I think today I’ll write about what it is to be “in the world” and be surrounded by “life”.
As I was sitting at work and listening to some heavy metal music with some explicit words I began to think about what it is about life that makes us want to consume items that are ultimately harmful to ourselves.
I suppose you could chalk it up to human beings being inherently self-destructive beings but I don’t really think that is the case.
As I reflected and thought about why I was consuming that heavy music with explicit content I began to realize that the reason I was likely listening to it was that I “liked” it.
Why did I like it? I think that it is because when I was younger in my high school days I was exposed to it and it became a form of music that I grew to like.
As time went on I drifted away from it but like some item with a large gravitational pull I was eventually pulled back in to listening to it.
The material itself is offensive in varying degrees. Some has foul language. Some has questionable and macabre content. Some has a heavy and driving beat and music that is quite harsh.
If I was to think about it in a more spiritual sense I’d say a large percentage of it was not really conducive to inviting the Holy Spirit into my life.
Some times I would listen to it to concentrate. Often music has a great ability to help me focus on something I’m working on.
That said, I don’t think that it was the content or the harshness if the music that was needed to cause me to better concentrate. It was likely the fact that the music, in the form it was in, has the ability to occupy a certain part of my brain which then frees up another part of my brain to concentrate on what ever I’m needing to get done.
Now if it is true that I only need certain aspects of the music, and it has been true in the past that I could get the same effect by listening to music that contained no lyrics such as Drum and Bass electronic music, then if I spent a bit more time being more selective in my music selection I might be able to provide more opportunities for the Spirit to be present in my life.
I think that sometimes we go through our lives with a somewhat numb feeling.
We numb ourselves and sleep walk through our lives. Minutes pass. Days pass. Weeks Pass and, ultimately, years will pass in a numb stupor.
That is the real shame. Living out our limited life being in a stupor that we are often not even aware that we are in. It is like the gold fish not being aware of the water around him.
But if we can wake ourselves from our dream we can ultimately see our lives for what they really are which is a time for men to prepare to meet God.
Is what I am doing right now going to help me return to meet God?
That is sometimes a difficult question to answer. But I think that if we can gather our faculties and wake up to what is really important in life we can start making movements in the right direction.
I was listening to a General Conference talk from April 2016 by Elder Uchtdorf. In it he was talking about building lasting marriages.
He mentioned doing small things in order to strengthen marriages. He said that doing small things was like placing small pebbles down. It might not seem like a lot by itself but over time those small pebbles can grow into a large pyramid of a strong marriage.
I love the mental image of small pebbles being added and added overtime and looking back and seeing the results.
I think that the same type of thing could be said for someone who is doing small things to try and improve their life.
Each small thing that is done to live a good life may seems small at the time but over time you are building yourself a large pyramid of good choices that equal a monumentally good and happy life.
It is not something that can be done all at once or rushed. It takes constant sustained effort over long periods of time.
If you were to imagine that various aspects of your life, scripture reading, watching movies, playing video games, or watching pornography, as piles of pebbles which piles would be the largest?
How scant is the scripture reading pile? How large the video game playing pile?
I’m not trying to say that life is all about how much time or energy you put into any given activity I’m simply saying that it might be instructive to think in this way to help us make better choices in our lives.
How large is the pile that represents the time we’ve had the Spirit in our lives?
What could we do today to help add one pebble to that pile?
The material itself is offensive in varying degrees. Some has foul language. Some has questionable and macabre content. Some has a heavy and driving beat and music that is quite harsh.
If I was to think about it in a more spiritual sense I’d say a large percentage of it was not really conducive to inviting the Holy Spirit into my life.
Some times I would listen to it to concentrate. Often music has a great ability to help me focus on something I’m working on.
That said, I don’t think that it was the content or the harshness if the music that was needed to cause me to better concentrate. It was likely the fact that the music, in the form it was in, has the ability to occupy a certain part of my brain which then frees up another part of my brain to concentrate on what ever I’m needing to get done.
Now if it is true that I only need certain aspects of the music, and it has been true in the past that I could get the same effect by listening to music that contained no lyrics such as Drum and Bass electronic music, then if I spent a bit more time being more selective in my music selection I might be able to provide more opportunities for the Spirit to be present in my life.
I think that sometimes we go through our lives with a somewhat numb feeling.
We numb ourselves and sleep walk through our lives. Minutes pass. Days pass. Weeks Pass and, ultimately, years will pass in a numb stupor.
That is the real shame. Living out our limited life being in a stupor that we are often not even aware that we are in. It is like the gold fish not being aware of the water around him.
But if we can wake ourselves from our dream we can ultimately see our lives for what they really are which is a time for men to prepare to meet God.
Is what I am doing right now going to help me return to meet God?
That is sometimes a difficult question to answer. But I think that if we can gather our faculties and wake up to what is really important in life we can start making movements in the right direction.
I was listening to a General Conference talk from April 2016 by Elder Uchtdorf. In it he was talking about building lasting marriages.
He mentioned doing small things in order to strengthen marriages. He said that doing small things was like placing small pebbles down. It might not seem like a lot by itself but over time those small pebbles can grow into a large pyramid of a strong marriage.
I love the mental image of small pebbles being added and added overtime and looking back and seeing the results.
I think that the same type of thing could be said for someone who is doing small things to try and improve their life.
Each small thing that is done to live a good life may seems small at the time but over time you are building yourself a large pyramid of good choices that equal a monumentally good and happy life.
It is not something that can be done all at once or rushed. It takes constant sustained effort over long periods of time.
If you were to imagine that various aspects of your life, scripture reading, watching movies, playing video games, or watching pornography, as piles of pebbles which piles would be the largest?
How scant is the scripture reading pile? How large the video game playing pile?
I’m not trying to say that life is all about how much time or energy you put into any given activity I’m simply saying that it might be instructive to think in this way to help us make better choices in our lives.
How large is the pile that represents the time we’ve had the Spirit in our lives?
What could we do today to help add one pebble to that pile?
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