THE LESSONS

 

I wrote yesterday about the practical knowledge of mortality that is essential for us in our rise to godhood. We acquire this knowledge through lessons we are given that provide an opportunity for acquisition of godly attributes and skills.

Every single quality I desired in life and asked for was not freely given. What was given was a practical lesson in difficulties I had to go through to acquire the skill I wanted. Indeed, just knowledge of it could not develop a godly character. It’s a matter of doing. I have wondered which of my lessons I didn’t need and the answer is I needed all of them. I have likewise asked myself what lessons I missed that had to be repeated because I was at the time unyielding.

I think of the Saviour and wonder which ones He could have skipped. Even He had to wade through the probationary state of mortality step by step receiving “grace for grace until He received a fulness”…..and he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him….” (D&C 93:12,13,17).

Now relate this to us. Verses 19 and 20 of Section 93 state that we too can receive of the fulness if we follow the example of the Saviour…but we too shall receive it “grace for grace”, one step at the time, one lesson after another. Would we have that example of fulness if the Saviour didn’t embrace ALL of His mortal experience? His subjection to receiving ‘grace for grace’ was for the benefit of the human race. He showed the way to perfection.

“He is the way, the truth, and the light, and no one can come back into the presence of our Father in heaven except through him. Christ is God the Son and possesses every virtue in its perfection. Therefore, the only measure of true greatness is how close a man can become like Jesus. (President Ezra Taft Benson, in CR, Oct 1972, p 53 or Ensign Jan 1973, p 57)

I often reflect on Him ‘who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross’ (Hebrews 12:2) and know that I can hope for the same joy if I follow Him to the end of my mortality……grace for grace…..

The lessons of my life flowed like a river

Winding through days, months and years;

I rescued a few but missed so many

From the currents as I saw them passing;

They drowned in a daze of my ignorance,

Unwanted and ignored but yet abiding.

I fish them now from the pool of my memory

And give them life everlasting.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Jesus the Symbol of Hope by Ivan Guaderrama)

COMPELLING MORTALITY

 

I read recently Elder Hafen’s rational explanation of the necessity of mortality from a vantage point I had never seen before. I was reading about the value of ‘the veil’ in his book, “The Believing Heart”, with my mouth open. He answered so logically the question many of us have asked at one stage or another: why would a loving Father devise a plan of free experience in mortality knowing that many of His children would never come back to Him? Could there not have been another way?

To me ‘the veil’ was something we lived behind in order to be tested through faith but there is so much more to this principle. It’s a matter of knowledge. Elder Hafen explains that there are two different kinds of knowledge. One involves gathering information and the other is about skill development. One is intellectual and the other is practical. You can guess which category mortality falls into. Consider this example of the importance of that:

“Imagine an innovative music school with a revolutionary approach, in which the piano students did not have to practice. The school would teach in a purely theoretical way all the rudiments; describe in detail how to move one’s fingers; go deeply into music theory and history; teach thoroughly how to read music. The students would memorize all the best books that have ever been written on how to play the piano. The course could last for four years.

“The students would each have a project, such as memorizing the score of a major piano concerto. They would be able to close their eyes and see the manuscript for both piano and orchestra flow through their minds – they could tell you everything about it. Then, when the first graduate of the “Do It Without Practice Piano Course” walks onto the stage of Carnegie Hall to perform his debut with the orchestra, what do you suppose will happen? Not much. Why?  Even though ‘thinking’ is an essential element in any form of learning, some things can be learned only by practice.”  (“The Believing Heart” p 43)

Having been through the process of qualifying for godhood, the intellectual knowledge is something Heavenly Father could give us in pre-mortal life but He could not give us the knowledge that comes through experience. No intellectual formula He could give us could produce the reality of godhood without the experience of the process. It is experience that yields skill and godly attributes.

And here is the crowning glory of this principle: “We must do all within our power, but the final achievement of celestial capacity comes ultimately through the bestowal of divine endowments…..”for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23)….”for by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” (Moroni 10:32) (ibid p 50)

FATHER TO HIS CHILD:

Long ago, when you lived in my arms

You wanted to fly in the vast expanse of the skies.

I gifted you wings, and promised

I would teach you to fly.

Just remember, I am here but

It is your turn now, not mine,

To rise.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Jesus of Nazareth by John Zamudio)