I Was Blind and Now I See Part II

The story of the man blind from birth is one of the most poignant and beautiful stories in the New Testament.  It is so incredible because we are all blind.  Jesus said "I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind."  When we think that we see and understand everything, the Lord makes us blind by giving us trials.  He causes things to come up that shake our confidence in our mortal sight and senses.  Death and pain and trials that wrench our hearts take our trust off the arm of the flesh.  We come to the point where the world that we see just won't solve our problems and in our agony we turn to Christ.  It is only then that He can help us see.


Maybe I am an anomaly but I have been on my knees pleading with the Lord about some infirmity that I have been dealing with.  I ask God to take away my weakness or solve my problem.  Sometimes I feel abandoned and forgotten and want to scream "where are you!" to the heavens.  I search the scriptures and things start to look better.  I can feel heaven a little nearer.  And then Jesus spits in the dirt and puts mud on my face.  Just when I feel like relief is in sight another dimension is added to my pain.  I cry out again for relief, but what I don't understand is that He has been trying to humble me the whole time.  But He has to do it His way and not mine.  That uncomfortable mud in my face might be an awkward apology or a new direction in life.  Usually it is something I don't want to do or want done to me.  I plead with Him, "I wanted my pain and weakness gone, but did you really have to spit in my face?"  But then He asks me how much I want the blessing I am asking for.  What price am I willing to pay to be free from sin or affliction?  Is it worth walking to the pool of Siloam?  


I have been horribly spiritually blind.  I have stumbled around clumsily trying to find my way in the dark.  I have felt the stirrings of the Spirit sending me on my journey to Siloam.  I have dipped my hands in the redeeming water and had my eyes opened.  I was blind but now I see.  


This process of struggle and revelation is God's plan.  But it starts with us realizing how blind we are.  We must walk this path to obtain any blessing from Him.  There is no royal road to repentence or to knowledge.  We all must trudge blindly to the pool of Siloam.  The voices of the world will seek to silence what we learn.  The knowledge of God is threat to the power of their worldly institutions and learning.  We cannot hope to compete with them at their own game.  We face them and with them our own doubts with something they cannot give or take away.  That something is our own experience.  We know those areas in our lives where we were blind and now we see.  A testimony is not complicated.  It can be given in one sentence as it was almost 2000 years ago by a beggar from Jerusalem who simply said "I was blind but now I see."  I pray that God will help us all to see and testify of what we have seen.

I Was Blind and Now I See

And as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth


Jude sat in his usual place by the temple gate.  He had woken up just before the sun started to come up in order to navigate the crowded city streets.  As he felt the familiar stones which signified his spot he breathed a sigh of relief.  He recalled the time when he was 14 when he had taken the wrong side street.  By the time he realized his mistake the street was beginning to fill up with street vendors.  Nobody had time for a little blind boy.  His rabbi had finally found him in a little doorway 2 days later bruised and hungry and very lucky to be alive.  His Rabbi growing up had been a good man, but most in his profession were hypocrites and liars.  When he had been asked to join the Sanhedrin, Jude had stopped attending the synagogue.  His parents lived in the poor section of Jerusalem or the lower city as it was called.  While they loved him and did their best, they had not been able to afford to feed him since his father had injured his back.  So Jude did what any other blind man had to do... he begged in front of the temple.  


He instinctively knew the kinds of people passing by.  The food vendors with the varied aromas would pass him.  Sometimes if he was lucky they would give him some bread or during Passover, a little lamb.  The money changers came with their heavy tables and jingling coins.  They never spoke to him except to gruffly tell him to get out of their way so that they could get on with their important work of robbing the pious temple worshipers.  The Sadducees would walk past and from their opulent robes take a few coins and ceremoniously give them to the beggar.  The Pharisees would hurry past him in groups, their large phylacteries swinging from their chests.  Most often they would mutter something about his sins or his parent's sins.  The Roman soldiers ignored him knowing that he was too handicapped to carry their burdens.  The temple guards would ignore him unless he got too close to the gate and then would scold him and tell him that invalids were not allowed on temple grounds.  He knew all the types of people in Jerusalem.  He knew which ones would give him coins and which ones would give him a swift kick.  He was an expert at discerning people's intentions.


He stirred as he heard an unusual group approaching him.  It was highly unusual for there to be a crowd at all since today was the Sabbath.  It sounded almost like Gamaliel and his disciples the way the leader stopped every so often to turn around and speak.  But no, that wasn't Gamaliel's voice.  He started to get apprehensive.  Rabbis often used him as an object lesson in order to exhort their followers to avoid sin.  This sounded like a Rabbi.  Just as he started to push himself back into the doorway he felt something.  Something deep inside told him that this man, whoever he was, was his friend.  More than that, he felt that this man cared deeply about him.  He shook his head.  That was impossible.  He had never heard this man before and was sure he did not know him.  He quelled his irrational thoughts and started to retreat again, but he hesitated.  He didn't know why but he wanted this man to see him, to notice him.  He stepped from the shadows.


He felt the other's eyes rest on him.  He pulled nervously at his rags, suddenly aware that he was very much exposed.  He heard another man's voice ask "Master, who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind."  Inwardly he groaned.  He had asked himself this question every day since he was old enough to realize he was different.  Why had God done this to him?  What did he do so horribly wrong in another life to warrant such cruel treatment?  Did God even still love him?  Why did he have to be so alone?  Nobody ever understood.  People, trying to be nice, would explain to him what things looked like.  They always tired of it when he would seek knowledge that they couldn't give him.  What did green look like?  What is grey?  Because of his infirmity he had never learned to read.  He was shunned from the synagogue.  He would never marry or have children. He would never...


His thoughts were interrupted by a deep voice coming from the one they called Master.  The voice was not overly loud although it was loud enough to reach the sizable crowd gathered around him.  What struck Jude was the power in the voice.  There was no hesitation, no stuttering or mumbling of words.  The voice carried authority.  The Man, whoever he was, knew exactly who he was and what he wanted to say.  And what's more, he knew that what he was saying was truth.  Jude had heard men lie and most men were hesitant when they spoke, but this Man spoke unlike any other man.  What's more is that while Jude listened, the voice pierced his soul.  He was listening with his ears but was hearing with his soul.  Jude was so startled by the voice that it took him a second to realize what the Man was saying.  "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."


As Jude understood what the Man was saying a faint glimmer of hope stirred in his chest.  When he was young he had prayed every day that God would heal him of his malady.  He went to synagogue and heard stories of Moses parting the Red Sea and Elijah calling fire from heaven.  Surely a God that could do that could heal a little blind boy.  When the answer to his prayer didn't come he turned to the story of Job.  Perhaps all he needed was a little patience like Job and everything would work out for the best.  After years of praying every day he started praying every other day, then every week and now he couldn't remember the last time he had prayed.  He recalled all of his frustration and his disappointment as he sought to squash the hope that was beginning to grow within him.  But despite his pessimism, the voice filled him with such warmth that he couldn't restrain the hope that was now filling him.  


Just as he was starting to trust in this hope the Man did something unexpected.  He spat on the ground.  Jude reeled back at this ultimate insult.  Once he had tried to beg from a passing dignitary and the soldiers spit at him as they pushed him away.  This Man was just like the other Rabbis.  To judge and condemn and then to mock was the "works of God" that were to be made manifest.  Then the man bent over his spit.  Jude could hear the sound of the dust being moved on the ground.  Then the man stepped toward Jude.  The blind man shrunk away from the perceived threat.  Then a sickly cold feeling of moisture and soil came over his eyes.  He grimaced as the Man rubbed the mud firmly into his eye sockets.  Revulsion spread over Jude as he realized that this mud was a combination of the Man's spit and the filthy Jerusalem street dust.  


And then the voice returned saying "Go wash in the pool of Siloam."  Jude stepped back into the darkness humiliated as the Man and His followers walked past Him.  He intended to wash alright, but not in the pool of Siloam.  He wasn't even sure where that was.  He knew that it was somewhere in the crowded lower city.  It would take him the rest of the day to even find the place and he would have to travel with this Man's saliva on his face the whole time.  The pool of Israel was very close to where he now was and he was positive he could find a cistern somewhere nearby as well.  As he moved to leave and go find a place to wash his humiliation away he heard an astonished passerby say "That's him, that's Jesus of Nazareth."


The sound of the Man's name shot through Jude's body as he realized who had touched him. He had heard of Jesus just like everyone in the city these days.  The prophet from Galilee had made enemies of the Sanhedrin and they had threatened excommunication for declaring him to be the Messiah.  This was all Jude knew about Him, but there were other rumors of incredible miracles.  Some said that He had healed lepers and raised a girl from the dead.  But Jude didn't believe in God.  God had abandoned him.  He felt his way down the street to the cistern and started to dip his hands in to wash his face.  He hesitated as the words of the Man came to his mind again.  That Voice had said "that the works of God might be made manifest in him."  Without realizing it Jude had turned toward the lower city and was starting to feel his way.


Jude felt the warmth of the sun starting to fade as he finally reached the edge of the pool.  He had walked all day and been run over by a cart.  He had become lost several times and wandered several places of the lower city that were so crowded and the streets so narrow that he felt like it was twilight because the buildings blocked out the sun.  He had been stopped by a group of Romans who had only let him go after they determined that he was blind and therefore useless to them.  He had the same experience with a group of thugs.  After shaking him down and taking his few coins they let him go.  Jude felt very lucky that this was all that had happened to him on his way.  He had wanted to turn back the whole time.  He had passed 4 more cisterns and had been sorely tempted to wash there and go home, but he had held onto the hope that wouldn't die within him.  Jesus of Nazareth had told him to wash in the pool of Siloam with the voice that had penetrated his soul.  As he walked, he debated until he had finally made a decision.  He was determined to wash at Siloam no matter what happened.  His hope for healing outweighed any difficulty that would come from obedience.


He bent down and touched the cool water.  Cupping his hands he put the water to his dusty face.  The mud had dried and crusted over his eyelids.  He repeatedly washed his face until he could open his eyes.  As the last of the mud was removed from his face he started to open his eyes.  The hope was like a fire within his chest and he stopped breathing as his eyelids cracked open.  He could feel the cool evening air touching his exposed eyes but the darkness that had been his constant companion his whole life was unchanged.  He closed his eyes and tears of disappointment started to run down his face.  The tears burned, but something else started to burn as well.  His eyelids went from black to a color that he had never seen before.  He opened his eyes again and then immediately closed them as light flooded into them and he winced with the pain.  The tears were flowing freely from his eyes as he opened them again.  For the first time in his life Jude could see.


He spent the rest of the night wandering the city taking in every sight.  He drank in his world like a man dying of thirst.  He went to his normal place by the temple gate and watched the people who walked passed trying to pair the sounds and smells with the new sights.  Several people came up to him and asked if he was the blind man who had been there before.  Every time someone asked him he told them the miraculous story.  He was surprised when a group of men he identified as temple guards approached him.  The leader asked him if he was the man born blind who used to beg here.  When Jude answered affirmatively, the soldiers demanded that he come with them.  


He was led to a large building.  He was then led into a large room where a large number of men were talking furiously among themselves.  When he entered the room went quiet.  A man in the center of the room approached him and said "Are you the man who used to bet at the temple gate?"  Jude answered "I am he."  
"Why did you act blind until today?" the man demanded.
"I didn't act blind.  I was blind until yesterday evening."
"Tell us then, how is it that you see today?" the man remarked with a sneer
"A man named Jesus put clay in my eyes and told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam.  I went and washed and now I can see."


At the mention of the name Jesus, the room started to buzz ominously with the men in the room whispering frantically to each other.  By the time Jude had finished his story the room had exploded in shouts.  Some were yelling that Jesus had broken the Sabbath and was a sinner.  Others were yelling that a man who was a sinner could not do such miracles.  Each side attempted to drown out the others until the man in the center raised his arms for silence.  The noise in the room died down and the man turned once again to Jude.
"What do you think of this man Jesus?" he asked.


As Jude pondered the question he realized that there was so much he could say.  The man had saved his life.  He had rekindled faith in a hopeless heart.  He had done what no ordinary man could do.
"He is a prophet." was the only acceptable answer.


The man in the center cried out "It is a trick.  This man is an imposter!  Perhaps the mob is easily convinced of this Jesus and his 'miracles' but we who are learned know much better.  We know that He cannot be the Messiah and He cannot serve God and break the rules of the Sabbath.  This man lied about being blind and made a pact with Jesus to show this false miracle and convince ignorant people to follow this Galilean."


The men in the room started nodding in agreement.  Suddenly a man stepped up near the back "Perhaps we should call his parents for witnesses." He said.  Jude stared.  That was the voice of his old pastor Nicodemus.  The man in the center who Jude was sure was the High Priest Caiaphas said "Very well, bring his parents."  With a wave the temple guards were gone.


As the temple guards left, Jude looked around the room.  These men were the Sanhedrin, the most powerful group of Jews in Judea.  Each of them had proven to be an expert in his field.  There were the rich and powerful Sadducees sitting in one corner.  The rest of the room was composed of Pharisees and Scribes.  These men had the education that Jude could have never dreamed of because of his blindness.  They were experts in the law of Moses.  With a word they could banish him from his parents and all he had ever known.  Despite seeing Nicodemus, he still felt very alone and very inferior to these men.


They returned almost an hour later with Mordechai and Elizabeth, Jude's parents.
Caiaphas wasted no time questioning them.  "Is this man your son?" he asked while pointing at Jude.
Mordechai and Elizabeth both looked apprehensively at Jude and then Mordechai said, "yes, we know that is our son."


"And was your son born blind?"
Again the answer was yes.
"Well then how can he see now?"  the high priest demanded; his voice lowering menacingly.


Mordechai said "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. We do not know how he came to be able to see.  He is old enough to speak for himself.  Ask him."


Ciaphas waved and Jude's parents were escorted out of the chamber leaving Jude once again alone.  He then turned to Jude saying "Give God the praise.  For surely this is God's miracle. Don't say anymore that it had anything to do with this Jesus.  God would have blessed you with the miracle without Him.  We know that it must have been God and not Him because He is a sinner.  Say this and we all," he said gesturing to the body of men, "will be most grateful."


Jude thought about that for a minute.  He was being given the opportunity to do a favor for the High Priest himself.  He knew that such a favor could give him benefits and position in the city that he could never have had otherwise.  He imagined himself going from a poor beggar to a member of the Sanhedrin itself.  All he would have to do is say that it was God who healed him rather than this man Jesus.  Of course God is the one who healed him so that wouldn't even be a lie.  His run in with Jesus may have been simply a coincidence.  As he was considering Caiaphas' proposal, he remembered Jesus' voice and the touch of his hands.  He remembered the long journey to the pool of Siloam.  He could no more deny Jesus than he could deny the fact that he could see.


"Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not." The laws and commandments of these Pharisees were too confusing.  He had probably "sinned" a half dozen times on his way over here and another half dozen since.  He didn't feel qualified to debate with them about the law and whether or not Jesus had sinned. "One thing I know, that, wheras I was blind now I see."


Caiaphas just stared at him for a moment in unbelief.  Then he sneered "If it wasn't God, then what did Jesus do?"


Jude suddenly realized that these men didn't want the truth.  They wanted to disparage Jesus, the Man that had saved his life.  No matter what he said they would try to twist it to their own advantage.  He had a strange feeling inside as his fear of these men started to melt away.  
"I told you once already and you didn't listen.  Do you want to hear it again so that you also can be His disciples?"


With that the room again erupted.  A man called from the back of the room "You may be Jesus' disciple, but we are Moses' disciples." He did this seeking to contrast the unpopular Galilean prophet with the deliverer of Israel and writer of the law.


Jude began again "It's strange that you all know nothing about Him and yet He has opened my eyes.  We know that God works through righteous men and not sinners." and then Jude remembered that in all of the stories of the prophets of old there was not one who healed a blind man from birth.  Even Elisha and Elijah with all their miracles had never done this.  "Never since the world began has anyone healed a man born blind."  And then he looked Ciaphas in the eye as he felt conviction flood his body "If this man were not of God, he could do nothing."


Ciaphas' black eyes narrowed dangerously.  "You were born in sins and yet you try to teach us about sins and sinners?" he asked incredulously.  Then turning to the guards he said "Throw him out of here.  This man is no longer allowed in any synagogue in Judea.  He is anathema."


As Jude was thrown from the building he marveled again at what had happened in the council chambers.  Yesterday he had been just a blind beggar  but he knew his place in the world.  Suddenly he wasn't sure anymore.  Just as he was believing in God again, he had nowhere to go to worship.  He didn't even know how to find Jesus and be His disciple.  He was lost and he wondered why God had had given him this amazing blessing only to curse him like this.  


He collapsed against a wall dejectedly.  He closed his eyes that were again filling with tears suddenly wishing that he was the same blind man he was yesterday.  The blackness of his shut eyes comforted him.  He heard soft footsteps approaching but didn't bother to look up.  He felt a hand touch his shoulder and looked up to see a face staring into his.  He couldn't look into the eyes because of their intensity.  The man opened his mouth and the voice from yesterday, the voice he would never forget spoke his name.  Then Jesus asked "Dost thou believe on the son of God?" 


Jude was not expecting this question.  He didn't know anything about the son of God, but he had a powerful desire to know who he was.  "Who is he lord that I might believe on him?"  But as he asked, he already knew the answer.  This Jesus was more than a man.  He was more than a prophet.  As the Savior confirmed it saying "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee," Jude felt an overwhelming comforting feeling.  He suddenly realized that because of Jesus he could see.  He could look on the face of the son of God.  He could see what only the prophets had been able to see.  He, a beggar from Jerusalem could look on the face of God.  His doubts and self pity washed away with his tears as he cried "Lord, I believe!" 

Threats to Our Families

I want to begin by saying that this post represents my own opinions and is not the official position or doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Because I have no ecclesiastical authority, what I say should be understood as advice from a friend rather than preaching from a pulpit.  I also want to add the disclaimer that my assumptions are based off of my observation of people and cultural trends and is not based on any empirical research.

In Revelation 3:15-16, the Savior speaking to the Laodicean members of the church said, "I would thou wert cold or hot; so then because thou art lukewarm I will spue thee out of my mouth."  I have heard this fence sitting described as trying to live in Zion but keep a summer home in Babylon.  When the Savior was on the Earth, He discouraged half hearted followers.  At a certain point He taught doctrine that was "a hard saying," and His followers murmured and said "who can hear it [the hard saying]?"  When this murmuring became apparent, the Savior could have chosen to back off, He could have relaxed a little and softened His words.  Instead He asked "doth this offend you?"  Then He told them that if they were murmuring they were not listening to the spirit because "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."  The Savior could not relax, He could not back down because His words were the way to eternal life.  If there were an easier way He would have offered it, but there isn't.  This confrontation caused many of his disciples to "walk no more with him."  However, those who stayed understood more fully who He was, and who they were because of it.  Jesus asked these devoted followers if they would also leave and Peter answered for them and said "to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."  There will always be those who are offended at the truth, but that doesn't mean that we should relax it or soften it in order to accommodate them.  The strength that the apostles gained from hearing and following truth was worth the sacrifice of the lukewarm followers.  Therefore, we should never be afraid to speak the truth even when there are those who may be offended.  The strength that we and others who are willing to hearken to the spirit will get from the truth outweighs the offense that may be received.  My purpose in writing this post is to help us to choose sides.  I feel that the time is fast approaching when choosing sides will be irrelevant because the damage will have already been done.

In the first battle of the Civil War, The First Battle of Bull Run, many civilians came out with picnic baskets and blankets to watch as the Union soldiers beat up the rebels and end the little insurrection that would become the Civil War.  The Union soldiers would have won had it not been for a large group of confederate reinforcements that pushed back the Union lines back and turned it into a rout.  Many civilians who came to watch the battle also fled in panic with the Union soldiers and were killed along side them.  Had the North won that battle, the Civil War could have been over before it began and would not have been the tragedy that it was.  My point in bringing up this particular battle is that there could have been massive Union reinforcements to match the Confederates.  Imagine if all of the civilians who showed up with picnic baskets had shown up with rifles.  In the battle for the souls of men, we cannot afford to be civilians.  If we choose to sit on the sidelines and watch the battle, we will suffer the same consequences as those who we fail to support.  We cannot avoid these consequences just by avoiding involvement or confrontation.  As the popular hymn says "who's on the Lord's side who?  Now is the time to show.  We ask it fearlessly, who's on the Lord's side who?"  The parable of the wheat and the tares is also instructive.  While we are not entirely sure what a "tare" is, most biblical scholars believe that it is a weed that is common in the middle east that looks almost identical to wheat but does not bear fruit.  So we may ask ourselves "am I a tare? Do I look like a Christian and sound like a Christian but inwardly wish that Christ would agree with the world so that I wouldn't have to choose?  Do I wish that Christ would agree with ME so that I wouldn't have to change?"  The battle lines have been drawn.  Who's on the Lord's side?

This battle rages in our Universities and in the media, but the front lines are in our own homes.  There are two areas in particular where I see members of Christ's church choosing the world's side.  These two areas are the gay marriage debate and extreme feminism.  First, I want to speak in defense of some of the sentiments that lead to these choices.  The support of gay marriage comes from one of two places.  The first is a libertarian (not the political party, but the mindset aka libertarianism vs. authoritarianism) that places consequences on individuals and in essence says "do what you will as long as I am not affected," or "live and let live." Christ teaches independence and personal responsibility and so this sentiment comes from the right place.  The other place where this support comes from the misunderstanding of the commandment to love our neighbors.  Those who follow this line of thinking feel that if they were to deny the "right" of marriage to homosexual couples, those people might feel bad.  They then feel that if they are causing another person to feel bad that they are not loving him/her.  Companion to this train of thought is the idea of respect.  If we love somebody then we should respect him/her.  Their definition of respect is to set every belief system equal to each other.  No beliefs are better or worse, and to say that one lifestyle or belief system is better is to be disrespectful of everyone else.  This sentiment also comes from the right place.  I will return to the gay marriage debate, but first I want to focus on what I call extreme feminism.

The major source of extreme feminism comes from the desire for equality.  This is also a very good sentiment.  However, to be equal does not mean to be cloned or to be the same.  When Jefferson penned the words "all men are created equal" he did not mean equality in the way that Marx meant it.  Equality means an equal chance to improve oneself and one's station.  It does not mean that everyone should have the same jobs and responsibilities.  Before The Family: A Proclamation To the World states "fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners," it clearly defines roles and responsibilities.  It says that men are to preside over their homes with the huge qualifier "in love and righteousness," and are to provide and for and protect their families and that women are primarily responsible for the nurture of children.  Now let me talk about the amazing changes that the feminist movement has helped bring about.  Nowhere does the proclamation say that women are primarily responsible for cooking and cleaning and that men are responsible for sitting on the couch watching TV while their wives cook and clean.  Nowhere does it say that fathers are primarily responsible for ignoring their children when they are home leaving women to feel overwhelmed by the enormous task of raising children essentially alone.  Feminism has shown that men can do dishes, much to our disappointment and the rejoicing of our wives.  I personally believe that the emancipation of women has been for the most part an amazing thing.

Since I have such a high regard for the changes and the re definition of some gender roles as a result of the feminist movement, I have labeled the destructive and dangerous feminism as extreme feminism.  Extreme feminism is that movement that seeks to displace motherhood as an honorable career choice.  Extreme feminism would destroy the distinctions between masculine and feminine traits.  It would not stop at equality but seek to enthrone women in the oppressive chairs that men once sat in.  It would reduce manhood to nothing more than pathetic imbeciles that are little more than pets to the women they serve (see any sitcom since the Brady Bunch).  Extreme feminism would eventually do away with marriage as an annoying inconvenience.  Birth control and abortion are the hallmarks of extreme feminism.  A world where a woman has complete control of her body and can transgress the laws of God with no consequence.

Extreme feminism is making headway.  Unwed mothers are no longer encouraged to form family units by being married.  Indeed single mothers are praised for their strength and independence.  This is not altogether bad because many women become single mothers through no fault of their own because of abusive or destructive husbands or because of the death of spouses.  However, the growing trend of single mothers does not come from those circumstances so much as women (and men) getting divorces for trivial reasons and women becoming pregnant out of wedlock.  Sometimes social pressure is a good thing when it discourages practices that are destructive for children.  Ostracizing women for becoming pregnant out of wedlock is now rightly considered wrong.  Unfortunately accepting and encouraging women who become pregnant out of wedlock has done far more damage than the shunning that they used to receive.  Extreme feminism is also making headway among those who are married.  It is becoming so much more common for women to seek employment outside the home.  When they do so they are putting their primary responsibility of nurturing their children lower on the priority list.  I have heard many women say, "I can't go to this event or that game or be there for my kids after school because I have to work."  I have seldom heard, "I can't go to this meeting or complete this project because I have to spend time nurturing my kids."  In the overwhelming majority of cases when a woman starts to work, her boss takes precedence over her kids.  Family obligations are seen as flexible, work hours and deadlines are not.  Men face the same predicament, but then their primary responsibility is to provide for their families.  When both women and men work, their bank accounts win, but their children lose.  We need to choose between bigger homes and nicer cars and our children's future.  Women need to return to their homes to be with their children, not their dishes and laundry but their children.  Men need to facilitate that.  The most amazing blessing that my family has ever received is when my wife failed to get a job when we were newly married.  I wanted her to work to help support me through school.  When she didn't get a job we were forced to live on what I made alone.  Because of that, when we had our son, we didn't have to worry about paying our bills when we lost her income.  Husbands and wives need to establish their lives so that mothers don't "have" to work.  That is how we choose sides.  We ignore what the world says and return mothers to their children.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if day cares went out of business?  That is my idea of a perfect world.

Now I want to return to gay marriage.  Heavenly Father's plan is about helping us to become perfect.  It is about helping us be like Him.  This desire to improve us and change us trumps the lesser values of respect and tolerance.  God is love.  If God, who is love, flooded the Earth to accomplish His purposes, maybe our definition of "love" as making nobody feel bad needs to be revised.  Jesus Christ, our perfect example of love called one of His closest friends satan, called a woman a dog, called pharisees hypocrites, blind and children of Hell, and then suffered and died so that we could all be very different than we are now.  While the desire to love that leads us to support gay marriage is good, the love that we should be seeking is very different from the watered down version the world would give us.  Pure love is unselfish.  Pure love cannot be content with allowing someone to feel good about sinning when they are throwing away eternal happiness.  Gender is an essential element to "pre-mortal, mortal and post-mortal existence" and cannot be changed just because it is inconvenient.  I have never experienced same gender attraction and so cannot even hope to judge or even understand what those people are going through as they search for acceptance and love.  We can love and accept them as children of God, but that does not mean that we stop calling sins sins (it is important to note that the sin comes from acting on homosexual impulses.  Having those impulses is not a sin, but a trial that may or may not be overcome. Many people have temptations and predispositions to various sins, but do not sin unless they act on them.  My heart goes out to those who do not sin and have to deal with this issue.).

In an effort to call evil good, some people are calling for the recognition of gay marriage by governments.  There are many reasons to oppose gay marriage (see http://blog.speakupmovement.org/university/uncategorized/i-was-wrong-about-marriage/), but really the main reason to oppose it is because the Lord through His prophet has declared that He opposes it.  It is contrary to His plan.  Despite any justification that can be given by those who want to straddle the fence on this issue, the Lord has made His position quite clear.  He has also made His position clear on the role of mothers and fathers and the sanctity of the family.  We have to pick sides.  We cannot be spectators.  We stay silent so often because we are afraid of what others might say to us or about us if we stand up.  The consequences or not standing up are far worse.  Who's on the Lord's side who?  Now is the time to show.

Gratitude and Complacency

This evening I caught myself complaining which for those who know me is not shocking.  What is shocking is that I actually noticed it today.  I started complaining about putting plastic wrap on leftover pizza.  We've all had the frustration of having the plastic wrap stick to itself and not what it's supposed to right?  It's really annoying.  What is more annoying is that somebody has not invented a plastic wrap that adheres to what we want it to in order to save us that extra 30 seconds of effort while wrapping up food.  I had every reason to complain.  After all it isn't good enough that I was able to put my excess, ridiculously inexpensive food in a refrigerator that will preserve it for at least several days.  It isn't good enough that the refrigerator is run by an extremely reliable energy grid that also allows my electric lights to work so that I might discover the mold growing on my pizza at 3 AM.  This same power grid powers the restaurant where I got the pizza prepared by a team of workers using sophisticated machinery that makes my pizza both delicious and affordable.  Maybe that was what I was so upset about

Maybe it wasn't the plastic wrap and the pizza at all.  Maybe it was the fact that my wife had asked me to change my daughter's diaper.  I was probably upset that I had to change a disposable diaper instead of dealing with a cloth one.  It was rather annoying to have to walk 10 ft. to the garbage can to throw it away.  Maybe I suspected that the trash was getting full and I would have to make the arduous journey of 100 ft. to the dumpster to throw it out.  I was disturbed that the dumpster would be magically emptied and the trash taken somewhere I don't know about.  I was probably distressed that I wouldn't have to worry about it after I made my difficult trek to empty my trash.  

Maybe it wasn't the diaper, but my daughter.  Maybe I was upset that I wasn't allowed to experience the discomfort of pregnancy.  Maybe I was annoyed that because of modern medicine, I didn't even have to have my hand broken off by my wife because she didn't experience agony during labor.  Maybe I was distraught because my son was sleeping in his own room nearly 2 years old, when 150 years ago he most likely would have been dead by now due to cholera, polio, malaria, mumps, measles, small pox or a host of other diseases that he has been immunized against. I was probably annoyed that she sleeps in her own room on a comfortable mattress in a home that is perfectly climate controlled.  

Actually, the real problem worth complaining about is that I had to stop reading my book.  I had to put the book down that I had to go almost 2 miles to go check out for free at the library.  That was 2 grueling miles in an extremely reliable car on paved roads with stoplights to protect me and police to enforce traffic laws.  I was annoyed that if I was to be in a car accident on the way to get my free book, I would have highly trained professionals come to save my life.  Not only would they save my life, but they would protect me in case it wasn't my fault.  And the most terrible thing is that I wouldn't even have to bribe them in order for them to do so.  

I obviously had a lot to complain about.  I can imagine a greater world where my life would be better. Maybe I would be happier living back in the days of the Romans when the average worker earned barely enough to feed his family with a day's work.  If I couldn't pay my taxes, then my wife and kids could be taken and sold into slavery and I could be imprisoned or killed.  Of course, I could always revolt and have my people massacred, my wife, sisters and mother raped and my land salted so nothing would ever grow there again.  If I lived in the days of the Romans, I would be living at the high point of human civilization to that point in history.  Of course if I lived with the Romans, I would have missed out on the Dark Ages.  I can imagine a better life working a nobleman's land.  If I was lucky enough to feed my family with what I grew, I could have the surplus taken from me to support my lord's crusades or quests for power.  I would have been much happier when because of improper sanitation the plague came and killed one in three people I knew.  Yeah... that would have been the life.

Actually, in all seriousness, the biggest problem with my night is that I had to get up off my extremely comfortable couch and tear my eyes away from the flat screen TV.  Let's face it:  my generation is the biggest bunch of spoiled, selfish complainers the world has ever known.  We cringe when we are asked to do anything that violates our electronic stupor.  The rest of the world can sink to Hell as long as Verizon keeps sending my texts and Facebook keeps me up to date on my friends.  I can just imagine the status: "looked out the window and saw Armageddon happening.  OMG! I hope my internet doesn't turn off! :)."  Or I hope my cable stays on, or my XBox Live account doesn't get cancelled.  I think that it's fascinating that when the greatest generation was my age, they went through a war (one that was close and personal because friends and loved ones were dying, and not politically annoying like our current wars where those who aren't in the military are more likely to know 2 or 3 people killed in car accidents rather than knowing 1 killed in the war), they also went through the birth of nuclear energy, when they were kids they witnessed the first flight and automobiles becoming mainstream.  They then saw jet engines turn the world into a tourist attraction.  A little down the road they saw a man get to the moon.  They saw plumbing and electricity reach the entire country.  They saw the birth of the Interstate highway and the self serve gasoline pump.  Now they are beginning to be old and are kept alive by open heart surgeries and a myriad of other medical procedures that were unimagined when they were kids.  

When I was a kid, the internet was just starting to become big, so I might be able to say in 80 years that I was alive for the invention of the internet.  What else will I be able to say?  I was alive when the xbox 1440 came out?   Maybe I will be able to say that I was alive when the I Phone 16 1/2 came out or the PS 12.  Maybe I will be able to say that I was there when the nations of Google and Facebook went to war.  One thing that I am pretty sure of is that I won't be able to say that I was alive when the flying car was invented (the way I dreamed when I was a kid).  I won't be able to say that I was alive when hunger was eradicated. I will probably be reading about those poor people in Africa who can't even buy food on my IPad 40.  I won't be able to say that I was there when the cure for cancer came out.  

The reason that I won't be able to say that I saw the first man on Mars or the invention of flying cars or the creation of a subway system that instantaneously transports people hundreds of miles is because the person in my generation who is supposed to invent those things is on Facebook right now updating his/her status "Just beat my personal record on MW3 (that's an Xbox game) and now I'm going to the club because my parents just put money in my account!!"  Our lack of gratitude has led us into complacency.  I won't be able to say that I was there when we cured cancer because the entire pharmaceutical world will be devoted to making better diabetes and heart medication in order to help all those who are morbidly obese.  We are not the millenial generation.  We are the entertain me generation.  

Now that is a pretty bleak portrait of the future.  And the way to make that future a dream and the future where all sorts of amazing things happen a reality is for us to be grateful.  Maybe if we were grateful for the internet, we wouldn't take it for granted.  We would become the most highly educated generation in the world with experts in every field who know far more than anyone who has come before.  If we were grateful for our food, we wouldn't eat so much that we became obese.  If we were grateful for what we had, there would be less complaining and more doing.  If we choose to be grateful, the sky is the limit (literally if you watched the Jetson's like I did growing up).

There is another way for us to be grateful.  We could lose everything we have.  Indeed that is actually a more probable future then the one with pinkray DVD players.  Whether global warming destroys us because we'd rather watch TV longer than reduce emissions or whether the world gets tired of the selfish arrogant Americans and blows our way of life up, most likely if we do not value and therefore protect what we have, we will lose it.  

So now I am going to stop writing this blog and see if I can make myself a better person.  Anybody else willing to get off what you're doing and join me?  Only the future will tell.