The other night I stumbled upon a book club at a friend's house. They looked like smart/classy people so I sat in on there meeting. As it turns out, they were reading a book on religion written by a prominent atheist (which one of these is not like the other...). The hypothesis and information isn't important, but the discussion was.
The guy who had suggested the book in the first place said "There were just so many things in the book that spoke to me!" In response I couldn't help but think "You are a returned missionary studying at BYU and talking about a book on religion written by an atheist. What part of that spoke to you?" These really smart kids (I use the term deliberately) were building an intellectual maze and then getting lost in it. It was sad.
Let's be frank. I'm a twenty-something college student who has never been married, had children, or even held a full-time job. I think it's fair to say that my life experiences/wisdom are limited, but here this group of kids my age or younger were trying to stuff God into their near-sighted and dramatically human paradigms. So forgive me when I say that those were some really dumb smart kids.
Fast forward to getting a letter from a dear friend of mine who is serving in Guatemala as an LDS missionary. She said "Don't fall into the trap of believing that when you leave the temple you're going back to the real world. The temple, the mission, the gospel - that is what's real. Everything else is fake." I couldn't agree more. The question then is how much time we spend in those pursuits rather than bathing in the world's perspective.
They say the best way to understand somebody is to walk a mile in their shoes. I believe that God is there and that he loves me/us, but I also believe nobody can truly understand God as he really is without trying to become like him.
yeah sad for them, true for us all. "When they are learned they think they are wise," of course comes to mind.
ReplyDelete