Managing Stess

My journal prompt today asked how I manage stress. Here's what I wrote: How do I plan to manage stress this year? I don’t really experience stress. Not like others describe. Even when I was working and had lots to do, I somehow didn’t feel much stress. Perhaps it comes of trusting that God is in charge. Maybe there’s an element of living in the moment involved too. My childhood was filled with stress, but somewhere along the line, can’t say precisely when, I learned that stress, like worry, is a useless endeavor. I try to live by the Spirit. I try to be prepared. Much of what I do in my daily routine happens in that vein and so I find myself relaxed, confident, at peace and joyful almost all the time. It just occurred to me that one pivotal moment came with my reading of Being Enough by Cheiko Okazaki. One of her mantras, was In Principle, Great Clarity; In Practice Great Charity. I was thrilled by her teachings in that book and read it over a few times. Since then, I have had Charity toward others and more particularly toward myself. My best IS good enough. Brigham Young said it, Gordon B. Hinckley said it. Sister Okazaki said it, and I have come to believe it! One key component of that for me, is the realization that my best is not some Platonic ideal that I can conjure in my imagination. My best includes my limitations, health, understanding, circumstances, and competing demands. God, understands all of this. So many times, when my efforts seem short of my hopes, the Spirit whispers, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Then I realize that God is doing the heavy lifting, and while I’m hoping to help with that, I’m also called to learn, discover, make mistakes, and most especially, discover that He, not me, is God. Just today I listened to a Radio program about a Government Agency. The interviewee had been involved with the Agency since it’s inception in the late fifties. In those days he said, “The agency was run by WWII Vets whose leadership philosophy was Command and Control. These days, their activities are so much more collaborative. It made me hark back to those childhood days, when school, home and church were all very much Command and Control. Quite, naturally, I came to see God as Command and Control as well. It took me a long time to view Jesus Christ as my yoke-mate and not my task master. My peace and progress are very much a product of our collaborative effort, not His demands and my compliance. Having Jesus as my yoke-mate relieves me of stress. I could shrug off the yoke at any time, but why would I. “His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.”

Serving in Jesus' Name

Champions of other Faiths

 

This is a note President Ballard tweeted on X.  I was struck by his admonition to be Champions of other Faiths.  This has been something dear to my heart for years!

When I was in the Philippines Elder Daniel Johnson and went, by invitation, to the Negros Oriental Provincial Governor’s home for his birthday party.  The home was large and tables were set on the first and second floors and also on a shaded open air veranda.  As the Savior admonished, we sat at a lower table, but then were invited not only upstairs, but out onto the balcony with the Governor himself.  Gathered there were a few prominent Mayors from the Province as well as three Irish Jesuit Priests.  The Governor had been to Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center and had seen the Temple there.  He seemed eager to impress us and told of his experience there with reverence and great detail.  Everyone seemed quite impressed with the Governor’s account.  We didn’t ever get the chance to say much.  But at a moment of quiet one of the Priests leaned over to us and asked if we would be willing to join their team to play a game of Soccer against the Silliman University (Presbyterian) Soccer team.  We said we would.  Elder Johnson had played some, but I was pretty much a rookie.  They put me at the position of goalie, which was perfect, because these Irish fellows played so well that there never was an assault on the goal I was to protect.  This was my first close encounter with folks of another religion, in which differences were closely juxtaposed.  We found it to be delightful.

Later, in my Mission Elder Lyle Drake and I were touring the Mountain Province, when we found ourselves stranded in Sagada.  It was during a festival and no rooms in the inns were available.  Someone mentioned that the Nuns at the Episcopal Church and School, might be able to accommodate us.  We were received warmly and since it was a boarding school and school was not in session we had our pick of rooms in the Dormitory.  The Sisters fed us dinner and offered to guide us around the festival, but first they need to finish pressing the host for Sunday’s communion.  We volunteered to help and they put is right to work making the Sacramental wafers.  This too was a great delight!  After spending the night and needing to leave before dawn to catch the bus, we not wanting to disturb the Sisters, made our way to the bus depot.  We boarded the bus and were waiting for departure when the Nuns appeared with warm homemade bread with butter and honey for our breakfast.  They truly served us in a Christlike manner.  We had given them a copy of The Book of Mormon during dinner the previous evening, which they accepted most graciously.

Toward the end of my Mission, Elder Joe Hapi and I were busy making preparations for a fund raising basketball game between a Pro Team, UTEX and some of our better Missionaries.  Suddenly, we got word that the Philippine Basketball Association had denied a request to play such an exhibition game.  Further inquiry revealed that the head of the PBA was a Catholic Priest located in Quiaopo.  We went down there with some trepidation, found his office and discovered he was out.  We were, however, invited to wait however long it took for the Father to return.  We waited all day!  When he did come he arrived with his collar undone and a big cigar between two fingers.  He asked the receptionist, in a thick Irish brogue, who we were and after a brief introduction, he invited us into his office.  He reminded me of Spencer Tracy in Boy’s Town.  After explaining our predicament he puffed on his cigar, leaned back in his chair and announced that there would be no problem allowing UTEX to play the game.  As we departed he shouted, “Go with God me boys!  And tell ‘em a Jesuit sent ya!!”

There have been more adversarial moments as well.  Like the time Reverend Herbert W. Armstrong, of the Radio Church of the Air, picked me up in Heber while I was hitchhiking home from Provo to Vernal.  We began discussing the gospel and he quickly became argumentative.  I tried to be respectful and to answer his questions to the best of my ability.  He was very confrontational and would always find some fault related to any answer I provided.  I remember he made a big complaint that we haven’t built Temples all around the world to accommodate people elsewhere.  I pointed out New Zealand, England and Switzerland, but he was bitterly unsatisfied.  I wish I could show him now what has been accomplished in that regard.  Eventually, I grew wear of his assaults on my beliefs and quit responding to his affronts.  He kicked me out in Roosevelt, knowing full well I wanted to go to Vernal.  I surreptitiously left a copy of The Book of Mormon under the front seat of his car.

One day I was out working with the Full Time Elders here in Vernal.  We began knocking on doors over on about 1250 W in Vernal 6th Ward.  I was in 9th Ward at the time.  We knocked on a door and a sweet young Hispanic lady of about 30 came to the door.  We approached her about the Gospel and she told us she’d grown up around Latter-day Saints her whole life, having been raised in Tooele, and wanted nothing to do with us.  Even when we invited her to a neighborhood party she balked.  I asked her if she had found a home in the local St. James Parrish of the Catholic Church and she lamented that she didn’t feel welcome there, hinting that there were no other Hispanics in the Parish.  I felt bad for her.  We moved on.  Later, over in 2nd Ward on about 3rd South and 2nd West we encountered my friend Sue Beers (now Sue Wallace).  She being Catholic and also having been raised here in Vernal among Latter-day Saints was also resistant to hearing our message.  It was then that I took over the conversation.  I asked Sue if she was familiar with the term Visiting Teacher.  She was.  Then I said, “I have a Visiting Teaching assignment for you!”  She protested saying that she was a Catholic and couldn’t be a Visiting Teacher.  I explained that it was a Catholic that I’d like her to visit.  I explained about the Hispanic lady and about how she felt about attending St. James.  Sue accepted the call, took the information about her and promised to be her Visiting Teacher.  About six months later Leonard and Nell Heeney invited me to the Catholic Spaghetti dinner.  Delighted with the invitation I took the kids on a Sunday after Church and went.  We were welcomed with open arms.  As we passed through the line to get our food, we encountered both Sue and the Hispanic lady standing side by side serving spaghetti.  I wish I remembered the lady’s name, she smiled and thanked me for sending her a Visiting Teacher.  She was now happily involved in her Catholic community.  I was delighted!  As I ate, I remembered how the Elder’s jaws dropped when I made that assignment to Sue.  We were out to bless the lives of others and bless we did!

When I went to work for Wayne Merrill at Sundance RV I was introduced to my fellow salesman, Jim Still.  Jim was Pastor at the Landmark Missionary Baptist Church.  We had waltzed uncomfortably around one another for a week or so, when Jim approached me with a proposition.  He told me that he was aware of our differences and that if I was willing, we might consider the similarities in our belief systems, which would likely lead to more harmony and less awkward and contentious moments.  I agreed.  From then on we had the most wonderful conversations and discovered that our differences were far fewer than either of us had ever imagined!  For instance, on day Jim asked if I had been Born Again?  When I replied in the affirmative, he about fell off his chair!  “You’re the first Latter-day Saint I’ve ever met who said yes to that question!”  Further discussion helped us both to understand better.  We eventually agreed that being Born Again and being a Saint means essentially the same thing in the scriptures.  Thus we discovered that culturally, his church members were very uncomfortable being called Saints and that likewise, members of our Church are equally uncomfortable with calling themselves Born Again.  It was a matter of familiarity with the semantics.  This was amusing to both of us because he could find examples in the New Testament like Philippians 4:21 that indicate members of the Church are Saints and I found reference after reference in The Book of Mormon admonishing us to be Born Again. (See Mosiah 27:25).  I have since attended Landmark Baptist Church a couple of times and found both meetings informative, inspiring and beneficial.

When my Granddaughter Megan was baptized into the Vernal Christian Church, I attended in support of her decision.  After the meeting I gave her a big hug and she introduced me to Pastor Schaun Colin.  Pastor Shaun is from South Africa.  Pastor Schaun took my hand in both of his, looked me in the eye and with all sincerity, said, “I think I know what it has cost you to be here today.  Thank you for coming to support Megan.”  I thanked him for his kindness and complimented him on his sermon and the welcome we had enjoyed from everyone in the congregation.  It was a very pleasant experience for me.

When I served at the Detention Center and previously at the County Jail, I of course was representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but often the inmates were from from other religions.  I made a concerted effort to connect them with the Clergy of their own Church.  This was met with mixed results, but generally was a heart warming experience as I knocked on the door or otherwise made contact with Ministers, Pastors and Priests of the various local denominations.  Most of the time they were appreciative, friendly and responded quickly to the needs of the incarcerated members of their flock.  I think one of my favorite moments from the Detention Center came when a Native American youth seemed resistant to suggestions I was making about setting goals for his future.  His mind was inside the religion box I’d been presenting and he didn’t like it in there.  Once he’d expressed his problem to me, I suggested an alternative that he had never considered.  I suggested that upon his release that he might check with his Tribal Elders about the possibility of participating in the Sundance.  I told him of friends of mine who had done that ordeal and had grown in powerful ways from the experience.  A couple of years later the boy spied me in Walmart and ran over to report that he had done the Sundance just a few days prior and that it indeed had changed his life and set the tone for his future.  He said it was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but that now he knew who he was and where he wanted to go with his life!

When I came down with Rheumatoid Arthritis my doctor became Dr. Shakaib Qureshi.  My first meeting with him was wonderful.  I asked him if he was Muslim, which he was.  So I asked him if he had a place to worship near his home in Roosevelt.  He told me that during his very first week in Roosevelt the Bishop of the Ward he lives in came to his door and offered a room in the LDS Chapel for a place to worship if he needed it!  He told me he had declined because it was just he and his wife and they could do that just fine at home.  But was so moved by the offer that he began right away to feel at home here!  Next, I asked if he’d been on the Haj.  Suspicious, he asked why I wanted to know.  I told him that while in the Philippines I met a man who was going on the Haj.  He’d booked passage on a freighter to fulfill his life long dream of a pilgrimage to Mecca during his life.  I told Dr. Qureshi that upon his return, that man was simply radiant with joy and peace, despite a long arduous journey.  Sensing my sincerity, Dr. Qureshi told that yes, he had gone on the Haj, though he’d booked a luxury trip for $30,000.  He was a bit embarrassed by the comparison of his sacrifice when compared to my Filipino friend.  Nevertheless, he went on to tell me that the experience changed his life.  Previously, he’d been head of a large Rheumatology Department in a major hospital, with lots of money and two months of vacation every year.  He told me that upon his return from the Haj, he felt a strong desire to have a more meaningful life.  So he quit his job, found an underserved community in America (the Uintah Basin) and began practicing here one month followed by two months doing pro-bono work in Pakistan, in rotation.  He says that though he’s not making nearly as much money and has no time off to speak of, that he’s happier and more fulfilled than he’s ever been!  How blessed my life has been because of his treatments, his kindness, his expertise and his willingness to serve in a place like this!  His Haj has truly blessed my life!

There are more stories and perhaps I’ll include them some day, but suffice it to say, that I have enjoyed deep and lasting friendships and had wonderful experiences and have learned and grown from encounters with those of other faiths.  I find Elder Ballard’s admonition to Champion them both wonderful, satisfying and appreciated!

Intellectual and Moral Integrity

 We live in a day of conflict, of choosing up sides, of dehumanizing people other than our kind.  These are circumstances that deeply trouble me.  We commonly have our biases and seem so very comfortable sitting snugly and smugly in our various comfort zones.

Years ago, while watching a TV program called Finding Your Roots, with Henry Louis Gates Jr. I had a major paradigm shift.  He was working with the renown lawyer Alan Dershowitz.  My political views at the time, so differed from those Dershowitz espoused that I almost turned it off.  Thankfully, I didn’t.  As, Dr. Gates examined Alan’s family history and helped him understand his roots, I came to a new understanding as well.  As I remember the episode, Alan told a story of coming home excitedly proclaiming that the Yankees won the Pennant!  To which his Grandmother replied, “Vat does dat mean for da Jews?”  Having just heard of their oppression in Eastern Europe and their difficult journey to America, I suddenly had an epiphany.  I realized in no uncertain terms that had I been raised in the family and environment Dershowitz had, I’d most certainly, be in a much more similar frame of mind to his.’’Suddenly, I realized that my own upbringing had a profound effect on my own thinking, opinions and in particular my bias, or the frame of mind with which I view the world.  I knew that day that I had to begin the process of examining those views with the hope of at least seeing both sides of an issue, but also with the view of discovering and adopting the truth!

Another great influence at that particular time came in the form of the biography of Sir Isaac Newton called Never at Rest by Richard S. Westfall.  In it the author explains that Newton wrote more on religion than he ever did on Mathematics and Physics.  Newton was indeed a scientist first, but as his interests turned toward religion he found that much seemed amiss having been confused by wild imaginings and indeed, bias, or personal opinion.  As Newton approached his examination of biblical prophecy, particularly in Daniel and the Book of Revelations he realized that in order to avoid the same pitfalls he found in other writers on the subject that he must establish and apply 15 rules to his study and conclusions, to be certain that his own training didn’t interfere with the discovery of the truth.  To give you a glimpse into Newton’s conclusions, he declared that there had been a general apostasy and that a restoration would happen some two centuries after his time.  He believed that the restoration would come with the sounding of a trump.  He whole heartedly rejected the Trinity Doctrine, believing that the Father and the Son were, indeed resurrected and corporeal beings with bodies of flesh and bone.  He believed that the authentic Priesthood of God was no longer upon the earth.  These views held such sway with him, that when he was offered a professorship at Cambridge, he declined because with the position, came the requirement of ordination to the priesthood of the Church of England.  Such an ordination he felt to be an affront to God and he would not do it.  A group of friends eventually persuaded the King to create the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge with the stipulation that it might be filled with one who was not ordained.  Newton accepted that chair.

I tell you this because it struck me as vital, that I too, establish some rules for the examination of the world’s barrage of information.  I did not then, nor do I now, want to be influenced by my own bias, or anyone else’s.

My list of rules has evolved over the years.  Here it is as it now stands:

1. Simplicity (I drew this one from Newton’s list. Repeatedly, “God delights in plainness. The more complicated things become, the more I need to boil them down to simple basic principles.
2. Open Mindedness (I need to be willing to look at an issue, circumstance or organization from all sides.)
3. Glean  (Most approaches, opinions, platforms and dogmas have both correct and incorrect ideas, I don’t have to swallow the fish bones as well as the meat, neither do I have to throw the baby out with the bath water.}
4. Prove (Get the actual facts.  This is getting ever more difficult to do, but there is another factor to prove that is significant here. In Malachi we are invited to “prove Me now herewith..” In other words, make application of the principle and “see if I will not open the windows of Heaven…”. In other words test it.  This can be done by application and also often as a simple, intentional thought experiment - pondering)
5. Source (This is another I obtained from Newton.  Rather than rely on the analysis of others, he went directly to the scripture for his examination of prophecy.  Too often I have fallen victim to the ease of just taking someone’s word for what happened, or for someone’s position, or deed.  It will not do to seek the opinions only of the detractors.  There must be merit to the views of those who affiliate as well as those who reject.”
6.  Solid Ground (Stand on the solid ground you have already gained.  If you have thoroughly examined this or that and followed all the rules, then I say you’ve obtained some solid ground.  There is no need to fuss over that any further.  Now it is a matter of fitting that which is not so sure to that which is!  And if you’ve done it right it will attach naturally, harmoniously to your anchoring  place.
7. God is the Source of all Truth  (Whether you accept this or not the rule applies.  I already know this from experience.  It is really quite simple.  Either God exists or He doesn’t.  It is the most fundamental thing, to approach God and ask.  My experience has been undeniable, over and over.  He has and continues to confirm truth to me.  It is not usually a question of handing me the truth as it is a question of confirming truth I have settled on and asked Him to confirm.  Many times He has not confirmed something I had eagerly accepted.  There is a subservient rule that applies to this one.  The thing, organization, person or principle that I feel to strongly embrace, must be in compliance with truth already established.  In other words, it must conform to that which God has already revealed.  Sort of goes back to rule 6.)
8. Rule of Thumb. (Deception in any form casts doubt on the source.  Let me give you a few examples.  I saw a recent political add that shows footage of a candidate saying something quite heinous.  Further, examination, though, proved that the ad makers had edited the video such that it completely misrepresented what was actually said.  Why would I ever trust that source again?  Recently, someone claimed to my wife that The Book of Mormon was plagiarized from another book written at the time.  My wife read the ostensibly sourced book and found that in no way did the books have more than one similarity and that the differences in the similarity were profound.  There is no way that an accusation of plagiarism would hold up in court.  Hence, another source that cannot be trusted.)

• Quit Choosing Sides (We, especially in America, have fallen prey to an us versus them mentality.  If we don’t like something the Democrats stand for, we tend to hate Democrats and everything the stand for.  Of course the same sentiment tends to apply in the opposite direction.  I cannot understand the mentality that our side is right and their’s is wrong!  Certainly, there are good as well as elements to each side, the Prophet has repeatedly said so.  So, the notion that because this candidate represents our side, so he, despite his faults is right and the other despite his qualities is wrong, is utterly ridiculous!  I know so many people on either side of the aisle who adamantly despise the other, for no other reason than that’s where their fathers stood and their fathers before them.  This polarized view of the future of our Republic, to me is way more dangerous than many of the policies and platform of either side.  This same feeling applies in other arenas as well.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is actively addressing this issue by attempting and often succeeding in building bridges where chasms have been.  A couple in my own Stake have a Church calling to attend, serve and worship with other congregations in our community who are not of our faith.  A Bishop in a nearby town offered space in the Chapel in which his Ward meets to a Muslim friend of mine so he could have space in which to worship Allah.  We will all be happier if we start building bridges instead of entrenching ourselves in our ever more isolated bunkers!)

Well, the question remains, do we have intellectual and moral integrity?  I think Isaac Newton did.  I’m not asking you use or accept my rules, but I am suggesting that we establish some.  Rules that will require of us a good hard look at what we believe, accept, embrace and encourage.  It stands to reason, that we cannot all be right at once.  It also stands to reason that we won’t any of us recover from our biases and prejudices in one quantum leap.  These things take time and effort.  I just hope we will start now to embark further on that path.

Some Thoughts on Jacob Chapter Five

 Every time I read the fifth Chapter of Jacob in the Book of Mormon, I can’t help but wonder about all the stories of grafting and where they took place.  It seems quite clear that the graft that took place in finest part of the vineyard was that of the Nephites and the Lamanites and that the branch that died was the Nephites, but what about the branch that was planted in the poorest part of the Vineyard?  Might that have been Tibet?  Or Siberia?  How I long to hear those stories, though I doubt if they’ll be entirely different than the ones we know.  All of the “promised land” stores have tales of hardship, deprivation, as well as faith and triumph.  I don’t expect the others to be any different.

Clearly the allegory is the tale of the House of Israel and of it’s scattering across the globe or Vineyard.  The main tree remained in Palestine, but so many others were grafted on to the tree.  I think this chapter uses planting and grafting interchangeably it is possible to start a new olive tree from cuttings from an old one, so I’d like the thoughts of others on my surmise.  If I am correct though, and all of the “planting” was actually a graft, it would most certainly mean that the America’s were already populated when Lehi and his family were grafted on to an existing tree, or population.  The apparent population explosion recorded in the Book of Mormon seems to bear this out.  Though it seems that the new comers, must have immediately and strongly influenced, even dominated, the existing population.

I find it very interesting that China for example has had a very strong Christian presence, most certainly as early as the third Century.  In fact one source says that at the time of Marco Polo, there were more Christians in China, than in any other region of the globe, including Europe.  I think it quite likely that there were earlier dispersions of Israel that arrived and thrived in the Far East as early as, if not earlier than the people of Lehi arrived in America.  Like America, those people could have continued bearing good fruit on into the “Christian Era.”  As prophesied, their records, will one day be available to us.  What an exciting day that will be!

On a side note, about ten years ago, I met a young Sister Missionary on Temple Square from the People’s Republic of China.  Their name tags bear the flag of their country of origin.  I asked her how long she’d been affiliated with the Church?  Her reply astounded me!  She’d been part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints her entire life.  She went on to report that there are 30,000 Latter-day Saints in China! That the Government likes the Church because, “we obey the rules.”  She bore testimony of the 12th Article of Faith and of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as reasons why the Chinese Government and the Church have an amicable relationship.  Some of this number were converted abroad and returned home to China, but many have learned of the gospel from friends and neighbors.  She counted it a miracle that Hong Kong came under Chinese rule, because they can make day trips to the Temple without special permission. She also told me that they’d probably have even more freedom to worship if the Jehovah’s Witnesses would stop breaking the rules.

I found myself thinking that it seems quite certain that the portion of the allegory that tells of returning the branches to the mother tree, represents the Latter-day gathering.  What a joy it is to be part of that!  When I see what The Book of Mormon represents to many Indigenous People across the Americas, I can’t help but anticipate the joy of natives of China, Japan, the Philippines, Africa and everywhere else across the globe receive records of their own ancestor’s interactions with God and his Prophets!

This time through Chapter 5 gave me another perspective.  I found myself thinking of who I really am, the me who once lived in the presence of God.  At birth, I lost track of that and as mortality wore on, I began to bear wild fruit and also had need of pruning and grafting.  Naturally, being an enemy of God, I also required dunging and digging about.  I can see in this allegory many times when I went wild, or got too lofty and needed pruning.  The grafting in of my dear wife and children, and many dear friends have made a profound change in me.  The trimming off of this sin, or that tendency has been much needed.  The laborers in the Vineyard have labored diligently with me.  I just hope in this tree’s old age, there may be still a few young and tender branches, that can shoot forth and bear good fruit.