The Good News
I have a really hard time motivating myself to write.
Most of you can probably identify with me. Even people who love writing sometimes avoid starting out a project like the plague. I also like writing, but I can't help but feel like there's a dementor behind me sapping out all the hope and happiness of life when I sit down to start writing something.
So next time you procrastinate, just blame blog dementors.
I'm taking a religion class from my favorite professor this year. One of his assignments is to write someone (or multiple people) explaining what we learned in class/in our studies every week. I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to force myself to keep writing in this blog. I hope I'll get into the habit enough that I won't stop once the semester ends.
So, I'm going to start writing weekly. I'll aim to make the posts shorter and simpler, that way they won't feel so daunting to me as the blog dementor is slowly sucking out my soul.
Something's really gotta be done about those things...
I'll start with a scripture. For context, this happened just after Moses spoke with God face to face and saw the world and everyone who had ever, or will ever, live on it:
"And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed." - Moses 1:10
There's a word that we use a lot in the church that I'm growing less fond of whenever I hear it. The word is "imperfect". We used the word "imperfect" all the time during my mission to describe our mortal condition. I've described my companion and I as "imperfect missionaries" to many of our investigators, and I described myself as "imperfect" in many of my letters home.
But every time I used it, I couldn't help feeling like it was an understatement. "Imperfect" only describes what we are not: perfect. To our investigators, I'm sure our imperfection was already painfully obvious. "Imperfect" says what we are not, but not what we are.
We are... broken. Man is nothing.
Moses grew up being taught that he was going to become a god in mortality. Pharaoh, to the Egyptians, was a god. Moses was raised as a son to the Pharaoh, and heir to that title. Moses, if he believed what he was told, would've believed that he would become a god with no real effort on his - or anyone's - part. While Moses did see this vision decades after fleeing Egypt and living with Jethro, he clearly hadn't realized just how wrong the Egyptians were until this moment. Compared with the True and Living God, man is nothing.
Yet, to our Father, we are everything. We are His work and His glory.
Unlike Moses, most of us were raised being taught that man is nothing. I think for most of us, it wasn't a stretch for us to learn that we are broken. There's a stage of life where we all see just how hopeless we are on our own.
Then comes the trickier part. Sometimes it takes much longer for us to realize that we are all broken. Even after we learn that all of us are broken, we often need reminders. But when we know it, it's much easier to stop blaming others (or even ourselves) for our own brokenness. It's easier to forgive others in general when we realize that they're just as broken as we are. We realize that the people we want to be like are just as broken as we are. That's one of the many problems with comparing ourselves with or striving to be like other people. We realize that when we judge somebody, we ignore our own brokenness in favor of pointing out theirs. We also learn that we're not alone in our brokenness. Forgiving ourselves becomes easier, too.
And above all, we realize that God can mend and heal any of us. That is the Gospel - the "Good News" as it translates - that None of us are condemned, none of us are without hope, because all of us are broken. Though we are nothing, we are everything to Him, so he sacrificed His son so He could make us into something extraordinary. Nobody is outside the reach of His divine love, of His forgiveness and healing power. He can fix anything and anyone. He can heal any soul to the uttermost.
And that is good news.
Most of you can probably identify with me. Even people who love writing sometimes avoid starting out a project like the plague. I also like writing, but I can't help but feel like there's a dementor behind me sapping out all the hope and happiness of life when I sit down to start writing something.
So next time you procrastinate, just blame blog dementors.
I'm taking a religion class from my favorite professor this year. One of his assignments is to write someone (or multiple people) explaining what we learned in class/in our studies every week. I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to force myself to keep writing in this blog. I hope I'll get into the habit enough that I won't stop once the semester ends.
So, I'm going to start writing weekly. I'll aim to make the posts shorter and simpler, that way they won't feel so daunting to me as the blog dementor is slowly sucking out my soul.
Something's really gotta be done about those things...
I'll start with a scripture. For context, this happened just after Moses spoke with God face to face and saw the world and everyone who had ever, or will ever, live on it:
"And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed." - Moses 1:10
There's a word that we use a lot in the church that I'm growing less fond of whenever I hear it. The word is "imperfect". We used the word "imperfect" all the time during my mission to describe our mortal condition. I've described my companion and I as "imperfect missionaries" to many of our investigators, and I described myself as "imperfect" in many of my letters home.
But every time I used it, I couldn't help feeling like it was an understatement. "Imperfect" only describes what we are not: perfect. To our investigators, I'm sure our imperfection was already painfully obvious. "Imperfect" says what we are not, but not what we are.
We are... broken. Man is nothing.
Moses grew up being taught that he was going to become a god in mortality. Pharaoh, to the Egyptians, was a god. Moses was raised as a son to the Pharaoh, and heir to that title. Moses, if he believed what he was told, would've believed that he would become a god with no real effort on his - or anyone's - part. While Moses did see this vision decades after fleeing Egypt and living with Jethro, he clearly hadn't realized just how wrong the Egyptians were until this moment. Compared with the True and Living God, man is nothing.
Yet, to our Father, we are everything. We are His work and His glory.
Unlike Moses, most of us were raised being taught that man is nothing. I think for most of us, it wasn't a stretch for us to learn that we are broken. There's a stage of life where we all see just how hopeless we are on our own.
Then comes the trickier part. Sometimes it takes much longer for us to realize that we are all broken. Even after we learn that all of us are broken, we often need reminders. But when we know it, it's much easier to stop blaming others (or even ourselves) for our own brokenness. It's easier to forgive others in general when we realize that they're just as broken as we are. We realize that the people we want to be like are just as broken as we are. That's one of the many problems with comparing ourselves with or striving to be like other people. We realize that when we judge somebody, we ignore our own brokenness in favor of pointing out theirs. We also learn that we're not alone in our brokenness. Forgiving ourselves becomes easier, too.
And above all, we realize that God can mend and heal any of us. That is the Gospel - the "Good News" as it translates - that None of us are condemned, none of us are without hope, because all of us are broken. Though we are nothing, we are everything to Him, so he sacrificed His son so He could make us into something extraordinary. Nobody is outside the reach of His divine love, of His forgiveness and healing power. He can fix anything and anyone. He can heal any soul to the uttermost.
Jesus Christ is the only Unbreakable Man who has walked the earth. But He gave us His body and heart to be broken so that we can be made whole. Now, we are given broken bread every week to remember Jesus's perfect sacrifice. We can give our brokenness to Him, because He is Unbreakable. And because He performed that ultimate sacrifice for sin, we can grow up to become even like our Father. Despite being broken, despite being nothing, we have hope of becoming whole, complete, and glorified. We can have hope because our Father, the Supreme Creator of the universe and worlds without number, loves us more than we can imagine.
And that is good news.
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