I have chosen a subject that is real. It is more real than anything that is a)physical. It is more real than anything that b)involves a process. It is more real than anything that is c)subject to conditions of any kind. Lastly it is more real than anything d)confined by limits. The physical is once new, changes, grows old, is ultimately rendered useless and left to waste. Process has a beginning, a middle, and most significantly ends. Anything subject to the conditional is therefore malleable, inconsistent, unreliable, manipulative, artificial and cannot be trusted. That which is defined by limits is subject to temporality and the immense pressures of time and just as temporality began it will surely end. I challenge each of us to consider one worldly phenomenon, no matter how great or slight, that avoids the qualifying definition of one or several or all of these four attributes. It cannot be done.
The world is a finite state of self-generating ideas and systems, all is governed by factors of limitation and impermanence. Within the hugely disproportionate secular sphere, the world offers no attempt to know truth, it is unsure of its origins, denies meaning, questions reality, and has absolutely no sense of purpose. All it knows is that it will end causing an unbelieving society to live in a state of ignorant bliss to enjoy an abundance of attractive and fashionable comforting counterfeits to help ignore answers to question that in actuality, deep down, it is terrified to ask. In this artificial world, Satan uses innumerable lures with the same artifice, completely unrecognizable in a camouflage of like artificiality, such as greed, money being man-made and to love it, desire it, lust for it, doing evil for the sake of it, is a terrible wickedness and a vile sickness many succumb to.
These snares engulf the masses who see this “reality” and of this the world is utterly confused. In the counterfeit worldly state with such manipulation, pride is the rule for the masses who compete in a state of falsehoods. The craving for power possesses many, no matter who is hurt, leading to unfathomable oppressive extremities, all for an incomprehensible animal like satisfaction of domination, the need to have the biggest and the best, to be the best; this will never be for more than a mere moment, or the vain obsession of beauty; no matter how one might spend, snag and nip and tuck, it is love that is eternal as beauty fades.
As Latter- Day Saints, we avoid placing emphasis on the a)physical and embrace humility as a tremendous power drawing us closer to God while dismissing worldly materialism, so enticing to so many, destroying lives by creating unspeakable debt, pressures from the media ruining self-esteem, and is a vast source of worldly pride. Our knowledge of b)process is progression, and this, as we understand very well, is eternal, is the very Plan of Salvation. It is unconditional. From c)conditions we are wary. The world is a mesh of conditions and is utterly distracting and discouraging. "If you loose weight then you will be pretty." "If you get that promotion then you will be happy." "If you make yourself look younger then people will notice you." "If you build your muscles then she will like you." Lies, lies, lies!!! In the timeless eternities we will progress in like manner to our progress on earth, yet without temporal conditions of a cunning and convincing adversary in a dishonest world. We, d)in one eternal reality, have no limitations, this we know.
Our existence is one of eternal progression and increase. But we do have to live in this world as we exercise all of our ability to create an existence for ourselves and those around us that is not of it, but how is this struggle to be successfully achieved and for how long is it possible? We as Latter-Day Saints, members of the true Church, possess something that is in direct opposition to worldly gullibility, anxiety, doubt, fear, confusion and a purposeless existential view, something within us as faithful sons and daughters of God, this being a unique perspective, very real, grounded on the utmost reality, that of the eternal. This eternal perspective becomes stronger as we exercise our faith and apply our ever increasing testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we seek the path of truth.
From the very real vantage point of this eternal perspective is where is to be found the solid and secure path to seek truth and to know truth. The firm foundation of the eternal Gospel of Jesus Christ is manifest as THE reality we naturally and spiritually aspire to and will be present in our lives and those around us if we desire it and act accordingly. A total release from worldly anxieties, concerns, doubts or fears is very real through a confident resignation to the Lord who, through the holy Spirit, puts all temporal confusion to a resolve if we trust completely in his truth. The difference between a worldly dark and dreary waste of doubt, insecurity and confusion and an eternal transcendent reality of clarity, security, knowledge, and unshakable truth is thus absolutely apparent, our place made secure, all of this, according to the sure orientation of our eternal perspective.
As we must live in the world and desire to not live of it, we might triumphantly accomplish this if we exercise our eternal perspective within this spiritual existence, for the sake of our eternal progress and salvation, while making something of a heaven on earth, and ultimately, we will find our burdens lighter on our path to Godhood, with an ever growing understanding with an ever increasing clarity, and an inner luminosity through the gift of the Spirit to testify through the Savior along our course of truth and righteousness.
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