I share these thoughts in the spirit of friendship, with the hope you'll find something here that will enrich your life.
My personal faith--the faith that gives meaning to my life--is centered in Jesus Christ. Not only do I revere Him as a wise teacher, but also as the Son of God, a much-needed Savior and Redeemer in a world of suffering and injustice. He is perfectly loving and all-knowing. Jesus came to the world to show us how to live; He sacrificed His life to save us from sin and death. He described His mission in these words:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised (Luke 4:18).
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep (John 10:11).
Because of my faith in a loving Savior, I see the world as a place He has provided so that we can learn to live abundantly. The key to living this abundant life is learning to love. By love I don't mean indulgence or possessiveness or infatuation, all of which may masquerade as love. The love I'm referring to is the kind of love Jesus showed for us--love which has our best interest at heart, which knows our pain, and which wants us to become beings which are capable of the greatest happiness.
Sometimes to our dismay and even deep frustration, lessons in abundant living come at a high cost--sometimes because they can backfire when we resist them, but often because such lessons can only be learned through some pain. But I believe that part of the Savior's mission as our Redeemer is to redeem the pain in our lives: He can take away the bitterness, leaving only the learning we needed to have, as well as peace.
As a Christian, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I esteem the Holy Bible as sacred scripture, as well as another ancient record, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. The Bible and the Book of Mormon bless our lives in two valuable ways: 1) They stand hand-in-hand to witness to everyone that Jesus is the Son of God and offers salvation to all; 2) They give us guidance for everyday living. A thorough and thoughtful resource for more detailed information about the Book of Mormon is Jeff Lindsay's Introduction to the Book of Mormon.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe in the same church
organization Christ set up when he was on the earth: A prophet, called of God, leads the Church,
assisted by twelve apostles. These are men who by their own admission are not perfect, but who
strive to live the teachings of the Savior and encourage others to do the same.
I share with you my witness that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Church that has been established by the Lord to move forward his work in our time. Like the Bible, the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and will bless the lives of all who read it. I testify that God leads his people through a living prophet.
We can know truth. Because God is a God of love, He hasn't left us without a way of knowing truth in our lives. The witness I share is available to anyone who will seek an answer from the Lord in sincere prayer. You can know for yourself. One of the best statements I know of on the subject is found in Moroni 7:15-16 in the Book of Mormon:
For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.
For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.
In other words, all of us come into this world with the ability to recognize truth. Sometimes this ability is referred to as "conscience." It's not always easy to recognize, though. My experience has been that in order to hear the voice of truth inside, I have to get rid of any personal agenda. I have to want the truth more than anything else: more than pride, more than self-justification, more than "being right," more than avoiding pain or effort.
After hearing a poem on the subject by Stephen Crane, I developed the following maxim: "If you want something more than the truth, you'll probably get it--but it will be at the expense of the truth." But as Simone de Beauvoir remarked in All Said and Done, when we seek truth, truth rewards us.
We find meaning in life by serving others. Because of the Savior's life and mission, one of the things of greatest value in this life is caring for and serving each other. In the graphic at the top of this page, there are two lights: one from the light house and one below. In some areas of the world it is necessary for a ship to traverse a narrow passage to reach land: in this case, the upper and lower lights are positioned such that a boat can reach safe harbor if it follows a course keeping the two lights in exact vertical alignment.
Just how vital the lower lights are is illustrated in this experience of Boyd K. Packer's. Elder Packer and his companions were traveling one night during stormy weather between islands in Samoa. He relates:
At Mulisanua, there is one narrow passage through the reef. A light on the hill above the beach marked that narrow passage. There was a second lower light on the beach. When a boat was maneuvered so that the two lights were one above the other, it was lined up properly to pass through the reef.
But that night, there was only one light. Someone was on the landing waiting to meet us, but the crossing took much longer than usual. After waiting for hours, watching for signs of our boat, they tired and fell asleep in the car, neglecting to turn on the lower light.
The captain maneuvered the boat toward the single light on the shore while a crewman held a flashlight off the bow.... We could hear the breakers crashing over the reef. When we were close enough to see them with the flashlight, the captain frantically shouted reverse and backed away to try again to locate the passage through the reef. After many attempts, he knew it would be impossible to find the opening. All we could do was try to reach the harbor in Apia, 20 miles away.
We were lying spread-eagled on the cover of the cargo hold, holding on with our hands on one side, with our toes locked on the other to keep from being washed overboard.... We made no progress for the first hour even though the engine was full throttle. Eventually we moved ahead and near daylight pulled into Apia Harbor.
I do not know who had been waiting for us at Mulisanua...nor do I care now. But, it is true that without that light, the lower light--the light that failed--we all might have been lost. ("The Edge of the Light," BYU Today, March 1991.)
Since that experience, Philip Paul Bliss's hymn, "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy," has had special meaning for Elder Packer. In it, Bliss compares God to the lighthouse, and us, His children, to the lower lights:
Brightly beams our Father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore,
But to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.
Let the lower lights be burning; send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save.
Dark the night of sin has settled; loud the angry billows roar.
Eager eyes are watching, longing, for the lights along the shore.
Let the lower lights be burning; send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save.
Trim your feeble lamp, my brother; some poor sailor, tempest tossed
Trying now to make the harbor, in the darkness may be lost.
Let the lower lights be burning; send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save.
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This page created 17 January 1996; last modified 15 June 1997.