"Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder."
1 Nephi 17:45
It is interesting that anyone could see an angel and not be permanently changed. You would think that the reality of eternity would be overpowering enough that you wouldn't forget it. :) However, we can probably all understand it on some level. Which of us lives as we believe, and as we know to be true, each and every day?
Reality is that we have ups and downs and get closer to and further away from God daily... hourly sometimes. Perhaps the goal is to flatten the curve a little, stop the scary roller-coaster drops from great heights. :) Ah..., but I suppose that sounds fun to some of you, so let me add that you aren't strapped in, and the track probably ends before the ride does... you know. :)
Hopefully as we learn, we make more forward progress than backward. Hopefully we can still hear God when he talks to us. I think that it is easy to become desensitized. So many things can take us past feeling into numbness, or blankness, or darkness. We can't walk around thinking that we're too cool to let things affect us. The books that we read, the shows that we watch, the conversations that we have... all of it collectively, each day, adds up to whether we are sensitive to the Spirit or not.
You've probably all listened to a song in the car and when you later bought the CD and listened to it without all the background noise, heard more lyrics than you originally heard, or at least understood. I think the same thing happens with God. He is singing us the song of salvation... of love, of eternity... and if we turn it up really loud, sometimes some of it gets through as we drive along. But it isn't until we play it softly with our entire attention that we hear all the words, and are able to receive the whole message.
God does speak very loudly sometimes at critical moments in our lives when we need him the most... but if that is the only time that we ever hear him we are only getting the refrain, and not the intricate and surpassingly lovely lyrics contained in each verse. Perhaps, if we take some time to listen to God, we will be quicker to remember him, and slower to do iniquity. And, you know... our conversations with God will probably be a lot more fun when we aren't screaming over the background noise to each other. :)
1 Nephi 17:45
It is interesting that anyone could see an angel and not be permanently changed. You would think that the reality of eternity would be overpowering enough that you wouldn't forget it. :) However, we can probably all understand it on some level. Which of us lives as we believe, and as we know to be true, each and every day?
Reality is that we have ups and downs and get closer to and further away from God daily... hourly sometimes. Perhaps the goal is to flatten the curve a little, stop the scary roller-coaster drops from great heights. :) Ah..., but I suppose that sounds fun to some of you, so let me add that you aren't strapped in, and the track probably ends before the ride does... you know. :)
Hopefully as we learn, we make more forward progress than backward. Hopefully we can still hear God when he talks to us. I think that it is easy to become desensitized. So many things can take us past feeling into numbness, or blankness, or darkness. We can't walk around thinking that we're too cool to let things affect us. The books that we read, the shows that we watch, the conversations that we have... all of it collectively, each day, adds up to whether we are sensitive to the Spirit or not.
You've probably all listened to a song in the car and when you later bought the CD and listened to it without all the background noise, heard more lyrics than you originally heard, or at least understood. I think the same thing happens with God. He is singing us the song of salvation... of love, of eternity... and if we turn it up really loud, sometimes some of it gets through as we drive along. But it isn't until we play it softly with our entire attention that we hear all the words, and are able to receive the whole message.
God does speak very loudly sometimes at critical moments in our lives when we need him the most... but if that is the only time that we ever hear him we are only getting the refrain, and not the intricate and surpassingly lovely lyrics contained in each verse. Perhaps, if we take some time to listen to God, we will be quicker to remember him, and slower to do iniquity. And, you know... our conversations with God will probably be a lot more fun when we aren't screaming over the background noise to each other. :)
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