"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things... Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.I have written a few posts related to this topic of an opposition in all things; however, today I want to dedicate this post completely on this topic.
"And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away." (2 Nephi 2:11, 13)
The Book of Mormon teaches that there is an opposition in all things as you can read from two verses above. Without the existence of one, there is no existence of the other. Simply put, if there is evil, there is no good. How would you state that something is good when there is nothing to compare?
Let's think about Adam and Eve: they were in their innocence not knowing good or evil. If Adam and Eve were never tempted, they would have stayed in that state and we would not have the opportunity to come to this earth. We need both good and evil and that is just the way life is.
On one of the posts under Related Posts, I have said this, "We believe in opposition in all things, right? If we believe that we have to experience sorrow to know happiness, why do we try so hard to push sorrow away from our lives?"
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, a professor of Psychology, at the University of Toronto talks about Yin and Yang in one of his YouTube videos. Yin and Yang, as you know, symbolize good and evil, chaos and order, etc. The importance of this symbol is that both white and black share the same space without one overcoming the other. Moreover, you see a white and black dot in each other's area.
What does this mean? Dr. Peterson, and I as well, believes that mental illness develops through too much of one of these two things. Yes, too much of good/order is bad. There has to be a balance between the two. Also, he states that chaos can turn into order and order turn into chaos as symbolized with the dots. The meaningful life can be found on the border of chaos and order.
What does this have to do with the gospel? EVERYTHING. In the LDS culture, it seems to me that many people seek order. That's a given. We want a happy life, we believe that the gospel brings us happiness, we want to be perfect, we don't want to make a mistake, we want to love others, etc. We NEVER want to make mistakes, to repent, to feel hatred toward others, to feel the influence of Satan, to feel like there is something lacking with our testimony, etc. I understand that you want to be good; however, perhaps you are getting yourself too much into order and it's turning into chaos.
What then can we do to balance the two? While you do your best to become a perfect, charitable person, recognize that you are a human being. You make mistakes, you can have ill feelings toward others, you can feel your testimony dwindle, etc. It's OK. Life isn't over. This is the time when you have to change/put your other foot in chaos and make some changes. (Yes, chaos doesn't necessarily mean evil.) You can change your routine of scripture study, change the way you pray, change what you pray for, change the way of thinking, etc. People need to change all the time to survive.
Lastly, I want to point out the life of the Savior. He was a perfect Being who obeyed all the commandments of the Father; however, was His life "perfect," without problems/sadness? No, and you know that. He was mocked by His own people, was betrayed by one of His best friends, saw His friend die, bled at every pore of His body, was crucified with nails into his hands and feet, and was forsaken by His Father and was left utterly alone. He became the Savior, the Christ, because He experienced all these things. If you want to be like Christ, don't run away from chaos, mistakes, or trials. Let them be a part of your life so that you can become a better, newer, ever changing person.
0 comments:
Post a Comment