Knowledge of Things as They Truly Are

"And truth is knowledge of things as they truly are...." 
Doctrine & Covenants 93:24 





This scriptures stood out to me in Gospel Doctrine class this morning because it touches on something that has been very meaningful to me. Some years ago while listening to a podcast on Buddhism I heard something that has stuck with me ever since: that Buddhisim doesn't require its adherents to believe anything that isn't true. The emphasis was on the practical side of Buddhism, that it is a religion of experience rather than one of dogma. That really struck me then and continues to guide me now. 

What about my religion? Does belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints require me to believe any things that aren't true? Or perhaps more accurately, does my religion require me to believe things that I can't know for myself through personal experience? For me, happily the answer is a resounding no. 

This has been both challenging and freeing. Challenging because there are some things that I've thought were essential but found to be extraneous. Which is not to say unimportant, but supportive rather than fundamental. Freeing because I no longer need to make space for those extraneous things that I don't find supportive. 

 So what do I find essential? For me these are some of the fundamentals: 

  • God loves me. I know it because I have felt and can now feel his love. I see it in the world he created and all that he provides for me. 
  • I feel God working in my life. He has done for me (and continues to do for me) what I could not do for myself. When I align myself with him my life may still be in a shambles but I have (his) peace and strength to face it. 
  • I matter and I make choices that matter, sometimes to my dismay. And I have found that even those choices God can transform into beauty. So counterintuitive and so amazing. 
  • God continues revealing truth to me and to others. I grow when I let it in (when I'm ready to receive it) and stagnate when I don't (when I'm not yet ready). 
  • I feel a personal connection with Jesus Christ. I feel drawn to him and want to be with him "night and day." 
  • Eternal life isn't something for some remote future day, but something I experience in the here and now. This is not to say that I have "achieved" eternal life, but that this moment is the only point at which I connect with eternity. The past is out of my control and the future doesn't yet exist. This moment is the only moment that is real, that matters, and where I can be with God. 
  • I connect deeply with many teachings and stories in the scriptures, including the Holy Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine & Covenenants and the Pearl of Great Price. These are precious to me and I wouldn't want to live without them. I also find beauty and inspiration in writings and speakers from many other faith traditions, and am grateful God can speak to me through them as well. 
  • I love being part of a congregation of people who I get along with and don't get along with, who think like me and don't think like me, and who are all trying their best to live what they feel and experience and believe--and to do it together. I feel a call to be a member of the body of Christ, which, as Father Ron Rolheiser has pointed out, isn't the perfected, resurrected body of Christ (Greek "soma") but the imperfect body which is prone to sickness, disease and decay (Greek "sarx") but which has the hope of a glorious resurrection. 

This works for me.

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