Looking at the surface

Thursday 19Mar09 – Montel Williams, a talk-show host, was on Oprah while Val was watching the other day. He has multiple sclerosis, and it hurts him a lot. A comment that Oprah made was to the effect that ‘you don’t seem to be in pain or suffering too much, so you must be OK.’ He then said that he wasn’t OK, and that he had attempted suicide once by throwing himself in front of a car, and had at one time 5 guns sitting in front of him while he tried to decide which of them would make the smallest hole.

   I went to take a shower, and the hymn ‘Savior, May I Learn to Love Thee’ came to my mind: specifically the verse ‘Who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly? In the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye can’t see...’ That is so true that often we don’t know what other people are going through: we see the exterior and judge accordingly, forgetting that the superficial is only a small percentage of what is really happening.

   3Ne6 – The people of Lehi basically fall away from the truth again, and Satan inspires them to start up the secret combinations so that they may subvert the laws and justice of the land. It seems that this rebellion comes about due to the amount of learning that a person had, how much $ they had, and what their status/standing was in the community.

   Is education that conducive to pride: I get some knowledge and therefore think I no longer need the Lord? Obviously yes, since I have leaned and depended so much on my own strength in the past. But these knowledgeable, prideful people persecuted the more humble part of the believers because they were seen as inferior...I suppose I see some other people as inferior to myself, which is a bad thing. All are equal in the sight of God. There is no Animal Farm complex here- none are more equal than others. Winos, homeless people, even the proud are no better or worse than I am. They are just in a different situation than the one I am in.