http://www.ldsmag.com/anneperry/071221lessons.html
I found this article interesting, in a mind-numbing sort of way, because of how closely it resembles the typical LDS testimony. I began reading it, and I realized about half-way through that not only did I have no clue what the point of the story would be, but that there in fact was no point at all. For starters, and is it ever an LDS testimony starter, Sister Perry lays on us no less than a fourteen paragraph travel log! I'm not kidding! You can read it yourself and prove me wrong, but I highly recommend it not! There is no synopsis, or commentary in those 14 paragraphs. Only your typical, rambling LDS testimony about how she went here and there and saw this and that. Then, after 14 paragraphs, she drops this bomb,
How close to us the past is. All those people were God’s children just as we are. They had the same loves and hates, fears and dreams as we do. Many of them had glimpses of the truth, and hopes for eternity because of those they loved, the inequities here or the faith that somewhere there would be forgiveness, healing and a renewal of all that is beautiful, compassionate and created from love
It sure is testimony material. A lengthy travel log eating up all the time while the Bishop and his counselors' looks to the ground betray their growing discomfort. And then out of the blue, a statement on faith and forgiveness.
How sublime is the Gospel, which excludes no one at all, from any time or place. How can one worship a God who would shut people out because they were born in a time or place that gave them no chance? That must surely include the vast majority of the people who have lived on the earth. It would be monstrous. And yet there are many whose faith teaches them exactly that.
This woman has listened to a lot of testimonies. It's a maze. Nothing in her 14 paragraphs of observations links at all to her musings now on "the Gospel" and typical ignorant Mormon cheap shot at other faiths. But this is standard testimony bearing in action. (string of whatever) --- "I know the church is true" --- (next string of whatever) --- "I know the church is true"
Walking in Darkness
Today was Fast and Testimony.
NO KIDDING! And just so all of you know, by the time I had decided I would do a post linking Perry's article to the testimony, I hadn't yet read this sentence. I promise!
I felt moved to say how very different I find it speaking with someone who has a belief in God from speaking with someone who has no belief at all. It doesn’t matter that the nature of their belief might be different from mine. How does one abide such a darkness?
Again, the rambling incomprehension of the Mormon testimony in action. Why, just a couple paragraphs ago the woman was lamenting all those bad religions and ridiculing their "monstrous" deities. Now there's a familiar kinship---not to mention it's the forth time the article has changed focus.
Sometimes the world is full of joy, but so often it is not. We all have griefs to bear, as we are meant to. We have pain, fear, loneliness and loss. It is part of the pattern, and necessary. But what would it be to endure without the trust that when we seem to be utterly lost and without recourse, then there is someone beyond us who loves us, understands our fear and our failures, and can mend everything, in time, if we do all we can. We do not need to understand everything, we cannot!
What pattern? it's "the pattern" all testimony bearers are apparently familiar with. But it doesn't come from any of her observations thus. And the big question we should all be asking ourselves at this point is whether God will lead Sister Perry out of the maze of her own Meridian article.
How is it bearable to those for whom the darkness is empty?
I wish passionately that I could do something to convince people that there is a God. We are never alone, we only think we are because both our sight and our understanding are so limited.
Of course this meandering testimony isn't going to convince anyone.
Reason will not fill that void. You cannot argue someone into trust or the reaching out of faith, so that it will eventually be touched by the Spirit. The beauty of the earth, which in one place is so intense that it overcomes the mind, for some only begins to touch it. Our own faith may light a spark, or it may be seen merely as a delusion we create to comfort ourselves.
If anything can do it, it will be love: love that is patient, consistent, brave, merciful over and over again, but does not bend to accommodate the lie or excuse cruelty: love that never goes into hate or despair, the surety that light is stronger than darkness.
And all the TBMs in the audience will no doubt be nodding their heads.
No Safe Place
It was my turn to teach Sunday School again, and the subject was the Epistle of Saint James, whom we believe to have been the brother of Christ in the flesh. What a marvellous letter it is, so simple on subjects of seeking knowledge by asking God in faith, and trusting that we will receive an answer. On bearing affliction with patience and grace. On being doers of the word, not hearers only. On guarding the cruelty of the tongue, being slow to anger, on practicing pure religion — the love of others.
Oh no, the travel log continues, at some point on her account's Lynchian time and space line, she visited a lot of places and she taught Sunday School. And let's not forget the typical unnecessary testimony parenthetical that becomes a complete subject on its own.
One subject arose in a discussion that moved me greatly. I mentioned having gone up Vesuvius, close to the top, and somehow or other we touched the subject of how fertile the soil was, how far up the mountainside people had built beautiful houses. One of the sisters said that we need to learn that there is no safe place to set our feet, no ground anywhere that cannot give way, cave in and pitch us headlong into grief or loss.
We must accept that there is no sure footing in life — no path that avoids pain. The only certainty lies not beneath our feet, but when we look upward to the love and the help of God. There is no other certainty, nor should there be. Everything else can change or be lost, at least temporarily.
She did not say so, but I believe that she had witnessed pain during the week that had surprised her, even shocked her, and shown her very clearly how fragile are some of the things we take for granted — but how eternal is the love of God, and the promises which will never be broken.
At this point she might have stumbled upon a topic, the love of God and hope, but it took of lot of lessons from antiquity which included musings on a volcano to pull of this one little point.
And surely Christmas is above all the time to remember such things?
Well, I guess if she says so.
Another brother mentioned the parable of the talents, but from a point of view I had never considered before — that if we choose what we believe is the path of safety, as much without risk as possible (to have one talent and bury it so it cannot be lost) — then we will surely lose it in God’s time. Whereas those who take the risks of being hurt, of failing at times, but do all to be the very best they can, will double their spiritual wealth. And the only thing that matters in the end, they will be pleasing to our Father in Heaven, who gave us this sublime chance to learn, to grow, to be forgiven if only we will keep faith, and forgive others also.
I take it this means, if there is any continuity to her testimony, that Christ has ordered us to build our houses as high as possible on Mt. Vesuvious. And those who do not voluntarily live near disaster zones, mudslides, CA wildfires, will be frowned upon by the Lord.
This is the time above all others to be grateful for the chance of life, to seize it with all the strength we have, and do everything within our power to magnify it, and share it with everyone we can.
All the tomorrows lie ahead of us in which to try our best. It is never too late, here or hereafter. There is eternity in which to grow, and to become beautiful.
A final thought that had almost nothing to do with the rest of the testimony. Truly, this is the model testimony if there ever was one.