Seeing Afar Off

 These are thoughts I sent to friends.

This is long to send in a text but I loved this in the Follow Him podcast this week.  And maybe some of you already heard it... and I shared a tiny bit of it in RS today but I loved it so much that I decided to share.  Because I think it's so easy to get bogged down in life and let the difficulties and complexities make us feel anxious or to let doubt or fear creep in or just to get sidetracked by good things and lose sight of the best things.

So here's what Daniel Belnap said on Follow Him said, starting by quoting bits of Alma 5:  "Do you see your corruption putting on incorruption? Can you imagine unto yourselves, God saying, "Enter in ye blessed." And I know that he's talking about it to the wicked going, "Or do you think that you're going to be able to lie to God?" But I think those other questions are intriguing, because I think they tie into this boldness, which is, do we think about that often? Do we think about what it's like to be in the presence of God? Do we imagine what eternal life is like? If those verses hold true Alma has just suggested that as weird as it sounds, imagination plays a fundamental role in the expression of faith. Looking forward with an eye of faith and seeing something that hasn't been yet, but will be. Do you imagine it? Do you imagine what it's like to be in the presence of God?

Do you imagine it? Do we explore the contours of what it means to have eternal life? And it seems to me that that longterm, that ability to not just look up but as Peter's going to call it, see afar off. Becomes absolutely essential to survival. And in a day and age, particularly now, and this is me getting on my soapbox a bit, but in a day and age where so much information is flying around so fast, so often, that to some degree, there's an element of where we're constantly reacting to the barrage of inspiration that's coming in. It's a constant reaction. We have no choice, but to deal with what keeps flashing before our eyes all the time. And yet to see afar off means, you've got to lift

yourself from that, lift your gaze from that and see a long perspective....

And that experience that the Israelites were meant to have, I think is tied into that. Why weren't they ready in three days? I don't know, but it makes me think they were concentrating on three days more than the horizon. They didn't see afar off.

What if my clothes aren't clean enough? Yeah.

And maybe part of it is we don't actually believe that that's an event that can really happen. I don't think we think enough about entering into the presence of God and what that's like. And yet the Doctrine and Covenants is full of that. And the Book of Mormon has narrative after narrative of people who do, and the New Testament talks about it. There's a promise. There's a promise that's given that this can happen so that you can bless all mankind. You're expected to be a kingdom of priests to bless everybody. And so yeah, the story isn't ultimately negative for Israel at that time for those 40 years, but it lays out an experience that any Israelite is expected to have in any dispensation...

This is an experience. And since I’m playing with that, here's section 107. This is in our Doctrine and Covenants talking about the powers of the priesthood. You get verse 18, which says, the power and the authority of the higher or Melchizedek Priesthood is to hold the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the church. It's then followed by a verse which appears to reflect the blessings, spiritual blessings of the church. To have the privilege of receiving the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, to have the heavens opened unto them, to commune with the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and to enjoy the communion and presence of God, the father and Jesus, the mediator of the covenant.
Now I don't think we talk about this enough and yet it's straight out, these are the spiritual blessings that the church has available. And so I'm back to the question that I've asked is, how often do we think about it? Do we even take these seriously? Do we think that they're only for a certain select group of people? Or are they blessings that are available to anyone by virtue the Melchizedek Priesthood? And what does it mean if they are available to everyone?"

Do we really believe what God is promising?  Do we really believe he can take us, warts, sins, weaknesses and all and make us like Him?  Do we believe it fully enough that we have the imagination to see it? To envision it?  And how does that change things if we do?  

I have been reading Atomic Habits.  It's the book that the 1% better comes from.  My favorite part is the second chapter which is all about how our sense of identity influences our development of habits.   What we believe about ourselves makes a huge impact on our success in developing good habits or getting rid of bad habits.  So for example if I believe I am a reader and identify myself as a reader then I will make choices that support my belief that I am a reader...joining a book club and reading books and visiting the library.  If someone is trying to quit smoking and they say things like I am trying to quit they will be less successful than if they say they are not a smoker.  Self-fulfilling prophecies often really do occur.  So do we really believe we will see God?  That we will be perfected?  For me the answer is...sometimes.  And it makes a world of difference when I do!