Pioneer Day thoughts

We have concluded another Pioneer Day weekend. The Latter-day Saints share a common heritage of hardy and faithful pioneers who left their homes and often all of their material belongings and sometimes even their most cherished loved ones to honor the call of a Prophet to gather with the saints in Zion. Whether we are direct descendants of these brave men and women or simply thrilled at their stories of sacrifice, hardship, and heroism, they are our spiritual forefathers. I appreciate them, though I am not directly descended from them, because where and how I live is directly attributable to their heroic efforts.

In a way I had never thought of before, I see Heavenly Father as the Great and Eternal Forefather. He surely must have sacrificed and labored greatly to pave the way for the life we enjoy as his spirit children. Without him, we would be disorganized intelligences floating about in a universe of chaos. Through his heroic efforts, he brought organization to the universe, clothed us in spirits, gave us this earth, provided a means for us to obtain physical bodies, and made a way for us to return to him and become like him. I owe him everything.

Second, I hold the happiness of many generations in my hands. My ancestors, who accept the gospel in the Spirit World and are worthy to receive saving ordinances, cannot be happy until I do the work for them so that they are sealed together and to God. My posterity depends on my example and my efforts to ensure that they have a righteous lineage in which to be born so that they, too, will be sealed in this family and to God. Both groups of spirits are very near and are anxiously watching. If I squander my time and fail to live up to my responsibilities, they will be highly disappointed and terribly frustrated. In the end, I know that God’s mercy and justice will put everything in its proper order, but I would hate to be the missing link that he had to work around to save his children.

The Formula of Enough

I have been pondering on C. S. Lewis’s discourse in The Screwtape Letters on acting in accordance with our knowledge. Satan does not care how much we know about righteous principles as long as we do not act on them. He likes us to be satisfied with knowledge for knowledge’s sake and feel no compulsion to do anything about what we know. I am very much like that. I love to learn, but my actions are far below my knowledge.

For instance, I have learned that I should pray for others, and I have gotten good at praying for family and neighbors and acquaintances who are afflicted and struggling, and I think my duty is done. Praying is better than being oblivious, which was my former condition; but prayers without actions are not truly effective. I do not reach out to those I pray for, see how they are doing, and look for ways to help. I just pray for them and forget them as I get into my busy daily routine. If I really loved those I pray for, I would make a few minutes each day to contact at least one of them in a meaningful way, let them know that I thought about them, and lift them in some way.

As I thought about this, I recalled another statement by Lewis that if we were in the physical presence of God, we would want to be constantly active in his service and would feel disappointed if he told us to take a half hour off to go amuse ourselves. I pondered what it would be like to be truly in Christ’s presence and to serve constantly with him. It would be thrilling and deeply soul satisfying to receive a command from him, go about his business, and then return and report success and receive his approval.

Now, in this mortal world, unless we are specifically called on a mission or to some position in the Church in which we are required to forsake all and serve full time, we are expected to work to clothe ourselves, obtain our daily bread, provide for shelter, maintain our health, care for our property, and earn an honest living. Our physical bodies in their current state demand that we eat and sleep and operate within the confines of the physical limitations of our strength and age. All of this physical living takes up a good deal of our time – but not all of it. Especially in middle class American society, we still have a good deal of discretionary time.

In addition, God has given us phenomenal bodies with five senses that can bring us much pleasure in many ways. He has also created a spectacular earth with which we can interact with our bodies. These are gifts that he expects us to enjoy and appreciate. He is pleased when we find joy in the gifts he has given us. “Men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25). Without our physical bodies, we cannot have a fullness of joy (see D&C 93:33-34).

God did not place us in such favorable circumstance, however, only to make a living and accumulate wealth, only to adorn ourselves, only to eat, only to relax, only to amuse ourselves, and solely for pleasure. When we do anything to excess or beyond what is needful, we are gluttons, and the Lord is not pleased with gluttony. Balance is good, gluttony is sin.

God also expects us to get outside of ourselves. It is okay to love ourselves, but we must also love our neighbors. He did not say to love our neighbors to the exclusion of ourselves, but to love them equally with the love we have naturally for ourselves.

There is the challenge. In the world dominated by Satan’s formula of “always more”, we have to learn to recognize when we have enough for ourselves and can turn our attention to others. When we have fed ourselves enough, we give the rest to others. When we have worked enough to take care of our needs, we work for others. When we have used enough time to keep ourselves fit and healthy, we give time to others. When we have loved ourselves enough, we give the rest of our love to others. We need to find the balance in the “formula of enough” to know when we have means – goods, energy, time and love – to serve others.

The formula is different for each of us, and it is defined by God. We must go to him to learn the parameters and the calculations. The formula contains variables that change with time and circumstances according to our needs, the needs of others, and God’s will. Thus we must be constantly in tune with the Holy Ghost, whose role it is to teach us every day how to work the formula. He gives us the day’s variables and we work the formula to produce the desired result, which is to please God. True happiness is found, not in gluttony, which is Satan’s equation of “always more”, but in God’s “formula of enough”.