The Divine Character Includes Humor?
God expresses Himself differently to some of us. Whether because we can take more of Him than others, or whether because He has to condescend even further to our particular level, I cannot say.
Until Sunday, my latest example was in the temple, where laughing at myself brought me into harmony with the Spirit, who was also laughing at me.
Sunday right before taking the sacrament I had one of those little flashes of existential doubt that we get occasionally. You know, feeling flat and wondering if all the gospel and its rituals is empty motions.
The Spirit instantly, but I mean instantly, let loose an exasperated outburst. I have never experienced anything like it before. It wasn’t angry. But it was fed-up and rapid-fire. Like this: How many times have you been told that if you are sloppy on personal prayer and personal scripture study your testimony will get flabbier, and what exactly have you been sloppy on for the last while? And good grief, we’ve practically been answering every single prayer of yours lately [True]. You know they’ve been answered. We made the answers come so quickly and involve so much coincidence and serendipity, we practically put flashing lights and sirens on them [also True].
Me: . . .
My internal dialogue shut up about its doubts and decided to enjoy the sacrament.
Just an hour before, I had been called to be a counselor in my Elders Quorum presidency. After I accepted the call, on a mental track completely separate from the one with my doubts and the Spirit taking me to task, I had been thinking about that calling. The main thought I had was that I should routinely open my home to be social with the members of the quorum. This is an odd thought for me, because I am an introvert. I remember thinking, ‘huh, what a peculiar idea.’ But it did not have the flavor of an unwelcome divine command, it just seemed like some odd whim of my own. And since I always give due place to my own odd whims, I mentally kicked the idea around.
Immediately after the sacrament meeting, I was set apart for my calling. The blessing was short and to the point: it said that I should open my home to be social with the members of the quorum.
It all clicked.
I do not know what form the divine emotion took at that point. But the way I experienced it, filtered through my consciousness, was God having a fit of the giggles.
Filed under: Deseret Review | Tags: LDS, on the divine character
Bruce Charlton
November 1, 2016
@G – I like this. It reminds me that we are often prone to miss the humour (and humanness) of God – especially since the best humour is self-deprecating.
Like Arkle’s parable of The God who *winks*.
http://williamarkle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-final-words-of-geography-of.html
Possibly this is indicative of the highest form of divinity, and of God’s love for us – to be able to share a joke with God.
Bookslinger
November 1, 2016
The “implanted idea” that feels like your own is a form, type or method of revelation. It does not sound/feel like the Spirit whispering (as an externally-sourced voice that is coming to/into you) from the outside.
If you were to ask yourself, “Who is speaking?” the answer would be that you yourself are.
There are four heuristics I’ve learned about how to discern revelation or God’s will:
1. Who is speaking? God, Satan, or me? If you know God, and have served him, then you eventually come to _know_ His voice. If it’s God, ignore all other heurisitcs, as God’s will is always correct and good, and trumps all other reasoning. (This is an early lesson in the BoM, chapter 4 of 1 Nephi. While the Spirit made a good case for the reasons why Laban had to die, Nephi _knew_ who was speaking to him, and could therefore trust that voice, and accept the reasons given as correct as opposed to Satan’s sophistry.)
2. Sometimes the origin/source is clouded, either through my own sin putting static on the channel, or God intentionally hiding to some degree for my testing/growth or other purposes. In that case, Moroni’s heuristic can be used: Is it a good-thing or a bad-thing? If it inviteth to do good, it is of Christ, Moroni 7:16.
3. Is this idea part of my own natural appetites/desires, something *I* normally want, or something I normally do not want? If it’s something I normally do not want, then it is less likely to be something I ginned up on my own, and more likely to be a divinely implanted idea/desire.
In the process of learning about “implanted desires”, I too had some instances of “follow up” types of overt revelation/whisperings that confirmed that the implanted desire actually had a divine source.
In other words, you are being trained, and you are being grown. Acting _only_ upon divine “command” would eventually make us puppets or slaves. This mode of revelation, a divine idea welling up in you as your own, sort of makes _you_ the apparent source of good. It is a process that makes _you_ more like God. God is somehow sharing His inner divine spark with you before you are actually divinized with your own eternal fire.
As the lessons progress, as you grow, the follow-up confirmation comes later and later, and sometimes not at all.
Another aspect of progressive lessons on revelation (either whisperings or internal upwellings of ideas) is that they may become more last-minute, requiring quicker obedience/reaction-time.
And unless the idea is immediately time-critical, one can always pray and ask for a confirmation.
4. If the above three heuristics don’t give me a sense of confidence (ie, the source might still just be my imagination, the good/evil question results in “neutral”, the “is this just my natural-man desire?” question comes up neutral, no follow up revelation, no response to a request for confirmation… then my next question is “What’s the cost? How much time/money/resourcs do I have to spend/divert in order to learn from this?”
There’s the rub. How much faith do you have? And since exercising faith results in more faith: How much are you willing to “spend” for even more faith?