Jesus among us

When one of my uncles was bishop, he had a man in his ward who thought he was Jesus. That was actually pretty problematic; that Jesus carried a gun and bought a Cadillac and sent the bill to my uncle (his Bishop). Nice of Jesus to buy American, though.

I went to college with a guy who looked like Jesus. I didn’t know him personally. Frankly, his Jesusness was intimidating.

My experience is that if you are out doing the Lord’s work, you are more likely to find opportunities. Sometimes, we need to be prompted, but sometimes we are just in the right place at the right time, doing our duty diligently, and we don’t need to be prompted as much. Many of my best experiences in church service have come because I had organized myself to be doing the things that would put me in places where I could be of service, just as going to the hospital to give a blessing put you in touch with John.

As for John and his long hair, he’d hardly get much notice in our ward. We’ve been pretty tolerant of all sorts of folks. Again, the farther you get from the Wasatch front, the more diversity there is, and the more tolerant everyone seems to be.

I promised when I moved from Utah 15 years ago not to be a Utah Mormon basher, but I have seen the difference.

Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss.

Your comment #16 seems to say that being disorganized allows for the Spirit and being organized doesn’t. I am more like you in organization skills and planning. I feel that this allows for more guidance from the Spirit than the other approach.

While serving my mission the most profound Spiritual experience I encountered, the gift of tongues, didn’t result in a baptism. I’ve always been puzzled by that. I’ve wondered why the Lord would extend that kind of experience to an investigator who ended up rejecting our message.

One point of interest regarding this experience was immediately after teaching him by this gift he asked to be baptized. The Spirit of the meeting was undeniable.

The next time we were scheduled to meet he came and told us his family had talked him out being baptized. He was studying to become a minister. I’ve wondered if later he may have been drawn to the church.

- Yes, you may e-mail me at klbarney at yahoo dot com.

- No, I haven’t posted this story before. I needed to consult my journal to get the details straight; it’s not a story I could have told effectively off the top of my head, because it was too complex a fact pattern.

I sense a certain discomfort with my acknowledgment that as a matter of style I prefer to be organized, prepared, efficient and complete rather than relying on promptings of the Spirit. So I was the type of missionary who would prefer to prepare a tracting map of the area and go through it systematically rather than wandering around aimlessly waiting for an impression of which house to knock on. That’s just me; don’t let my preference cause you any discomfort if you’re more of the follow the Spirit wherever it listeth type.

At the risk of moving us off topic, I should comment that there are transgendered members of the church, many of whom are active. I’ve been following an internet list for transgendered Mormons, because I want to understand more of their experience. My impression is that most of the active individuals are well received in their wards. A number of fully transitioned individuals regularly fulfill callings in their wards. Yes, some do attend the temple.

Although there are certain stipulations outlined in the Handbook of Instructions regarding transgendered individuals, in practice there appears to be a good amount of flexibility by the local leaders and a willingness to treat each situation on an individual basis.