Welcome to the Verbal Motivation Podcast. Where we talk about the things that motivate our lives, our religion and our relationships. My Name is Nathan Vail. This is episode number two called “Less than thy neighbor”
I heard several youth recently justify watching a movie with a lot of swearing in it by saying that they don't even notice it anymore. That may be true…but is it ok?
Antibiotics are one of the greatest medical discoveries of the early 20th century. Countless lives have been saved or extended since their discovery. Yet, according to the Infectious Disease Society of America, Antibiotics are becoming less and less effective, in part due to over-prescription and inappropriate use. They further warn that antimicrobial resistance is recognized as one of the greatest threats to human health worldwide.
Similarly, the internet and social connectivity have also been among the greatest technological accomplishments of the late 20th century. And in similar fashion, high levels of exposure to social and other types of media have caused many to become emotionally isolated and also spiritually callous. I think it would be safe to say that this is one of the greatest threats to emotional and spiritual well being worldwide.
Now I am not saying that we should buy a cabin in Montana and live out our lives in isolation. And I am certainly not saying that there are no good movies or entertainment.
I am saying that we need to stay sensitive to the spirit. We do have to live in the world, but we don’t have to bring it home with us.
Imagine if your doctor told you that because you've taken so many antibiotics that they’re no longer effective; that, it’s ok for you to take penicillin whenever you want. Well that would be crazy because everyone knows that the smallest amount of exposure to antibiotics is what protects their effectiveness.
Our spiritual sensitivity is protected in the same way.
You'll remember in October of 2018 President Nelson declared, "It is time for a home-centered Church, supported by what takes place inside our branch, ward, and stake buildings. "
That familiar quote makes it sound like what we do at home is actually our religion…and what we hear at church is only a confirmation. If that is the case it might be worth asking, “what does our home religion teach?”
There is an unfortunate stigma or even judgmentalism around people who only come to church at Easter and Christmas. Yet, if the life we live in our home church doesn't reflect what we teach and learn on Sunday, aren't we technically attending as infrequently than they are?
As it is, entertainment consumes more of our time now than it ever has before, with an ever increasing amount of desensitizing material carefully woven into it. We have come to a place in society where we are unable to have one minute of downtime without our phones appearing instantly in our hands.
We all try diligently to stand in holy places amid a hailstorm of filthy words and images, to the point that sometimes, when we don’t have a choice where we stand; standing in holy places becomes a state of mind rather than a physical location. But I don’t think that justifies bringing more of it home or indulging in it socially with the rationalization that we don’t notice it anymore anyway. When it is self-inflicted, I think it cuts much deeper and offends the spirit in a completely different way, than when we are made to endure it at work or at school.
We are here on earth specifically because we need to live in the world, in order to not be of the world.
Staying spiritually sensitive is quite literally what makes us not of this world.
In april of 1992 Elder Neal A Maxwell issued the following warning:
“Only reform and self-restraint, institutional and individual, can finally rescue society! Only a sufficient number of sin-resistant souls can change the marketplace. As Church members, we should be part of that sin-resistant counterculture. Instead,” he says “too many members are sliding down the slope, though perhaps at a slower pace.”
Elder Nelson’s statement begs the question, if we are taking less penicillin than our neighbor, does that in itself mean we are not taking too much? There is no such standard as less than thy neighbor.
In 2006 when the Sacramento Temple opened, many of us in Northern California were ecstatic for the reduced commute. For years we had been going to the much more distant Oakland temple. However, my first experience in the Sacramento temple was not great. The Oakland temple has a laundry and loaned clothing, and for whatever reason I found it more convenient to borrow their white clothes. For six years that is what I did. And so my personal white clothes sat on a shelf in the closet.
The Sacramento temple, as it turned out, doesn’t have a laundry or loan clothes. So before my first visit I pulled down my suitcase and laid out my beautiful white clothing on the brightly colored bedspread my wife made. Everything was still there, just as I left it. I arrived at the Sacramento Temple for my first visit with great excitement. But as I sat in the newly minted instruction room, surrounded by a sea of other patrons all dressed in white, I was horrified to realize that my temple clothes were actually yellow. At home against the brightly colored backdrop of my bedspread, I couldn’t tell that my white clothes had changed color. It was only in the temple that I realized that my clothes had not kept well.
In our lives, if we use the brightly colored world as the standard of truth or as a comparison, we will naturally change with them…maybe without even realizing it. It is only when we have an unchanging standard like the temple to compare ourselves to that we can prevent our spirits from yellowing.
One thing I know for sure, is that we are not saved as a church or as a people. We are saved as individuals and exalted as families. Right and wrong will not be based on what our neighbors or social media influencers have normalized. But rather by where we stand spiritually.
More that three decades ago, Alexander Pope said these poetic and prophetic words:
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
My name is Nathan Vail. And this is the verbal motivation podcast.