A Collector of Truth

I’ll give you the quotes, they aren’t top-secret or anything and I’ll still post them in context of an idea that I’ll provide my own commentary on, here’s the first one:

“If I wanted to know, to be prepared, I had to take personal responsibility. In retrospect, my program involved three elements. Keep my eyes open. Give things time. And re-examine my own assumptions now and then. The alternative is to not pay attention. Insist on final answers now. And never re-examine my own assumptions. Either choice on these three points has consequences in life.”

The source is this article here: http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/eye-of-the-beholder-law-of-the-harvest-observations-on-the-inevitable-consequences-of-the-different-investigative-approaches-of-jeremy-runnells-and-jeff-lindsay/

The second quote was from Hugh B. Brown:

“One of the most important things in the world is freedom of the mind; from this all other freedoms spring. Such freedom is necessarily dangerous, for one cannot think right without running the risk of thinking wrong, but generally more thinking is the antidote for the evils that spring from wrong thinking. More thinking is required, and we call upon you students to exercise your God-given right to think through every proposition that is submitted to you and to be unafraid to express your opinions, with proper respect for those to whom you talk and proper acknowledgment of your own shortcomings.

We live in an age when freedom of the mind is suppressed over much of the world. We must preserve this freedom in the Church and in America and resist all efforts of earnest men to suppress it, for when it is suppressed, we might lose the liberties vouchsafed in the Constitution of the United States.

Preserve, then, the freedom of your mind in education and in religion, and be unafraid to express your thoughts and to insist upon your right to examine every proposition. We are not so much concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thoughts. One may memorize much without learning anything. In this age of speed, there seems to be little time for meditation.” – Hugh B. Brown (First Counselor to Church President David O. McKay), An Eternal Quest – Freedom of the Mind, May 13, 1969

We live in a time where there are many complex things going on and I believe it is part of a prophesied test. Many simple give up because they cannot reconcile things and I don’t believe this is wise at all. Much of it has to do with our paradigms and preconceived notions that we assumed, were taught or were formulated as part of our cultural memory.

We are impatient and demanding, seeking to bend heaven to our will. We demand answers but are not asking the right questions. The ensuing frustration causes many to feel that there should be no struggle in truth. Everything should be plain and clear, flawless and pristine.

I see this age as a great opportunity to cleanse our paradigms and see things clearer than ever before. We may have to let go of faulty assumptions, we may have to rebuilt paradigms from scratch and that is not comfortable for many. I was fortunate to have done this years ago as a teenager when I felt that I had nothing to lose, but if you are middle-aged this is much more of a challenge. I’ve heard several people express feelings of being deceived or misled. I think those feelings are valid, but I don’t think the conclusions have been thought through enough. Not enough meditation, not enough introspection, not enough digging and waiting upon God. I like how Terryl and Fiona givens call it a “crucible.” We like sweetness more than struggle and we wrongly assume that the “righteous” should not struggle.

There are so many layers to this issue that I could go on for hours. I’m kind of weird in that I actually enjoy this kind of challenge and thought process, it blesses my life with humility, curiosity and discovery.