"For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not."
Isaiah 30:15
I've written about this verse several times, but nevertheless, this is what stood out to me today, and I think it is because James 1:4 is still on my mind from writing about it the other day... the whole letting patience make us whole idea was powerful for me, and I have been thinking about how to apply it better in my life.
So, in reading this, it made me think of that, and of our bias towards drama. God tells us how to be saved, but it isn't satisfying enough for us. We want lightning bolts from the sky, or something that demands our attention rather than the everyday relationship with God and the small, righteous steps that keep us out of some pretty dramatic danger. :) We seem to hunger for histrionics, and we want to skip through the boring parts of the plot and just watch the highlights reel. As a former coworker explained to me about movies, "if something doesn't blow up in the first 15 minutes" then it's worthless. :)
And hey, I like a good explosion myself... but God seems to be telling us here that our overdramatization, panic, and impatience in our real lives are doing us more harm than good. God doesn't want us to go Vulcan and renounce all emotion, but neither does he want us to let it rule our lives. We are supposed to learn to have joy in our lives, and that requires feeling contrasting things and learning what makes us happy... but sometimes we confuse happiness with excitement, and think that adrenaline is really what makes us happy, and so we have roller coaster lives rather than truly happy ones. ... Don't read that as though I just said happiness is boring though... I don't think that at all. We just don't have to be adrenaline junkies to be happy. :)
Today, let's listen to God and remember the quietness and peace of the temple, or even the chapel. Let's make space in our lives to be able to feel the spirit and to build our relationship with God, rather than waiting for God to give us a super-dramatic conversion experience each week so we don't lose interest. Instead, let's continue to convert ourselves through practicing the gospel, and having faith and confidence in the Lord. "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (Alma 37:6), right? The dramatic football plays only come after years of practice... and miracles happen in our lives when we put in the time and the faith and the confidence and the patience that it takes to notice and appreciate them. Let's be like the prodigal son and return to our father, realizing that we need peace and security a lot more than we need riotous living. :)
Isaiah 30:15
I've written about this verse several times, but nevertheless, this is what stood out to me today, and I think it is because James 1:4 is still on my mind from writing about it the other day... the whole letting patience make us whole idea was powerful for me, and I have been thinking about how to apply it better in my life.
So, in reading this, it made me think of that, and of our bias towards drama. God tells us how to be saved, but it isn't satisfying enough for us. We want lightning bolts from the sky, or something that demands our attention rather than the everyday relationship with God and the small, righteous steps that keep us out of some pretty dramatic danger. :) We seem to hunger for histrionics, and we want to skip through the boring parts of the plot and just watch the highlights reel. As a former coworker explained to me about movies, "if something doesn't blow up in the first 15 minutes" then it's worthless. :)
And hey, I like a good explosion myself... but God seems to be telling us here that our overdramatization, panic, and impatience in our real lives are doing us more harm than good. God doesn't want us to go Vulcan and renounce all emotion, but neither does he want us to let it rule our lives. We are supposed to learn to have joy in our lives, and that requires feeling contrasting things and learning what makes us happy... but sometimes we confuse happiness with excitement, and think that adrenaline is really what makes us happy, and so we have roller coaster lives rather than truly happy ones. ... Don't read that as though I just said happiness is boring though... I don't think that at all. We just don't have to be adrenaline junkies to be happy. :)
Today, let's listen to God and remember the quietness and peace of the temple, or even the chapel. Let's make space in our lives to be able to feel the spirit and to build our relationship with God, rather than waiting for God to give us a super-dramatic conversion experience each week so we don't lose interest. Instead, let's continue to convert ourselves through practicing the gospel, and having faith and confidence in the Lord. "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (Alma 37:6), right? The dramatic football plays only come after years of practice... and miracles happen in our lives when we put in the time and the faith and the confidence and the patience that it takes to notice and appreciate them. Let's be like the prodigal son and return to our father, realizing that we need peace and security a lot more than we need riotous living. :)
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