Daydreaming

dancing thoughts yesterday

from one to the next

flitting like a butterfly goes 

from blossom to blossom

heard a phrase in a talk

"hopefully I've grown"

how do children grow?

what if we graphed their height?

exponential, but shallower than the typical

much less steep

yes? and if we graphed the rate

at which they grew

(the derivative of their height) 

a reverse exponential

thoughts dancing from one to the next

music is a wonderful thing but

how hard it is to focus on

both words and harmony

simultaneously, singing hymns

what if we translated them to english

from other languages? and a project

was born of this

nearer my god to thee

mon dieu, plus pres de toi

veuille affermir ma foi, reste avec moi

the lyrics are different, in a way

both beautiful and poetic

still, even in translation

google translate and dim memories

of two years of high school french

my god, more near to you

i want to strengthen my faith

rest with me

or wanting strengthens my faith

this, i am unsure. but both fit

both are poetic

we'll call it poetic license

apparently that's an excuse for this kind of thing

for everything

"poetic license"

in sunday school we discussed the

"narrative paradigm

theory" that all communication

all we do

is in the form of a story

we live storytelling

comprehending the world as narratives

complete with cast, conflict, plot

are we heroes or villains?

can we be the villains of our own stories?

or the heroes? truly

i think sometimes we're even the background

to our own lives

a poem for a story

for the rambling thoughts

like a swarm of butterflies in my head

it's hard to focus when

you're so tired

PAD Day 25

I wrote this poem on Monday while reflecting back on how my thoughts had been drifting on Sunday 

Sunday Series: Alma 14:11

I've been thinking, and I'd like to start this Sunday Series thing, where basically I get to write about things that spiritually inspired me during the week. There might be one post, or multiple, but there will be at least one. So here goes :)

"But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people ma do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day" (Alma 14:11)

I actually read this scripture during my study this morning, and something that it hits on really fascinates me. That is, the idea that the righteous suffer so the wicked may be punished. Of course, that's dumbing it down a lot. It's a lot deeper than that, but that sentence is the most basic form of the thought that popped into my head. I'd like to elaborate on that thought.

This scripture is from when Alma and Amulek were teaching in Ammonihah. They have been captured by the wicked authorities of the city, and are being forced to watch the martyrdom of all the believers, as they are thrown into a fire, along with all the sacred records. Amulek pleads with Alma to allow them to exercise the power of God and save them. That is when Alma says what is quoted in the verse above.

What really caught my attention was the line "that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them...may be just." They cannot save the people because then the wicked could not be judged. If they had not been able to commit the crime, atrocious as it was, and painful to watch, if Alma and Amulek had stopped them, they could not have been rightly judged at the last day. You cannot be condemned without first committing a crime. You cannot be punished for intent- it is the action that brings down the law.

This is a fascinating point to me: that sometimes people are allowed to commit the crime so they can be punished for it. It's difficult to explain it in words. In God's kingdom, there is no room for the unclean, or for the wicked. They cannot stay. But unless they sin, how could they be told not to stay in God's presence? So to stop them from sinning would be to hinder justice and to place unclean beings in God's presence.

I'd like to focus on the justice aspect especially. Justice cannot be exercised without the person first committing a crime. So despite the pain it may cause, it must be done so that God can judge them. This seems a little harsh, looking at it from a human perspective, but that's exactly why it does: because the human perspective is different. In the grand scheme of things, what harms us on Earth will not harm us eternally, unless we allow it to. Our spirits will survive. But to the natural man, death and pain are the absolute end, and so to allow someone to be killed for the sake of justice seems even more horrifying than to realize that, hey, that's just the mortal body that is dead. Their spirit is safe with God, and now the killer can truly face justice. (Not that murder isn't horrifying and terrible, because it is. It's just looking in the grand scheme rather than at just this mortal life) It's a very interesting perspective.

It also has to do with agency, of course. God cannot stop someone from hurting another without taking away their agency- a thing He will never do. And so justice then becomes the great equalizer in a sense. They were able to hurt this other person, but they will be punished. This truly is like a father and his children- sometimes your child rebels and they do bad things, but they will be punished for doing wrong, and that is how they learn. It's amazing to me.

Anyway, sorry for my random disjointed ramblings! I hope they made some sense, and maybe they can help you make sense of why people are allowed by God to do bad things to other people. There are other reasons for trials, and different things that happen, but this particular point was what I was thinking about.