. As I suddenly came to myself I saw my poor kid sister crying in the snow. Immediately I was filled with the most horrible feeling of regret I have ever felt. I could hardly believe what I had done. I began apologizing over and over, helped her up, and of course added "don't tell Mom or Dad!". For weeks I felt guilty even looking over at her. I never wanted to do anything like that to anyone ever again.


Sadly, about three years later, I did. I just got home from basketball practice and I wasn't in the best of moods. Of course, walking in and finding out it was time for Family Home Evening did not improve my sentiments. My mood was drastically darkened when I was then informed that we had a "guest" speaker for FHE; someone here to teach us self-defense. If I had it my way I would have rather had my Dad buy us all some mace or a tazer and called it good, but nonetheless I sat down to participate. After a few minutes of instruction we were put in pairs to practice blocking a punch. Of course I was paired up with Jessica. Not only could she block all my punches, I couldn't block any of her punches. Of course being the older sister by 5 years I was annoyed that she was better at this than I was. My pride set in, and the fact that she began to brag and rub it in only fueled that pride. Before long I lost control and stated "block this!" and punched her as hard as I could. She dropped to the floor in a ball and my mind flashed back to the bottom of that ski hill. Of course I helped her up and said "don't tell Mom and Dad", but the rest of the night I felt awful. It was then that I realized something; if I didn't want to feel that awful feeling of guilt and regret I needed to do something about it. I didn't just need to tell myself not to do that anymore, I needed to change my very being to become someone who didn't even think to do that anymore. In short I didn't need to change my behavior, I needed to change my character.


Now Jessica (above) and I never fight,
because I experienced a "mighty change of heart"

 Now this story may be familiar to some because I always use this story when we teach about repentance. Repentance is often taught as a five step process 1)Recognition of doing something that is not in line with God's teachings 2)Remorse for what you have done 3)Asking for forgiveness from Heavenly Father 4)Restitution or making things right with anyone you harmed in the process 5)Forsaking or never doing it again. A lot of times we get stuck on one of these five steps. Sometimes we are so filled with the remorse step that we sell ourselves short of being able to make lasting change and feel that that is "just how we are and always will be". As a representative of Jesus Christ and His Gospel I testify that that just isn't true. The Atonement of Jesus Christ gives us actual tangible power to overcome any and all weaknesses that we see in ourselves. When we humbly submit ourselves to Him and have Faith that the Atonement can help us and Hope in ourselves that we really can change and that the Atonement really will help us do so than we will experience something far greater than simply a change of behavior; we will experience a "mighty change of heart." This change of heart was experienced by a group of people; and this is what they said about it "Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." (Mosiah 5:2)
I don't know about you but to me a change of heart sounds much better than a change of behavior. Fighting with ourselves every day to "make" ourselves do what we think we should do can be and is exhausting, frustrating, and discouraging. But if we let truly repent, following all the steps to forsaking, then God will turn that forsaking into a change of heart, and we won't be fighting against ourselves anymore but will become "new creatures"(2 Corinthians 5:17). That is why Christ is the Prince of Peace, through His Atonement we will no longer be fighting ourselves anymore, because we will want to do what is right. And for anyone wondering, to my knowledge, I have not acted in anger or violence to my little sister since that day, and I can honestly say I don't really desire to, ever, because this time, I did more than change my behavior, I turned it over to God so that He could change my heart.
For scriptural accounts about this:
Enos 1:1-8
Alma 23-24 (Alma 24:16-19)
Mosiah chapter 3-5

Weeds and the Brass Plates

So Saturday mornings at the Green household meant work. Nearly every Saturday we would either wake up to my Father repeatedly using the high pitch call button on our intercome or, even worse, the silent call of his work list on the table waiting patiently for us to discover it. I remember one particular morning we came down and discovered one of these said lists. There was a column for each child with a bullet list of chores. Some chores were to be shared by more than one child, and some chores were for all of us to conquer. The only good thing about it was, if all of us finished our Dad would take us to dinner and the movies. Because of this we usually tried to work together anyways so that all of us would be done in time to enjoy the evening with the family. On that fateful day we all had one shared chore; weed the gap between our yard and the dirt horse road behind our yard. The dirt there was hard as rock and the weeds tall and daunting. We decided to tackle that chore last. Working with speed and frenzy through the rest of the list, we quickly reconvened to tackle the chore of the day; weeding.

I remember getting a good grip on one of the weeds and pulling with all my might near the base of it; my reward was that my hand slid all the way up the weed and took off all of its branches yet, the weed hadn't moved from the dirt an inch. After several attempts of this from all of us we had roughly two of two thousand weeds pulled. Needless to say I was discouraged, and I began to "murmer".

Now I would like to pause here because this story came to mind as I read the account of Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. This was a far more daunting and "unreasonable" task and yet it was required of the Lord. When asked to accomplish the task Nephi's brothers Lamen and Lamuel murmered saying it was "a hard thing" (1 Nephi 3:5). Nephi on the other hand had responded "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7). He led his brothers back to Jerusalem where they drew lots to see who would go and ask Laban, the owner of the plates, if they could have them. The lot fell on Lamen who went as asked and was chased out by guards. Essentially, he ran for his life back to his brothers. Like Lamen we had tried one way to get our job done that was asked of us by our Father, and it had failed miserably. At this point of our journey I, like Lamen and Lamuel, began to murmer. And yet I too had a brother to lead and help me to accomplish my goals and tasks. When Nephi's brothers were upset this is what he told them "As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down...until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us." (1 Nephi 3:15). He then suggested they go and get all their money to trade Laban for the plates.

As Nephi sought new ways to accomplish, so did my brother Jared. He suggested we water the dirt until it was moist enough to get the roots of the weeds out. Re-energized we went right to work. Soon the whole area was watered down and excitedly I reached to pull out a weed. To my extreme disapointment I discovered that the weeds still wouldn't budge, and now I was all wet and muddy. Just as Nephi's plan to bring their money for trading failed and caused Nephi and his brothers to again run for their lives, this time leaving behind all their possesions, my brother's idea had backfired too. It seemed we were going backwards... At this point in the Nephi account Lamen/Lamuel began to beat him with a rod. Now I didn't go that far, especially since my brother was a lot older than I, but I did start to wonder if we would ever get done. Exasperated I began again to murmer. But my brother did not. He called my Dad to ask for his advice. Luckily my Dad was on his way home and was able to come out and see our progress and provide council. This is exactly what Nephi did, he sought the Lord's council and left for the city being led by the Holy Ghost, "not knowing beforehand what he would do" (1 Nephi 4:6). But he was led, and he was finally able to get the plates because of his Heavenly Father's guidance...

Now if you are wondering if my own weed story has a happy I'm here to tell you it did. After my Dad poked at some weeds for a bit he got the weed wacker and demolished them all in under an hour. We all showered and were able to go to dinner that night with our job completed. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father in my life that works with us in the same way. We are all asked to do hard things. Sometimes we try and we try and we try and things just get worse. But just like Nephi and his brothers, I know if we do all we know how to do and give the job our best effort, the Lord will ALWAYS step in and provide a way for us to finish it. So, let us like Nephi of old and my brother today, stand up and say in our lives "As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us." (1 Nephi 3:15). I know if we do we will always finish all that is asked of us, and we will in turn recieve the blessings that come with faith, diligence, and accomplishing all we are asked to accomplish.

The Karate Kid

This last summer I had the joy of watching the Karate Kid series via Netflix as I watched my niece Emmerson. It took some diligence and time to keep at it between Emme breaks to play with her, feed her, and make sure she didn't get into anything dangerous, but I was able to accomplish my goal. I soon realized how awesome the Karate Kid truely is, and I vouch for its general awesomeness.
But besides awesome 1980's music like "Cruel Summer", Ralph Maccio in his prime, mollets, cut-off t-shirts, and pretty thrilling Karate stunts, the Karate Kid offers much more for us; the sage advice and guidance of Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi guides Daniel through his quest to becoming a great Karate master to overcome his fear of bullies through often odd and tedious actions. We all remember well the old "wax on wax off" method of Karate learning and how although frustrating and seemingly pointless at first, over time the pay off of these techniques were remarkable. I think the same thing applies to the gospel.
In the gospel we are asked to do certain things over and over again. These things a generally simple and easy to do; reading our scriptures, going to church, saying our prayers, taking the Sacrament; these are things that we do repeatedly. At times they may seem mundane, too simple, or overdone, we may want to move on to more exciting or "advanced" things in the gospel, or wish we didn't have to do these things so often. But just like the Karate Kid I know that these things repeated over time, will become the most amazing strength to us and provide us with application after application in the "real" world, just as it did for Daniel. So next time you feel "here we go again" with prayer, or scriptures, or whatever, just remember the old "wax on wax off" technique and remember that true power lies in dedication, discipline, and small accomplishments repeated over time. That is the best and truest way to build faith, strength, testimony, and love of the gospel. That is the best way to learn gospel "karate" to defend oneself against fear or trials in our lives, for true disciples are simply those who are disciplined enough to practice Christ's attribute of diligence to the Faith and gospel of Jesus Christ.
So remember "that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." (Alma 37:6) We like Daniel can master "karate" and have confidence in the face of adversity because of our heed and diligence to the small and simple things of life.

Ether's Barges

I am nearly to the end of the Book of Mormon and there is always a little feeling of excitement for me as I complete reading this remarkable book. Right now I am reading in Ether, a record of a people that came to the America's soon after the fall of the Tower of Babel. I love reading about how they make their journey here to the promise land. The brother of Jared is asked to build barges "tight like unto a dish" (Ether 2:17). He faithfully builds these barges and then discovers he has two problems; no light and no air. He goes to the Lord to ask for his help. The Lord tells him to cut a hole on the top and bottom of the barges, that way, when they need air, they can unstop the hole and let air in. If water comes in instead, they were to just stop the hole up. The brother of Jared again faithfully completes the Lord's instructions, THEN he goes back and asks about the light. Our Savior doesn't tell him how to overcome this problem, he tells the brother of Jared "What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire...Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?" (Ether 2:23-25). The brother of Jared again faithfully follows the Lord's instructions. He thinks about it, cuts some stones out of the mountain, and returns humbly to the Lord and asks him to touch the stones and make them give off light. Then something amazing happens, the brother of Jared sees the finger of the Lord touch each stone, and, they give off light. After an incredible visitation of the pre-mortal Christ the brother of Jared again returns off the mountain to accomplish what the Lord has asked him to do-place the stones in the barges and then take a leap of faith, enter them, and trust the Lord will guide him and his family to the promise land. Of course, the journey was long and not easy, in fact, the "winds did never cease to blow" (Ether 6:8), but they blew always in the direction of the promise land, and 344 days later the Lord did as he promised, and every one of those barges made it safely to the land prepared for them-the promised land.

What a beautiful pattern for our own journey to the promise land-to live with our Heavenly Fater again. We all have taken the leap of Faith to be here on Earth and seek to be like our Father so that we can live with him some day. The brother of Jared has taught me some  powerful lessons about this journey:

1) When we have problems in life we go to our Heavenly Father, but we don't just ask for help, we willingly follow his advice no matter how hard or crazy the advice sounds. Personally I would have hoped for a better answer than "cut holes in your boat and open them when you need and just hope water doesn't spill in instead". But the brother of Jared didn't wait for an answer he wanted, he went and did.

2) Sometimes the Lord trusts us to come up with a solution. He may give us some guidance, but ultimately, He wants us to come up with a solution, and then come to him in Faith and ask Him to approve our solution. He will either approve it or tell us to keep searching, and when we do have a solution, He is avaliable to help us with it. It is these experience that build our Faith and build ourselves the most. The brother of Jared increased His faith from this that he could "not be kept back from beholding within the veil" (Ether 3:19)  and actually saw the finger and then the pre-mortal body of of Savior Jesus Christ.
3) Finally that we all must take a leap of Faith sometimes and get into the boat. There were 8 barges and none of them had any way of talking to each other and no way to steer in their journey, yet they got in the boat and "commended themselves unto the Lord their God" (Ether 6:4). We must all take leaps of Faith sometimes that are scary and sometimes long-lived, like 344 days long. BUT we will always end up where the Lord wants us to end up, and the journey will be far worth not only the destination, but what we ourselves have become because of the journey. Though the winds never ceased to blow, they blew towards the promise land. Our journey may not be easy, it may be very windy, but we can know that these trials are for our good and without them, we would never steer and move towards the promise land.
I know that the scriptures have great lessons for us to learn and that we can apply them to our lives with both Faith that the Lord can and Hope that He will perform these same miracles in our own lives. May we search the scriptures daily as we strive to progress on our own journey back to the presence of our loving and, might I add very anxious to see us again, Heavenly Father...