God Wants to Treat Us

My last blog post was very important to me. I put before the world cherished thinking about the competing mindsets of Mammon and Consecration. I talked a lot about ways to give away the money that we have. Then, just a few days after posting, I ran across someone else’s blog post about consecration that caused my thinking to evolve (1).

You see, while I still stand by everything I wrote in my last post, I was committing in a subtle error in our I applied the principles therein in my personal life. I was falling into the fallacy of confusing Consecration with the denial of luxuries. I wanted so much to give away everything to God and dedicate my worldly goods to helping others that I felt guilty whenever I indulged in earthly things and, even worse, my heart criticized others who did likewise.

But the blog post (by my friend Nom Joti Kaur) pointed out that the mortal Jesus, our Great Example of how to be in this life, was not an ascetic (a person who “abstains from all forms of indulgence, usually for religious reasons”). She also shares a really cool experience she personally had:

One day, she worshipped in the temple (where Latter-day Saints covenant to keep the Law of Consecration) and was praying there for help with some hard things she was going through. The Spirit told her to get a manicure and a pedicure. It might seem strange to be lead to “selfishly indulge” in such things right after covenanting to give all to the Lord but she points out that God wanted to treat her and it was a good thing to accept that (this is the Reader’s Digest version—I highly recommend reading the full account in her own words).

This made me think of a similar experience I had when Jamie and I were approaching a recent wedding anniversary. We had big plans to live it up, going to our favorite restaurants and thrift store shopping together (something which we really enjoy). I was feeling guilty about the whole thing though because I knew that the money we’d spend that day could be given to the poor or some other worthy cause. I prayed about my concern and the Lord gave me a feeling of peace that said to me, “Enjoy your anniversary plans. They’re a gift from me. Receive them as such with gratitude.”

This allowed the guilt to go away and Jamie and I had a lot of fun and strengthened our love for each other and for being alive. The word “consecration” refers to dedicating someone or something to a sacred purpose. The word comes to us from the ancient practice of throwing offerings over a wall or barrier at the temple—where the offeror couldn’t access them anymore—they were literally “set apart” from the possession of the giver and transferred to God’s space (2).

When I consecrate all that I have and are to God, it is no longer mine. It is to be used for God’s purposes, not my own. But what’s amazing is that God’s purposes can include treating me! This ties into Doctrine & Covenants 59 (which I referenced in my last post). This revelation mentions all sorts of things God puts on the earth which He wants us to enjoy with gratitude.

And that’s the thing, this is the paradigm shift that comes with consecration: I stop thinking, “I earned all this money so I deserve to buy this thing for me,” and instead think, “All of these resources belong to God and He has chosen to treat me with some of them.”

But how do we make this shift? One thing that has helped me is to apply the following exhortation from Nephi to money: “Ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul” (2 Nephi 32:9).

I am trying to talk with God about every purchase I make. Since I’ve consecrated all my money to Him, it makes sense that I would consult with Him every time that money is spent. I am trying to make the best decisions I can about where to allocate money and then take those decisions to Gpo and seek His approval. Even while at the store, when I see something I think I might purchase, I can pray in the moment in my mind and tell the Lord about it. I find that the Lord tends to approve every purchase I choose to make. I think this is because He doesn’t want to command in all things (God rarely micromanages His stewards). But seeking His approval and telling Him why I’m going to buy the thing with His money sure does change how I see purchases!

And when He approves a decision to buy something for me that I’ll enjoy, it does not feel like something I’ve earned but a gift from Him. And that is a beautiful thing.

Footnotes:

(1) I am so grateful that we seekers of truth in mortality have the opportunity to exchange ideas with one another. When done right, this can be the wonder of Sunday School and the wonder of the internet. Each of us has a limited time to learn in mortality and has vastly different personalities and experiences. Thus, each of us will naturally discover different aspects and pieces and perspectives of the Truth. It is wonderful that language allows us to share what we’ve discovered with one another so that we all might profit and get closer and closer to that One Great Whole.

(2) Nibley, Hugh W. “Breakthroughs I would Like to See”. Approaching Zion. vol. 9 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1989).

Why We Eat How We Eat

A little over a year-and-a-half ago, my wife Jamie and I felt a yearning to know God better. We began praying for help to make significant changes to be closer to Him and experience more of the gifts of the Spirit. We had no idea the Lord would answer those prayers by telling us to change how we eat.

This is how it happened: a little after Jamie and I started praying for this, we were reading scriptures with the kids while we ate dinner (we’ve learned that combining meal and scripture time reduces the chance that the kids will run off while we read). As was typical in our house (and most American houses), we were eating a protein-centric dish named for the meat it was built around.

On that particular day, I chose to read this section of holy writ which says the Lord wants us to joyfully use the things of the earth—plants and animals—to sustain and enrich our lives. But then comes this stern warning: “For unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion” (v. 20). A clear message from heaven pierced my mind to the core, “The way you eat meat is excess and extortion.”

This freaked me out. I somehow recognized it as the answer to our prayers to be closer to God but it scared me because Jamie did most the cooking. I didn’t want to say to her, “God told me we should stop or significantly reduce our meat intake so you need to change how you cook for us.” That just didn’t seem like a conversation that would end well.

So, I sat on the revelation. For two months.

From time to time, a voice in the back of my head would remind me that we needed to make this change but I would just put it off. Finally, one day, I came home from work and Jamie seemed nervous to tell me something.

She began timidly, “I’ve been watching some documentaries today and I would like to make some changes.” She’d watched a few of the various Netflix exposés on the food industry as well as this excellent TED talk on being a weekday vegetarian. She was resolved to dramatically cut our family’s meat intake but was scared to tell me because she didn’t know what I’d think!

I was so relieved. I told her what I’d felt while reading the scriptures at dinner two months earlier. We were both so happy we’d come to the same conclusion through different means and felt that we were truly following God’s will for our family.

Since then, we’ve continued learning more from science and from scripture about the best way to eat. Line upon line, precept upon precept, we have developed a new diet that follows what we Mormons call The Word of Wisdom, a revelation from God about how we should eat. It is the reason most participating Mormons do not use alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee. But in addition to prohibiting that stuff, it also advocates a diet based on grains, fruits, and vegetables; and says we should eat meat “sparingly”. It even suggests that God would be pleased if we only ate meat in times of emergency.*

As we’ve mostly cut meat out of our diet with a few exceptions, we’ve been very blessed. The Word of Wisdom ends with a series of promises that we’ve realized in our lives:

“And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow in their bones…." We definitely feel that our bodies are stronger and healthier and simply sturdier. As we’ve satisfied our hunger with nutrient rich whole grains, vegetables, and fruits instead of meat, our constitutions have improved.

We’ve also received spiritual health in the navel. I imagine a baby whose navel receives all needed nourishment from the umbilical cord that connects to his or her mother. Taking the Word of Wisdom at face value has strengthened our umbilical connection to God and filled us with grace and spiritual strength.

“And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures….” This is where the Word of Wisdom becomes the answer to our prayer to know God. As we’ve lived this health code, we’ve learned more from God and come to know God more. Mysteries of godliness have been revealed to us and we find it easier to experience the gifts of the Spirit.

“And shall run and not be weary, and walk and not faint….” We simply have more energy. It is easy to sustain physical activity and easier to sustain spiritual activity as well, making it easier to follow the Lord’s injunction to "endure to the end” in well-doing.

“And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.” This definitely applies to obedience to the Word of Wisdom prohibitions against alcohol and tobacco which significantly shorten people’s life spans. The introduction to the Word of Wisdom says that it was given “in consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days.” This probably refers to big companies that profit big from alcohol and tobacco sales and have worked to keep the perils of these substances a secret.

But perhaps it also refers to companies and organizations that use immoral means to convince the public that lots of meat and other unhealthy foods aren’t bad and thereby make a significant profit off of shortening people’s lives. Latter-day Saints who avoid alcohol and tobacco reduce their risk of liver disease and lung cancer. If more of us took just as seriously the injunction to eat little or no meat, we’d also lower our risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, all of which are significant and growing epidemics the Lord must have foresaw when He gave the revelation.

Perhaps this is why Gordon B. Hinckley, a man whom I love and who served as a prophet of God, said in a 1993 address, “I thank the Lord for a testimony of the Word of Wisdom. I wish we lived it more fully. But even though we do not, the Lord pours out His blessings upon those who try” (emphasis added). I am grateful for the Word of Wisdom. Jamie and I are blessed as we live it as fully as we know how.

I want to write more about this subject but there is so much to say that I don’t know where to start. So, all readers are most welcome to post any questions you have about how our family is eating and what we’re experiencing to help me organize my thoughts for the next post.

In the meantime, here is a beautiful video we found recently which shows other people having the same sort of experience we’re having and seeing the same blessings:

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* There may be some confusion over why so many Mormons adhere strictly to the prohibitions but not the counsel. The guys over at FairMormon have done an excellent job of explaining that “the Word of Wisdom contains two kinds of instructions: (1) prohibitions, and (2) counsel. The prohibitions are binding upon the Saints; the counsel, precisely because it is counsel, is up to each of us as individuals.”

The Word of Wisdom prohibitions against alcohol, tobacco, coffee, or tea are seen as binding upon all members of our Church and a prerequisite to receiving the Church’s ordinances (sacraments). The counsel part of the revelation is not considered binding in the same way—members are encouraged to figure out for themselves how to best live those parts. “In the Church, we refer to this as living according to what the Holy Spirit has revealed to each of us, or in this instance, living according to the spirit of the Word of Wisdom” (again from FairMormon).

On the Folly of Underestimating the Merits of Gratitude

I didn't use to care much for the idea of "gratitude". I thought it was a pretty cliche concept, limited to the trite lists people make during Thanksgiving and well-intended Sunday school lessons. So many other virtues seemed so much more powerful and important. Like the virtue of charity. There's a powerful concept. The word embodies the idea of loving people in the noblest, purist way possible and is described with phrases like "never faileth", "thinketh no evil", "rejoiceth in the truth", "endureth all things", and "the pure love of Christ". Now, that's a virtue with umph. But gratitude just seemed so ... cute and nice ... but not that important.

I remember the first time I thought there might be more to gratitude. I was showing a cut of a documentary I made to a small test audience. The doc was about Gladys

Alard, a very active octogenarian Cuban refugee who fled her homeland when former college crush Fidel Castro took over. She came to the States where she now lives a vibrant life full of service and Salsa dancing. There's a part where Gladys is loading the dishwasher and says something about how grateful she is to the Lord for the dishwashers we have in this blessed country. I put that moment in there because I thought it was endearing. But one of my friends in the audience saw more. She let out a sound that said she'd heard something profound (you know the sound I'm talking about: it's that sort of a gasp mixed with a tone of inspiration and says, "I just learned something important").

After the screening, we were talking about how impressive it is that Gladys is so active at her age (as illustrated by one moment in the film when we see her busting Salsa moves that put most 20-somethings to shame as she says, "I am 82 years old but I feel like I'm about 50"). One of the points I assert in the film is that Gladys has so much life in her old age because she loves so much (remember, I was big on the virtue of charity) but my friend (the one who made the inspired gasp sound) surprised me when she said that she felt like Gladys is so active because she is so grateful.

That hit me hard. Maybe there's more to this gratitude thing.

Then, a few years later, I was working on a reality TV show called The Generations Project that followed people as they learned about their ancestors. The research for one of the episodes put me in contact with Utah's resident Japanese Buddhist priest (he's Jodo Shinshu Buddhist to be precise). I was intrigued by the fact that, according to Jodo Shinshe Buddhism, gratitude is the greatest virtue there is. They talk a lot about "living with gratitude". Every doctrinal stance I discussed with them goes back to gratitude. They believe that gratitude is the ultimate motivator that will help one to do good.

The priest explained to me that the incense in the Buddhist temple represents the good influences in one's life (such as those received from one's parents and ancestors and from Buddha himself) and that, when one leaves the temple, he or she has the scent of the incense on them still, representing how those influences stay with us. Because we're grateful for them, we do good things and thus their smell is still upon us. He explained that gratitude for life will motivate one to be good to one's parents. Gratitude for one's current possessions will make theft and coveting unappealing. Gratitude for the good things one enjoys in his or her country will inspire patriotism.

The priest further explained that Buddhism focuses on how temporary everything is. But this does not mean that things do not have value. In fact, Buddhism sees more value in things because they are so temporary. Since my dinner table will not last forever, I need to take extra care to appreciate it now. Appreciate everything about it: how well its legs hold up its top, how well it supports the weight of the food I eat, how well it elevates the food to the level at which I sit so I can eat comfortably ... you get the idea. Buddhism helped me to see that gratitude is more than a list of good things. Gratitude is seeing every good thing in the world. Gratitude is being content with life as it is. Gratitude is happiness because gratitude sees and enjoys everything good that is here right now.

My sister recently posted this link on Facebook. It is a Huff Post article by one Rachel Mary Stafford in which she talks about how her busy, task-oriented personality blinded her from seeing and enjoying all the good around her. She describes how her very whimsical daughter helped her awaken to the need to slow down and see all the beautiful things around her. Rachel Stafford doesn't use the word "gratitude" but she's describing the same concept I learned from the Buddhist priest.

Then comes the issue of expressing gratitude through prayer. About two weeks ago, I read this article by Henry Eyring, a leader of my Faith. He talks about how Jesus promised that "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26). Eyring pointed out that one way that God speaks to us is by giving us blessings so, if we want it, God is happy to send the Holy Ghost to bring to us remembrance of our blessings.

Prior to reading this, I was struggling to feel like my prayers were very sincere. I felt this was the solution I was looking for. I decided to begin every prayer with a petition to be able to remember the blessings God had given me recently. Rather than fill my prayers with trite phrases like "I thank Thee for this day", I began thanking God for really specific things like being able to have certain fun experiences with my kids, for being able to accomplish certain difficult tasks, or for specific ways He has helped me become a better person. What's most important is that I found it much easier to really feel gratitude for these things and that made my prayers so much more powerful.

I do not believe in a God who commands us to thank Him for things so He can feel good about Himself. I believe He gave the commandment to express thanks in our prayers because He knows doing so helps us be happier. Being more grateful in my prayers has helped me to be more grateful. It is easier to appreciate all the good around me. Like Gladys Alard, the Buddhist priest (I sure wish I remembered his name), and Rachel Mary Stafford, living gratefully has enabled me to really live.

And thus I feel the need to offer Gratitude an apology. I am sorry I underestimated you. You are not trite or dull. You are so much more than nice. You hold your own beside your sister virtue Charity. In fact, can we even have Charity without your special contentment that leads us to envy not and to bear, believe, hope, and endure all things? Charity is preceded by meekness and I can think of few better ways to become meek than to choose to live in awe at all God has given. Thank you, Gratitude, for your patience with me. I hope to never underestimate you again.