Doctrine and Covenants 123:13

"Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven--"
Doctrine and Covenants 123:13


This is interesting for a lot of reasons.  First, it is talking about the abuse that the early church members suffered at the hands of the mob that drove them out of many states (if anyone on the list doesn't know, there was an extermination order issued by one of the state governors, saying that it was legal to kill Mormons... yikes.  It was officially repealed about 10 years ago I think).  So, it is talking about collecting evidence and going through legal channels to solve problems.  But it is also talking about more than that.  This section also gets into the fact that many people are waiting for the truth, they just don't know where to find it, and so that is another reason that we should make the truth well-known.  Not just for the purpose of reclaiming stolen things, but in bringing spiritual truth to others.  We've talked about light before... and I think that this is interesting in just a light/dark kind of a way.  Kind of like cleaning the refrigerator, eh?  When we pull everything out of the back of the fridge, out of the darkness of the interior and see what it really looks like in the light... the good things and the bad things are pretty clear.  In the light, with the good and the bad side by side, it isn't too hard to judge.  This is good, this is moldy.  If we're afraid of bringing something into the light... why?  Are we afraid of seeing what is really there?  Are we afraid that we are going to have to throw away the things that smell really bad?  Even though eating them is killing us, too often we refuse to look at things before we ingest them.... books, movies, habits... thoughts.  Someone gets their kicks by walking into the pantry and feeling around in the dark to decide what to eat.  We think... hey, they're cool... I want to do that. :)  So, a bunch of us are in there eating expired prunes and moldy banana bread.  It’s daring, it's exciting... but why?  So many things in our lives are easier to figure out than we expect, if we bring them into the light, actually examine what we are doing.  We can do this in a lot of ways.  Talk to God about things, write in our journals... talk to people who have some light... who will tell us the truth and aren't just going to say what we want to hear.  Don't die gnawing on a fuzzy expired pop-tart.  Take the floodlight in there and clean it out.