You’ve got this right, mein droog. I’ve got to say that I’m a bit disappointed, and a little surprised, to see you shuffling and wresting around like this. Only saying it because, if you recall, you invited me to.

“my own lack of experience with real tragedy may deprive me of the life experience necessary to grapple with the notion of God’s intervening hand in a way that might cause me to modify my view.”

There is a solution to this – and in that solution is possibly an answer to your question. ;)

My experience is that we look too much for signs and portents, for benevolent coincidences, and for modifications in our outer circumstance as answers to our prayers, and are not nearly aquainted enough with the voice of the Spirit – through which our prayers and questions, with clarirty, with increasing clarity, can and will be answered, if we have lived to and struggle to find ourselves in that way.

The question isn’t why did the Lord do or allow this or that thing to happen, – all tragedies, and they can and will be horrible to the nth degree, are a part of living in the kind of existence we now find ourselves. The questions is: how will I respond personally? What is this going to make of me, and what am I going to make of it? These questions, it very much seems to me, put the focus correctly on our personal responsibility, on our development and that of our fellows, and off the conditions of the test (one of the primal Satanic mistakes – one can almost hear the venomous, adolescent wail about fariness echoing down from before the foundations …). I’m not saying we shouldn’t inquire into justice – I’m saying that while being tested under Telestial laws, we will find very little.

In these conditions, it seems to me and Pres Kimball, at least, said, The Lord most often helps us through other people. And, following, mostly helps us when can entice those people to respond to His voice. When there is no one to respond to His voice, then, following, there is very little help – and that is an awful state of affairs – one that we might collectively find ourselves. I suppose the elements will respond, hence ‘after your testimony comes the testimony of thunderings and lightnings and the sea overreaching her bounds’ (quoted incorrectly). My question for you, and for me, is whether or not we are men who can respond to His voice – or whether we want to be, and hence will be, something else.

How are ja, Aaron.

Life in Puyallup is wonderfully quiet, if a little rednecky. This being a public forum, I won’t say too much about my preferences – except to say that Seattle 1 is an exceptional ward, and I hope you’re getting the most you can out of it while you can. And that I do indeed feel very blessed for some new things that I have to struggle with.

T

~

http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2006/08/19/

1. Do you pray?
2. What things do you pray for?

I don’t mean to imply that you don’t pray nor that you don’t seek a relationship with God, but most prayers ask for some sort of Divine intervention. Are your prayers vastly different?

I am interested to know how your views shape your communication with God.

When I lose my keys, intellectually I know that it seems ridiculous to me to pray for help finding them, when there are children starving in the world who need real help from him.

Mormons sure seem to lose their keys a lot. Has anyone done a stusy on the relative incidence of key-losing among Mormons versus those of other faiths? Perhaps a study of how long it takes an atheist to find her keys after losing them versus how long the typical faithful Mormon takes to find hers after prayer and fasting could be conducted.

I’d agree, except I’ve seen and participated in real, tangible, miracles. Life is a lot easier if God is not a god of tangible miracles, especially since God is not a cosmic vending machine.

On the other hand, I remember mistaking burning metal for burning plastic (vastly different heat conductivities, the one is very safe to pick up, the other dangerous) and hearing a voice tell me to be more careful. The only burn I received was on a part of one finger where it wouldn’t get in the way, and I got the distinct impression, as that happened and as I dropped the burning metal, that I was going to get a burn on that spot so I’d remember.

Or the time I caught a kick in the face hard enough to pick me back up and change the direction I was going from forward to backward (an unfortunate martial arts accicent). Not even a bruise.

I’ve had miraculously bad luck as well, some of which I was warned was coming well in advance, even if I didn’t understand the warning clearly, but God told me that Courtney was an optional child and we didn’t have to have her and the hardship that would come with her. Looking back I’m glad we decided to have her as a part of our lives, though I sure underestimated what God meant by hardship. I should have asked, I guess, though I’d rather not have changed my mind, so maybe not.

I’d also be happier if miracles were more common, even just the room filled with light, display of the Spirit in the Temple sort of event. I’d find it easier to go more often is those events were normal instead of unusual.

But, I’ve just blogged on what I think life is, at http://ethesis.blogspot.com/2006/08/pain-experience-joy-life-what-is-god.html and I think that seriously affects my thoughts about why God intervenes and why he appears not to some times.

Deborah, I fully admit that the lines can be pretty fuzzy, but not every case of teary eyes is the Holy Ghost.