Random Thoughts and Pondering

Study By Marc Davis

     I often have thoughts and impressions come to my mind. They come in the most interesting times. Ether while driving to work when I let my mind wonder. Or in more spiritual setting like church. This usually happens when the speaker says something that sends my mind down interesting path. Or I might have read something just before the meeting starts. 

    Either way, the ideas that come aren’t always fully formed. With mental effort I have to sculpt and mold them. Refining and tweaking, till they fit into my understanding of the world. But more often than not my world view and the new idea tend to alter each other. I think that’s the way it should be. Although the new idea might not be perfect nether is the would view I hold. As it’s said we don’t want to “throw the bay out with the bath water”. By the give and take of the long held ideas and introduction of new ideas do we come to truth. We must learn to sift out the “bath water” as it were. 

    All that said, I wanted to share some ideas that have come to me. They are in no means perfect. However they as works in progress. Maybe they will spark something in you and send your mind off to a new perspective journey.

 Thought 1: Justice and Mercy. 

Mercy Claimeth That Which is Her Own
 https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/linton-1?lang=eng#1

    To truly understand the extent of our savior’s sacrifice, we must first understand the strength and power of the law. If we diminish the laws of god. We intern diminish the power of the Lord’s atonement. If the law is weak then the saviors sacrifice is week. the law is unbending. The law is supernal. The law is unchanging. It is perfectly observed by the father and the son. If it were not so then they would cease to be god. And because the law is so powerful then our saviors sacrifice is just as powerful. It doesn’t rob the law, in fact it pays it in full. A price so great, we can’t fathom the cost that would be required of us. Because the law is so powerful then mercy must needs be elevated to meet that power. Not to become more powerful and not to be less. They are to be kept in balance. For if one supersedes the other then the effects of the lesser become void. And in a real sense the greater becomes unbearable. Becoming broken under the one or week under the other. We must respect the law to fully revere the sacrifice. If we despise the law then Wouldn’t it stand to reason we would only find sorrow in the sacrifice.

 

thought 2: Life is Practice to Live the Law 

   Like a child learning the laws of gravity when they take their first steps. We learn the laws of god as we take our steps in faith and in both there is a loving parent to pick us up.  

Then we move from grace to grace. It starts with walking. Then most will move to riding a bike. As we become masters of living under the laws of gravity many have been able to do Amazing things, even beautiful things. I dare say the same it true when we learn to live under the laws of god. Although failing under the laws of gravity comes with instant pain. The life we inhabit now is different when it comes to the laws of god. Yes when we break one of those laws there may be pain. But it is far less than the pain that will need to be suffered after this life. But our savior has already suffered it for us. So we practice here, where the pain is far less. (Alma 34:32)

Thought 3: Progress and Change or Continual Creation 

     God is not a stagnate god. His character and attributes are unchanging. But his creations are ever changing. He fosters growth and improvement. But he does not rush that growth. He knows when to  prune and when to water. He knows when to harvest and when to plant. Change is evident in the natural world we inhabit. It is constantly influx. The seasons and the tides. Clear skies and storms. The planets won’t even sit still they are ever moving along their orbits. Stars die and stars are born. From the smallest to the greatest change is happening. Nothing is constant. We as humans tend to want to keep the status quo. But in doing that we run the risk of hindering that growth. It as if we say that is enough we don’t need any more. Because yes that growth and change can be painful. And sometimes it feels as if we are starting over again with a new tree when what we had already was a forest. We think of the time needed to regrow that tree into a forest again. But the new forest will grow bigger and stronger have been nourished by the old. 

Now to be clear there is a vast difference between change just for changes sake, and change with progress in mind. The former is just willy nilly but the latter has a goal or destination in mind. He is the creator and it stands to reason that his creations are are always in a state of becoming.