The Story You Tell Yourself

The past week has brought a flood of memories. Surrounded by family, all of whom were in town for youngest daughter Merilee's wedding, it was time for a backward glance and some reflections you might find useful. 

I thought about all the times in my life when I felt "stuck" with no sense there was any way out of my circumstances. As I reflected on those times, I penned these thoughts.

Remember this - nearly everything in life is based around the story you tell yourself about your past. I've felt "stuck" many times in my life, like I didn't have the control over my circumstances I thought I did. The roadblock occurs when you get stuck in that story, rather than letting it evolve. 

Victims get stuck. Survivors triumph and tell themselves a different story. 

You can't access the answers you seek as long as you have a story that says it's impossible. So I've learned to come up with stories I tell myself that say, "Yes, you can, David. You can do whatever you want to do." 

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when we go on missions to the far-flung countries of the world today, we've all seen lots of people put their pasts behind them and move ahead by making a huge commitment to join the Church. To do this they had to repent, embrace the Savior's atonement and create a new life for themselves. It's not easy to change, but people do it every day. 

As a business development guy and sales trainer, I have come to define success in my job as helping others make incremental improvements in their jobs. Sometimes the progress seems as rapid as watching my toenails grow, but when we look back to measure the results it's often satisfying and stunning. We've moved the needle toward improvement because people become convinced that change can be a good thing!

It's possible to change for the better, but only you can do it for yourself. You take the best elements of the story you are telling yourself about your past life, and you sift out the worst things you want to eliminate. Then you build the life you envision for yourself and your family. 

After 66 years of living, I can tell you the mid-course corrections I've made along the way turned out to be fabulous! There has always been a way to escape from the negative pieces of the story I was telling myself about all the bad things that happened along the way. 

I was thinking the other night with all our family surrounding me, 45 years ago not one single person in that large family group picture was in my life except Patsy. 

We began our lives together without much going for us. We used a little cash from our wedding day to buy our first car. I still had my college degree ahead of me and I was working two part-time jobs and going to school full-time. But we made a humble beginning and we kept on trudging ahead with an eye on what we hoped our future would look like. 45 years later I can't imagine being happier than I am. And there was a lot of sunshine to overcome all the cloudy days.

We met a lot of people at the reception for our daughter. More than one gave me the impression they might be feeling a little "stuck". 

We all know the power of belief; it can change your biochemistry. I've got many examples where miracles occurred just because people clung to a dogged determination to make a better future for themselves. Faith is what makes a dream into a reality. It's the substance of things that are hoped for, but not seen. 

It might be true you went through hell as a teenager. Maybe your parents divorced, maybe you were abused as a child, maybe your father was an alcoholic, maybe your mother abandoned your family when you were young, maybe unemployment put your family out on the streets in a homeless condition. Often we bring adversity upon ourselves, but sometimes it is the result of the actions of others over whom we have no control. We keep replaying the list of horribles in our lives, and it gets us nowhere. 

Which is the very definition of "stuck".

But that's not why you're not having what you want today. No matter how horrific your past may have been, that's not what today is. You stand on the brink of the whole rest of your life (and, oh by the way, it's going to be a great life!) It's hope that makes it so.

We went in to get our passports renewed the other day. Compared to our youthful pictures that stared back at us from the old passports, the lady behind the desk commented, "Well, you've changed a little since then!" And she had no idea how true that statement was. Gone was the dark hair, the svelte figure, the fire of youth. In its place was a story I told myself that turned out very differently than the old one. . .  and better.

Let's suppose you were one of those fantastic Mormon missionaries. You taught others what to do to get "unstuck". And now you must turn all the lessons inward upon yourself and do something different that embraces your "good" past (your mission) and rejects your "bad" past (your pre-mission days). 

You probably think all the avenues you hoped were open to you after your mission now all appear to be closed. That's the reason you're giving to yourself today and you may be tempted to think it's okay. 

But it's not okay to feel stuck because of what your circumstances seem to dictate to you right now. Be heartened by this reminder from Amos Bronson Alcott: "We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes."

A lot of people might be deathly afraid of what it's going to take to move beyond the disappointments to do something different today. 

You just need to take a first step in a new direction of your choosing. You are free, and you are powerful! 

You can't always see beyond the edge of the light today, but just like a powerful train headlight, you can go to the edge of the light you can see, then beyond the edge of the light your future is illuminated. But you have to go as far as you can to the edge of the darkness.

Tell yourselves that story instead.

"Old Man Morrison"

When Les Goates was writing a regular column for the Deseret News back in the day, he popularized a recurring feature he styled as "Enchanted Moments." Over the years as his descendants we have continued to record what is now a long legacy of stories that have become very dear to all of us.

Really, what they are is an uncollected collection of cherished spiritual experiences. If the truth were told, many of them have not yet been written because of their sacred and personal nature. I am always amused when a speaker rises in a sacrament meeting and apologizes for sharing a personal experience, because I always ask myself, "Well, what other kind of experiences are there besides personal ones, so why apologize?"

Last night I had what could only be classed as an Enchanted Moment. It was a phone call from a dear lifelong friend. We grew close to one another as our paths crossed at East High School, when he joined the Church as a new convert. He served as the Seminary President two years before I did. He went to the University of Utah and joined Sigma Chi Fraternity, and I followed in his footsteps once again two years later.

His mission call was delayed for two years until he was twenty-one and legally able to make the decision to go on a mission because his non-member mother refused to give her consent. When his call finally was able to be processed, he was called to the North British Mission. Four months later, I received my call to serve in the same mission.

We loved our time together in England, though we never served together in close proximity. On occasion we reunited for zone conferences. His mother continued her opposition to his participation in the Church until the day she died. She was a single mother all the years I knew them, and she supported them financially the best she could. He also had a sister who was ten years younger. Both learned hard work early as a necessity.

After our missions, my friend went to dental school at the University of Washington. His education was paid for by the Air Force in return for a service commitment when he finished. His initial enlistment was followed by what stretched into a thirty-year Air Force career, and his assignments took him and his family all around the world. He retired as a full colonel in recent years and he returned to the Seattle area where he still practices and teaches orthodontics. He served as a Bishop twice, a Branch President twice, and the First Counselor in a Stake Presidency. He and his wife are faithful, true disciples who now serve in the Seattle Temple as ordinance workers.

Because of the many miles that have separated us since those early days of our friendship, we rarely see one another or even communicate on a regular basis. They have two children and three grandchildren. Their annual Christmas letter is a cherished gift each year as they have chronicled their lives.

Then just yesterday I found him on LinkedIn and we connected. Soon thereafter I received a message from him because he saw my e-mail address in my profile. Technology is many things, but one thing I love about it is when I can make connections again with dear friends. He asked me to call and gave me his numbers.

"I've Kept a Secret From You"

When we talked, it was as if time collapsed and we picked up right where we left off. Our love for one another has never dimmed nor diminished one iota. There were three things on his mind, the first two quickly dispensed, then came the blockbuster. "David, I have kept a secret from you for many, many years that I need to tell you about." My mind raced instantaneously. What could that be? What had my dear friend withheld from me? A secret? I thought I knew everything about him.

Slowly over the next hour and half we were on the phone he poured out the details of his biological father. As he spoke, it became obvious to me I really had never known anything about his family. I had always just accepted the assumption of his father's death and his name, leaving his mother as a single mom raising him and his younger sister, not even knowing or questioning that his biological father was really someone else with a different surname.

I am intentionally withholding my friend's name, though our family will know of whom I speak.

His biological father, he explained, was something of a reclusive and mysterious figure who had withdrawn into a shell of his own making. He lived in a ramshackle, run-down small old home. The yard was an overgrown untended tangle of weeds, an unkempt eyesore that was uncharacteristic of the surrounding neighborhood. It was one of those properties everyone discussed and despised because of what it might do to affect property values. The man himself was gruff and mean-spirited. He was rarely seen in public, except when he emerged to walk to and from a nearby neighborhood grocery store.

The boys in the neighborhood caught fleeting glimpses of "old man Morrison" on occasion, but his interactions with his neighbors in general were isolated and rare occurrences. They were always discussing the mysteries and mythology that grew up around this withdrawn hermit from society, assertions like: He was wealthy beyond imagination; his fortune was concealed under his mattress; he had killed someone and he was on the lam; he was a spy and this reclusive lifestyle was his cover. There were dares and double-dog dares to sneak into the house when he was known to be out and look around to see if his concealed fortune could be uncovered. No one ever accepted that dare. It was just too risky. There was no end to the speculations of little boys. But one thing was certain -- he was harmless.

Imagine my surprise when my dear friend disclosed that "old man Morrison" was the same "old man Morrison" who lived directly across the street from my childhood home! To walk out our front door, was to stare directly into the unsightly front yard and broken down house I just described. He was our "old man Morrison," the undisclosed natural father of one of my dearest friends! And I never knew!

Last night he went on to explain he had first become aware of his father's true identity at about age ten when his mother told him the story for the first time. Embarrassed and resentful that he did not have a father, my friend had chosen to keep this secret tucked away from me for most of our lives. As the details poured out, however, my reaction was probably predictable given our deep and abiding love for one another. It only endeared him to me all the more.

The Early Years

His full name was Seth Warner Morrison, Jr., and was born on 21 February, 1895 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father, Seth Warner Morrison, Sr., served in the Utah State Legislature in its inaugural year of 1896, when Utah became a state. Seth Sr. was listed as a “Gentile (Non-Mormon) Republican,” and his picture shows a large, bushy mustache. Warner, our "old man Morrison," grew up in Salt Lake City, but my friend says he knows little of his father's childhood and adolescent years. He often spoke of his love of skiing the beautiful mountains of Utah, and presumably worked in his father’s lumber company as a teenager.

Upon graduation from Salt Lake City High School and some preparation at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, he went away to New Haven, Connecticut, to attend prestigious Yale University. He graduated in 1917, with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

A biographical entry from a Yale University book entitled Class of Nineteen Seventeen recounts some of his activities at Yale. World War I was still going on in Europe, and as a new graduate, he went to San Francisco and volunteered for the U.S. Army. He served as a First Lieutenant in the 91st “Wild West” Division, 166th Field Artillery Brigade, 347th Field Artillery Regiment, which primarily saw action in France. He was in Fohren, Germany when the Great War ended on Armistice Day, 11 November, 1918. Again his activities in the war are well documented in a biographical entry from a Yale University book, Nineteen Seventeen in the War (1917 was the year of his graduation). Apparently, he had sustained some internal injuries during the war, but there is uncertainty about what they were.

Upon his discharge on 30 April, 1919, he returned to Salt Lake City, and went back to work for his father in the lumber business. The next year, in September, 1920, he joined the Masonic Order, Wasatch #1, Grand Lodge 8105, Lodge 781, and rose to attain the 3rd degree or level in that organization. As of 9 December, 1932, though, he discontinued his activity with the Masons. He was also a member of Salt Lake Post, No. 2, American Legion, and the Squawmen’s Union, No. 1.

Warner served as a Republican member of the House of Representatives in the Utah State Legislature from 1921-1922, as had his father. He also served as president of the Yale Club of Utah from 1922 to 1925, and was a member of the University, Alta, and Country Clubs of Salt Lake City.

During this time frame, he went to the Sierras to learn logging and sawmilling, and met and married his first wife, Elizabeth Maurice Martin in Portland, Oregon. To this union were born two sons, Seth Warner Morrison III, and Harry Douglas Morrison. “Si," as he was known later on, was born in Oregon City, Oregon and Harry Douglas in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, Warner and Elizabeth divorced in 1931, and she moved back to Chicago, Illinois and re-married. Warner stayed in Salt Lake City and had split custody with his sons, and then also re-married.

His second wife, Edith Doris Friedrich Freiin von Hadeln, was a German national tennis player, and one daughter, Margot E. was born to them in Salt Lake City. Again, this marriage also ended in divorce several years later.

My Friend's Memories of our Mr. Morrison

"I don’t recall how old I was when I first met my father, but it was probably after I started elementary school in the early 1950s. For the first three years of my life, I lived in Los Angeles, California, where I had been born. My mother had met Warner at our great-aunt Jeanne’s restaurant, Jeanne’s Tea Room, which was not far from his father’s lumber company. In the winter of 1945, she had gone to visit her first cousin, Adrie Peters in Los Angeles, and did not know she was pregnant. She went to the doctor suspecting she may have a tumor, but was given the news she was actually expecting a child. She was elated, because she always wanted to have children, but was embarrassed she was not married.

"I was born at the Rose Maternity Hospital on 25 May, 1945, and we remained in California for the next several years. Mom had gone to work for a naturopathic doctor and author, and though he too had had several previous marriages, they married on 8 December, 1946. Unfortunately, he passed away of a stroke on 20 April, 1947, and so I never knew him. He did not adopt me, but my sister and I have always carried his last name, as did my mother for most of her life.

"On 26 June, 1947, she legally had our names changed from her Dutch name to our current names.

"We moved back to Salt Lake City when I was about three years old. Mom worked in various occupations when I was growing up in the lower avenues of the city, but primarily worked as a cook and housemaid at several boarding houses. Later on, she pursued her degree at the University of Utah as an elementary school teacher, and this profession was the joy of her life. She was artistic, an accomplished pianist and vocalist, and she used these talents in her teaching. The one good contribution to her life from Warner during that time was his help in her passing some of her classes.

"When I first met Warner, he had become somewhat of a recluse. He was balding, and had lost many of his teeth. His home at 84 'U' Street was about a mile from where we grew up. It was never a normal abode, but filled with aisles of newspapers you had to walk down to get through the house. He never owned a car, and got around by walking or by public transportation. He was a chain-smoker, and drank a lot of red wine over the years. Undoubtedly, the fire that destroyed his home in later years was caused by a cigarette he had not extinguished. He was then forced to move to a hotel in downtown Salt Lake, and our mother visited him and helped him as much as she could.

"Warner died at the age of 75, on 23 February, 1970 in Salt Lake City. A funeral service was held for him at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, which Si attended and, no doubt, paid for. Our father was cremated and buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery, not far from where his parents were buried. Each Memorial Day, a small American flag is placed on his gravesite to honor his service to our country."

The Lessons

In all the overcoming, the loving and forgiving, my friend now stands as a shining beacon. Whatever your childhood experience might have been, you can rise above it and make a wonderful life. You do not forever have to be consigned to a state of birth circumstance bondage.

Imagine all the patience, the sacrificing, the overcoming, the desire to rise above the unsavory elements of his early childhood, to become the man he has become and to finally come to a place of peace, serenity and acceptance of the facts of his biological creation. My heart was welled up continually as the details poured forth and I heard in his voice the tranquility and the steadfast determination to research his family lines in the Morrison family tree and take many of those names to the temple to have their work done for them.

My friend's mother had speculated that his withdrawn and reclusive nature might have been attributed to injuries, perhaps more psychological than physical, traced to his involvement in the war. As might be expected, he found solace in his alcoholism and cigarettes.

Living in the northwest was one of my friend's half-brothers, a prominent lawyer who had recently passed away. Almost as if by "coincidence" he happened to read the obituary and made the link. My friend attended his half-brother's funeral and connected for the first time with his blood relatives and a daughter, who while "not yet" a member of the Church is an ardent genealogist. Imagine the discussions they must have had with one another at that funeral!

My sister reported she remembered the fire that consumed the home of Mr. Morrison vividly, the flames leaping upward a hundred feet into the air. It awakened the whole neighborhood in the middle of the night it happened. One of my younger brothers, I was reminded, was actually accused of setting the Morrison fire. Some time earlier, he and a friend had set a brush fire east of my grandfather's home a few blocks away, so suspicion turned immediately to them. No doubt the newspapers inside the home served as an accelerant once the blaze started, probably from the forgotten burning cigarette within. All these years later, now Mr. Morrison's temple work, along with many of his progenitors, is being done in due course by my dear friend. Imagine!

I asked my father the day after this disclosure if he and my mother had ever had a conversation with the reclusive and mysterious "old man Morrison." Flabbergasted at my disclosure of Morrison's true identity, my father could only lament, "We must have been terrible neighbors. No, I don't ever recall that a single word passed between us."

In the course of one's life there are many pleasant surprises, "secrets" we never know about, happening right under our noses. The precious, treasured secret last night delivered by a dear friend can only be classed as an "Enchanted Moment." It underscores once again the need to never assume anything.

My take away from his long-held secret was a simple one. Everyone in your life has a back story worth learning. Even someone like an "old man Morrison." We all have someone like him in our lives. I have resolved to learn more about the seeming "ciphers" all around us.

A few minutes later, welling up with the emotion of what I had just heard, I wrote back an e-mail response to my friend. This is what I told him:

Thanks for your disclosure about your biological father. It makes me love you and admire you all the more. Your "secret" only burnishes my esteem for you and the magnificent life you have lived.

In addition, I want to share something that happened when my mother was near her death. Because she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, then went through three rounds of chemotherapy and two major surgeries, we had what I came to call "the long farewell." She survived three and a half years. We knew she would be gone eventually because it was terminal, so we said our farewells many times in anticipation.

One day, seated on her bed, she reminded me again what a valiant spirit I must have been in the pre-existence to have warranted the privilege of being Harold B. Lee's eldest grandson. I had heard this from my parents all my life, and often the reminder felt like unwelcome pressure to bear. That day, hearing it again, something different happened within me. Like a lightning bolt the realization hit me. I said, "Mom, I don't really believe I did anything to earn that privilege, I probably had to beg for it instead."

I reminded her of the story recorded in Matthew 12:46-50, and also in Mark 3:31-35:

While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Then one said unto him, behold, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

We often attach inappropriate significance to the "royal" families in the Church, those who are related by blood to the prophets. However, it is my considered belief that those who have the royal blood of the prophets coursing in their veins include all who have "believing blood," as Elder Bruce R. McConkie used to characterize it. We may all trace our lineage to Father Adam and Mother Eve. How is that not royal blood coursing through all our veins? It is our faith and belief in the gospel that unites the family of man, not the facts of our biological birth.

You, my brother, are in the first rank of the believers and valiant disciples, and there is nothing in your life that would ever suggest anything less regardless of the obvious and unfair comparison of our biological parentage. I hope to someday be considered as worthy as you in the Lord's eyes.

Much love,

David

Life

A little work, a little play
A little sorrow on the way;
A little sigh for what’s unwon,
A dream of when the race is run.

A gleam of hope from morning skies,
A little light from love’s dear eyes;
The swinging gate, the setting sun –
We close our eyes and life is. . .
Done!

- Les Goates

The Impossible Gospel

There are some false traditions that have a tendency to creep in among the saints of the latter days. If we are seeking to acquire spiritual power through zealous compliance to the long list of commandments, practices, rituals and policies in the modern Church, we are pursuing an “impossible gospel.”

Have you ever spoken to a little child about Jesus and marveled at their perfect faith in him? Children love stories about him. They believe his teachings. They trust him implicitly. The faith and humility of little children characterize the greatest folks in the kingdom of heaven. (See Matthew 18:1-5). We were all little children once, and to enter the kingdom of heaven we will each return to our childlike faith. Occasionally, prophets have to remind us of our true status when we forget who we are and where we came from. (See Mosiah 2:23-25).

“The Gospel”

We are deceived in this world as we partake of the forbidden fruit of Satan’s lies, and we are taught something called “the gospel” as the antidote. Frequently, however, we define the gospel incorrectly as a long list of commandments. We should teach compliance and observance of the commandments in the Church, but too often we witness people who have become discouraged with their quest for perfection. One slip, they think to themselves, and all is lost. Their lives enter a vortex of sin sometimes only because they misunderstood the principles of the atonement. The task before them to live this false gospel seems impossible. This assumption is just as faulty as the one that we can sin knowingly, then repent to our Church leaders at the appropriate time to get a temple recommend when needed. Only after we have gained sufficient seasoning to acknowledge our repeated failed attempts to measure up to the lofty expectations of the impossible gospel of checklists, it seems, do we learn the true gospel. (See D&C 18:11; 76:40-42).

The long list of commandments and outward ordinances is not unlike the “preparatory gospel” of the law of Moses in an earlier time -- to give Israel a “type and shadow” of the spiritual blessings inherent in the atonement of Christ. The law was never to become the salvation it typified (see Mosiah 13:30-31; 16:14-15), but as sin escalates our lists grow longer to hedge up the way. We zealously admonish one another that not one must be lost. We learn to measure performance and compare relative compliance. Instead of feeding the sheep, the danger is that we become adept at merely counting them.

The Savior reserved His most excoriating criticism for the leaders of Judaism in his day who exhibited inexhaustible zeal for long lists. (See Matthew 23). He despised those “who make yourselves appear unto men that ye would not commit the least sin, and yet ye yourselves, transgress the whole law.” (JST Matthew 23:21). They had their image to think about.

Paul told the church in Rome that living the law in and of itself will not justify us regardless of how righteous we may appear to other men. The outward sign of conformity to the law in Paul’s day was circumcision. In our day it is baptism. Speaking to modern saints Paul might say, “To be a Mormon is not just to look like a Mormon, and baptism is more than a physical ordinance. The real Mormon is the one who is inwardly a Mormon, and the real baptism is in the heart ‑‑ something not of the letter but of the spirit. A Mormon like that may not be praised by man, but he will be praised by God.” (See Romans 2:25-29). Not surprisingly, President Benson said the same thing frequently. (See Ensign, May 1986, pp. 4-7; also Ensign, May 1988, pp. 4-6).

Receiving Not Earning

Two valiant prophets, Nephi and Stephen, rebuked their persecutors as “uncircumcised of heart.” (See Helaman 9:21; Acts 7:51-53). Their tormentors had been circumcised, and yet remained uncircumcised of heart. The circumcision of heart, a spiritual rebirth, had eluded them even though they had complied with the physical ordinances required by the law. Abinadi agrees with Paul: “Salvation doth not come by the law alone.” (Mosiah 13:28).

Lehi tells Jacob redemption comes through the Holy Messiah to those who have a broken heart and contrite spirit, and that “by the law no flesh is justified.” (2 Nephi 2:4-9). Unto “none else,” says Lehi, can the ends of the law be answered through the “merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah.” Only Jesus and little children qualify as perfect.

In our public teaching in the Church today we sometimes give the impression there are some preconditions imposed by the law before men and women can receive the Holy Spirit. However, Paul teaches it is futile to suppose the works of the law will bring the Holy Spirit of promise to the saints. Let us always remember the Holy Ghost comes to us as a gift after we exercise faith in our Savior’s atonement for our sins, and not as a reward for our good works. Paul posed the rhetorical question, “Was it because you practiced the Law that you received the Spirit, or because you believed what was preached to you?” (Galatians 3:2-5).

Paul speaks of the preparatory gospel as being insufficient to save us from our sins. The outward works of the law are of “none effect” if not linked to a spiritual conversion by faith. (Romans 4:14). Paul says, “All that law does is to tell us what is sinful,” and we must “go on unto perfection” in the doctrine of Christ without our dead works. (Hebrews 6:1).

Abinadi echoes Paul’s teachings. We often consider gifts and grace as troublesome doctrines, thinking in our Protestant ethic that we must earn everything we receive, but remember prophets speak and write to those who have already received the initial outward ordinances of baptism and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. The ordinances are essential for salvation, but “all mankind were lost” because of the fall, and would have been “endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state.” (Mosiah 16:3-5). Nowhere do prophets speak of any preconditions for salvation except faith in Christ’s atonement, repentance, and baptism. Outward ordinances only typify inward spiritual realities, they guarantee nothing. Those who cannot humble themselves in repentance for their sins before their Redeemer “remain as though there had been no redemption made,” despite their empty works of compliance without the spirit.

Now examine Amulek’s teachings as another witness: “All are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atone­ment which it is expedient should be made.” (Alma 34:9). Through the redemption of Christ little children have escaped accountability for sin. The ordinances at age eight symbolize what happens to us later when we have partaken of the forbidden fruit and the effects of the fall are complete. That is what is meant by the baptism of the heart -- it is spiritual not physical.

How many of us assume we are saved merely by our nominal membership in the true Church? Too many of us perform closure on our spiritual progress, thinking we have all the knowledge we need in the law. Paul taught the outward ordinance of baptism has no power to save. Only faith in Jesus Christ “which worketh by love” results in the desired goal of salvation. (Galatians 5:6). This deception of focusing our efforts on outward behavioral checklists breeds self-righteousness and spiritual complacency, collective sins of the chosen people who are not yet “born again.” (Alma 5:14).

“So what becomes of our boasts?” demands Paul. “There is no room for them. On the contrary, it is the law of faith, since, as we see it, a man is justified by faith and not by doing something the Law tells him to do.” (See Romans 3:27-31).

Faith Like Abraham’s

Paul cites Abraham’s faith. Though it seemed Abraham’s hope for posterity could not be fulfilled, he hoped and he believed. Through doing so he became the father of many nations exactly as he had been promised. Nothing could shake his faith. Since God had promised it, Abraham refused either to deny it or even to doubt it, but drew strength from faith and gave glory to God, convinced that God had power to do what he had promised. There are many in the Church today whose faith and hope in an eternal posterity seems in every particular as impossible as Abraham’s. This is the faith that was “considered as justifying him.” Our faith too will be “considered” if we believe in him who was put to death for our sins and raised to life to justify us. (See Romans 4:13-25). It is easy to confess our faith in God once or twice in a lifetime. We only receive the blessings of Abraham as we live each day like Abraham.

Would Paul have us abandon the requirements under the law for the outward ordinances and commandments of salvation? Not at all. He says the law is not sufficient to save us -- he does not say the law is disposable. But the law, even if it could be lived perfectly as Paul says he lived it, does not save.

Salvation is perfect faith in Christ as our personal Savior, not perfect compliance with the checklist of commandments demanded by the law. Our doctrine is the doctrine of Christ. Once innocent children, we have all ingested the forbidden fruit of Satan’s lies. (D&C 93:37-40). Paul’s testimony was, “I am no longer trying for perfection by my own efforts, the perfection that comes from the Law, but I want only the perfection that comes through faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith.” (See Philippians 3:4-14).

Alma taught the same doctrine. Each had a keen awareness of his fallen condition and his need for redemption. Each knew his deliver­ance from the bondage of sin. They were saved in the abyss of their sin and folly by faith, not because they were living the law perfectly. Alma’s salvation came “not of any worthiness of myself.” (Alma 36:2-5). Salvation for each of us comes as a gift of grace “after all we can do,” but we are commanded to teach our children “the deadness of the law.” (2 Nephi 25:23-30).

Too often, instead, we advocate the merits of the law, insist upon compliance from our children and never teach them the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We deny the twin doctrines of the fall and the atonement when we concentrate on their outward performance, and we rate them “good” or “bad” against a false standard. Therefore, our judgment of them is faulty.

Jesus taught only God was “good.” (Mark 10:18). So did Paul. (Romans 3:10-12). Eternal life is attainable only because of our faith in Christ’s atonement. We earn nothing as fallen beings, because any good in us comes from God. Either our good works are inspired by the Holy Ghost, or our works are merely works of men inspired by Satan and they perish. (3 Nephi 27:10-12).

No advocate of the gospel was as faithful and fearless as Paul following his vision of the Lord, yet his writings disclose he continued to struggle with temptation all his life. He referred to his mortal weakness as “a thorn in the flesh,” and each of us is blessed with similar thorns. He was silenced in his thrice-repeated petition to have the thorn removed with, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” The thorn is our corruptible mortal flesh we must submit through repentance to the sanctification of the Lord’s grace. Paul finally learned there was no glory in achieving his own worthy goals under the law. Rather, he found the source of his spiritual strength in his dependence upon Christ to deliver him from his temporal infirmities. (See 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). It is a lesson for us. Spiritless checklists and self-determined goals are powerless to save.

Moroni was weak in writing, and feared he would be mocked by the gentiles who received The Book of Mormon in the latter days. “If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness,” promised the Lord. He did not mean He gives us our many mortal weaknesses and temptations. He reveals our true weakness as fallen mortals to humble us, a weakness we never overcome until death (the end of our probation if we have been faithful). His grace strengthens us in mortality, not our vain exertions to remove our own thorn. “My grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me,” was the sweet whispering of the Holy Spirit to Moroni, who testifies, “I know that thou workest unto the children of men according to their faith.” (Ether 12:26-29). He lived like Abraham, and so must we.

We exchange our sins for His love, the “grace” or “charity” spoken of in the scriptures. His grace is his enabling power given as a gift to make salvation possible for the penitent. Charity for others is obtained by our faith in Christ’s redemptive power to save us from sin and death, which gives rise to the hope that our faith will not be in vain and our sins will be forgiven. We cannot give the love we have not yet received.

Moroni tells us the gift is given only when we “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.” (Moroni 7:48). That is what James meant by the necessity of good works to go with our faith. (James 2:20-24). Praying with “all the energy of heart” and acting on the answers is just the kind of good hard work James had in mind!

Every covenant we make with God condemns us, because we all fall short of perfect performance. The weight of the law if borne alone will crush us. That is the purpose of the law -- to teach us we are weak and need help shouldering the load. The real joy and peace of living the gospel lies in the infinite possibilities if we know how, what and who to worship, not in keeping score on our checklists hoping to prove ourselves worthy. (D&C 93:19).

Discipleship

Why is perfection in the law so impos­sible in the flesh? “All that the law does is to tell us what is sinful.” There is no salvation in living the law of carnal commandments perfectly, said Paul. Salvation consists in being perfected in Christ through our faith on him as our personal Savior. He is our only hope for perfection. (Moroni 10:32-33). Our doctrine is, “if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power,” only then are we sanctified.

Jacob taught a daily spiritual walk for the believer, not a one-time profession of belief. He said those who would claim salvation in Christ must “consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility.” (2 Nephi 9:41-42). Each day the true disciple denies himself all ungodliness and every worldly lust, takes up his cross, and follows the Savior. (JST Matthew 16:26). It becomes a way of life for the true disciple, not just a well-meaning slogan.

Nephi promised, “if ye will enter in by the way [baptism], and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show you all things what ye should do. Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ.” (2 Nephi 32:5-6). He spoke of “my doctrine,” when Jesus said, “whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved, and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God. And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child.” (3 Nephi 11:31-40).

Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against true disciples who build upon his rock. “This is my gospel,” taught Jesus when he invited us to “repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost.” (3 Nephi 27:19-21). The law, though always intended to yield a spiritual result, operates in a natural, carnal, and temporal world. The Holy Ghost is the supernatural sanctifier of the natural man. (Mosiah 3:18-21).

“This is my doctrine,” saith Christ, “whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church.” (D&C 10:68). God give us the wisdom to avoid making “more” of the gospel than it is. King Benjamin taught the disciple “should put his [her] trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life. . . This is the means whereby salvation cometh,” and there is no other way. (Mosiah 4:6-8).

Paul’s teachings on grace and the futility of excelling in the works of the law are simple. The doctrine of Christ applies today, and “shall suffice for thy daily walk, even unto the end of thy life.” (D&C 19:29-32).

The impossible gospel of searching for power by blind adherence and faith in our checklists under the law is just another false tradition with no power to save. Jesus never taught it, “for my commandments are spiritual.” (D&C 29:34-35). Only the Holy One of Israel can supply the perfect fruit of the tree of life. (1 Nephi 11:8-36; 2 Nephi 9; 25:23-30; 31:16-21). “Mercy cometh because of the atonement, and none but the truly penitent are saved.” (Alma 42:23-24). Rather than our own perfection in mortality, our quest must be for the mercy of our Redeemer.

Little children know the doctrine of Christ. They love Jesus. They know his love for them. As we wash our garments in his blood we become like them, “holy and without spot.” (Alma 13:11; Moroni 10:33). The possible gospel, the true gospel, is a very short list. It is so simple only little children understand it.