Testimony and Gratitude

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a story from my life about gratitude and how it changed my life during one of the times of my life when I was at my least thankful.

We have all experienced times when our testimonies felt weak or inadequate. Usually we find ourselves saying “How can I get to where I was? How can I find my faith again?” I propose to illustrate how the principle of gratitude can help us build our testimonies. To do this I will mostly rely on a single story from my mission.

There are three steps I want to point out to building your testimony with gratitude, which you will see in this story.

1. Choosing to believe blessings come from God,

2. Choosing to give credit to God,

3. Choosing to act on the blessings God presents you with.

Choosing to believe blessings come from God.

There was a moment, about 5 months into my mission, where everything changed. It was the moment when I went from being an unwilling, unhappy missionary to a happy, and successful missionary.

This is the story of when it “clicked” for me. It is probably the key point in my mission, if not my life, and you’ll notice that it all hinges on gratitude.

When I first arrived on the island of Taiwan, my mission president asked me “what sort of companion do you want to have?”

Knowing how incredibly lazy I am, and wanting to be the best missionary I could be, I answered immediately with “one who works hard.”

President listened.

Man, did he listen.

I was blessed with a hard working trainer. But the phrase “hard working” doesn’t quite encompass the intensity of this great missionary. He was driven. He was a maniac. I’ll try to explain just how much this guy loved working.

Most evenings we would spend our time knocking on every door we could find. Companion knew that it took about X minutes to get home on bike, so when we reached X minutes until curfew, he’d knock two or three more doors, till the time was X minus 1 minute. We would then have to jump on our bikes and pedal our brains out to try and make it home before our 9:30 curfew.

I hadn’t ridden a bike in years, so usually he would get ahead of me and I would get frustrated that he wouldn’t wait up.

He’d say “Can’t wait! We’ll be late! Push harder!”

I’d say “I can’t!”

He’d say “Where’s your faith, elder?!”

Then I’d pedal harder so I could try and punch him in the face...

The Power of Covenants

I love studying the gospel as much as I do the world/universe around us. As I've studied and encountered different world views that are sometimes pitted against each other, I've seen people lose faith in God when they feel they've discovered irreconcilable differences.
 
I'm not going to go into the philosophical reasons why that doesn't have to be the case (though those are interesting as well). Instead, I'm going to just point out and testify that when we suppose to have found a ideological discord we must remember to back up for a minute and focus on covenants.
 
Covenants Make Us Free to have Faith

I think we can take a cue from Nephi in how he treated the covenants he made with God:

5 And also my soul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord which he hath made to our fathers; yea, my soul delighteth in his grace, and in his justice, and power, and mercy in the great and eternal plan of deliverance from death.2 Nephi 11:5

I love that phrase, "delighting in covenants". Notice the train of thought here. Nephi is saying that by appreciating and celebrating his covenants that he is able to gain faith in grace, justice, power, mercy, and the atonement. Nephi sees his covenants as a source of his faith in those things. And I think that is a powerful reminder that we should seek to better understand our covenants and the faith that they enable. 

Covenants Make Us Free from Dogmatism

Far too often, we allow ourselves to get bogged down in secular or religious dogma. The problem with a dogmatic approach to religion is that it dehumanizes it and turns it instead into merely a set of intellectual or philosophical ascents. Now, philosophy and intellect are important, but not at the expense of this faith in Christ born out of making and keeping covenants with Him. The power of religion, especially Christian religions, is that we can have a human relationship here and now with God.

54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:54

 
Notice what is said here. Those who "hear my word", "believe in him that sent me", "eat of my flesh", and "drink my blood", those people have eternal life right here and now. Faith in Jesus Christ is active; not some yet-to-be unrealized wishful or intellectual thinking. Christ promises us an eternal relationship here and now. And He does so through covenants.

So when this, that, or some other dogma or philosophy comes up, I try to understand it from the context of my covenants.  

• Have I covenanted to believe a particular thing about the age of the earth or the detailed biology of life? Nope. 
• Have I covenanted to have a myopic view of native American history? Nope.
• Have I covenanted to have particular political viewpoints? Nope.
• Have I covenanted to literally interpret all of scripture? Nope.
• Etc. etc. etc.

The problem with this perspective, again, is that it tries to anesthetize covenants by making them merely beliefs or ideologies. Covenants aren't a promise to think something. Covenants are promises to act. 

• Have I covenanted to not partake in alcohol/tobacco? Yes.
• Have I covenanted to avoid any/all pre/extra-marital sex? Yes.
• Have I covenanted to regularly attend church? Yes.
• Have I covenanted to serve others? Yes.
• Have I covenanted to continually repent? Yes.
• Have I covenanted to love and forgive others? Yes.
• Have I covenanted to pay an honest tithe? Yes.
• Etc. etc. etc.

When we see our faith merely as abstract ideologies we empty the life from our testimony and faith. Christ taught in His mortal ministry that knowledge and testimony of His gospel is to be found in action, not dogma:

17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

John 7:17

Covenants Free Us to Meet God

King Benjamin put it best when he praised the covenant his people made with God:

7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.

8 And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.

9 And it shall come to pass that whosoever doeth this shall be found at the right hand of God, for he shall know the name by which he is called; for he shall be called by the name of Christ.
Mosiah 5:7-9

So, as I go about my studies in various topics and encounter people with different world-views, I don't let supposed ideological discords overrun the power of my covenants. And while "the glory of God is intelligence" (D&C 93:36), we cannot forget that the source of testimony is not merely dogma, but instead faith and a covenant life.

The Holy Ghost and Ohm's Law

In 1899 James E. Talmage, a renowned chemist in England and America and apostle in the LDS church, wrote a book titled 'The Articles of Faith' analyzing the doctrines laid out by Joseph Smith in a letter he wrote titled by the same name. Despite its age, it remains today one of the seminal works discussing Mormon Theology. From the section titled "The Holy Ghost", Talmage writes:

James E. Talmage (1862-1933)

Subtler, mightier, and more mysterious than any or all of the physical forces of nature are the powers that operate upon conscious organisms, the means by which the mind, the heart, the soul of man may be energized by spiritual forces. In our ignorance of the true nature of electricity we may speak of it as a fluid; and so by analogy the forces through which the mind is governed have been called spiritual fluids. The true nature of these manifestations of energy is unknown to us, for the elements of comparison and analogy, so necessary to our human reasoning, are wanting; nevertheless the effects are experienced by all. As the conducting medium in an electric circuit is capable of conveying but a limited current, the maximum capacity depending upon the resistance offered by the conductor, and, as separate circuits of different degrees of conductivity may carry currents of widely varying intensity, so human souls are of varied capacity with respect to the higher powers. But as the medium is purified, as obstructions are removed, so resistance to the energy decreases, and the forces manifest themselves with greater intensity. By analogous processes of purification our spirits may be made more susceptible to the forces of life, which are emanations from the Holy Spirit. Therefore are we taught to pray by word and action for a constantly increasing portion of the Spirit, that is, the power of the Spirit, which is a measure of this gift of God unto us.

Talmage is drawing an analogy from Ohm's law which was widely accepted by the scientific community some 50 years before Talmage had this insight. Having studied the physics covering electromagnetism myself, this idea brought back many memories of working through simple circuit diagrams with voltage, intensity, and resistance. The relationship between these three values is expressed in Ohm's law:

Here, the intensity of current in a circuit (measured in amps) is equal to the voltage (electrical potential) of a power source divided by the resistance of the medium through which that current flows. The greater the voltage the greater the current. However, the greater the resistance the less current. By analyzing this equation and see what insights it gives drawing from Elder Talmage's analogy above, much can be learned.

In the Book of Mormon Alma chapter 30 gives an account of a trail between the high priest, Alma, and Korihor who had been accused of blaspheme. After Korihor insists that a sign must be given before anyone should exercise faith, Alma responds:

Behold, I am grieved because of the hardness of your heart, yea, that ye will still resist the spirit of the truth, that thy soul may be destroyed.

Alma 30:46

Sometime later, Alma - in preaching to the poor and rejected class of the Zoramites - makes a wonderful analogy between the word of God and a seed. Here, he also uses the word 'resist' when speaking of wickedness and hardheartedness (possibly referring to his previous encounter with Korihor):

Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

Alma 30:28

In modern times, Christ - speaking to Lyman Sherman through Joseph Smith - in December 26, 1835 -  spoke similarly:

... resist no more my voice.

D&C 108:2

In basic circuits, to which this analogy relates to, the voltage is constant. That constant voltage relates to God and his power which is described as "... the same yesterday today and forever..." (1 Ne. 10:18). God's power is always there, available to anyone, and it's potential is unchanging.

Given the voltage is constant, the resistance becomes the determining factor for the intensity in the circuit. Likewise, as God's power is constant, unchanging, and is always extended towards each one of His children, our will compared to His becomes the determining factor of the efficacy of that power flowing through our lives. Again from the above Talmage quote:

.... as the medium is purified, as obstructions are removed, so resistance to the energy decreases, and the forces manifest themselves with greater intensity.

So, what is the resistance that is required to allow God's power to more fully flow through us? It, surprisingly, is not zero given the equations above. If a resistance of zero, or analogously an empty will, is introduced to the equation impossible or undefined results are found. Such is life without free will or with an empty will (see 2 Ne. 2:11-13). Could this begin to describe the situation where Satan sought to deny the power of God and place Himself above it by destroying the agency of man (see Moses 4:3)?

So, if having zero resistance introduces problems in the equation and the analogy then what should "R" ideally be? To answer the question it helps to rearrainge Ohms law.

What would "R" have to equal in order for "V" and "I" to equal each other?" The resistance would have to be 1. While trying to avoid taking the analogy too far, the notion of "one" has great implications in the gospel and appears throughout it. The term "one" appears frequently in scriptures to indicate harmony, alignment, equality, and unity. The Lord has said:

... I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.

D&C 38:27

It is especially prominent in the Lord's Intercessory Prayer:

20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Knowing and understand this, it becomes quite clear that the only way the power of God will flow through us is if we choose to become one--harmonizing and aligning our desires and actions with the will of God. Only when this oneness is achieved will the power of God flow through us unobstructed. Nephi (the second) achieved, to some degree, this oneness. Nephi, pondering upon the wickedness of the people at the time, heard the voice of the Lord saying:

4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for ... thou hast ... sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

Helaman 10:4-5

Through God's blessing, Nephi's righteousness and unity lead to receiving great power from heaven. And we too can be given power as we align our will with the will of God. The means through which this power is given is through the Holy Ghost, but it is activated through the gift of the atonement. It is of no coincidence that the word "atonement", influenced by the Latin word adunamentum meaning 'unity', came from an older verb "onement" meaning "to unite" or "make one".

This is how we harness and utilize the gift of the Holy Ghost. As a gift and blessing, it is predicated upon obedience (D&C 130:20-21; D&C 132:5). And it is only when our will becomes one with the will of God, through the atonement of Christ, that we may be blessed with His eternal power.

Degrees of Glory

In section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord uses a metaphor to compare the differences in glory between his kingdom.

D&C 76: Vision of degrees of glory

70 These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical.

 71 And again, we saw the terrestrial world, and behold and lo, these are they who are of the terrestrial, whose glory differs from that of the church of the Firstborn who have received the fulness of the Father, even as that of the moon differs from the sun in the firmament.

 81 And again, we saw the glory of the telestial, which glory is that of the lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of the glory of the moon in the firmament.

D&C 76:70-71, 81

The Celestial kingdom's “glory is that of the sun” (v70), the Terrestrial kingdom's “glory differs... even as that of the moon differs from the sun” (v71), and the Telestial kingdom's glory is “even as the glory of the stars differs from that of the glory of the moon” (v81).

What is generally interpreted by this mapping of the Lord's kingdoms to objects we observe in the sky is that 1) The power and glory of the Celestial kingdom is infinite and 2) God's other kingdoms will have a wide range of types of people in them and that the idea of one universal heaven and one universal hell is a false dichotomy. There is a third very powerful lesson that can be learned with a little help from astronomy.

Normon Pogson

In the 19th century, during the 1830s, it was discovered that the eye detects light intensity logarithmically rather than linearly. This combined with the need to have a universal way to measure and compare the intensity of light from objects observed in the sky lead the astronomer Norman Pogson to propose, as a starting point for a light intensity scale, that a star that has a magnitude equal to 1 is 100 times brighter than a star of magnitude 6. This lead to the standard that a difference in 1 magnitude translates to 2.512 times in brightness or intensity.

Since then, astronomers have charted the brightness of objects they observe in the sky. An interesting fact emerges when one looks at these charts and calculates the difference in brightness between the sun, moon, and stars.


On this scale, the sun has a magnitude value of -26.74. The moon has a magnitude value of -12.74. Therefore the difference in brightness between the sun and the moon is 2.51214, which is a factor of 398,359. Put another way, the sun is 398,359 times brighter than the moon.

Following this method of calculation, the following results can be determined for different kinds of objects in the sky:

Object	Magnitude	Scale
Full moon	-12.74	Sun is 394,359 times brighter
Sirius (brightest star)	-1.46	Sun is ~12.95 billion times brighter
Faintest observable by human	8	Sun is ~78.82 trillion times brighter
Faintest observable (natural light)	36	Sun is ~12.51 septillion times brighter (1.25 x 1025)

Abraham was promised, “I will multiply thee, and thy seed... and if thou canst count the number of sands, so shall be the number of thy seeds” (Abr. 3:14). In Doctrine and Covenants 76 verse 109 it says, “we saw the glory of the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore.”

Globular cluster Messier 56

It is interesting to note that rough calculations of things such as the number of grains of sand on earth or the number of stars in the universe are estimated in the 10¹⁸ to 10²² range, close to this same septillion scale. The same scale involved in those metaphors is the same scale involved in the metaphor of the sun, moon, and stars. These numbers are so large that they begin to blur the line between the quantifiable and the infinite.

But what does all this mean? While numbers and estimates are interesting and informative, we should avoid getting too caught up in the exactness of them since our mortal view of the universe will always be imperfect. The Lord prefaces this by rhetorically asking, "Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand?", so this metaphor is only to relate something beyond our understanding into something that we have some understanding about. The overarching lesson to be learned from this is that our Heavenly Father's plan is literally large enough for each and every one of His unique children. His plan is infinitely diverse to fit his infinitely diverse creations. What we can learn is that when someone says, “Your Heavenly Father has a plan for you.” they're not just saying something trite or platitudinous. The scale, scope, diversity, and glory of Heavenly Father's kingdoms are literally large enough for all.

Charity and the Destiny of Man

I've been thinking a lot about charity recently, why the scriptures place so much emphasis on it, and how we can better live it in our lives. The following are some of my thoughts as I've tried to dig at this principle.



In the Book of Mormon, Ether chapter 12 talks about charity:

28 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.

33 And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.

34 And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father.

It makes me think of some of the insights from the Parable of The Good Samaritan:





Here, a Samaritan helps a Jew left for dead on a road between Jericho and Jerusalem. This parable is a wonderful story illustrating the power of our shared humanity. But there's a deeper lesson when we look at the historical context around the Jewish and Samaritan nations at the time of Jesus.

The history between the Samaritans and Jews is fascinatingly tragic, and we can learn a lot about the intent of Christ's parable by understanding that. Some highlights:

• The separation of Samaritans and Jews went back more than 700 years by the time of Christ. These tensions and differences were very much woven into the fabric of each other's race, culture, religion, and even their genes. The conflict can even be attributed back further to the sons of Israel.
• The Jews and Samaritans make conflicting claims of ancestry, priesthood authority, scripture, land rights, and temple worship. There's lots more to read about that here.
• Less than 200 years before Christ, probably still very fresh in the minds of the Jews and Samaritans, Antiochus IV Epiphanes decided to establish a universal religion with the penalty for resistance being death. Facing certain genocide, the Samaritans aligned themselves with Antiochus requiring cutting any relationship with the Jews in the south. Naturally feeling betrayed, the Jews viewed the Samaritans as traitors, heathens, and heretics. 
• About 100 years before Christ, the Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus waged war on the Samaritan kingdom eventually conquering them, destroying their temple, and treating them as slaves since they weren't considered true worshipers of Jehovah.

Needless to say, these weren't just neighbors who didn't get along, this was a deep, deep, rooted hatred and distain for each other that had attached itself to the very identity many had of what it was to be a Jew or Samaritan at that time. It must have pained Jesus, who was the covenant God of the Old Testament, to see this rift of hate between the children of Israel. So it's important to acknowledge that Christ choosing to make a Samaritan the protagonist of this parable wasn't a random thought, but instead a divine call for those hearing it to see past what society sees as insurmountable or unfathomable differences and conflicts and instead choose to see each other as our fellow man and children of God.

Martin Luther King gave this insight on this parable (ironically and tragically) just 1 day before his assassination in his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech:

I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem... above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're... below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking, and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?"

But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" 

I absolutely love this insight here because it gets at the essence of charity. That charity fundamentally changes our nature and perspective.

The Charter For Compassion is an organization dedicated to the idea of restoring compassion as the root of worship and ethics. Their charter uses the imagery that compassion leads us to dethrone ourselves and place another there:

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

President Monson elaborated on the essence of charity and its need in this world in a General Relief Society broadcast in 2010:

There is a serious need for the charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted. True charity is love in action. The need for charity is everywhere.

Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited. The American educator and politician Horace Mann once said, “To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is godlike.”

Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others.

So when God says "except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father" (Ether chapter 12) He's not saying that to be cute or poetic. And when Christ chose to strike the nerve of hatred between two nations and cultures He wasn't merely trying to be inflammatory. Both Christ and God are warning us that unless we get a handle on this principle of charity we all face together a very negative future.

Makes me think of another quote from Martin Luther King:

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Martin Luther King also gave, what I consider, one of the best sermons on the topic of love in his inspired speech "Loving Your Enemies". Seriously, if you have an hour or two to spare, this sermon will change your entire perspective on the role of love and charity in the destiny of man. Speaking about Christ's command to "love your enemies" he says:

Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave this command; he wasn’t playing. He realized that it’s hard to love your enemies. He realized that it’s difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things about you. He realized that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard. But he wasn’t playing. And we cannot dismiss this passage as just another example of Oriental hyperbole, just a sort of exaggeration to get over the point. This is a basic philosophy of all that we hear coming from the lips of our Master. Because Jesus wasn’t playing; because he was serious. We have the Christian and moral responsibility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can live out this command, and why we should live by this command.

So coming back to Ether chapter 12, we can see that the warning that we must have charity is not merely a platitude, but a divine truth on what is ultimately what will determine our eternal destiny individually and the destiny of man here on Earth.

Faith, Creation, and Programming

As a programmer, my greatest creative outlet is writing code. While deep inside a interconnected web of bits and logic hunting down that perpetual last bug can seem to someone from the outside to be anything but creative, there is a unique type of creativity that is found in writing software. This type of creation is beautifully described in one of my favorite quotes from Fredrick P. Brooks, Jr’s book The Mythical Man Month. It lists several reasons why programming is joyful:

Fredrick P. Brooks

Why is programming fun? What delights may its practitioner expect as his reward?

First is the sheer joy of making things. As the child dlights in his mud pie, so the adult enjoys building things, especially things of his own design. I think this delight must be an image of God’s delight in making things, a delight shown in the distinctness and newness of each leaf and each snowflake.

Second is the pleasure of making things that are useful to other people. Deep within, we want others to use our work and to find it helpful. In this respect the programming system is not essentially different from the child’s first clay pencil holder “for Daddy’s office”.

Third is the fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects of interlocking moving parts and watching them work in subtle cycles, playing out the consequences of principles built in from the beginning. The programmed computer has all the fascination of the pinball machine or the jukebox mechanism, carried to the ultimate.

Fourth is the joy of always learning, which springs from the non repeating nature of the task. In one way or another the problem is ever new, and its solver learns something: sometimes practical, sometimes theoretical, and sometimes both.

Finally, there is the delight of working in such a tractable medium. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.

Yet the program construct, unlike the poet’s words, is real in the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs separate from the construct itself. It prints results, draws pictures, produces sounds, moves arms. The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be.

Programming then is fun because it gratifies creative longings built deep within us and delights sensibilities we have in common with all men.

Put in a spiritual context, these reasons can be restated as the following:

1. The joy of creation
2. The joy of service
3. The joy of seeing your creation in action
4. The joy of learning
5. The joy of having free and limitless creative medium

Brooks goes on to expand on the “creative longings built deep within us.” Citing Dorothy Sayers’ book The Mind of the Maker, he recognizes creativity as having three separate stages:

1. The idea
2. The implementation
3. The interaction

Expanding on this, Brooks writes:

A book, then, or a computer, or a program comes into existence first as an ideal construct, built outside time and space, but complete in the mind of the author. It is realized in time and space, by pen, ink, and paper, or by wire, silicon, and ferrite. The creation is complete when someone reads the book, uses the computer, or runs the program, thereby interacting with the mind of the maker.

This description, which Miss Sayers uses to illuminate not only human creative activity but also the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, will help us in our present task.

To restate this description in the spiritual context of creation:

This world, then, came into existence first as an ideal construct*, built outside time and space spiritually (Moses 3:5; D&C 29:34), but complete in the mind of the author (Abr. 2:8). It was realized in time and space (Alma 40:8), using the elements that now surround us (Abr. 3:24). Finally, God did not consider His creation complete until someone (man) was placed on this world to interact with it and thus His mind and will (Abr. 3:24; Moses 2:26; Alma 30:44).

* – "The head God called together the Gods and sat in grand council to bring forth the world. The grand councilors sat at the head in yonder heavens and contemplated the creation of the worlds which were created at the time." (from Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith p. 348)

Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke on this aspect of creation in his talk titled, "Happiness, Your Heritage" in the General Relief Society Meeting in October 2008:

Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty. …

The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come.

It is interesting how closely intertwined joy and the creative process are. If celestial, or God’s, joy is in His creations (D&C 59:18-20) it is of no wonder our spirits become joyous as we participate in the creative process. The child’s mud pie, the poem, the sonnet, the musical score, the mathematical construct, the painting, the program, and the ultimate creation of another human body; all give us a glimpse into the eternal nature of the creation. The joy of creation carries with it a glimpse of our infinite potential.

clock.c from the Linux Kernel

What is particularly interesting about programming is that the creative process occurs in the abstract only. Yes, the program is stored on disk in the form of magnetic variations, but even this is invisible to the human eye and is not the purpose for which the program is created. A program is not the series of characters typed by the programmer. Rather the substance of a program is thought itself, concept described. Working this close to raw thought not just at the beginning of the creative process but all throughout the program’s creation requires a high level of concentration and mental exertion but likewise delivers a high level of satisfaction and joy.

While the details of exactly what 'spiritual creation' is may be unclear, this process of creating implementable concepts and structures mentally surely must play a pivotal role. Thus, as we practice and participate in the process of creation and exercise our faculties (mental, physical, and spiritual), we draw nearer to God and learn more about the nature of eternity. This is why programming is, and many other creative processes are, so joyful. The creative process is itself a symbol of Eternity.

A Cosmic Gospel: A Cosmic Relationship

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A Cosmic Relationship

25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Luke 10:25-29, 33-34, 36-37

This parable and the exchange between Christ and the lawyer contain a profound and universal truth. One of the most empowering aspects of the cosmic relationship made possible through the Atonement is the fact that God not only seeks to have a relationship with us, but that He invites us to cultivate eternal relationships with all those around us.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27

Christ exemplified this principle during His ministry. After going through many towns and villages healing the sick, Christ challenges His disciples to labor with Him in this work:

35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Matthew 9:35-38

Another example is Christ's parable of sheep and goats:

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:34-40

"Visit[ing] the fatherless and widow[ed]", "preaching the gospel", "healing every sickness and every disease", "[feeding the] hungry", "[taking in] a stranger", "[clothing the] naked", "[visiting the] sick" or "[prisoner]". These are anti-entropic acts. They restore both body and Mind to higher states of order and function. They bind us to each other, to God, and they allow us to become fellow "labourers" in God's "work" and "glory".

In The Family: A Proclamation to the World, the family is highlighted as one of the central organizations for God's plan for mankind:

...the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children... We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.

The family's role is to create physical bodies for, and cultivate Minds/Intelligences--the thing most precious to God in the universe. What could be more important than that?

In a poem by a 13th century Sufi poet named Rumi, some of these same eternal perspectives on God and family are echoed. 

(soruce: www.rumionfire.com)

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

-'On Children' by Rumi

By understanding man's relationship to Mind, matter, God, family, and eternity, we begin to see the true identity of others as fellow eternal Minds which are likewise God's greatest "work" and "glory" that He invites us to uplift, heal, teach, and learn from.

This goal, to be an anti-entropic force in the lives of all of those around us, becomes the challenge of a lifetime. This lifestyle makes each of us participants in the "tender mercies" of the Lord, fellow "labourers" with God in His "work" and "glory", and binds each of us to our families, communities, and the world through the Atonement of Christ.

The hymn "Have I Done Any Good?", written by Wil L. Thompson, wonderfully expresses this sentiment of seeking to be an anti-entropic force both physically and spiritually in the lives of those around us:

Will L. Thompson
(source: www.hymnary.org)

Have I done any good in the world today?
Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?
If not, I have failed indeed.
Has anyone's burden been lighter today
Because I was willing to share?
Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?
When they needed my help was I there?
(chorus)

There are chances for work all around just now,
Opportunities right in our way.
Do not let them pass by, saying, "Sometime I'll try,"
But go and do something today.
'Tis noble of man to work and to give;
Love's labor has merit alone.
Only he who does something helps others to live.
To God each good work will be known.
(chorus)

Chorus:
Then wake up and do something more
Than dream of your mansion above.
Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure,
A blessing of duty and love.

Conclusion

Viewing Blaise Pascal's original question "For in fact what is man in nature?" from a religious perspective, we can see that when compared with God man is nothing; but to God man is everything. This importance is born out of God's love for the Mind and body of man and His desire to overcome the entropic forces which threaten them. Because this is "[His] work and [His] glory", He provides a universal and all-encompassing relationship through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ. That Atonement provides the anti-entropic forces necessary for us to know God and become like Him--and for Him to comprehend and know us. But one of the greatest blessings and opportunities of this cosmic relationship between man and God is that man can be a fellow "labourer" with God. The souls of men, you and I, are not merely God's "work" and "glory", but can also be a means through which He can accomplish His work in the Atonement of Christ.