The Hero's Journey

Lately, the thought has kept coming to me over and over that I'm on "the hero's journey" - that we all are. The hero's journey is the common theme of fairy tales where someone one would not expect to succeed (usually the youngest brother, or one who is considered a fool by others, or both) goes out to see if they can accomplish some dangerous task. They have to fight a dragon, an ogre, a giant, or some other type of monster. They get help along the way, but only if they were kind to someone who, it turns out, has some kind of power they can give or lend. (There are variations on this where the person is clever, like "Seven in One Blow" but usually that isn't the case.)

It seems to me that we, each one of us with no exceptions, came to this earth to do this. Only the monsters we are here to fight against are devils and their ilk. Far too many of us fail and are wounded or killed, either spiritually, emotionally, or physically (and perhaps in many other ways), but we weren't sent here to fail.

I think we can learn a lot from the common themes in these stories. 

There are the tricks: 

The people who are not what they seem. They may appear to be friendly, but they are deadly. They may appear to be gruff, but they are allies.

The doors we have to choose between, sight unseen. Perhaps there is some clever way to know (like 2 people guarding a door. One always lies and one always tells the truth - but not easy to figure out if you haven't already read the stories).

The meal or party or gift that seems to be benign, but is actually dangerous (can kill you or put you to sleep or disorient you or give you amnesia). 

Traps galore.

I was reading the Book of Mormon yesterday - 2 Nephi, chapter 12 RE (2 Nephi, chapter 28 LDS), and I reread it again today, because it occurred to me that it was telling people how to avoid the traps and pitfalls that will destroy us. The warnings in scriptures aren't to curtail our "fun" or to make us feel guilty or unworthy. Instead, they are a guide on how to successfully complete our own hero's journey. Chapter 11 RE is also full of jewels and valuable teachings.

 

2 Nephi 12:1-6 RE   -   2 Nephi 28:1-31 LDS 

Copied and pasted from https://scriptures.info/scriptures/bofm/2nephi/12 

I have bolded parts in the first three paragraph to give you an idea of the message I'm getting from this book. 

¶ 1 And now behold, my brethren, I have spoken unto you according as the spirit hath constrained me; wherefore, I know that they must surely come to pass. And the things which shall be written out of the book shall be of great worth unto the children of men, and especially unto our seed, which is a remnant of the house of Israel. For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other, Behold, I, I am the Lord’s — and the other shall say, I, I am the Lord’s — and thus shall everyone say that hath built up churches and not unto the Lord. And they shall contend one with another, and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the holy ghost which giveth utterance. And they deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel. And they say unto the people, Hearken unto us and hear ye our precept, for behold, there is no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men. Behold, hearken ye unto my precept. If they shall say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of miracles; he hath done his work. Yea, and there shall be many which shall say, Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die and it shall be well with us. And there shall also be many which shall say, Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God, he will justify in committing a little sin. Yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor, there is no harm in this. And do all these things, for tomorrow we die. And if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner false, and vain, and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord. And their works shall be in the dark, and the blood of the saints shall cry from the ground against them.

¶ 2 Yea, they have all gone out of the way, they have become corrupted; because of pride, and because of false teachers, and false doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride, they are puffed up. They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing, and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart because in their pride they are puffed up. They wear stiff necks and high heads, yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone astray, save it be a few who are the humble followers of Christ. Nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men.

¶ 3 O the wise, and the learned, and the rich, that are puffed up in the pride of their hearts, and all those who preach false doctrines, and all those who commit whoredoms and pervert the right way of the Lord, Woe, woe, woe be unto them, saith the Lord God Almighty, for they shall be thrust down to hell.

¶ 4 Woe unto them that turn aside the just for a thing of naught, and revile against that which is good and say that it is of no worth, for the day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth. And in that day that they are fully ripe in iniquity, they shall perish. But behold, if the inhabitants of the earth shall repent of their wickedness and abominations, they shall not be destroyed, saith the Lord of Hosts. But behold, that great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth, must tumble to the earth, and great must be the fall thereof. For the kingdom of the Devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the Devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains and they be stirred up to anger and perish. For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men and stir them up to anger against that which is good. And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say, All is well in Zion, yea, Zion prospereth, all is well. And thus the Devil cheateth their souls and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. And behold, others he flattereth away and telleth them there is no hell. And he saith unto them, I am no devil, for there is none. And thus he whispereth in their ears until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance. Yea, they are grasped with death and hell; and death, and hell, and the Devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is Endless torment. Therefore, woe be unto him that is at ease in Zion.

¶ 5 Woe be unto him that crieth, All is well. Yea, woe be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God and the gift of the holy ghost. Yea, woe be unto him that saith, We have received and we need no more. And in fine, woe unto all those who tremble and are angry because of the truth of God. For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness, and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth, lest he shall fall.

¶ 6 Woe be unto him that shall say, We have received the word of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough. For behold, thus saith the Lord God, I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. And blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom. For unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough — shall be taken away even that which they have. Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the precepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the holy ghost.

Pride is deadly - to oneself and to those around the proud person.

People who think God doesn't know what they are doing are sorely mistaken.

Honoring God with your lips means nothing if your heart isn't humble and close to him. You may fool those around you with your much preaching of, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" but God is never fooled.

God is a God of miracles.

God works among people according to their faith.

We need to stop pulling our sins behind is as if pulling a cart with a rope attached. We have to let go of our sins. This means not only being willing to stop being mean, vain, prideful, and so forth but also trusting that the Lord really can remove all of our mistakes and sins even if we see the pain we have caused (inadvertently or on purpose). 

Let go of regret. Let go of guilt. Let go of pain. But let go of it because of your faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel, the Only Begotten Son of God - and not because you think you are God or that you can let go of this stuff while either ignoring Jesus or thinking he was only a teacher, because if you don't put Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Atoner, the one who everlastingly Saves, your efforts will mean very little in the long run. Without him in the equation, you have lost the quest you embarked on when you were born.

Finally, we are often blind to our real sins while feeling horrible about things that we've asked Jesus to remove (and that he has removed, on his side). Not always. Obviously, we have a conscience for a reason, but it is really important - Vitally important - for us to see ourselves aright. To see where we, ourselves, are full of pride, contending, putting others down, aching for a fight, picking up our figurative swords to defend something that we should have let go of, smearing an innocent person's reputation, causing pain that is actually unjustified, and more.

Only God can help us look into our own hearts and minds and see the truth of what we are guilty of and what we should have let go of long ago. I pray that every person who happens across this post has the courage to do that, and the courage to trust Jesus Christ, the Son of God with your whole heart, might, mind, and soul. Remember, God loves you. No matter how much you don't believe that. No matter the wounds you have received in life, even the horrendous unspeakable ones, God loves you. (No, I don't have answers as to why we can go through such hell as some of us have gone through, but I do know that God is there, willing to pull you from hell and from the grasp of devils, be they spirits or be they mortals in your own life.) 

 

I will preach my own sermons

I don't recall the exact wording, but I thought it was a scripture wherein the Lord said that the (missionaries) would barely have time to go over the earth (to warn people) before the Lord would preach his own sermons via nature.

Seeing the huge increase in fires, earthquakes, landslides, floods, and devastating storms during the last ten years makes me think of this. It's horrendous and saddening and heartbreaking.

Denver said in one of his talks that he saw a vision of last days destruction and that he noticed it was "extraordinarily targeted." To my uninformed mind, it seems like there certainly are more wicked places than Nepal and the southeastern United States and most of the areas being devastated. Anyway, God knows the hearts, and he knows what he is doing.

"Fear ye not their fear. Neither be ye afraid." Turn to Jesus Christ with all your might, mind, heart, and strength. Cast out the lies you believe. Be less prone to think you are right and everyone else is either wrong or in need of repenting from the way they're acting (forgetting that you are acting just as badly, or maybe worse). I speak to myself, as well as to anyone who might need the reminder.

May God bless you. May people recognize that God is calling them to repentance, instead of these horrible things being simply a fluke of nature. 

The Infinite, Overpowering, Love of God

 I read this story today, and have permission to share it. For privacy, no names are mentioned:

Most of you know that I have a trans granddaughter, and that her mother was opposed to this decision from point A to point Z, but her dad supported the transitioning. This last year when she had her surgery to permanently mutilate and disfigure herself, her mom would not take her to the surgery. Her dad did that. But of course Dad could not/would not be the person who--everyday--had to cleanse the wounds, and put ointments on them and gauze and bandage her.  AND check the drainage tubes that were attached to her for any signs of infection. That had to be [the mom], of course. 

[The mom] heard the following discussion later between her daughter and her friend:
"Who helped you with your bandaging and stuff?"
"My mom."
"Your mom that opposed this all the way? "
"Yes, that mom."
"Why did she do that?"
"Because she loves me."

Someone commented that it was a beautiful example of true love, even though it was tragic on so many levels.

The person telling the story replied:

It does begin to give you the tiniest idea of the grief we give our Divine Parents. doesn't it? Always left to bandage up all the emotional and spiritual wounds we give ourselves and others even when they warned us that it was a bad idea  . . .

That hit me so hard that I began sobbing. The understanding of the pure love of our heavenly Parents in spite of all the great pain we give them -that I give them- overcame me. I wish I could share the feeling of that overwhelming love and compassion. I wish every human on earth could feel and understand that. I think our world would be changed forever.

The guardian of the inhabited earth

 I didn't know what to title this. The above will do. 

I usually read several books at one time (obviously, taking turns reading them), and another book I've been reading is Old Testament and Related Studies by Hugh Nibley. This morning, I finished the chapter/sermon entitled Treasures in the Heavens and came across something interesting that I wanted to share.

This is from page 186 in the edition I have, and is written exactly as in the book (I changed nothing; the blog would not let me change the footnote # to a superscript, nor would it let me change it to a smaller font than the rest of the post):

These veils seem to serve as protecting as well as confining fences around the worlds: The light of the sun in its true nature (morphe) is not seen in this place, we are told, because it passes through "many veils and regions (topoi)" before reaching us; 116 its protective function is represented by a wonderful super-bird, called "the guardian of the inhabited earth" because "by spreading out his wings he absorbs (dechetai) the fire-like (pyrimorphos) rays" of the sun; "if he did not receive [absorb] them, the human race could not survive, nor any other form of life." 

That sounds, to me, like it is describing the magnetic field that protects the earth from the sun's power. In light of the fact that the magnetic field is weakening, so the when the sun throws things at us we feel it more (recent blackouts in certain countries is caused by that, according to some resources) makes it more likely, in my view.

 

 

The above picture came from here: 

 This search shows pictures of the magnetic field.