Irreverent Disciple: Sometimes It’s Not the Dark I’m Afraid Of, It’s the Light

Sometimes It’s Not the Dark I’m Afraid Of, It’s the Light

“‘There you go, there you go,’ he said. ‘Like all you religious people. You talk and talk about these things all your life, and the moment you meet the reality you get frightened.’“Perlanda – CS Lewis, Chapter 7

If the natural man is an enemy to God, unless… is the converse true? – Is God an enemy to the natural man, unless…? Probably not, but this I believe -- if we insist on keeping and embracing the natural man, we shall not see Heaven; and if we accept Heaven, we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of the natural man.[1]

I get the whole NC John 9:20 thing, “I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil,” which loosely translated is the old Mormon phrase in which members of the Church are endlessly reminded that even though they are “in the world, they should not be of the world.” Gag, that’s a farce. That Mormon phrase has been used so often it has become cliché and what should be a serious thought has become a ridiculous piece of satirical nonsense that is interpreted so broadly as to allow anything and everything to become ‘not of this world’ depending upon how you spin it in your mind – I digress.

Not of this world, means no souvenirs – period.

Well, here’s the standard if you burn away the dross - “I would that ye should be perfect, even as I or your Father who is in Heaven is perfect.”2 – a no souvenir standard. Yet that, from the Book of Mormon, seems more like a bidding or an invitation to commence something and set things in motion than a straight up impossible command. The Matthew version leaves less room for compromise and is an outright command, “You are therefore commanded to be perfect, even as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect.”3 In either case, by invitation or command, the behest is filled with possibility and impossibility at the same time.

Perfection sets up a confrontation between Babylonian natural-man-me and spiritual-me, the winner of which will lay rightful claim to my soul.

Needing little more evidence than the activities of my past four days, natural-man-me argues the obvious –

‘It’s impossible! why embark on an expedition that is doomed anyway?’

‘Not so fast,’ asserts spiritual-me citing a hymn fragment – ‘he marked the path and led the way, And ev’ry point defines…4 - a path which I mean to follow. Furthermore, your power is dependent on my absence.’ Boom!!

‘Yes, it is, but you seem to come and go like seasons with occasional droughts causing intermittent spiritual famines which gives me power,’ replied natural-man-me. ‘I draw my strength from ever-present Babylon. Besides, what’s perfection anyway?’

So here is perfection then - impossibly possible or possibly impossible.

A perfection standard appears to confer an advantage to the natural-man because, ‘it’s impossible’ right? A thought which, if embraced, authorizes both the natural and spiritual man momentary liberty to retreat from the standard set by the Lord. However, if I believe in God, then I believe he is the Creator. And if he is the creator and created me, then the purpose for which I was created and the reason I exist can only be found in the one who created me and set the conventions by which the universe functions. And if he says perfection is the standard then, by God, it’s an absolute.

Do you believe it?

Natural-man-you tells spiritual-man-you, nearly unto convincing, that truth and faith are only an abstraction, a mirage existing in thought as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence. However, when spiritual-man-you gains control over the natural-man-you, it uses natural-man-you to convert the abstract into physical or concrete reality through acts of charity performed by you. A process which converts what is potentially dark in you into light. As you repeat this process, Babylonian appetites in the natural-man begin to contract and wither, allowing spiritual-man influence to supersede and displace natural-man dominion. It is this continued progression that makes the impossibly possible, possible. However, the moment you discontinue converting spiritual impressions into charity, the process reverses and progression becomes regression back toward the natural-man. Hence, the injunction, “… if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth.”5

Perfection is possible because God ordered it.

Even though we think of Christ as having lived a perfect life, it wasn’t until after his resurrection that he made a declaration of his own perfection - “I would that ye should be perfect, even as I or your Father who is in Heaven is perfect.”6 For Christ, the process was complete. Perfection reached. He did his Father’s will – perfectly.

Prior to his personal declaration of perfection, what was his perfection process? He said it over and over and over again throughout scripture. This is him marking the path, leading the way and defining every point. You’ll recognize it:

I came down from Heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.7

I am descended from above as a Messenger sent to follow Father Ahman’s plan.8

For I can of my own self do nothing, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me.9

Jesus said unto them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work10

I came into the world to do the will of my Father because my Father sent me.11

There are more.

And then in his last few hours of breath, there is this:

Abba, Father, all things are possible unto you; take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.12

It is apparent in his last will commitment to the Father that even for Christ, submission to the Father was the standard for perfection.

And, if we look further, it is apparent that what is true for our future was/is equally true for Christs. Alma put it this way - “for the same spirit you hearken to obey while living in the flesh shall, upon your death, have the same power to influence you to hearken unto that spirit in the next life.13 For Christ, that spirit in mortality was the will of the Father. In death, resurrection and into the eternities, it is still the will of the Father. That’s the process.

In the Glossary of Gospel Terms, the first six words for the entry Perfection are wholly fitting as an explanation of all that Christ was and all that he taught: Perfection --“The process of cooperating with God.”14 That’s why it’s a commandment! That is also why sometimes it’s not the dark I’m afraid of, it’s the light. I’m afeared I’m not too cooperative.

Return to where we started with me likely an enemy to God unless… Unless what? Well, here’s how King Benjamin described the path or process to perfection we just discussed. “…Unless he yields to the enticings of the holy spirit, and putteth off the natural man, and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child: submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.15 That’s how Christ did it and that too is how we must.

Isaiah explains to us that wicked men do wrong things and unrighteous men think wrong thoughts. Additionally, he reminds us that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts nor his way ours. But, the path to perfection requires that indeed our thoughts and our ways become ally to his. He, Isaiah, reminds us, seek the Lord while he may be found and return unto him and he will have mercy upon you and abundantly pardon.16 In other words, find out what He wants and do that.

In the end, “there are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”17

Thy will, O God, not mine be done,

Adorned his mortal life.18

Signed

John The-Not-So-Beloved

1 The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis, Preface - paraphrased

2 NC 3 Nephi 5:31

3 NC Matthew 3:26

4 LDS Hymn #195 How Great the Wisdom and the Love

5 NC Moroni 7:9

6 NC 3 Nephi 5:31

7 NC John 5:14

8 Testimony of St. John 5:16