Today as Brannon and I were walking to the WILK after a great regional conference with Elders Nelson and Scott, we were discussing the idea of consecration. As we were trying to explain how the idea of "divine centering" and how it relates to consecration, we started by explaining what the ideology of consecration is not. A common one we discussed and is common here around BYU is dating. We don't date to date - we date to find an eternal companion.
(Now I'd like to add here that dating for fun is definitely still has it's place. It's just when people become obsessed with "dating so they can say they go on dates", the point where it takes up most of your time and energy... that's what I'm speaking of here.)
But neither of us felt like that exactly expressed how we felt about the idea. After trying a few more phrases, one stuck out that I felt expressed what I felt spiritually impressed by in words:
"Because I know Jesus Christ is my Savior, I date."
As an expression of perspective and divine-centeredness on a subject that is generally highly emotional and stressful, that is a powerful statement on its own. As a pattern of life, I feel the semantics behind this phrase are even more implicative.
1. "I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior"
A statement of knowledge, gained by experience and interaction with the Holy Ghost. This knowledge is real. It is more foundational then knowledge gained by scientific method, as it is sourced from an omniscient loving Heavenly Father. At its core, this is a statement of Faith. It is a statement, more than just belief, born of speaking in the language of the Spiritual. The basis, the root, the foundation, the ground upon which we build everything in our lives are these statements of Faith, the I Knows.
2. "Because"
"Because" has always been one of the most interesting words used in scripture to me, especially after taking Discrete Structures my freshman year at the Y. The word "because" is a statement of implication ( x => y). It is a connector word. It makes what would be a simple sentence by definition into a complex one. It adds depth and thought. In this case, "because" is the implication that our Faith means something more. Our Faith applies to the real word. It means that what you've learned has changed the way you approach situations. "Because" implies Repentance.
It follows then that Repentance is not the "I date" part of the sentence. As Elder Holland would say, that's like trying to stuff a turkey through the beak! Repentance is not the actions that we do; it is the process of connecting our faith to our eventual actions. It is the "change in the way we see God, ourselves, and the world". (LDS Bible Dictionary, Repentance) Repentance is the more silent work we do; it is the internal connections that we make to apply our Faith to our life.
3. "I date" (or any other action)
Action is definitely a defining part of Christ's call to us in the gospel He taught. We are taught in Galatians the Law of the Harvest; we reap what we sow. This is a universal law. A garden full of faith must by law bring forth the fruits of faith - good works. By founding our actions upon our Faith and Repentance, we are "built upon a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall". (Helaman 5:12) We are growing gardens that can spring up any number of good and delicious fruit. By pruning and taking care of our gardens, we can keep out weeds and other undesired growth.
Inversely, works built upon any other foundation will not ultimately lead to our desired results. We can still go on dates without being centered on our Faith, but then we will be reaping results in our dating other than those sown by seeds of Faith! It's fake-able for a while, but when the time of the harvest comes, and it most assuredly will, we will reap what grew from the seeds we sowed. The only way to make sure that the fruit (the actions) are what we'd like them to be are by sowing only seeds of Faith (nothing else!). This process and plot of gardening is what I like to call my Covenant garden. It is my trust that, as I sow and tend to my garden and overall try to do my best to make it a beautiful place, that my God will return back to me a plentiful harvest of goodness and love that I need to live a successful life.
My wish for myself is that my thoughts and speech are permeated with statements of Faith, Repentance, and Covenants; that these may become the center of a healthy life.
As I write this blog, I hope to continually take overarching religious concepts and make them directly applicable to our lives. This will not be done by prescribing band-aid fixes to issues, or in other words by trying to reap certain actions without sowing. It will be done by delving into planting new seeds--what an exciting idea! My hope is that, together, we can find new seeds of truth to grow that all are rooted in the one supernal truth - that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that He lives.
