The Straight and Narrow Path

In response to some argument/discussion on Facebook:

I don't care one way another about this little phrase. But I do feel that both the form of the message (how it is communicated, or its tone) and the content of the message (what is communicated) are important. There is such a fine line, or we could call it a straight and narrow path, that runs between righteousness bordering on self-righteousness and mercy bordering on permissiveness. If our tone or method for communicating or listening to a message is off or alienating, then the truths of the message won't get through, and if the truths are off the mark, then the tone can be sweet and alluring, but without any edification. Love and truth together form the perfect message, the end of argument and conflict, and humble acceptance that we are all willing to learn from and lift each other. What I do really love is sincere love. A wise man reportedly said:

“When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what power it has over my mind, while the opposite course has a tendency to harrow up all the harsh feelings and depress the human mind.

It is one evidence that men are unacquainted with the principles of godliness to behold the contraction of affectionate feelings and lack of charity in the world. The power and glory of godliness is spread out on a broad principle to throw out the mantle of charity. God does not look on sin with allowance, but when men have sinned, there must be allowance made for them. … The nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs. …"

And more recently, another man said:

"We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey. Likewise, we cannot fully love our fellowmen if we do not love God, the Father of us all. The Apostle John tells us, “This commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” We are all spirit children of our Heavenly Father and, as such, are brothers and sisters. As we keep this truth in mind, loving all of God’s children will become easier.

Actually, love is the very essence of the gospel, and Jesus Christ is our Exemplar. His life was a legacy of love. The sick He healed; the downtrodden He lifted; the sinner He saved. At the end the angry mob took His life. And yet there rings from Golgotha’s hill the words: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”—a crowning expression in mortality of compassion and love.

There are many attributes which are manifestations of love, such as kindness, patience, selflessness, understanding, and forgiveness. In all our associations, these and other such attributes will help make evident the love in our hearts.

Usually our love will be shown in our day-to-day interactions one with another. All important will be our ability to recognize someone’s need and then to respond."

When I consider the profound love which has been so generously poured out upon me, a practiced and conscious sinner, I feel the wisest words I might pride myself in, and my most astute judgments for or against others or myself, and my other sins pale in comparison and are all loved away into extinction. And until my amnesia returns, I wish to extend this same truth and love to others. Psalms 85:10 "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

This is by no means a comprehensive treatment of the "straight and narrow path", but thank you for helping me express this.

Priesthood Power and the Doctrine of Charity

So I haven't been the best at keeping up my blog. 

Today, I was emailing a friend some insights that I had last year during a Sunday School lesson about the Old Testament.  After I finished typing this up, I thought this was worth sharing, in case anyone reads this and needs a little reminder how much Heavenly Father loves them.

In D&C 121:34-46, (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/121?lang=eng) we learn that in order for men to use Priesthood power, they have to follow certain principles, which include selflessness, humility, righteousness, charity, virtue, etc. Also sometimes reproving people with sharpness, but then showing an increase of love, so that they know we are not their enemies and that our faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.  So I started thinking about our Heavenly Father, and how if this is really His power, then He must be perfect at showing each of these traits. I specifically was interested in how He sometimes reproves with sharpness and then afterwards shows increased love. 

So I looked at a few of the most obvious Old Testament stories where He used a lot of sharpness, like when He drowned all the wicked people in the Flood, and when He confounded the people's language at the tower of Babel. Did He show an increase of love after both of these incidents?

The answer is definitely "yes", with a capital JESUS. (John 3:16-17, http://youtu.be/EjIlhu-yuTI)

There are scriptures that elaborate even more on how those people experienced this increase of love.  The prophet Joseph F. Smith's vision (D&C 138:6-9 and vs. 29-37, or http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/138?lang=eng) explains how the Atonement was taught to those who died in the flood. And then Acts 2:1-8 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/acts/2?lang=eng), and D&C 90:8-11 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/90?lang=eng) demonstrate how the Gospel message surpasses language barriers. The Atonement shows that Heavenly Father's love and faithfulness is indeed stronger than the cords of death, and not just figuratively, but with Jesus's literal resurrection.  

I've felt reproved at times by Heavenly Father, perhaps even with some sharpness. Ultimately though, these feelings are far surpassed by such an outpouring of love from Him.  This is the core of the Gospel message. In her book, "A Heart Like His", Virginia H. Pearce compares our Father in Heaven to a parent on Christmas Eve.  He delights in blessing us. (See Micah 7:18, http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/micah/7?lang=eng)  He expresses that love in so many ways, in fact in every way that a great parent expresses love.

Its inspiring to know that Heavenly Father's work continues after this life much the same as here.  Angels work is to fulfill the covenants that Heavenly Father made with mankind (Moroni 7:27-34, and of course the rest of that chapter is so brilliant! http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/7?lang=eng). But this angelic work doesn't just happen in the Spirit World, or the afterlife.  In the April 2007 General Conference, Elder Holland talked about the ministry of angels:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/the-ministry-of-angels?lang=eng&format=general-conference&view=sessions&media=

Angels are doing a considerable amount of work on us too, here in the world of the living! I love the thought that some people are also angels. Somehow Heavenly Father sends them to us at the right time to help us, to lift us, to fulfill the covenants that Heavenly Father has made with us, and to remind us of His love for us. If you think about it, perhaps the only difference between a person and an angel is that a person is mortal.

The Priesthood is literally the power of heaven here on earth, the power to do Heavenly Father's work, to fulfill His promises, and to communicate His love and the pathway home to Him.  Heavenly Father doesn't only want to save us - He wants to exalt us!  I feel so humbled and grateful for the Priesthood.  I love how it gives us an opportunity to participate in the work of salvation.   With the Priesthood, the work of exaltation seems to begin here on earth and then extend into eternity.

Maine

In 2010, I made a trip to Maine for work. It was a seriously fun trip, and I learned all about the professional roles of producer, associate producer, director, AD, 2nd AD, script supervisor, production accountant...

The teacher produced the film "Smoke Signals", which is one of my favorite films from my film classes in college. Here's a great quote from the movie: "How do we forgive our fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying, our mothers? Or divorcing, or not divorcing, our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing, or leaning? For shutting doors or speaking through walls? For never speaking, or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them or not saying it. If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"

Here are some photos from the causeway near Rockport, Maine.  It sure seemed to get dark early that far east in the timezone, but the sunset was amazing!  Of course, I think I must have thought everything was amazing

the rock pier...

the cloud out in the moon, the moon in the sky, the rock out in the harbor...

the seagulls...

the amazing sunset...

oh, and let's not forget the lighthouse.

We were there for a week, and really only had a little bit of time for sightseeing.  I'm glad that before we flew home, we took a quick trip to the Portland Lighthouse. 

     

 And like the dedicated tourist, I took plenty of photos.

 

Halloween 2010

Wow, is 2010 ending already? It has been a blur!

I started working full-time in January of 2010, which is my main excuse for not keeping in touch, not dating, not writing in my journal, not getting enough sleep or exercise, not taking enough photos, and thus not updating my blog.

But no more excuses. Luckily I have a lot of great friends who are also very social and organize events

Let's take this last Halloween, for example. I went to a friend's party as Ned Flanders...

Of course, some paranoid neighbor lady called the cops because she didn't recognize those people walking around in there. Obviously she doesn't watch the Simpsons or she would have at least recognized me. Of course when the police showed up, I answered the door all friendly like, and invited him in, thinking "Wow, great costume! You look like a real cop!" Too bad I didn't get a picture with him.

Of course the reason I went as Ned Flanders was because I had a mustache. I grew it out so that I could attend a really fun murder mystery party as Sir Francis Drake. Not only did I get to meet the Queen, but I also solved the murder! It was a fun night.

So I'll try to take more pictures in 2011, and to actually post something from time to time.

Until then, I hope all my social acquaintances will continue inviting me to stuff.

My Game Reviewed by Orson Scott Card

My aunt Sheila saw a review in the Deseret News where Orson Scott Card discussed my card game, "Blast from the Past". He said,

"...most Mormon games, if you remove the Mormon references, are not very fun. It's like most Mormons who set out to write a novel. "Mine will be good because it's clean," the writer thinks, or "Mine will be good because it's Mormon." They don't grasp that the story has to be fascinating or it doesn't matter how clean or how Mormon it is -- no one will want to read it. So you can imagine how happy I was to discover that there is now a Mormon trivia game that is actually fun to play. When I was picking up Seek, I noticed a game -- also published by Deseret Book -- called Blast From the Past, a game about LDS Church history."

I take that as such a high compliment!!! I mean wow, I wasn't even trying for that one. I just wanted to get a game out there and see how it would do. He also said,

"Blast From the Past is a Mormon game that can be played again and again. It's fun because of what you learn and how amusing some of the cards are, and also because any player might win,"

which I totally agree with. I've played the game dozens of times now, and I've only won twice!!! Aaaaaagh, I must be really bad at trivia if I can research it, write it, and then still get mixed up on dates.

Anyway, I'm working on a new game now, and I don't think it will get nearly as much praise, but hopefully I will learn more about publishing this time around.

Here's a link to the review, in case you're interested:

http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/orson_scott_card/?id=9917

I was on LDS Radio!!!

So I added the Mormon Radio widget to my blog, and not just because I was interviewed as part of a panel discussion on the radio program, "Everything Creative", but because I'm excited that there are so many great discussions happening on this station.

I believe there are three reasons I was invited to participate in the discussion on the air: 1) I published a card game through Deseret Book (see photo on the right), 2) I rarely use vulgarity (I've only said 3 swear words in my whole life.), and 3) Its all about connections.

I hear there are already millions of listeners to Mormon radio at radio.lds.org. So since there are three or four of you who read my blog from time to time, now there are a million and four!

Ready, set, sing!

So we got to do a bit of recording for a Church video.  It was a lot of fun.  Photos include Tamilisa Wood, Nicole Carter, Aimee Lewis, and Trevor White.