Did NOT see that one coming...

The new Church presidency was announced this morning. It was no surprise that Thomas S. Monson is the new president. Henry B. Eyring was called as the 1st Counselor, no big shock there. However, I did not see Dieter F. Uchtdorf getting called as the 2nd Counselor.

Don't get me wrong, I fully support and sustain his appointment as counselor. It just never crossed my mind as a possibility, seeing as how he has only been an apostle since October 2004. I guess that's probably one of the reasons no one asked me first. Is it wrong to admit that I was cheering for Elder Bednar?

I guess I was just as surprised when Pres. Uchtdorf was called to be an apostle, I hadn't really even heard of him before that time. No pun intended, but he seemed to fly in under the radar. He quickly became one of my favorites though (not to suggest that there is a Q12 that I don't like, I have favorites and then strong favorites).

We have to wait until the April General Conference to find out who will fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. I'm not even going to speculate because I have a track record of 0%. I'll just be pleasantly surprised with whoever is called. I'm looking forward to hearing from Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf twice at each conference now, which also means that President Monson will now be speaking three times/ conference. This is exciting for me. I could listen to them read the ingredients off a cereal box.

I've always enjoyed listening to Pres. Eyring. He came to our stake conference in Lethbridge before my mission, at the time he was a member of the Quorum of the 70. He was the last speaker and went to the pulpit without any papers or notes and talked about each topic from the preceeding speakers and expanded on what they had said, adding supporting anecdotes from his own experience.

Some people have sports stars, singers, or actors as heros. My heros wear suits and ties and are called to be special witnesses of Christ. In my book, it doesn't get much cooler than that.

"We thank thee, O God, for a prophet"

I was stunned and saddened when I heard that Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had passed away this evening at the age of 97.

We knew he wouldn't live forever, but we were sure hoping. Every time we saw him on TV for General Conference, Church broadcasts, or even interviews with the media, we couldn't help but feel the love he had for everyone.

I remember sitting as a teenager in one of the rooms of the Cardston temple for the rededication after it had been remodeled back in 1991. Presidents Hinckley and Monson came through our room on their way to the Celestial room for the dedicatory prayer.

Shortly after my mission, I was lucky enough to go to Salt Lake for April conference in 1995. We sat in the tabernacle waiting for conference to start. There was the usual pre-meeting buzz as everyone was talking quietly. Then a reverent silence spread through the tabernacle as President Hinckley came into the room as the prophet. We could feel his presence and the spirit he carried with him before we could see him. I have never doubted that he was a prophet of God.

As is the case when we lose anyone dear, we know he is in a wonderful place, reunited at last with his beloved wife. But we still can't help being a little selfish in wishing he were still here with us.

The beauty of the Church - well, one of them anyway - is that we are not left without guidance and leadership. The Lord has a system in place whereby prophetic succession is done without rallying for office or aspiring to position (click here for more details). Soon, the announcement of the new president of the Church will be made.

President Hinckley will be dearly missed, and at the same time we look forward to following the new prophet and pledge to him the same love and devotion we had for President Hinckley. We revere and love the prophet because he is called of God and speaks for Him.

LDS.org article

“I want to bear you my testimony. I know that God our Eternal Father lives. I know that. I know that He watches over us, His children. He is the great God of the universe. He is the Governor of the universe. And yet He listens to each of us, His children, and how thankful we ought to be. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world, He who wrought a great Atonement in behalf of each of us. I do not care what you remember from this meeting, but I hope that you will remember this, that you heard Gordon B. Hinckley say that he knows that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world... That is my testimony and it is as real and as true as the sunrise in the morning.” (Panama City Panama Fireside, January 20, 1997.)

Some other good links:

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

The 6 B's, a classic talk from 2000

The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles

Prodigal Son, continued

In our Gospel Doctrine class last week, the other teacher decided to go back and focus on the Prodigal Son since he didn't have enough time to cover it last time. Something jumped out at me that I had never realized before.

Last time I posted this, I totally glossed over the older brother's experience because I thought it would distract from the point of the father's love. Then I read verse 28:

"And he [the older son] was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him."

If you're like me, you're probably thinking, "Yah, what's your point?". Well, what I didn't realize until I was sitting in class was this:

The youngest son willfully rebelled, took the inheritance and left. On his way back home, his father ran out to meet him and bring him back.

The oldest son refused to go into the house to join in the celebration of his brother's return. His father went out to see him and "intreated him" to come back. (Side note: the Greek word for 'intreat' - parakaleo - means to admonish, encourage, strengthen, instruct).

In short, regardless if we are the repentant returning prodigal, or the stubborn brother refusing to come in, our Heavenly Father still loves us so much that He comes out to bring us back into his presence. And as evidenced when Christ walked on the water to reach his distressed disciples, our Father always takes the most direct route to reach us.

"...how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings..." (3 Nephi 10:5)

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland once said:

"Just because God is God, just because Christ is Christ, they cannot do other than care for us and bless us and help us if we will but come unto them, approaching their throne of grace in meekness and lowliness of heart. They can't help but bless us. ... It is their nature." ("Come Unto Me, BYU Devotional, 2 March 1997)

Satan would have us believe that we are somehow beyond the redemptive reach of the Savior, but neither the prodigal nor the faithful sons were excempted from the father's love.

The Prodigal Son

I was hoping this lesson would fall on my turn, but sadly it’s my week off this week. I don’t remember when it happened (I think it was sometime on my mission), but this parable had a new insight for me and since that time it has been my favorite (#2 would have to be the Parable of the Good Samaritan, but that’ll be for another time…).

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the story (Luke 15:11-32)... A son tells his father, “I can’t wait long enough for you to die, I want my inheritance now” (paraphrasing). Junior takes his portion of the inheritance, leaves for “a far country”, and blows it all on really good buffets and carnival rides (my idea of riotous living). The economy goes bad, he ends up working on the farm moments away from stealing food from the pigs (anyone who has been around pigs knows that you’d have to be pretty hungry to eat anything fed to a pig).

Junior gets the idea to return home and work for his father because the servants at the house were apparently well fed. He gets home, meets his father, they hug, they kiss, and there’s a party.

Normally, we look at the story and think it is about either of the sons (I skipped over the good son who stayed home and got his nose out of joint). That’s all well & good because there is a lot that can be applied from their two perspectives. The big change for me came when I realized the parable was about the father.

Before I explain, let me add the disclaimer that I do not possess or claim the ability of interpretation (I don’t want that job, Pres. Hinckley is doing just fine). I do, however, offer this as an application of the parable.

Look at the story through the father’s eyes. Your youngest son basically tells you he wishes you were dead so he can get his inheritance right away. Contrary to the custom, and certainly not within any reasonable or legal expectation on the part of your son, you give him his portion of the inheritance which he takes and gets as far away from you as possible as fast as he can get his bags packed.

The story doesn’t mention how long it took Junior to spend his money and come back, and I don’t think that is really important, whether it was days, weeks, months, or years. The touching part is that during that whole time, his father was still watching for him to return.

“…But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion…” (Luke 15:20)
I missed this so many times when reading this parable. When it finally hit me, it was powerful beyond expression. I now picture a father who has been pacing in front of the living room window, waiting for a sign that his son is returning. He wasn't casually walking past the window just as Junior was walking up the driveway. I see him standing at the window, watching and waiting, occasionally getting excited as a figure comes into view only to realize it was someone selling Amway. Day after day, he watches the road hoping the next person to come down would be his son. Then the day came when it was his son, the son who had given possibly the biggest insult possible to his father. How did Dad react? He “…ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”

He couldn’t wait for Junior to make it all the way back to the house before going to greet him, and he wasn’t going to let his son make what had to be the most difficult part of the journey on his own.

Likewise, when we do stupid stuff and eventually “come to [ourselves]” (vs. 17) and start our way back, our Heavenly Father runs to meet us and help us walk the road back home. There are always open arms and welcoming embraces. To me, this parable gives us a glimpse of His merciful nature.

It also brings to mind another scripture:

“And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” (Alma 7:12)

This didn’t really stand out much to me until I learned what succor meant. In Latin, currere has the same route as ‘courier’, or ‘to run’. Add suc (Latin for ‘beneath’ or ‘before’) and you get succurrere, ‘to run to help’. And as only can truly be applicable in the case of Christ, One who has gone below all things in order to run to our aid.

"Light of the World"

A lot of my posts here will most likely be the result of thoughts, questions, etc. that have come up while I prepare for my Gospel Doctrine lesson every other week. After all, they’re bound to be more interesting than a record of my daily events. Drying paint is often more exciting than my daily events, but I digress.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the “I am the light of the world” lesson and the manual suggested a class discussion on how light can be symbolic of Christ. It wasn’t until Sunday morning as I was doing my last-minute run through that I thought of something cool (well, in my opinion anyway).

During my Neuro-Psych course at the University of Lethbridge, we talked about something called circadian rhythm. Pretty much every living thing runs on a cycle that resets every day (roughly), hence circa dia (Latin for ‘around a day’). Without external stimulus, the circadian rhythm can be anywhere from 23 – 25 hours. Without getting too in-depth with the concept (there’s a nerve cluster near the vision area of the brain that resets the rhythm), our circadian rhythms are reset by light each day to keep us on a 24-hour clock. Sunlight is the most effective source in balancing our rhythms.

So, one way that light is symbolic of Christ is that He should be our daily source of direction to keep our “spiritual clocks” running at the proper interval. It doesn’t take long to run off track if we’re not being “reset” on a daily basis.