Several years ago when I was participating in the Church’s Institute of Religion program, our instructor Mike King shared some very insightful concepts.
The movie “The Passion of the Christ” was out and several people were debating on whether to see it or not. While many wanted to see the movie, they were unsure about the extremely graphic nature of the crucifixion that the film depicted.
Would that violence be appropriate? Was it just gratuitous or perhaps even a bit disrespectful? Was it focusing too much on the wrong things? Was this movie good or was it bad?
Some had seen it and didn’t feel like it wasn’t very edifying; it didn’t uplift them. Others explained that friends from other religious traditions who saw the movie found it extremely uplifting.
There was a bit of confusion as to how this could be; how could the same experience affect people in such different ways? Maybe the people who thought it was good were simply wrong and deceived by bad traditions. Maybe they were right and the Latter-day Saints who weren’t edified missed the message because of their traditions.
Brother King offered up an interesting theory about how the same thing could lift one up and drag another down.
He drew a simple chart on the chalkboard. He wrote the numbers 1 – 10 vertically on the board and then said something to the effect of:
“Let’s say we have two people, the spirituality of one might be here at ‘level’ of 3 while the other is at a spiritual ‘level’ of 7. What happens when they both go see a movie that is at ‘level’ 5? Would it not lift the person at the ‘level’ of 3 while doing the opposite for a person at ‘level’ 7?
While there isn’t a specific set of “spiritual levels” going from 1 to 10, this simple model served to explain how the same thing could impact people so differently.
A certain person testifies on fast Sunday and one listener is inspired, while another groans at various cliches and the speaker’s style of delivery.
We are all looking for things that uplift us, but I think we need to be careful about being too critical of things that don’t happen to edify us and not downplay them if they seem to be edifying another.
You could say that we are all in different stages of faith, and while something may not uplift us, perhaps we can rejoice rather than scoff when it uplifts another.
4 Comments
Love your insights, Steve. We sure learned a great deal during our time together and I thrill over the fact that you have continued to climb! I think that it is important to note that we can grow and progress to higher and higher levels of spirituality and insight. A show that may have seemed so good and uplifting to us at one point in our journey, may now seem less than edifying because our spiritual sensitivities have grown and we are more in tune with that which is virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy. As we continue to consume greater and greater levels of light, we become more accustomed to light and more aware of darkness. I love that the Savior said that He is the light that we should hold up (3 Nephi 18:24). By holding his light up, we can better discern what is truly good and what is not. I believe that the closer we come to Christ, the more we will enjoy and seek the things that bring us the greatest light. Keep on climbing brother!
Yeah, excellent point, I’m glad that you added that bit. Our spiritual state can fluctuate over time depending on how we nurture it or neglect it. The same light we perceive with our eyes all comes from the sun but different objects absorb various wavelengths and produce the colors we see. Maybe we are a bit like that as well, like the various types of earth that the sower casts their seeds upon. We all absorb and reflect the light of Christ to various degrees and that can change over time.
I really appreciate what you say here, “…while something may not uplift us, perhaps we can rejoice rather than scoff when it uplifts another.“ I’ve noticed particularly in marriage and parenting that even those I should know very well react in ways that surprise me to church talks/lessons, recreational activities, food, etc. It reminds me of the saying, “The same water that softens the carrot, hardens the egg.” To some extent, perhaps we’re made of different stuff. That was the case for Adam (dust) and Eve (bone). A good reminder to give people space to grow, and not try to manage that growth (too much).
Thanks, Gwendolyn, that’s a great quote about the carrot and the egg!