Love one another as Jesus loves you.

Before the Relief Society Broadcast last night, I decided I wanted to get two things out of it. First, I wanted to know what I should be doing with my life right now. Second, I wanted to know what to write. I've been working on this superfantastic story but I've been struggling with part of the plot, so I thought maybe I could get help at the broadcast.

And I did. During one of the talks where the speaker told a story about being a caretaker to her dying husband and daughter, I had the idea of including a similar thing in my book. And I think I will do that.

And for my first concern--what should I do with my life? I was hoping for some specific instruction, perhaps something like, "Apply for medical school!" or "Move to Vermont!" or something like that (not that I actually want to do either of those things, except possibly move to Vermont).

I was listening very carefully for some kind of direction in what the speakers said, but the answer came during the song. The choir was singing a medley of He Sent His Son and I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. One part (in bold) stuck out to me:

How could the Father tell the world of love and tenderness?
He sent his Son, a newborn babe, with peace and holiness.

How could the Father show the world the pathway we should go?
He sent his Son to walk with men on earth that we may know.

How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice, of death?
He sent his Son to die for us and rise with living breath.

What does the Father ask of us?
What do the scriptures say?
Have faith, have hope, live like his Son,
Help others on their way.

What does he ask?
Live like his Son:

Love one another as Jesus loves you
Try to show kindness in all that you do
Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought
For these are the things Jesus taught.

I don't feel that that revelation is too private to share. It was the first time it's occurred to me that maybe the important thing I should be doing in my life isn't an Action like going to school, obtaining a degree, going to some specific place and accomplishing a specific task. It was the first time it occurred to me that maybe the most important thing to be doing in my life, is basically just loving those around me. Which is actually the whole message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it never hit me like that before.

I sang that song all the way home from the broadcast and I loved every second of it. So excited for General Conference next week. I can't wait to hear what the prophets and apostles have to say.

novel times updates!

Whew! So today I have written over 5,000 words on Nora Paranormal, a novel that I started what feels like a zillion years ago but was probably really more like two years ago. Or maybe just one. I got ~27,000 words in, and felt trapped, and shelved it, and just got back to it today with some fresh ideas. Now we're at 32,000 words and still going! I plan to write until my husband comes home, which unfortunately may not be for several more hours.

Every so often I have this terrible guilt about my writing. I feel like writing is compulsive for me: if I'm not writing something or reading something, I don't know what to do with myself, it seems. Sometimes I feel really bad because there are dishes in the sink, or the bed's not made, or the floor hasn't been vacuumed in a while, and I'm writing.

But when I've prayed about it, amazing things have happened that make me believe that this is okay--not that I'm letting my housekeeping slack, but that my heart is in writing and I write so much. Sometimes I forget about those miracles in my life, but today I remembered them.

Who knows. Maybe all these silly novels will get published someday; maybe not. But these stories are alive in me and I have to get them out. And for now, I think that's an okay use of my time.

The end.

the Christian mysteries

I wrote this post a few days ago but only put it up now. Enjoy.

This post was ruminating in my head for a while, since I stumbled across this letter from Pliny the Younger in 112 AD asking Emperor Trajan about how to punish the Christians in his area.

Then, I found this article about Juan Williams complaining about the fact that not just anybody gets to enter Mormon temples.

And then I knew: I have to write this post.

So, here it is. A post on the Christian mysteries.

One problem some mainstream Christians have with Mormonism is the issue of temple worship: they see it as secret and, frankly, bizarre. Of course, as Stephen E. Robinson points out in his book Are Mormons Christian?,* to attack Mormons on the issue of temples is like attacking a monk under a vow of silence. Those who have entered the temple are bound by covenant not to reveal what happens there, and so they cannot fully explain things to critics and detractors.

However, Christianity has always been marked by esoteric teaching--teachings given only to some and not to others, reserved only for initiates and held back from the public--and this fact is present throughout the Bible.

Before we get any further into that, let's examine 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 (KJV):

6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

Looking over other translations of the Bible, several other translations translate "perfect" as "mature in faith," which is indeed a valid way to interpret that word. However, the Greek word in the original text of this verse is "teleios," which means "perfect," "mature," and, importantly, "initiated."

The Greek word for "mystery" is "musterion," which also translates as "a secret," "a secret rite," or "a secret teaching."

In the original, unadulterated text of the Bible, what Paul is saying is that there are certain particular teachings that are reserved for those who have been initiated through secret rites into essentially the fullness of Christianity.

Do a topical search for "milk" and "meat" in the New Testament and you'll find it over and over again: Paul tells the early Christians in his letters that they are ready for milk--the simple, public teachings of Jesus--but not yet ready for the meat. This "meat" is something different than the milk, and Paul never discloses exactly what it is. Paul's frequent references to the "meat" of the Gospel imply that the Bible only scratches the surface of Christianity: there is much more that he was not allowed to share, hidden mysteries spoken of only among the initiated, or the "perfect," as it is translated in the KJV.

We know that the "hidden mysteries" here are not the Bible or the general idea of Christianity, because general Christianity is proclaimed "upon the housetops" to anyone who will hear. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Paul tells the Corinthians, who are already Christians, that they can have the "milk" of the Gospel but not yet the "meat," which also implies that even believers of Christ who have the scriptures are not given the "hidden mysteries."

Basically: the Bible flat-out says that there is more to Christianity than there is contained in the Bible.

The early Christians were aware of the mysteries. Saint Clement of Alexandria wrote:

Thus the Lord did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath; but allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries, and of that holy light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose to the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom He knew that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is the case with God.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem additionally wrote about the mysteries--this particular translation doesn't specifically mention the mysteries, but other translations do, with Cyril telling the Christian initiates that they are "standing on the frontier of mystery" and "to smuggle no word out" about it:

Thus is it with the Catechumen also if he should hear from the Believer: the Catechumen is made delirious, for not understanding what he has heard, he finds fault with it, and scoffs at it, and the Believer bears the blame of a betrayer. But now thou art standing on the frontiers ; see thou let out nothing ; not that the things spoken do not deserve telling, but the ear that hears does not deserve receiving. Thou thyself wast once a Catechumen, and then I told thee not what was coming. When thou hast by practice reached the height of what is taught thee, then wilt thou understand that the Catechumens are unworthy to hear them.

Cyril also describes an esoteric baptism in that letter, as well as things that sound very much like the LDS temple teachings.

Saint Ambrose of Milan, Saint John Chrysostom in Constantinople, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Saint Basil the Great all also wrote of the esoterica of Christianity reserved only for the initiated. Note also that all these Saints were located in different parts of the world: this wasn't some localized freak teaching. This was something that Christians practiced far and wide. Also notice that these writings are not from random Christians around at the time of early Christianity: these are writings from men who have been canonized by the Catholic Church, men widely considered to be, basically, "legit."

Anyway. To get back to the first link I posted. Important paragraph (with emphasis) from Pliny's letter:

Others, whose names were given to me by an informer, first admitted the charge and then denied it; they said that they had ceased to be Christians two or more years previously, and some of them even twenty years ago. They all did reverence to your statue and the images of the gods in the same way as the others, and reviled the name of Christ. They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery and adultery, to commit no breach of trust and not to deny a deposit when called on to restore it. After this ceremony it had been their custom to disperse and reassemble later to take food of an ordinary, harmless kind; but they had in fact given up this practice since my edict, issued on your instructions, which banned all political societies. This made me decide that it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they call deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths.

Just another evidence of the secret rites that early Christians practiced, which is vaguely reminiscent of LDS temple worship today.

And to go back to Juan Williams' fretting over the fact that non-Mormons aren't allowed in the temple--well, many Mormons aren't allowed to go in, either. And that's because the teachings you find in the temple are of the same nature as Paul's "hidden mysteries," the "meat" that he couldn't give to "milk" Christians. Many Mormons are "milk" Christians, too. To the extent that people like Juan Williams and other mainstream Christians are weirded out by LDS temple worship, I can only deduce that it's due to a lack of understanding of actual Bible text and early Christian teaching.

From what I have read of the Bible and the writings of early Christian saints, esoteric teachings were an important, crucial part of Jesus's original gospel, and I believe they still are today. But even if you don't believe the LDS faith is correct, to dismiss temple worship as somehow un-Christian is fundamentally incorrect.

As I have noted before, my religion holds that men are that they might have joy. As far as I am concerned, everyone was put on this earth to be happy. So find a set of beliefs that makes you happy.

In the meantime, belonging to a faith that is in keeping with the Christianity that was around when Christ was on the earth makes me happy. And I'm glad that the more I learn about the actual text of the Bible and the writings of the early saints, the more it fits with what I know of Jesus's Gospel from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. But we can all believe what we want. The end.


* This book is fantastic, a scholarly, non-proselytizing look at Mormon doctrine in the light of Biblical text and the writings of both Christian saints and scholars. It is definitely worth a read. Much of this post was essentially a summary of the section on esoteric teachings.

Interesting stuff roundup

For if you're bored.
~~

On civilization, an interview with Victor Davis Hanson. Excerpt:

The decline in civility—in the idea of being a good citizen—has taken a particularly tough toll on men, who have not adjusted to today’s post-industrial economy as fluidly as women have. “As society has been cut off from the drudgery of nature and the tragic view of things, it has become whiney. This is probably sexist, but it’s had a more direct effect on the males of the species who have had their muscular world radically redefined.”

“All the young men I knew growing up knew how to do these things. But the young kids I see today don’t know how to run a lawn mower or a chain saw. Today’s male lives at home. He kinda’ sorta’ dates a girl, kinda’ sorta’ doesn’t date her. He is becoming superfluous as a bread-winner and family head."

In the ancient world, farming and war instilled a sense of duty and responsibility in men. Today? “Men don’t know much about farming, and few are in the military, but most know a great deal about video games,” says Hanson.

Hanson comes back to the virtue of self-reliance and the toll its absence is taking on society: “Today’s suburban American has a therapeutic view of the world. We think we all die in our sleep at 90 years old without ever being sick. We don’t expect to lose our jobs. When these things happen, we go to counseling, thinking life’s not fair. Or we look to the government for help.”

Ace of Spades commentary on article above. Excerpt:

This election isn't a battle between the haves and have-nots, asccccc the Democrats want to paint it.

It's a battle between the responsible and the irresponsible; the realistic and the unrealistic; the self-reliant and the dependent.

Great article from Mark Steyn on the stuff in the Middle East, and novel-writing. As a writer, I, too, was struck by... well, read it. This stuff is weirder than fiction.

On why charitable giving makes you wealthier. Super interesting.

nathaniel moves into 18-month clothes

Nathaniel turned 14 months old yesterday. We moved him into 18-month clothes because overnight, none of his 12-month stuff would close anymore. He towers over other babies, which is bad because if he wants their toys, they can't defend themselves: he can just push them over and take their stuff. I strongly, strongly discourage this behavior but he persists. He doesn't do it maliciously, he just doesn't know what he's doing and he wants their toys.

This has been a crazy week for Carl to start work at the State Department. I've spent days just clicking "refresh" on Ace of Spades and Drudge.

I just watched the Hunger Games movie for the first time at last. Peeta is awesome. I would watch that movie again. I really liked it.

I'm super tired so, the end of this blog entry.

finished Novel #2!

Good news today! My main New Year's Resolution this year was to complete four novels. I didn't have to start them from scratch, just write THE END and mean it on four separate documents.

Today, I finally met my halfway point, and I think I'm figuring this all out. I finished the first draft of my second novel of the year today, and I only started writing it in July. All told, it probably took six weeks. And I definitely didn't write every day. The book is super, super rough--but now it is a complete story, and to finish it I will just have to flesh out a bunch of sections. I'm so excited.

That leaves two more novels to complete this year. I have several novels out there that are over halfway done, so I might just pick one or two of those and round them out.

The point of this was to just practice completing things. In my life, I've probably hit that 10,000-hour mark of deep practice with sheer writing--but NOT, unfortunately, with completing story arcs. Which is a whole other thing entirely. So I get to work on that this year.

Happily, I think I'm figuring it out. So excited to start the second draft! I'm hoping to produce the final draft by the end of September. And then I'll have three months to finish two more novels... well, we'll deal with that when we get there, I guess.