Morning thoughts 1.27.11

My thoughts have been drawn to faith lately and so this morning I pulled up last conference's talks and grabbed Richard C. Edgley's talk entitled  "Faith-the Choice is Yours" to mull over with my honey bunches of oats and yogurt. Faith is a touchy subject to talk about with people, or at least it has been in my experience, primarily because Faith is something that is incredibly personal. Part of the confusion has to arise from how we all internalize what faith is to ourselves. For me, faith is something that is expressed in my actions. Faith is having a hope that that which I do will have an affect in the future that I cannot predict but hope for. What I mean is that I hope that what I'm doing now will bring forth fruit in the distant future. Some of my faith is motivated because of experience. I want to read my scriptures and pray because I know they bring me happiness. I want FHE to happen because I have both personal and observatory experience on how FHE can impact a family for good or for evil. Wield the power of FHE well my son or dire consequence will result! 


Edgley said "When our sacred doctrine and beliefs are challenged, this is our opportunity to become acquainted with God in a most private and intimate manner. This is our opportunity to choose." Now I'm the sort of person who in the middle of a monsoon will go outside and laugh and run around as I'm pounded to the ground with buckets of rain. I love feeling the power of nature around me and one of the most beautiful things I saw in Taiwan was while crossing a very long bridge and watching the massive waves in the swollen river the day after the monsoon. One of the reasons I love being here at Boulder is because I love being around people that are very different than me. There are people in my classes who don't believe in free will, or God, or even in individual existence. There are people who believe in so many different philosophies and religions it can be overwhelming at times. But the great thing I've experienced while here is that the discussions I have, the more my personal conceptions are challenged the greater growth I feel in myself. There is a balance to this, I don't go around obsessed with being challenged every moment of every day but I do enjoy the opportunities that naturally arise from interacting with those not of my faith or background. I also make a point of taking any serious questions to my father in heaven. Basically, after the monsoon I still like to go inside and take a hot shower, I'm not that crazy. 


So I am grateful for the chances I've been given to wrangle with difficult philosophical problems because in the end it really is a choice as to what you believe. No amount of doctrine, study, preaching, howling, reading will ever change what you believe if you choose to continue believing it. So I felt energized by Edgley's words this morning.

Choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism.

 So I hope that I'll be able to choose faith over fear and keep walking this crazy path that is my life.