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Silence Teaches Better than Words—Outer Life Suffers without Inner Life
Society need to have boundaries. As an interesting part of each human personality, each individual person has been endowed by creation with a collector’s instinct. We collect attitudes, skills, habits, and personality traits. “If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God,” reports President George Washington. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and the Greeks were the first to articulate the notion of natural law, the doctrine that human affairs should be governed by certain ethical principles. Being nothing more nor less than the nature of things, the principles of natural law can be understood by reason. Later, in the thirteenth century, the Italian priest and philosopher Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) gave the idea of natural law a new, Christian framework. He reported that natural law and Christianity were compatible because God created the natural law that established individual rights to life and liberty. We want to live the full and abundant life that God has promised us. Most people are serious about fulfilling their destiny and daily take steps of faith to put actions behind what we believe. We want our faith to active God’s favor and goodness. Through God, we will find the power to do what we once thought was impossible and know that extraordinary things are going to happen. Only then can we derive some perspective and clarity. We are expecting our miracle. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
However, our culture is becoming a mass of wannabe rebels who live in a society dangerously without limits. The West is no longer, vast, untamed, an expanse to be explored and defined by cowboys and cowgirls, pilgrims, free people, spiritualists, gold seekers, hippies, artist, and unique characters. It has become a state of rustlers, hustler, revolutionaries, and outlaws. Manifest destiny and the myth of expansion, so intertwined with our conceptions the American Dream and prosperity, is at an end. Without a way for us to restore order, we have no way to of challenge the accepted order or rebellion and chaos. McDonald’s burns, the Starbucks window is shattered, and the people who are supposed to benefit from this wait for their lives to get better, work for pennies a day, and dream of signature crafted fresh beef, made when you order, Quarter Pounder Burgers, with cheese. As a result of taxation without representation and price gauging, one million people have moved out of California because crime is high and housing is too expensive. Laws are passed without voter consent and the gas tax and half a dollar per gallon. The result is exhaustion, stagnation, erosion, decline, and hopelessness. People feel displaced from their true time, and those old souls feel the urge to be recognized, to be known for who they are. Theirs is the anger not of the usurped but of the redundant. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
There seems to be little left for traditional Americans to do but disappear. The kids are taking their cue from the adults and they are infused with ideas around rebellion and dissent. The old ways of life are gone. However, we are still trying to define ourselves using old precepts, antiquated ideas. We need a new way of understand what law and order is. Trapped between the extremes, we long for escape, a place where we are not constantly turn between unstable leadership and unaffordable lawless living. Our society is changing, as we do not necessarily have the tools to evolve with it. We seek to evoke the traditional ways and understandings, where Americans have priority and one could get a job at the supermarket and afford a house, even as we lapse into recession resulting from inconsequence, from our difficulty accessing what we have been told is our inalienable right: Justice, domestic tranquility, common defence, the general welfare, and the secure blessing of liberty to ourselves and posterity, as established by the United States Constitution. Still, we are concerned about the decline of real community and the rise of false individuality. Individuals are, essentially, powerless. Only communities can truly effect change in society. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The more division that infiltrates our behavior and lifestyle, the less we are able to band together and reform an ineffective government, support businesses the are good for the people and the planet, or start schools that are based on creativity, achievement, and foster a commitment to learning. We are alone together, reduced to endlessly trying to replicate the feeling of community that individuals once took for granted. So what went wrong? Many have perhaps underestimated the allure, power, and sheer intoxication of blood money and the idea of becoming famous in the age of enforced individuality and collapsing community. Only when we recognize the trap we are in can we even begin to start figuring out how to get free ourselves. We need more people willing to fight the injustices and inequalities, even if it is only affecting one individual and depriving that person of their constitutional and human rights. Ultimately, what we need is a conceptual methodology that will allow us to balance happiness with duty, the need for recognition with the need for self-recognized limits on the efficacies of egotism. We need a new way to understand the self within the context of our new global system of mass production and increasing opportunities for individual creativity played out in the endless beautiful suburban communities. The future depends not on what we can do to make ourselves feel momentarily better, but on going beyond temporary happiness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
We must learn to take an active role in our own sublimated desires. We can no longer afford to settle for anything less than what we have been promised. It is not to awaken consciousness that we struggle, but to sap power, to take power. We are different in many ways, but at our core we want similar things: a society of honesty, creativity, individuality, and communality. Because of our many differences lead to such core similarity, and at the heart of humanity is this urge for new experiences new patterns, and expanded truths, it is better to fail in an attempt to exercise faith than to let it lie dormant and fruitless. God never belittles those who attempt to follow him, but he does chasten those who refuse to attempt anything for him. Lying alone in bed, we should not see destruction, but opportunity—to start our lives anew, to fix behavior and patters of self-destruction that have shackled us. The gentle excavation of our pasts can ultimately shake us free from certain unreasonable situations and them finally, set into motion a series of promising life events. If we are caring, if we are charitable, if we are obedient to God and follow his teachings, our sacrifices will bring forth the blessings of Heaven. We have to find a personal well-spring of power to overcome self-indulgence and selfishness. Remind yourself that once you weather an unusually devastating storm, all other storms are easier to bear. You will most likely recover more quickly from each of the squall that follow. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
When we remind ourselves of the truths that our suffering has revealed, we can empty ourselves of the disillusionment that weighs us down and fill ourselves instead with the wonderful experiences and insights that life has to offer. Some may ask why we as a people and church quietly and constantly seek to change individual while there are such large problems about us. However, decaying cities are simply a delayed reflection of decaying individuals. The commandments of God give emphasis to improvement of the individual as the only real way to being about real improvement of society. The Lord works from the inside out. The World works from the outside in. The World would take people out of the slums. God takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. God changes people, who then change their environment. The World would shape behavior, but God can change human nature. Although suffering is always painful, it really is easier to take if you think of it as the key to emptiness, and emptiness as the key to spiritual growth. Stop struggling with life. We receive blessings from keeping all of God’s commandments, and we will be closer to the peace and happiness we once thought our illusions would bring. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Love is the Most Powerful Force in the Galaxy
Life is good—though not for the wicked one; returning to our Father in Heaven is good, because it will permit the soul to live an unhampered life. You can do so much good that it will astound you as you are changed and as you see other changed. The Lord wants you to have the greatest experiences as you make this journey on Earth. This can be a magnificent journey filled with literally thousands of tremendous experiences and spiritual confirmations if you will find your way through the many choices that will be yours along the way. When we harness the power of prayer, we wrap our wishes and dream with possibilities. Instead of limiting ourselves and cutting off our access to what we cannot necessarily anticipate, we maintain open minds and hearts. However, that is not always so easy, especially if the results you were hoping for are not forthcoming. Prayer is not about asking for certain results. Prayer helps us embrace the outcomes whether it is good or bad. We pray for strength, understanding, patience, and whatever else we need to pursue our dreams. Prayer clears away the debris that often prevent us from recognizing opportunities. The private conversations with God seem to underscore enduring faith in the World. The road given by our Father in Heaven is clearly marked, but the patterns and ways of the World can deceive you. Of all the paradoxes that help us detach from the ordinary plane of existence and connect with the spiritual plane, suffering that breeds a greater engagement in life is perhaps the most intriguing. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Life is eternal. The World that we live in provides us with the journey that will guide us back to God’s presence in Heaven to live eternally. However, while on Earth we all experience pain. How on Earth can a profoundly hurtful experience make anyone live life more fully? That any pleasure, or good, can come from pain seems impossible for anyone to believe. Yet suffering can be redemptive for all of us. The ability to turn suffering to our own advantage, not just at work, but in life allows one to approach painful experiences with an open mind, to make the best of them, learn from them, and get beyond them. Suffering leaves us open to whatever gifts may be available to us as we endure the loss of something we cherish, be it an object, a person, a belief, or a dream. Our suffering is nothing compared to the glory that is coming. If we stay moldable, pliable, and willing to change, we will not be as this same place next year. God will take every irritation and turn it into a blessing. If we want to receive the true benefits of our life experience, we must empty ourselves of expectations. To be filled with the gifts of life, we must first make room for them. God never promised that life would be fair. God did, however, promise that if you stay in faith, he would take what is meant for your harm and use it to your advantage. Nothing that happens to you is a surprise to God. That is why he arranged a comeback for every setback, a vindication for every wrong, and a new beginning for every disappointment. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Few of us open ourselves to redemptive suffering before we reach maturity. The first half of life does not typically present us with the kinds of grave losses that provoke the profound suffering most of us must experience before we open ourselves to events beyond those we wish and plan for. At a certain point in our adulthood, however, the truth behind illusions such as “I am in control,” “If I work hard, I will succeed,” “Life is fair,” and “If I am a good person, nothing bad will happen to me,” confronts us very directly. As much as we would like to hold on to these beliefs, it becomes increasingly hard to do as we experience serious career disappointments, problems with our loved ones, financial difficulties, the deaths of people we love. Just as a raging forest fire can level everything that stands in its way, consistent deep inner suffering can obliterate the very illusions that fanned the flames of suffering in the first place. If you will get over it, God will still get you to where you are supposed to be. Stop reliving all the hurt, and move forward, then you will come to the new beginning God has in store. Through redemptive suffering, we can survive the loss of these illusions, discover important truths, even experience spiritual growth. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Even one episode of deep suffering can destroy our damaging illusions. Fortunately, the deeper the pain, the greater the potential for growth. Changing the way we view suffering and learning to put its lessons to good use are two of the best ways to get the most our of our adult adventure. A true fall of humanity has never taken place. Actually, even when in a body, the soul still lives its original celestial life and remains unseparated from intelligence. Only we are not away of this hidden life of the soul; on other words, we are partly unconscious of what happens in our minds. What is true of the soul in relation to intelligence is even truer of the relation between our embodied selves and intelligence. Not even when present in us does intelligence discontinue its activity. With this knowledge and love, we can help transform hopes and dreams and help others find eternal truths and inward peace and security that it brings. To know the One means to become one with it, which the soul can accomplish only by becoming s simple or as along as the One. In the moment of such union the souls has become God or, rather, is God; the souls has reascended to its original source. This condition is described as ecstasy, simplicity, self-surrender, touching, and flight of the alone to the alone. This ecstasy is undoubtedly the climatic moment of a person’s life. It is not expressible in words; only one who has experienced it knows what it means to be ravished away and full of God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
For this renascent one prepares oneself by acquisition of all the perfections (virtues, aretai). However, each of these perfections acquires different meanings according to the level on which one’s spiritual life takes place—thus, there is a social fairness, above it another kind of fairness, and so on. One prepares oneself by the exercise of dialectics. The preliminary stages of achievement is becoming Godlike. The truly infinite is a thing which has no limits imposed on it from without but only from within. We should obey the divine command and “Know thyself.” Our true happiness consists and of the concept of self-knowledge. Spiritual substances and material can interact because God represents both and connect them. Human perceptions are an effect of God’s real vision. Spiritual and material things are both real because God represents them; material things are real in a further sense, as phaenomena substantiata, in so far as God represents them as real. This divine representation is the cause of the real existence of things; but we perceive only an appearance of this real existence. The logical difficulties of the concept of infinity, that space and time cannot exist outside of human representation. The soul, properly nurtured and purified, may escape from the changing World of appearance to a higher World that is eternal and divine. The soul that departs early from the Earth does not become warped and cramped by the body but returns to the other World unimpaired. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
It is no secret what God can do. Here is the answer to one of life’s greatest questions, “Who am I?” I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to Heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a young person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life. When we understand our relationship to God, we also understand our relationship to one another. All men and women on this Earth are the offspring of God, spirit brothers and sisters. What a powerful truth! Love is the most powerful force in the World. Love is not just an ecstasy, not just an intense feeling. It is a driving force. It is something that carries us through our life of joyful duty. The idea of eternal progress is one of the most powerful ideas in our theology. It gives us hope that when we falter and challenge is when we soar. And we can pray to our Heavenly Father, and he will hear our prayers and help us in the way that is best for us. We can always be in touch with a powerful friend who loves us and helps us, in his own time and in his own way. Life on Earth is more good than evil. The human enjoys pleasures that outweigh one’s pains. The greatest pleasures come from intellectual pursuits and virtuous actions; a life so spent brings happiness in this World and leads to eternal felicity in the next. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Blaming is an Unrighteous Form of Communication
It has been from the beginning and it will be till the end of time that people will have a tendency to rationalize and blame their behavior on other or certain circumstances. The growth of the mind is the widening of consciousness, each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement. Even tenacious individualists are eventually consumed by what is going on around them, the necessary constraints of socialization in a World where solitary physical and mental spaces are increasingly difficult to come by. There is an urge to escape, to find a spot where no one knows or cares who you are, and disappear so you can focus on this idea of remaining true to yourself at all costs. Against the suffering which may come upon one from human relationships the readiest safeguard is voluntary isolation, keeping oneself aloof from other people. The happiness which can be achieved along this path is, as we see, the happiness of quietness. Against the dreaded external World, one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself. We are motivated by the goal of self-preservation, and we know that we are mortal. This is why many people invest in a supernatural belief system that paves the way for immortality. As human beings, we are capable of reflecting on the mysteries of life and celebrating the magnificence we find. Humans are religious in part because religious faith helps alleviate the fear of death by offering a means to transcend mortality, to achieve some kind of perception of eternal life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Studies show that people reminded of their mortality subsequently report greater levels of religiosity as well as belief in afterlife. When we are actively able to replay our sacred moments at will, one will find that a connection to the deeper, more meaningful side of life becomes part of our daily existence rather than a once-in-a-blue-moon stroke of luck. When we discover the power of our divine moments, we will discover a well that will renew the spirit and keep us fully alive. It is important to devour these divine moments, no matter where we are; they are one of the best ways to nourish the soul. These things of ordinary life that enchant us toward eternity appears to be a fully Earthly relationship reminding us that human love is not as simple as it appears. Love releases us into the realm of divine imagination, where the soul is expanded and reminded of its unearthly cravings and needs. Love allows one to see the true angelic nature of the environment and people around us. Charity is everlasting love. Faith is belief in revealed truths. It is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together—something that connects all life but is also eternal. Ultimately the object of faith is God himself, who is not, however, known by the human mind in his divine simplicity but only discursively and by means of propositions. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
We are instructed to let all bitterness, and anger, and evil speaking be put away. However, at some point, the trap of fatalism is quite compelling. Many men and women have seen in their companies and communities, a full range of self-serving, power hungry, unethical, and immoral behavior undertaken in the name of the organization, the city, the state, and the nation. They have witnessed the destructive power of human frailty. It is natural for people to become numb, disenfranchised, or themselves corrupted, or even operate morally in, a system so pervasively warped by evil. Some people voice hopelessness over the way their children are growing up in a World that suddenly seems filled with drugs, alcohol, violence, and life-threatening infirmaries. Those conditions make a lot of people feel that the very survival of an entire generation of children is threatened. A wave of destruction puts our planet at risk. The global economy is failing us, too; we seem unable to stem the tide of money flowing away from those who need it and into the pockets of those who merely want more of it. Everywhere we look we find a mind-boggling number of ethical questions about how we should be using our resources and time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
We have the power to control carnal communication. However, with so much hate, violence, greed, and wrongdoing around us, it can be difficult to see much good in the World. Dispirited, too many of us simply throw our hands up in defeat. We do not necessarily give ourselves over to evil, we begin to feel it is futile to fight it. We begin t expect nothing will ever improve. However, what is important is that we recognize that our attitudes—including our fatalism—are at the crux of the World’s problem. Imagine an Earth without evil, a planet is that holy good. Being human would have no particular meaning. Since the dawn of complex human consciousness, humankind has believed that our freedom is based on the principal that we get to make our own choices. Choosing to be good would have no value unless goodness existed in opposition with its polar conflicting agenda: evil. Every situation, every institution, and every person has the conscious decision to choose evil or good. What makes good and evil is what we choose to do with our lives. Your intent, rather than the action itself, is paramount. Yet keep in mind, behavior undertake for good does not always bear the product of its intent, any more than evil motives always bring evil outcomes. All reason knows is that God is the eternal, ever-present, and creative source of anything that does (or can) exist. Creation and preservation are identical. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
These paradoxical expressions are required in order to affirm the truth that while creatures own their being to God as their first cause, they also act according to secondary cause that are appropriate to their natures. And sometimes what people mean to harm us, God turns it around and makes a situation that benefits us. Also, some people may be offended by events are meant for their well-being, even if there was no bad intent. God, as first cause, can suspend or transform secondary causes in order to perform his will. When he does so, his action is called a miracle. A miracle does not violate nature. It is a case of nature behaving in an abnormal way through a special act of the same creative power which is at work in the normal processes that can be subsumed under scientific laws. Miraculous acts are not less natural than nonmiraculous ones. However, while the abnormal character of an event is empirically verifiable, its miraculous character as an act of God can be discerned by faith alone. A wide range of schools of psychology also recommend owning up to one’s tendencies toward good and evil, in the belief that coming to terms with both inclinations is a means to healthy emotional, social, and spiritual development in adulthood. Many of our evil tendencies remain hidden, even from ourselves, until maturity provides us with the imperative to confront them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
There may be hearts that are suffering in silence. The individual struggle to prevail over the feelings of evil powers that invade each of us produces the tension that gives birth to both moral action and creativity. This inner struggle is at the heart of our sense of personal freedom. Quantum physics indicates that the power of expectation can change the behavior of subatomic particles and energy waves. Energy is momentum (the product of mass and velocity) or vis viva. In all the Universe the same quantity of living force is always conserved. The apparent loss of living force in inelastic collisions is usually explained away by the hypothesis that the invisible small parts of matter gain energy just as much as the macroscopic bodies seem to lose. This is extended into a belief that what you think is what you get, literally. That is why people believe we are actually bringing more of that evil on ourselves by focusing on negative thoughts, negative news, or the evil in others. From a religious, psychological, and practical standpoint, it stands to reason that we have a vested interest in changing our attitudes, even if evil seems too powerful to oppose. Before we can hope to conquer the evil that is out there, we must face the part of us that gives in to these vices, that allows us to lose hope in the face of negativity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
The real challenge that we face in our communications with others is to condition our hearts to have Godlike feelings for all of Heavenly Father’s children. Many people have never missed a meal, been cold, slept on the ground, never had any real-life experiences, never bled. So how can you expect them to have any real material? Still, that does not make them bad people nor mean that one should go out of their way to make them experience hardship and pain just because you have. Meeting our own shadow can be a painful and frightening experience. Our shadows represent the unknown parts of ourselves that are too reprehensible, incongruent, or forbidding to incorporate into our conscious personality. Typically, those of us afraid of evil within project those traits onto others in the World. Projection is the easiest way to avoid dealing with our own darker traits, impulses, and actions. Projection is a way of blaming others so we do not have a guilty conscious. Spiritual growth requires the acknowledgment of one’s own imperfection. The destructive power of evil is linked to the inability to admit personal sinfulness, and the corresponding tendency to see others as bad instead. Fortunately, inner exploration means more than facing personal weakness. Looking closely at oneself also allows for rediscovery of spiritual strengths. True individuality is all about an ability to shift and change and take advantage of circumstances without abandoning a core truth and confidence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Heavenly Father has given us a priceless gift in our capacity to communicate with each other. Our communications are at the core of our relationships with others. If we are to return home safely to Heavenly Father, we must develop righteous relationships with His children here in mortality. Our communications reflect in our countenance. Therefore, we must be careful not only what we communicate, but also how we do so. Souls can be strengthened or shattered by the messages and the manner in which we communicate. Integrity is the core of our character. Without integrity we have a weak foundation upon which to build righteous character. Negative criticism is intended to hurt and often defame and to destroy. Even if you are under attack by a lot of people, at some point it is just best to ignore what they say and do because you do not want to become like them. This caustic communication is cruel, and it tends to crush the character of all those about whom it is directed. We should not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably. May we be found communicating with each other in a manner in which the Savior would communicate. Godlike communications are expressed in tones of love rather than loudness. They are intended to be helpful rather than hurtful. They tend to bind us together rather than to drive us apart. They are tools to build relationships rather than to belittle. “God knows thoughts and intent of heart,” reports Alma 18.32. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
When We Risk Being Ourselves We Can Master Interpersonal Happiness
Society exists because, as a matter of fact, by far the greater number of people have the kind of feeling that make it possible. There is a constant prayer in our hearts that we will not fail in the great trust God has placed in us so we can build faith and testimony and which will become answered prayers for those who will here. There are three basic principles that can help us retain a remission of our sins: first, to remain humble; second, to call upon the Lord daily; and third, to stand steadfast in the faith. Humility has been described as having the desire to submit to the Lord, the wish to seek the Lord’s will and glory, and the yearning to remove narcissism. We should always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and his goodness and long-suffering towards us. Inasmuch as we are humble we might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time. Prayer is one of the greatest blessings we have while here on Earth. Through prayer we can communicate with our Heavenly Father and seek his guidance daily. We should pray each day that we will have the power to resist temptation, as our daily prayers influence our thoughts, words, and actions. In order to retain a remission of our sins, it is essential that we ask our Heavenly Father every day for the strength to stay on the righteous path. To sustain faith, each of us must be humble and compassionate, kind and generous. Faith is further sustained by daily doses of spirituality that come to us as we kneel in prayer. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Our observation of an instance of virtuous action is the occasion for a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction, which enables us to distinguish that action as virtuous. Similarly, our observation of an instance of vicious action is the occasion for a feeling of pain or uneasiness, which enables us to distinguish that action as vicious. The moral sense is also an influencing motive in our pursuit of virtue and our avoidance of vicious behavior, and it play a part in our bestowal of praise and blame. Besides accounting for our knowledge of right and wrong, the moral sense closes the gap between moral knowledge and moral behavior by providing a motive for moral behavior. Since moral knowledge consists of feeling of pleasure and uneasiness, the prospect of enjoying or avoiding these feelings is a sufficient motive for pursuing virtue and avoiding vice. If moral knowledge were not ultimately a matter of feelings, it would be possible for someone to know that a certain kind of action is virtuous but still have no motive for doing it. The moral sense also enables us to account for our approval and condemnation of actions and characters as following from our being pleased of pained by them. Sometimes society invents prohibitions together with the means of transgressing them. The profit-mongering gatekeepers keep us at bay, replacing interpersonal communication with ever-more-extreme pseudo-participator entertainments. Entertainment today stimulates then inhibits us. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
A person may know that a certain way of acting may have a certain result, but in order for one to achieve that result, he or she must first find it pleasing. Inhibited by what stimulates us—the Worldly ways that becomes ever more extreme teach people that life is all about preaching transgression and rebellion for the greater good of humanity. It is a doctrine that teaches people to behave badly and reap the rewards of notoriety and celebrity. However, it just to happens that God determined us to be pleased by benevolent actions; and when nothing interfere with moral sense, we count benevolence a virtue and malevolence a vice. Some people have a preferring for the destruction of society over its maintenance. Whenever there is a tragedy, there is a tourist attraction because when Worldly ways merge into the new conformity, people who are lost, confused or led astray start to feel entitled to engage in whatever antics bring them pleasure, or makes them feel important. Many people then start to get off on transgression. And with more and more people joining them on the sites of tragedy tour, the ungodly behavior gets more raw, intense, and pervasive than ever before. Gratuitous violence is portrayed as a way to protest violence because there are preplanned acts of extreme spontaneity that allows individuals to take advantage of a World in which the cameras are always ready, trained on whatever is about to happen. When one no longer finds a need for a faculty psychology, the need to search for a moral faculty goes too. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Is it any wonder that the once unheard-of phenomenon of fans randomly attacking celebrities while they are in public or in their homes has become yet another commonplace occurrence? One of the most infamous of these incidents was the stabbing of tennis teen Monica Seles in the middle of a match. Or the tripping and throwing water on journal list Tomi Lahren at a restaurant while she was with her family. Another journalist, Sara Zendehnam, had a huge rock thrown at her head during a live report, which luckily, she was able to evade. Someone we the stage during Aaliyah’s performance so when she came out on stage she slipped and fell. Paris Hilton was threatened and extorted for money by hackers, and someone pretended a plane she was on was about to crash just to scare her. There has been a fundamental shift out on fandom’s fringe, today’s intruders and insiders want to be part of the show. People want to ne noticed, and they will spend the night, five years, or life in jail just to get their name in the paper. Getting noticed is no longer achieve by working hard in school, creating a fantastic invention, or becoming the young to graduate from law school because stabbings, shootings, and beatings are more likely to attract media attention. People realize the violent or radical acts seem to please the television news producers because their shock value is a surefire way to boost ratings and is a cheap form of entertainment for them. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Another part of popular culture was slavery. William Ford was from Ireland, and he arrived in Jamaica in 1784 having bought a coffee plantation. Not long after his arrival, he purchased a woman who was enslaved and took her as his concubine. Mr. Ford first noticed her on the docks at Alligator Pond, a fishing village on the south coast. She was an Igbo noble woman from West Africa. They had a son, whom they named John. He was, in the popular language of the day, a mulatto; John was colored—and all the Fords from that point on fell on into Jamaica’s colored class. They were seen as potential allies for the Whites because the Blacks were the majority. However, in the American South during that same period, it would have been highly unusual for a White landowner to have such a public relationship with an enslaved person. Relationships between Blacks and Whites were considered morally repugnant. Laws were passed prohibiting interracial relationships, the last of which were not struck down by the United States Supreme Court until 1967. A plantation owner who lived openly with an enslaved person would have been socially ostracized, and any offspring from the Union of White and Black would have been left in slavery. Therefore, it is important to be careful of who we vote into office and know what they stand for because it is possible that slavery could become a reality again. And that is why illegal acts that are part of popular culture are dangerous. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
Whatever that becomes accepted as normal, and is dangerous, has a possibility of becoming legal through our legislative process. We have seen how Jerry Brown illegal made California a state where people who unlawfully enter our country are shielded from the laws, and even given money for their legal defense, while an estimated 5,000 Americans on the island of Puerto Rico were killed in a storm or by the aftermath of it, and Jerry Brown nor other politicians, besides the President, as allocating funds to help restore the American Island. Also, there are people waiting in line to legally enter the United States of America, but they may not get the chance because illegal immigrants have a priority. And after what happened on 11 September 2001, we need to be very careful about who we let into our country and we need to know who they are so we do not become victims. It is not right that Jerry Brown and other politicians are helping people break the law and putting us all at risk, while Americans suffer and die. I bet if 5,000 illegal immigrants were killed by a tragedy, the American people would be outraged. Put into practice and taken to its extreme, the right to individuality is the right to claim pleasure for oneself regardless of the consequences, and that is exactly what Jerry Brown is doing, putting his own agenda first, before the American people. However, those who live righteously and call upon the Lord daily will have a greater power to retain a remission of their sins. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
For most of us, in fact, the World clamors for attention the moment we open our eyes. We are blessed to live in a land where laws matter and protect us. We cannot allow criminals to start making illegal actions legal as any of our legal protections can be taken away at any moment by heretics with a malevolent agenda. “Those who embark in the service of God, see that you serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that you may stand blameless for before God at the last day,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 4.2. Lift up your hearts and rejoice, and take upon you the full armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil and receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified. We should try to achieve a state of deep physiological relaxation, often called the alpha state by researchers who distinguish relative degrees of alertness by transducing brain chemistry into electrical impulses that can be graphed and observed on an oscilloscope. An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of varying signal voltages to display the waveform of brain as an electrocardiogram. Brain researchers have named the lowest level of alertness—i.e., the deepest state of relaxation—the alpha or first state. When you allow yourself to relax to this degree, you replenish your adaptive energy supply, increase your capacity to be creative because the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will be filled with joy. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Having received a remission from sin, and having a peace of conscience because of your exceeding faith, you will put yourself in the position of thinking more effectively when you return to your fully conscious state. Be on the lookout for a moment in your daily life that you believe to be worthy of an extended period of relaxation. Attractive objects, providential circumstances, and nature scenes lend themselves especially well to the alpha state of relaxation. This will allow one to grow in the knowledge of the Lord and in knowledge of that which is just and true. There will be no mind to injury one another, but there will be a desire to live at peace with one another. Parents will discipline their children with love and teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness. People will love one another and be kind and administer relief to others both spiritually and temporally. What greater blessing could we ask for? May God grant that we may retain a remission of our sins. God lives. What is most astounding will be the way the experience makes you feel. It will feel one with the kind of calm yet spirited enthusiasm that people feel in their youth and innocence. When individuals feel enthusiasm for doing virtuous things, you are one with God because a pathway is opened and into it is the beauty of human existence. When body, mind, and spirit converge, astounding physical and mental accomplishments are produced without strain or struggle. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
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Soon Goes to Rest in Paradise of God—The Voice of God is in the Heart
The Universe works in mysterious ways. The voice of God is in the human heart. To rest in God means we take refuge in his protective care. Sometimes blessing take a little while because God is creating a harvest beyond your wildest dreams. The mind of the individuating person should remain contemplative as the spirit converses and assimilates with the unconscious. God, who is the creator of the World, is fully in harmony with the laws of nature, which God himself has implanted in the World for its governance. By the grace of God some exceptional persons may be born with a thoroughly sinless nature. Respect the voice of conscience as the voice of God in the soul of human beings and be encouraged to develop a spirit free of inquiry in all directions. When your decisions are always full of fear, you deny the best that is in you. That is a sin against yourself and probably the biggest sin of all. Traveling the road of exceptional competence will spur your mental mastery, your physical vigor, and your emotional vitality. With your roles in synchronous flow with your values, everything you do has greater meaning. It will give birth to an inner voice that awakens the soul. It is not necessary to dwell on the past. Make room in your mind for the new things God wants to do. Do not let these temporary provisions become permanent. If we can learn this principle of having faith and not settling, then we will see the fullness of what God has in store and make it all the way to the promised land. “Only those who repent and harden not their hearts shall enter the Lord’s rest,” reports Alma 12.34-37. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Care of the soul means respecting its emotions and fantasies however objectionable. Great miracles have taken place. All kind of good thing have happened. We cannot be contained. Just as researcher has charted the course of healthy mental, physical, emotional, and social development across the life span, contemporary scientists and theologians have recently attempted to map out how human beings grow spiritually. God put this dream in our hearts, and as long as we stay in faith, nothing can shut in down. When God created us, he put a spirit of increase on the inside. We were never made to reach one level and stop. We were created to grow, to move forward, and to prosper. We should be constantly surpassing the barriers of the past, taking new ground for our families and advancing in God’s kingdom. However, throughout life there will always be forces trying to deprive us. When we reflect on the tragedies of our own loves, when we slowly find our way through their miseries, we are being initiated into the mysterious ways of the soul. They cannot stop the progress we have made, but they will do their best to contain us, to keep us isolated, alienated, and struggling as a method of limiting our influence. Yet, keep in mind, the force of God is in you and it is greater than anything that has ever existed. Keep increasing your faith, look for new opportunities, new idea, and new ways to expand your influence. “Have love of God always in your hearts, that you may enter into his rest,” reports Alma 13.29. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
God made you for more, to influence more, to accomplish more, to love more, to give more, and to have more. Love is the means of entry and our guide. God will take you places you never dreamed us and provide opportunities that will establish amazing influence. As individual belief is tested in the real World, young adults reconsider and redefine spirituality, often relinquishing the narrow views they were taught as youngsters and embracing the universality of spiritual principles and practices; this expansion of spiritual viewpoint may allow them to find spiritual meaning in art, architecture, automobiles, nature, and more. If we can honor love as it presents itself, taking shapes and directions we would never have predicted or desired, then we will enter a deeper sense of awe and mystery of life; a wise understanding of the collective legends, religions, and traditions; and the potential to be a spiritual leader. Still, love asks many things of us, including actions that seem to be utterly counter to feelings of attachment and loyalty. That is why the signs we are ready to grow in spirit sometimes appear in the form of both curses and blessings. We may experience severe episodes of disillusionment with life, or periods of profound awe and reverence for the miracle of existence—or both at once. “Obtain sufficient hope by which you can enter into rest of the Lord,” reports Moroni 7.3. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The fluctuations in the rhythms of life calling us to spiritual serenity will continue as we walk along our path, which can be frustrating and fulfilling. Nelson Mandela was put in prison because he opposed the government of apartheid. Apartheid is an official policy of racial segregation promulgated in the Republic of South Africa. He could have thought that he did his best, gave it his all and supposed it was not meant for him to be successful. However, Mr. Mandela knew God intended to increase his influence is use that source of discrimination and human rights violations to increase his influence and give him a testimony of how his faith in God and perseverance increased his power and influence. After twenty-seven years in prison, Mr. Mandela walked out of prison a free man. He eventually became the president of South Africa and won a Nobel Peace Prize. What God has destined for your life will come to fulfillment. Even to define God generally as a superhuman or supernatural being that controls the World is inadequate. God is unquestionable transcendent. God is the pure and unsullied Ming of the Universe, transcending virtue, transcending knowledge, transcending good itself. No one has ever seen God and our knowledge of him is like a confused reflection in a mirror. The divine substance exceeds by its immensity every form which our intellect attains, so while we know that God is (quod sit) we cannot know his essence or what he is (quid sit). “We have labor to perform, that we may conquer enemy and rest our souls in kingdom of God,” reports Moroni 9.6. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
God moves the World in the sense that he endues form from its material structure by inspiring it, through a series of subordinate movers or intelligences, to love him as its end or goal. Being wholly good, and therefore free from jealousy, he wished everything to be like himself. Since an intelligent being is superior to an unintelligent one, and since intelligence cannot be present in anything that is devoid of soul, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature best. When the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for spreading the good news, his captors thought they were containing him. Paul could have become discouraged and given up. Instead, he proceeded to draft much of the New Testament from a prison cell and is still profoundly influencing us today. What does it mean to you that God has made you uncontainable? What charity of greatness are waiting to forge a foundation and flourish in your life? Take more time in your day to reflect on the meaning of events. If we do not struggle to find more satisfying answers to these fundamental questions during our life journeys, later in life we risk facing fear and anger as our main companions. However, if we can begin to ponder these questions, we open ourselves to a spiritual awakening that makes the rest of our lives a deeper, richer experience than we imagined possible. There is no limit to the methods by which one can access peace and meaning. Truth is where you find it. “May God’s mercy and long-suffering rest in your mind forever,” reports Moroni 9.25. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The spiritual journey has many rewards independent of the answers that are sought. Through spirituality, one can make leaps of understanding that defy the limits of the mind; connect with others, and the World around, at levels never before experienced; and eliminate much of the fear and doubt that often plagues the emotional life. Nothing is ever wasted in the Kingdom of God. Not one tear, not all our pain, not the unanswered question nor the seemingly unanswered prayers. If we give our lives to God, nothing will be wasted. And if we are willing to be patient until the grace of God is made manifest, whether it takes a day, a month, a week, or a decade, it will be worth the wait. Take your tie on this pathway—there are people who dedicate their whole lives to the important pursuit you are about to undertake. Although you may find you can share with and learn from other spiritual journeyers, the answers you find are meant for you. Feel the experience fully, and live what answers are offered. Ultimately, your connections with your values will allow you to regulate your emotions in order to avoid giving into temptation and acting impulsively. It is important that we are able to control our emotions instead of being controlled by them. “Spirit and body shall reunite in perfect form,” reports Alma 11.43. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would a person claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of humans and citizens. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
We Must Continue in Patience Until We are Perfected
We find that fear has been a part of the history of individuals ever since the World began. However, let your life stand as a beacon to all as someone who magnificently developed one’s own gifts through facing challenges. It takes a particular brand of cynicism to profitably run an extreme culture outfit. The media and entertainment industry cynically and blatantly prey on the cravings of naïve people. They clearly know their audience and why they are attracted to these prophets of the perverse. Tribulations, afflictions, and trials will constantly be with us in our sojourn here in this segment of eternity. The Savior reported in John 16.33, “In the World we shall have tribulation.” Therefore, the great challenge in this Earthly life is not to determine how to escape the afflictions and problems, but rather to carefully prepare ourselves to meet them. There is evidence of the increasingly virulent strain of extreme individuality that the new conformity to Worldly values is giving rise to. In an era where everybody is special, people are starting to believe that you have to go the extra mile. They think they have to do things like a reporter once did, he had on-camera live liposuction in front of a studio audience to boost his ratings and get notoriety. Gross sells, and so does anger, outrage, and evil. Extreme emotion expressed in extreme ways. The goal of this kind of entertainment is descried as the creation of pure and unrelated presents in time. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
In other words, entertainment will do whatever is necessary to rescue us from what is perceived as the mundane realities of daily life. This has always been the project of popular culture: to give us a sense of aliveness amid a reductive system of anonymous power subsources reducing us to various categories of crowd. Therefore, we must prepare ourselves because to overcome this Worldly behavior demands persistent effort to develop patience as a personal attribute. In practicing patience, one comes to understand it and to acquire it. Do not allow your hearts to be faint, as though some strange thing is happening unto us, for we have seen these things beforehand, and have an assurance of a better hope than that of our persecutors. God has made us strong and able to endure burdens. We glory in our tribulation, because we know that God is with us, that he is our friend, and that he will save our souls. We must have patience in order to withstand pain and grief without complaint or discouragement, which detract from the Spirit. It is necessary to have patience in the face of tribulation and persecution for the cause of truth, which sets an example because the manner in which we bear our cross will be an influence to others to help lighten their load. Patience must be our constant companion during the journey which carries us toward that great goal. We must continue in patience until we are perfected. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
It should be made clear that we are not talking here about a passive patience which waits only for the passing of time to heal or resolve things which happen to us, but rather a patience that is active, which makes things happen. By being patient, we have to continue to do things well. Patience in affliction and adversity means to persist firmly and never forsake that which we know to be true, standing firm with the hope that in the Lord’s due time we will gain an understanding of that which we do not understand now and which causes us suffering. One lady remembers her parents standing in the doorway, talking to each other. “We have no more money.” At that time Jamaica had no public high schools nor universities. Those with academic inclinations took extra classes with the head teacher in their teenage years and with luck made it into teachers’ college. Those with broader ambitions had to somehow find their way into a private school and from there to a university in the United States or England. However, scholarships were few and far between, and the cost of private schooling was prohibitive for all but a privileged few. The parents of the young lady had paid the tuition for the first term of high school and bought the uniforms and had exhausted their savings. What would they do when the second-term fees for their daughter came due? And they could not send one daughter to school and not the other. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
The grandmother of the young ladies was steadfast. She sent both—and prayed—and at the end of the first term, it turned out that one of the other girls at the school had won two scholarships, so the second was given to the young lady in need. Making the effort to concern yourself with more than your own need is rewarding. We are all Heaven sent. We are the beautiful adornment of the human race. Our roles are special and unique in the Lord’s work. It is important that we have a strong faith, work hard, nurture others, and act as caregivers with the feelings of charity and benevolence. It is important to display acts of faith, devotion, obedience, and righteousness. No matter what circumstances we experience, our influence can be marvelously far-reaching. Some people have a tendency to underestimate their profound blessing in the lives of others. More often than not, like the girl who shared her scholarship with a student in need, it is not on the stage with some public pronouncement but in one’s example of righteousness and the countless gentle acts of love and kindness done so willingly, so often on a one-to-one basis. On occasions when you ache for that acceptance and affection which belong to family life on Earth, please know that Our Father in Heaven is aware of your anguish, and that one day he will bless you beyond your capacity to express. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
When the key is turned to you in the name of God, knowledge and intelligence shall flow down from this time. This blessing of knowledge and intelligence comes to all righteous people. Thee blessings flow to those who willingly perform the work of Angels. It is very substantial to make our homes a refuge of peace and happiness in a troubled World, which is healing from its infirmary. When we stand before the bar of God, there will be little mention of how much wealth we have accumulated in life or of any honors which we may have achieved. However, there will be searching questions concerning our domestic relations. Many are convinced that those who have walked through life with love and respect and appreciation will receive from our eternal Father the words, “Well done, you are a good and faithful person, enter into the joy of your Lord.” Sustain and be encouraged in your many callings. Be grateful for deep love that you are blessed with. If you want to have a sense of belonging and peace, it is your job as a child of God to match your inner drive to become your best self with how you can benefit in the World. The real barrier to happiness is fear. Fear of failing, fear of success, fear of financial losses, and fear of the unknown all hold us back from our destiny. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Fear is a deterrent to growth and change throughout life. The only reason any of us finally risks anything is that the potential rewards outweigh the potential strain. Think of some of the risks you have taken in the past. The promised benefits must have been worthwhile enough for you to move through your fear and go for the prize. Leaving home for college or a career, asking for a date, and traveling to a new city or country are all risk you have taken because the possible reward was greater than the possible failure. Studies show that the act of risk-taking itself—independent of the success or failure of the venture—increases one’s self-esteem. Fear is the overriding challenge to be met in all significant human endeavors. Why is fear part of Earth life? Perhaps our Heavenly Father’s greatest hope is that through our fears we may choose to turn to him. The uncertainties of Earth life can help to remind each of us that we are dependent on God. However, that reminder is not automatic. We must choose to take our fears to God, chose to trust him, and choose to allow him to direct us. Moving beyond fear and taking goal directed action is the primary requirement for evolving into a full-fledged person. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Unless we face the reality that fear can stifle us. Working increases our abilities, and as you feel your abilities increase, you will feel more secure. If we recognize that we must live God’s commandments and pray to him, there are things he will direct us to do that will help calm our fears. These actions often require great courage and direction from the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost may help us to understand when and with whom we should share our fears and try to do things that we have never done before. There is no getting around fear. It has to be faced directly. Our Heavenly Father brings peace, a respite from fear and anxiety. We only need to worry about pleasing the Lord and some of our fears will evaporate. Remember how you felt when you applied for a job your never thought you could get, bought a house you never thought you could afford, or gave a speech in public that you were scared you would mess up? Remember how you felt as you neared the moment of truth—exhilarated, anxious, full of energy—and the wonderful release you experience once you reached the point of no return and succeeded? What a blessing and a relief to be past the fear barrier, on your way to success. Even if we fail sometimes, at least we have overcome that uncertainty, worry, and stress. We are always doing what we cannot do yet in order to learn how to do it. Psalms 27.1 reports, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Serve God Out of Love and Not Out of Expectation of a Reward
The World could be so much richer than the World we have settled for. Immortality is a grace with which the soul was endowed by the will and power of God, and consequently it can be destroyed by the will and power of God if it has proved itself unworthy of the grace bestowed on it. Human knowledge of God is largely dependent upon the psychological dispositions of the individual. The true purpose of human nature is to be found in the contemplation of God. While God knows all things in one perfect, unchanging act of knowledge, things do not thereby exist in God in such a way that they share his essence. The intellectual conflicts of the age have to do with the fact the majority of people are losing interest in authenticity. They want more of the fake. If we live in a fake World, then we will embrace that fake World by making it our special World. For instance, the primary goal of many travelers is neither to lie passively in the Sun nor to discover a culture different from their own. They go on vacation for one reason only: to be entertained. For must of us, discovering what we are born to do is no easy task. Neither is pursuing our destiny once we have found it. However, those individuals who are at this very moment living our their most deeply felt life scripts (and we all now at least one person in this category) prove to us that such alignment is possible, and wonderful. However, if what we do or make is not up to our standards and does not reflect attention and care when we stand back to look at it, the soul suffers. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
The whole society suffers a wound to soul if we allow ourselves to do bad work. When it is not possible to feel good about our work, then soulful pride, so necessary for creativity, turns into narcissism. Whether your calling is acting or farming, engineering or raising children, building houses or helping others feel good—and whether you believe the calling is the result of some cosmic force or simply the real you struggling to get out—how you reconcile your survival needs with your inner urges to give to the World is one of the most important factors in your happiness and sense of self-worth. Do a little soul-searching. Far less attention is given to the nature of human beings and the soul than to the purpose of why human beings were created and their dignity as the image of God. The powers of the soul on the levels of sense, reason, and free will are considered almost exclusively in their relation to divine grace. We have rational standards of human nature or of law pertaining to our own natural dignity as the image of God, the supernatural gift of grace, and the indwelling of the Spirit. With the likeness to God, our goal is of ethic and human life. The individual has an absolute need of grace for virtuous acts, and under that grace, we must do good despite the weaknesses of human nature. The result should be a moral doctrine that is for more optimistic, beneficial, and righteous than negative in character, an ethic of dignity. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Many people are buying a version of individuality and rebellion. Their doctrines tell them: Be who you are, do your own thing, but pay for it with your credit card and please no swearing, there are kids present. How would you characterize the overall quality of your life’s work and experience? Does one year roll into the next, not much different from the one before, or does each year bring exciting challenges and achievements? When someone asks what you do, do you respond proudly, optimistically, or offhandedly, apologetically? Do you wake up each day excited to begin your day, and go to bed each night satisfied that the goal you are struggling for is worthwhile? Does it fit who you are? Do we really want our memories to be given to us by disillusioned set designers, off kilter reporters, and leaders who do not care about how their love-hate attraction and their work is reshaping the World? Of course not. We want our memories to be personal, unique. However, the more we seek precrafted entertainment as the primary focus of our lives, as a way to give the meaning to our lives that these heretics promises us our lives should have, the more our memories are shared, colonized, and implanted. Meaningful is different for different people, but in general, a meaningful life is one lived according to one’s most deeply held values, truest talents, and unique capacity to leave this World—which includes family, neighborhood, workplace, church, profession, children, the environment—a little better off for one’s having been there. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Human destiny is marked by struggle and suffering, and freedom, which we understand as partly the struggle for national liberty. God and matter are coeternal. Mind and body are opposed principles both ontologically and axiologically. Mind originates in Heaven, whereas body belongs to the real of temporality. The body is the physical shackles of the soul; passions lay people below the beats, whereas mind makes people equal to immortals. The urge (and ability) to leave a beneficial mark on the World is nature’s way of elevating us to the plane of self-discovery. Most of us have a vague sense of what we were born to do. Unfortunately, some people feel s consumed by their jobs and their extracurricular activities the way they are currently constituted that they bypass the opportunity to cultivate new ways to contributing what they want most to contribute. Many people protest that they are unable to adopt new life visions because they cannot disappoint their families, jeopardize their financial security, or make the changes they deem necessary to be happy. Losing the ability to feel productive or to earn income, experiencing the loss of the empty nest, skill obsolescence, or just plain bad lucky often catapults people into examining what it is they would really like to be doing for the next twenty or thirty years. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
The World is made up of opposed and dangerous forces at permanent war. Both knowledge of the World and of the existence of God derived therefrom are flashed upon the mind suddenly and simultaneously by divine inspiration. Through this struggle, order emerges out of chaotic disorder, and spiritual power triumphs over great confusion. Struggle and suffering are not mere evils, but have a beneficial, creative aspect as well. The spark appears only after the flint is struck hard, and the soul that has endured temptations nourishes the body with eternal fire. Human life has an aim only if it contributes to the realization of liberty, honor, and dignity. The goal of ethics is that in all that we do and think we help to realize the future permanence state that flows from the nature of human beings and their environment. This is the state of maximum utilization of powers, and hence of maximum stability, toward which all evolution strives. Each of us must risk everything in order to perfect our personality in accordance with the nature and extent of our abilities and to place ourselves entirely at the service of human society. Some students have the hours of a lawyer trying to make partner, or of a medical resident. To become a success at what we do, we have to shed some part of our own identity. Human evolution is heading toward a state of complete stability and toward the marking out of the defining forms of permanence, that is, of invariably repeatable, fixed components of mental acts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
The most basic feature of all the goals of our thought and creative work is permanence or durability—the realization of ever recurrent, repeatedly used ways of acting and the establishment of enduring forms amidst the profusion of particular configurations. An example of this is the tendency of thought toward stability, the striving for a stable conceptual system. What matters is the work one is willing to put in to cultivate their mind. People have made a bargain with the educational community. They get up before six in the morning, are in class at seven and go home at five in the evening; go in on Saturdays, and do homework until eleven at night six or seven nights a week. In return, these students are promised that these who are wealthy or stuck in poverty will be given a chance to be successful and do something that will help their families and humanity. As a result of their dedication and the education they receive, 84 percent of these kids will perform at or above their grade level, many will get scholarships, and 80 percent of the graduates will go on to college. How could that be a bad bargain? Success follows a predictable course. It is not always the brightest who succeed. Nor is success simply the sum of the decision and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Human knowledge, like all other events in the World, including human actions, is under the direct supervision of God. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
People who have been given opportunities—and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them are the ones who help to build a better World. We need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success—the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history—with a society that provides opportunities for all. All some people need is a chance and they will understand the miracle of meaningful work. Just as organic evolution tends toward the production of permanence states and the human brain approaches more and more a form of permanence, the spiritual and intellectual evolution of the human likewise tends to permanence states. We strive for the completion of science, for the perfection of social institutions and customs by progressive adjustment of national and social difference, and for the fulfillment of art through emphasis on the typical and essential in the phenomena. Everyone has a call, to his or her own particular destiny, and each of us must make peace with that inner voice over and over again through life. We must search our souls many times. We are crafting ourselves. Movements toward destiny can be scary. It takes a leap of faith necessary to follow your heart. For most of us, it also takes time, forbearance, and a willingness to risk what is for what could be. Sometimes it is best to take a leap of faith and find the courage and wisdom to do what we were are born to do. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Kindness is Powerful Especially When We Have a Passion of Better Understanding Our World
The beginning is hard, and by the end of it they are restless. Part of life is endurance, part of it is motivation. Part of it is incentives and rewards and fun stuff. Part of it is good old-fashioned discipline. You mangle it all together and discover grit and self-control. A person is a certain sort of living organism whose identity depends on its biological organization. On the other hand, a person is also defined as a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places; which it does only by the consciousness which is inseparable from thinking and essential to it. Further, as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of the person. People who are shut out from actually participating and making meaning through localized cultural exchange depend mainly on prefab fun to legitimize their lives. Often guidance counseling is based on the assumption that people cannot learn in areas where they do not begin with natural aptitude. A student’s life direction is often decided by his or her talent. Many suffer the tragedy of spending their lives in careers they never truly cared about, all because of some aptitude they happened to demonstrate in high school. In fact, many people adopt the premise that they must tailor their desires to their talents and abilities. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
The first half of life many people are unable to see that their vocations and hobbies are works in progress that add meaning to their lives, rather than having true value. If individuals suspect that they may have been educated away from their natural inclination toward learning over performance they may get stuck in performance mode. When one remains in performance mode, growth, change, expansion, independence, learning, inventiveness, and self-generated progress all become difficult. As a result, some people want and need constant stimulation and satisfaction. Only partly able to establish identity by having a place in a community and being able to reach their peers through the electronic mediums of communication—the tentacles of mass culture—some seek other ways to get into the action and reaffirm their desire to be noticed. Many do as they are told; giving themselves over to the World of popular culture and invite it to make them feel special. The outside World rewards task demonstration, not task question, and both performers and learners base their sense of self-worth largely on how well they perform. Performers tend to focus too much on the things they do well, and shy away from learning situations in which they are sure to experience some short-term failure. They are likely to get stuck in ruts, and often become complacent and bored. This is who so many have become: people who cannot sit still, people who desire ever further immersion in the spectacle. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
Learners, on the other hand, fail to make the most out of the performance mode, frequently out of fear of boredom, but often out of fear of long-term failure. Most of us know at least one perpetual student who hung out at high school or college long after graduation, or who went on to pursue many degrees, but not a career. Some learner types are career jumpers, trying out many fields of endeavor in order to avoid failure in one; still others stick to one vocation, but follow their own interest to the point that they are not as productive as they could be. Certain learners actually see learning itself as a kind of performance. Learners are often dreamers, unwilling to commit to the complacency of performance. Ironically, natural learners who push themselves to perform (usually in a job) are just as likely as performers to get bored. Organizations succeed by taking the idea of cultural legacies seriously. Some schools have ten-hour days and shorter Summer vacations to prevent kids from losing ground. After school is out there are homework clubs, detention, and sports teams and they even go to school on Saturdays. The extra time allows for a more relaxed atmosphere. The extended time gives the teacher the opportunity to explain things, and more time for the kids to sit and digest everything that is going on—to review, to do things at a much slower pace. We should be wise in explaining and pursuing our positions and exercising our influence. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
Communicate with a curiosity and an appetite for learning. The happiest and most productive people are those who make good use of both their intrinsic interest in leaning and their spontaneous enjoyment of performance. Both task modes—learning and performance—are essential to exceptional competence. It may seem counterintuitive, but when things are done meticulously it allows the teachers and students to get through a lot more. There is a lot more retention, better understanding of the material. It lets the entire classroom be a little more relaxed. They have time for games. Kids can ask any questions they want, and if the teacher is explaining something, he or she does not feel pressed for time. This allows them to go back over material and not feel time pressure. The extra times gives the teachers the chance to make subjects like mathematics meaningful. These students see the clear relationship between effort and reward so they are not stuck asking, “How does this apply to real life?” Some students who were not good at math have gone on to be accounting majors in college just from spending about 60 percent more time in school each year. That is why certain students from other countries do so well with education because they look at it like a career in their youth and dedicate their time. The same formula goes for the wealthy kids in America, after school many of them have tutors and spend their Summers and Winter breaks in Summer school or intercession and preread the material for the upcoming year. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
Awkwardness and mistakes produce anxiety (“I may never master the task”), which is compounded if others are concerned over the task competence as well. Whether you are trying to become a competent swimmer or competent actor or competent engineer, the learning mode can bring on feelings of incompetence that then develop into a sense of challenges as performance, with time and effort, improves. We have to focus and continually will to reach goals whether they be material or spiritual. Human beings are easily distracted, fall victim to sin, often quit because of obstacles or tests, and so for us perseverance is a virtue to be cultivated and practiced if we want to achieve our goals. Over and over again we see God not being stopped from loving his people and blessing them. He persevered for centuries in his love for people who might have been considered unlovable. There are days when we get it right; there are stretches where our love perseveres through temptations and obstacles and weak flesh. This should feel good as it is a high point spiritually for a person. Mastery peaks when one is in the performance mode. In the part of task development, the sense of challenge is gradually transformed into a sense of pride. Performing a task you are now good at is exhilarating. The emotional high you feel from success at a difficult job is one of the best gifts life has to offer. “God’s love and mercy for me was present before the creation of the World and he has and will persevere in it, despite the ups and downs of my love, until and beyond the end of time,” reports Ephesians 1.4. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
When people feel dulled and distanced, unengaged and, worst of all, unentertained, that is when they engage in extremist behavior. For an ever-increasing number of people, the harder they work to proclaim their individuality—whether it is through participating in ever-more-extreme popular culture immersions or radically rejecting those programs altogether—the more extreme they feel they have to get. A desire for opportunities to articulate their individuality is the legacy of a popular culture that then tries to satisfy such a desire with ever-more-immersive attractions. These attractions are so extreme and over the top that they make it even harder for many to imagine anything they can do in their daily lives to match that level of intensity. Thereby, they feel even more devalued and distanced from their normal selves. And therein lies the trap: The day comes in every endeavor when one’s masterful performance yields more boredom than exhilaration. Boredom can turn into disenchantment, with its concomitant lack of concentration and desire, and a noticeable decline in mastery and satisfaction. If you go to work like a good boy or girl, you are labelled boring. However, how far does the good boy and good girl need to go to shake off the aura of Corporate Ken or Corporate Barbie? The more extreme culture gets in order to satisfy one’s urge to be immersed and entertained, the more extreme real-life antics meant to attract attention also become. #RanddolphHarris 6 of 9
It is a loop—extreme acts in real life must then be concerted into extreme entertainment, which leads to another round of real-life extremists trying to enter popular culture by being even more extreme than what they see on the television. People become trapped in a cycle of boredom and craving for one-shot celebrity, prompting a culture of “turn it up” which is spun to keep raising the pitch of its own superlatives. Just what are people prepared to do to get their moment in the star light of celebrity? Absolutely anything. No wonder public explosions of rage and mayhem seem more common. Many people turn to extreme acts as a predictable response—a way to get noticed. Extreme action gets noticed on television and the perpetrator can enter the gates of fame. All of this because people are essentially shout out from making meaning through established models of conformity. However, instead of being extreme, if you have reached the place on your present learning curve where increased effort results in diminished returns it is time to change curves. If you do not make it your business to invest in a task with ever evolving challenges (that are safe and productive), the law of entropy will take over and transform what was once an activity that brought you pride and joy into a routine effort devoid of satisfaction. Once you have reached peak levels of mastery in whatever task you choose, you cannot simply go back and start over—you have already developed the skill. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
People are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions in a constant state of change. When a person confuses what is right from wrong because of mental laziness, in makes one content with superficiality. Once launched upon this convenient path of error, the mind is led further and further along it by certain recurring facts—it is easier for one to overlook than notice gradual changes that are characteristic of certain objects, and changes that occur according to certain smooth and regular patterns, and so many choose to overlook them. Everyone is prone to this error, which therefore acquires the dubious sanction of custom. It is a good thing that God perseveres, because if he did not we would be like those cosmonauts in the movie Apollo 18 who discover dangerous aliens on the Moon and are not allowed to return home. We do that to ourselves with sin and ignorance and neglect. We cut ourselves off from a loving God and become infected, increasingly paranoid, delusional and drift into the darkness and unknown. What you have to do is to ride the wave of performance as long as it is exciting for you, then move to a new curve. Performers do best if they wait as long as they can, then jump onto a shallow curve that allows them plenty of performance pleasure and little frustration. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
We should live peacefully with others who do not share our values or accept the teachings upon which they are based. Love is the very essence of the gospel. “Love one another as I have loved you,” reports John 15.12. God reminds us to stay close and reattaches us to himself through his love whenever we begin to drift away and reaches out to rescue us and being us back to safety. We are to live in the World, but not be of the World. We must live in the World because it is like Heaven, whose function is to raise the whole mass by its function and influence. Wise people must turn away from wrath. We should follow after the things that make for peace and speak the truth in love for the wrath of humans is not what the righteous God wants. Even as we seek to be meek and to avoid contention, we must not compromise nor dilute our commitment to the truths we understand. We must not surrender our positions nor our values. The covenants we have made inevitably cast us as combatants in the eternal contest between truth and error. There is no middle ground in that contest. Loving and kindness is required just like the Master will be firm in truth. God transforms us by not letting us remain as we were, but sculpting us into a new creation ready for eternal life with him in Heaven. We should love all people, be good listeners, and show concern for their sincere beliefs. This will never stop; the God of Heaven will always persevere until all is complete. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
Know Your Destiny and Follow it!
When it is small, we should ask God to increase our hope, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown. True religion is found only where people worship the genuine and living God. The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul. God calls some people out of darkness and into his marvelous light so that we might go back into the darkness and shine brightly unto every generation of God’s people. Many people are so anxious to be noticed for who and what they are. We have communities arising that anyone can join, so long as they conform to the particular restrictions and enthusiasm—the mindset—of the group. Again, the created community serves no real purpose other than to provide individuals a place where they can be noticed, where the narrative of their lives can be manufactured and infused with meaning. Both popular—culture and other types of communities offer assurance. Individuals receive an identity, the opportunity to perpetually reinvent and the comfort of knowing that they have a place in the World (no one can challenge, dilute, or replace). Although these types of new communities seek to give people back what they seem to have lost, a place in the World, false religion is always from the worship of untrue gods. Eternal life itself, which is the greatest of all gifts of God, is available to those only who know God. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
It is all the rage in this modern World to worship false gods of every sort and kind. There are those who bow before idols of wood and stone, and others who lisp their petitions to icons and images. There are others who worship animals. Idolatry is nothing new, of course. Human nature is a perpetual factory of idols. People make idols of power, beauty, success, money, and celebrities. None of this is inherently evil, but they become sinful when they are treated as divine. Matthew 6.21 reports, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” People who love a certain celebrity or popular phenomenon so much that they link up with like-minded others and spend their time and money pursuing this passion are a familiar popular-culture phenomenon. The mass-culture industry encourages these fans because they individually deepen the person-product bond and, I there are enough of them, they create new secondary markets for figurines, magazines, conventions, and so on. Fan clubs offer only a partial resolution to the urgent need for self-expression, and they provide little in the way of a true creative outlet or assertion of control. As a result, people’s enduring and widening obsession with popular culture is now yielding a strange fruit: thriving subcultures that convey the heartfelt desire of the millions who long to be known. They have formulated their own truth, and answer to the lie of popular culture. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
In the same way that some retreat to the confines of the cult or the safety of a fundamentalist community in order to be noticed, many more find refuge in popular-culture communities where they find what they crave: community recognition, spiritual meaning, and the ability to reinvent themselves. However, true wisdom consists in two things: Knowledge of God and Knowledge of self. It is the first principle of revealed religion to know the nature and kind of being that God is. “We know and testify that there is a God in Heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of Heaven and Earth, and all things which are in them,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 20.17. Nonetheless, some people are pioneer creators of online popular communities. They often start sites, which are like online fan magazines, dedicated to the worship of a particular celebrity and they become so obsessed that they can tell you from a picture what date and time it was taken, and they often think they know the actors better than the actor knows him or herself. As these individuals watch their profitability expand, some of them quit their jobs and support themselves from the profits they make from these online fan magazines. They are addicted to the online community they oversee and feel a sense of responsibility towards their subscribers. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
Albeit, I imagine it can kind of be a high to attract three-quarters of a million visitors a day to something you created, and where visitors post their thoughts on their favourite television shows, movies and celebrities or products. These communities allow people to read a brief description of the main points of something that has happened or been seen. There are also incredibly elaborate overviews of what happen in an episode of a show or movie, or what a person ate and how they respond to their fans in person. Visitors also have the opportunity to read and post to the forum, where various performances are debated, and arguments rage regarding such matters as who the best couple is, and so on. The people go to the site to find like-minded individual who can validate and listen to their opinion. They look for people who can agree with them and the realm can become obsessive and bizarre. People who run these sites are not always ethical and use them to seduce pictures and try to date fans of the actors. A vice-president of marketing for one hit movie franchise actually made a statement: “We love our fans. We want them to have fun. But if in fact somebody is using our character to create a story unto itself, that is not the spirit of what we think fandom is about. Fandom is about celebrating the story the way it is.” Sometimes the fans in these communities think their opinions are gospel, and they have a very inaccurate view of what community is. Hopefully it is not the only “community” they are in. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
The closer fans get in their online communities, the more cliquey it get. They sit around and tell each other they are great, their observations about the show are great. Ultimately, people visit these sites mainly to have their existence and their opinion validated. They are not as interested in other people as they are in reading their own posts and having their wit and knowledge admired. Not only that, but some of them seem terrified at the prospect of losing their forum, the only place—community or not—where their particular genius and knowledge is valued and recognized. Some of them definitely replace real community with their online fan magazines. These people could stand outside and make some new friends, but they prefer these popular platforms where disparate souls form instant connections because they want to be somebody, recognized and noticed the same way their popular starts are recognized and fawned over. And they also seek meaning and vestiges of tradition, a connection to community and spirituality that belies the specious allure of fame. It helps them keep the loneliness at bay by assuring them a place where they will always be understood, noticed, recognized. Where once an interest in Paris Hilton, Aaliyah, or Reese Witherspoon that lasted beyond boyhood would be considered embarrassing, today such an obsession provides a grown man with a fan base, an audience, an individuality, even a community. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
And what I find amazing, is some of these celebrities, like Aaliyah, are so iconic that they even have several celebrity fans who acknowledge how great of a contribution they have made to the World. Magazine even have people who look like them dress up in a style the celebrity would have worn. And in the real World, even if a fan is of a different culture, has a different hair colour or skin tone, they still invoke the image of the popular star that they love and add their own flare to the style. You will see a blonde young lady going to prom dressed similar to Aaliyah (may a different color dress) with the same hair style from the 2001 MTV awards, with a boyfriend dressed in sports gear like Aaliyah’s boyfriend Damon Dash. People want to get further, deeper, faster into the popular culture that dominates their lives, and they are increasingly willing to abandon normal life to achieve what popular culture promises them. It is charming, but also remember some of these fans can be very mean and it is important not to let them diminish your love for your star and never to replace you star for God. No invented community can ever fully embody or fulfill what seem to be an inherent conflicting human need for both a particular unique identity and a sense of having a place in a society, a culture, a community that one will always be able to identify as homes. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
We can ourselves from the bondage of having to constantly be free. In order to get the most out of our complex collection of our life roles, we must make conscious choices. People who commit to continually recreating their roles discover a new found sense of personal control and greater satisfaction in all the roles they choose to play. Our Eternal Father ordained and established laws—called the gospel of God—which enable us to advance and progress and become like him. We alone cannot save ourselves. None of us can call forth our own crumbling dust from the grave and cause it to live again in immortal glory. None of us can create a celestial Heaven whose inhabitants shall dwell in eternal splendor forever. No one, but God has the power to cleanse and perfect our human souls. The truth about God, the truth about religion, the truth about salvation—these things can only be known by revelation. Our testimony is that the Almighty God is our Eternal Father who lives in realms celestial. Come worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Come worship the Lord, the Almighty, the king of creation. It is okay to enjoy some of the entertainment and have role models, but we must also turn to the Lord our God and repent of all our sins and seek the truth. Oh, God our Father, will you look upon your children everywhere in love and mercy, grant us repentance, and lead us in your holy way so that we may gain peace in this life and eternal life in the World to come. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
In this mortal World, even millionaires worry, because as we all know, money cannot buy love, and money cannot buy immortality. The intrinsic rewards of your work, or of anything you do, for that matter, are your hidden assets. No global monetary fluctuation, no office politics, no invasion by strange people can take away your enjoyment and satisfaction in what you do. Your best security is the ability to get the most satisfaction from whatever tasks come your way. Ironically, those of us who get the most satisfaction from our work tend to be top performers who have plenty of self-esteem—two qualities that are associated with increased earning potential. Adulthood offers us the opportunity to remake work in ways that make it more relevant to our most heartfelt needs and desires. Mature adults are surprised to learn that they are skilled enough, experienced enough, even secure enough in their earning power to enable them to transform the work they do to make a living into more than just working for a paycheck. At the very least, they are able to see that no matter how much money they make, it is important to pursue satisfaction somewhere, too. The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart. #RandolpHarris 8 of 9
Few of us have more than a vague idea of what our personal satisfiers are. We are in the habit of gauging our work primarily by the worth it commands on the open market, not by how well it matches our inner urges to grow. Many people are unable to see that their vocations and hobbies are works in progress that add meaning to their lives, rather than ends in themselves. It is also important that our bodies should not be exhausted by long confinement, nor our minds bewildered by excessive and prolonged application. Rest also presents particular opportunities for strengthening cognitive and analytical skills. It is when we are relieved from the state of tension that we acquire the habit of thought and reflection, and of forming our own conclusions, independently of what we are taught and the authority of others. We formulate new ideas by analogy, working from what we know toward what we do not know. A mind must be cultivated. However, not too much, least it be exhausted. Human life was created on the basis of freedom of choice. God wants free people and people who serve him freely. It is therefore a challenge in everyone’s life to choose the straight and narrow path which avoids a life which lacks eternal direction. With the promise of divine guidance, we can follow one step at a time, with patience, hope, and faith. Decisions we make today will influence our future course, our future strengths and abilities. Know your destiny and follow it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
The Storm Will One Day Be Stilled
Care of the soul requires ongoing attention to every aspect of life. Pursuing divinely appointed responsibilities in righteousness, unity, and equality will prepare us to meet God. In his infinite love and mercy, our Lord has provided a harbor where, through repentance, our barnacles fall away and are forgotten. With our sous lightened and renewed, we can go efficiently about our work and his. The long journey that many of us experience under difficult circumstances are trials of faith. Faith is forged in the furnace of trials and tears and are marked by trust and testimony. Only God can count the sacrifice; only God can measure the sorrow; only God can know the hearts of those who serve him—then and now. Lessons from the past can quicken our memories, touch our lives, and direct our actions. We are prompted to pause and remember that divinely given promise: Wherefore you are on the Lord’s errand; and whatever you do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord’s business. If we want to continue to make top-notch contributions to our lives, we have to live righteously and be more care to guard our own physical vitality (which many of us put at risk during extended periods of stress) and our relationships with people we live (which many of us unilaterally feel we have to put on hold wen the need arises). Sometimes our lives are out of balance. Search diligently, pray always, and be believing and all things shall work together for your good. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Through humble prayer, diligent preparation, and faithful service, we can success in our sacred callings. As we slow our pace and rebalance our life, our relationships will grow stronger and improve, and the morale of our colleagues will progress. However, sometimes when we focus on the goal of making our lives run smoothly, we can fail to appreciate the fact that our lives are running efficiently. Therefore, after reaching a goal it is important to celebrate and set new expectations so that one does not go through life on automatic pilot. Exceptional competence is a tremendous present that nature hands to us as we reach our stride in life. We have been performing many of the same tasks for years, and eventually become quite good at them. In much the same way that the loss of self-consciousness frees our brains to perform amazing mental feats, exceptional competence frees our time and attention so we can focus on the important goals in our lives and in our service of the Lord’s work. That allows us to shed the barnacles of doubt, laziness, fear, and sin through faith, prayer, charity, obedience, and love. The lighthouse of God marks the way. The Lord’s beacon light will guide our course to celestial glory. In order to thrive, as we are experiencing the wonder of exceptional competence we must confirm or readjust our priorities and develop a vision, just as we did when we were young. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
The goals of youth are more societally bound, more concrete. As we age, our goals become based on individual rather than cultural need: we have to fashion our visions ourselves. There is a safe harbor. Our Heavenly Father—who knows of our heartache and suffering loves us and wants the best for us. Never doubt this. When we are rejuvenated, we can set about the difficult but fulfilling goal of being the architects of the rest of our lives. There are several clear signals that we are ready to embrace the joys and heartaches of exceptional competence One of the most obvious of these is boredom. The struggle to break out of the cocoon develops the butterfly so it can fly. Without that adversity, the butterfly would never have the strength to achieve its destiny. It would never develop the strength to become something extraordinary. Others are ashamed to admit they find other people, or their own lives, boring. Feeling the weight of too many tasks is another common sign that it is time for you to cease being a beast of burden at work and home. The adversity we experience allows our souls to become like clay in the hands of God. Trials and adversity can be preparatory to becoming born anew. Adversity can strengthen and refine us. As with the butterfly, adversity is needed to build character in people. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Even when we are called to sail through troubled waters, we need to know the place of adversity in shaping our divine potential. For many of us, maximizing the benefits of exceptional competence does not seem particularly pressing; rarely do the signs of exceptional competence incite deep feelings of angst. However, the slow death we die of boredom or from the lack of a meaningful framework for our own lives is actually more harmful to mature adults overall than the inability or unwillingness to deal with the mental or physical aspects of aging. Depending on how we approach it, the gift of exceptional competence can either be a plateau on which we are stranded or a resting place on the mountain that leads to inner peace. If only we would look beyond our present suffering and see our struggles as a temporary chrysalis. If only we would have the faith and trust in our Heavenly Father to see how, after a little season, then we can emerge from our trails more refined and glorious. Traveling the pathway of exceptional competence means celebrating our achievements in all areas of life. Above all, we must not compare our success and failures to those of others. Doing so will only deflate or inflate one’s view of oneself unnecessarily: we will underestimate the value of what we have done, or we may end up with a false sense of superiority that will squelch our motivation. Each of us develops at our own pace according to our unique needs and interest. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Success is a function of persistence and tenacity and the willingness to work hard for a while to make sense of something most people would give up on after just a brief period. Tenacity is a cultural trait, embedded as deeply as the culture of honor. Many of us cannot abandon our belief in God. Every one of us who believes, they will have to sit with the boss upstairs who will want to know what have we done when we saw injustice. As our life’s new direction becomes clear, we may find that our daily life changes much more than it did on other pathways. It is important to be confident no matter what direction we decide upon, the many skills we have already mastered will be of great help in getting us where we want to go. Accepting our great competence at maturity can make our work and personal lives become desirable and appealing. Knowing we can rely on our established abilities frees us to accomplish amazing feats of creativity, productivity, and what many psychologist call generativity: being able to give away what we know. It also enables one to prepare for the exciting adventures of spiritual development. Our Father in Heaven does not wish us to cower. He does not want us to wallow in our misery. He expects us to square our shoulders, roll up our sleeves, and overcome challenges. That kind of spirit—that blend of faith and hard work—is the spirit we should emulate as we seek to reach a safe harbor in our own lives. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
With the rewards of exceptional competence, we can learn, achieve, and contribute in ways that far surpass what we have been able to accomplish so far. As we overcome adversity, we will become stronger. Then we will be better able to help others—those who are working, in their turn, to find a safe harbor from the storms that rage about them. At times we may be tempted to think the Savior is oblivious to our trials. In fact, the reverse is true; it is we who need to be awakened in our hearts to his teachings. Research shows that occupying a number of highly important roles during adulthood can actually buffer anxiety, enhance self-esteem, and increase our sense of control over our own lives. People who occupy multiple roles, which they deem to be good, shower greater self-esteem and overall psychological well-being than people with fewer or more negatively experienced roles. Furthermore, if you experience a disturbance in ole role, the rewards of other roles can compensate for the loss and lessen the impact of the blow. Use your ingenuity, your strength, your might to resolve your challenges. Do all you can do and then leave the rest to the Lord. If our lives and our faith are centered on God and his gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. We also need to make conscious decisions for future role management so we can experience a productive chemistry of inner and outer imperatives that encourages free-flowing growth. God it at the helm and will shower down blessings upon those who walk in obedience to his commandments. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
