Safety [from the media] for the Soul- March 2010

This is more of an email conversation I had with a friend regarding Obama, Glenn Beck, Communism, The White Horse Prophesy etc.

In Relief Society that day we had a lesson on Elder Holland's talk from the October 2009 Conference called Safety for the Soul.  I thought so much of it applied to my current conversation with her.

March 2010 
I heard this talk in October conference and reading it today it sounded brand new to me.  There are two things that stood out the most to me in this talk:

1.    (second paragraph)  “Think of the heart as a figurative center of our faith, the poetic location of our loyalties and our values, then consider Jesus’s declaration that in the last days ‘men’s hearts [shall fail] them.”     

What this says to me is that despite the earthquakes and floods, economic and political upheavals, the greatest destruction to mankind will be spiritual destruction that  will come thru lack of faith.  The question is then… Where do we place our faith?  How do we know if our heart and our daily efforts are centered on the right things that allow us to KEEP our faith?

I return to what I said in an earlier email.  If one feels calm and comforted in tumultuous times, you know you have placed your heart in the right place.  If you feel fear and anger you are being subjected to one of Satan’s greatest tools.  He uses fear to make us feel indecisive and lack confidence in the things that have sustained us in the past.

2.    (fifth paragraph)  In reference to Lehi’s dream:  “It is imperative to note that this mist of darkness descends on ALL of the travelers- the faithful and the determined ones (the elect, we might even say) as well as the weaker and ungrounded ones.  The principal point of this story is that the successful travelers resist all distractions, including the lure of forbidden paths and leering taunts from the vain and proud who have taken those paths.”

This caused me to think.  We in the church like to think that we are all holding to the rod (the word of God) by attending Church, paying our tithes, living a Christ like life.  And yet the mist creates darkness and confusion for EVERYONE.  It isn’t wrong that you and me would be confused by the events of the last few months in our country.  It IS confusing.  I thought for a few moments about these “distractions” that could cause one to let go of the rod.  How could a “distraction” be SO CONVINCING that it would cause one who is HOLDING on to ACTUALLY LET GO?  HOW does that happen?  How?  I think the answer is that it’s not obvious.  If the distraction came right up in to your face and said “I am pride, follow me.” Or “I am pornography, follow me.”  Or “I am Satan, follow me.”  It would be EASY to say “hey, wait a second, I have been warned of you!  Mr. Pride, Ms. Pornography.  I KNOW who you are.  I am NOT letting go of the rod.”  But that is NOT what we are talking about here.  President Holland calls them “distractions”.  In the most general definition a “distraction” is something that “divides our attention or causes us to lose concentration thru it’s amusement”.  

Clearly there are many things in this life that seem more amusing and entertaining that studying the word of God all the time.  I know I am often guilty of this.  

I do feel that the media (and I am NOT just pointing finger at Glenn Beck- the media in general is guilty) is a huge distractor.  It can be easy to justify that in order to be a good citizen we need to be educated and knowledgeable on current events.  But our media is slanted and it’s sole purpose is to make money. ( I will pick on Glenn when I tell you that he doesn’t’ care if you know the truth about history… he just wants to make sure that he makes some money in your effort to learn it. )And when we have lost our balance (my core value) we are distracted and it becomes harder and harder to distinguish between the word of God (which we read for a few minutes a day as part of our scripture study, and an hour or so a week on a lesson prep, and a couple of hours in Sunday worship) and the word of man (that infuses our house constantly if we let it.)