Destructiveness is the outcome of unlived life. To live by faith means to live productively. Faith in society is based on the idea that the potentialities of human beings are such that given the proper conditions people will be capable of building and fortifying a social order by the principles of equality, justice, and love. People have not yet fully realized the creation of such an order, and therefore the belief that we can do so requires faith that it will some day come true. However, like all rational faith the idea of an equitable, peaceful, and loving society is not simply wishful thinking, but it is based upon evidence of the past achievements of the human race and on the inner experience of each individual, on one’s own experience of reason, love and justice. We have faith in the potentialities of others, of ourselves, and humankind because we have experienced the growth of our own potentialities, the reality of growth in ourselves, the strength of our own power of reason and love. Having faith requires courage, the ability to take a risk, and even the readiness to accept pain and disappointment. Whoever insists on safety and security as primary conditions of life cannot have faith; whoever shuts oneself off in a system of defense, where distance and possession are one’s means of security, makes oneself a prisoner. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

To be loved, and to love, one needs courage, the courage to judge certain values as of ultimate concern. “Therefore, let us glory, we will glory in the Lord; we will rejoice, for our joy is full; we will praise God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Who can say too much of God’s great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of humans? Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state (Alma 26.16-17)?” The courage and faith we are speaking of is very different from living dangerously. The goal is to be righteous and protect life because we are capable of loving. It is the faith in life. Faith can be practiced at every moment. It takes faith to live, fall asleep, drive, or even walk down the street. It takes faith to start any work. All this requires faith and courage. To take the difficulties, setbacks, and sorrows of life as a challenge which to overcome makes us stronger, rather than as unjust punishment which should not happen to us requires faith and courage. Passing away is but a shadow cast by life. The divine spirit brought us into this World; it has never deserted us, and it will remain with us forever. We cannot wander away from God. It is destined by the divine will that good shall come at last alike to all. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

To love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love. The table of the Lord is forever spread and on it are the gifts of life, including health, happiness, joy, and success in living. Love is an activity; if I love, I am in a constant state of active concern with the loved of humanity. If we look for it, good can be found anywhere. Abundance can spring from want, peace from confusion, and joy from unhappiness, right where we are. The table of God is eternally spread, but, if we are too busy to come and eat, then we cannot expect to partake of the divine bounty. God’s abundance is an extravagant abundance; it is limitless. The divine spirit wishes us to have everything that is good and withholds nothing from us. It takes a broad vision to know that a piece of the sky and a portion of the Earth resides in the heart of every human being, and that if we are going to care for the heart of every human being, and that if we are going to care for that heart we will have to know the sky and Earth as well as human behavior. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

Eternity is in love with the productions of time. The soul prospers in an environment that is where there will always be mercy for our mistakes. This goodness and mercy will never forsake us, because there is a presence and a power that goes with us and is within us—the loving presence of the divine spirit and the all-conquering power of God. Therefore, nothing is more suitable for care of the soul than the family, because the experience of family includes so much of the particulars of life. In a family, we live close to people that we otherwise might not even want to talk to. Overtime we get to know them intimately. We earn their most minuscule, most private habits and characteristic. Family life is full of major and minor crises—the ups and downs of health, success and failure in career, marriage, and divorce—and all kinds of characters. It is connected to places and events and histories. With all of these felt details, life etches itself into memory and personality. It is difficult to imagine anything more nourishing to the soul. Fairness ethics lend themselves to confusion with the ethics of the Golden Rule. The maxim to do unto others as you would like them to do unto you can be interpreted as meaning be fair in your exchange with others. Love the neighbor as thyself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

To be active in thought, feeling, with one’s eyes and ears, throughout the day, to avoid inner laziness, be it in the form of being receptive, hoarding, or plain wasting one’s time, is an indispensable condition for the practice of the art of loving. It is an illusion to believe that one can separate life in which a way that one is productive in the sphere of love and unproductive in all other spheres. Productiveness does not permit of such a division of labor. The capacity to love demands a state of intensity, awakeness, enhanced vitality, which can only be the result of a productive and active orientation in many other spheres of life. If one is not productive in others spheres, one is not successful in love either. When things go wrong in society, we immediately inquire into the condition of family life. When we see society torn apart by crime, we think: If only we could return to the good old days when family was sacred. In modern society, the family can be both good and bad, offering both support and threat. This is why adults are so often ambivalent about visiting their families and spending time with them: they want the emotional rewards of the sense of connection, but they also want distance from painful memories and difficult adult relationships. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

By prayer and focusing on God everyday and thinking about the blessings God has provided us with and will continue to provide of with, one can try to re-create the World, to build up in its stead another World in which its most unbearable features are eliminated and replaced by others that are in conformity with one’s own wishes. We can pray that by distancing ourselves from others that we break negative patterns and that people will appreciate us more and that we will attract people into our lives that genuinely love us and care for us and want to protect us. No one wants to be encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction. We want to be brought into God’s everlasting light, into everlasting salvation; where we are encircled about with the matchless bounty of God’s love so we can be instruments in his hands of doing his great and marvelous work. If to love means to have a loving attitude toward everybody, if love it a character trait, it must necessarily exist in one’s relationship not only with one’s family and friends, but toward those with whom one is in contact through one’s work, business, education, and profession. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

Love is only the sane and satisfactory answer to the human existence. Fairness means not to use fraud and trickery in the exchange of commodities and services, and in the exchange of feelings. The exchange of goods and services should be determined either by direct force, by tradition, or by personal bonds of love or friendship. We must respect the rights of others. Love should not mean only to participate in the general fraud; only a martyr or an insane person can love in that type of World. We do not want to be unloving automations. Those who are seriously concerned with love as the only rational answer to the problem of human existence must, then, arrive at the conclusion that important and radical changes in our social structure are necessary, if love is to become a social and not highly individualistic, marginal phenomenon. All activities should not be subordinated to economic goals or else we will become a society where people are well fed, well clad, but without any ultimate concern for that which is our peculiarly human quality and function. If we are to be able to love, we must put love in our supreme place. Society must be organized in such a way that our social, loving nature is not separated from or social existence, but becomes one with it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Love is the ultimate and real need in every human being. To have faith in the possibility of love as a social and not only exceptional-individual phenomenon, is a rational faith based on the insight into the very nature of humanity. We are alive because God is alive. We live because God lives in us. The sum total of our psychological and emotional reactions surrounds us with a field of thoughts. “I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore, I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise God’s name forever (Alma 26.11-12).” This is true in everything we do. We are individual points in the consciousness of God or the original creative spirit of the Universe. The Lord or the law serves us, but first we must obey it. God is incarnated in us because of our complete cooperation based on unity. We must never try to coerce anything in dealing with the laws of nature. This is why we can have faith in God and patiently, cheerfully, and expectantly await the outcome, knowing that as we sow, so shall we reap. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8