Someone I respect once said you can’t have faith without doubt. What do you think of that?

I think, like most spiritual questions with “yes” or “no” answers, it is asking the wrong question.

There are times when there is direct revelation with a corresponding certainty about thought and action.

There are times when there is direct revelation without the certainty about implementation – the certainty may be missing for a wide variety of reasons — sometimes for the sake of others, sometimes for the sake of selves, sometimes for the sake of God.

There are times when there is “secret” direct revelation, when you think you are acting on free will, but really aren’t.

And there are most people, who are walking through this life with no more than some “preset” lessons and the associated choices. There is often some hope that they will change into someone who can really hear the voice of God, but they fail to make the internal change required.

(And I agree that the internal change is not shirt, tattoo, or jewelry related. On the other hand, that change is not not related to such things either.)

Some of us stand at the cliff longer than others wondering if we should jump, until we finally make the leap of faith. Maybe that’s how we all huddled around in the preexistence on the edge of life, until finally . . . Here we are. I don’t think it matters in the eternities how long it takes each of us to take the plunge, in the end we all end up the same. I do worry, however, when we, or the Church, start to desire or indulge the fear instead of embracing the process of faith. If we put up so many fences to make us feel safe from the fear or risk of the cliff, then we’ll never be able to truly test our faith.

This generation’s present locally-based cultural obsession with hair, earrings, tatoos, shoulders, colors, gets in the way of the big picture of the restored gospel. Incidentally, it also clouds the vision of the world-wide church. When the Cuna Relief Society President on the San Blas Islands has a ring in her nose and a tatoo line down her nose, I think it’s time for us to let go of smaller things and embrace the potential of the future. At the very least, it’s okay to question some of those “commandments” in light of real gospel commandments.

BTW, Tony, I agree that sometimes we may be “required” to lack faith in order to experience this existence. It’s all about opposition. Someone I respect once said you can’t have faith without doubt. What do you think of that?

Faith and fear can not be in the same man at the same time.
–Joseph Smith

I like this quote. But I also hesitate to take it too literally. If one is filled with 100% faith there is no room for anything else, but what about 80% faith? And, in order to experience aspects of this existence, we may be required to lack some faith.

Faith and fear can not be in the same man at the same time.

–Joseph Smith

Either take the risk to leap forward with faith or indulge the fear of the unknown to cower in safety.

That is, whether we are agents or spectators, producers or consumers, is not the result of what we hear over and over again in Sunday School or how the “cultural cloud” might look like to an outsider. Rather, what “keeping the commandments” means to each of us is a result of our own choices and experiences, and especially our own relationship with the Holy Spirit.

In other words, I expect that a large portion of Sunday School (etc.) teachers and students say and hear what sounds like “Run away!” rhetoric, but it isn’t translated that way in their hearts. Surely, all of us some of the time, and some of us all of the time, are spiritually timid. I’m simply uncomfortable when we speak in broad or absolute terms about things that ultimately can only be measured and improved on an internal, individual, spiritual basis.

My personal opinions aside, Natalie reminded me of a talk by Elder Bednar that I recently re-heard by chance. It’s from last October’s General Conference and is titled: Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

Here’s a good quote

The gospel of Jesus Christ encompasses much more than avoiding, overcoming, and being cleansed from sin and the bad influences in our lives; it also essentially entails doing good, being good, and becoming better. Repenting of our sins and seeking forgiveness are spiritually necessary, and we must always do so. But remission of sin is not the only or even the ultimate purpose of the gospel. To have our hearts changed by the Holy Spirit such that “we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2), as did King Benjamin’s people, is the covenant responsibility we have accepted. This mighty change is not simply the result of working harder or developing greater individual discipline. Rather, it is the consequence of a fundamental change in our desires, our motives, and our natures made possible through the Atonement of Christ the Lord. Our spiritual purpose is to overcome both sin and the desire to sin, both the taint and the tyranny of sin.

For me, this kind of instruction pushes the concept of keeping the commandments down to where I need it.

Colin

The danger in focusing so heavily on the generic commandments, is that for so many of us, we will always fall short. If we see them as the grand hurdles that must be cleared before we are worthy of the Spirit’s whispering, then we will drown out the already present whispers in our preoccupation with obedience, or more often, our failures in obedience.

Truly obedience is better than sacrifice (the Mosaic adherence to rites) and to hearken (listening to the Spirit) than the fat of rams. When our modern form of obedience resembles an ancient form of sacrifice, we might find useful lessons in the past.

When Nephi said “and thus far I and my father had kept the commandments wherewith the Lord had commanded us” (1 Ne 5:20) he was speaking of the specific commandments (leave Jerusalem, get the plates), commandments which even involved the breaking of the generic. While I believe that will not frequently be the case, ultimately the Spirit is the law, not the temporal letter. If in our ignorance, or arrogance, we miss the Spirit because of our love for the Letter, we may find ourself rightly with the Pharisee, and not justified (Luke 18:14).

The Spirit is striving with us so much more frequently, and so much earlier, and with so much more relevant counsel, than I think many of us believe (and usually with counsel of “who” to serve, especially if we let that be the question we ask). If we wait until near perfect obedience to believe we can “get the Spirit”, or set an almost unreachable standard for our children or others, then we are saddled with unbelief in our ability to hear.

Obedience surely can help prepare us to hear, but we can start listening now. And when we follow the counsel the Spirit gives, we might actually find ourselves truly obedient.

Sometimes the way we wrap the youth up in the cocoon of the SL corridor with all the pamphlets and rules, I mean “commandments”, about every aspect of basic life style choices infantilizes them to the point where they are incapable of making real life choices for themselves after their mission. The failure to launch, a national social phenomenon, is also a problem in a church that preaches that boys are to become men of God, that the AP prepares them for the higher power of the MP. If they can only do what they are commanded and have never had to take the initiative on anything on their own, then how can we hope for the kind of dynamic prophetic leadership that we rave about in the scriptures.

When I hear people defend the over-emphasis on all the touchy lifestyle commandments laid down on the youth as a “safe” way for them to live, I get an uncomfortable flashback to a theme that our theology develops in detail. Satan’s plan appealed to the same nervous-nellies that think safety and a sure thing are the first priority in existence.

lately I think it has gone overboard. Elder Hale’s article in the latest Ensign had him railing like some old guy on a porch about kids today and their “wild colors”. What does that mean, red, yellow, purple, black? I think the recently national coming out of the FLDS fashion look and attitudes about withdrawal from and hostility towards the world should give us a scary and sobering vision of what can become of us if we lose sight of the vision of our principles and give in to the allure of safety and comfort.