Learning and the plan
The role of learning is paramount in the plan of happiness. It could even be defined as the primary action of the plan itself – we are here to learn, to progress and achieve exaltation, which was made possible by the atonement of Christ. In one of President Monson’s last conference addresses, entitled The Perfect Path to Happiness, he said,
“Essential to the plan is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without His atoning sacrifice, all would be lost. It is not enough, however, merely to believe in Him and His mission. We need to work and learn, search and pray, repent and improve. We need to know God’s laws and live them. We need to receive His saving ordinances. Only by so doing will we obtain true, eternal happiness.”
With so much information at our fingertips, and so much noise and distraction, especially when glancing at social media feeds or news or fake news headlines with facts and “alternative facts” (and when I say glancing, I mean it starts with a glance, then 30 minutes later I look up wondering what just happened), it can become difficult to focus and prioritize on what it is we are supposed to be learning and how to find truth.
“[Our] religion … prompts [us] to search diligently after knowledge,” taught Brigham Young. “There is no other people in existence more eager to see, hear, learn and understand truth.”
The scriptures further define truth: “And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come; And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.” D&C 93:24-25
Note here that truth is things as they are, as they were, and are to come, and anything more or less than this, such as things as they should be, or ought to be, or could have been are not truth, but come from the adversary. “He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things. ” D&C 93:28
I’m impressed by the simplicity and depth of these verses.
Joseph Smith put it simply and directly, “You have got to learn how to be a god yourself.” Paraphrasing, he said the process would be ongoing and would require patience, faith, continuing repentance, obedience to the commandments of the gospel, and reliance on Christ. Like ascending a ladder, individuals needed to learn the “first prin[ciples] of the Gospel” and continue beyond the limits of mortal knowledge until they could “learn the last prin[ciples] of the Gospel” when the time came. “It is not all to be comprehended in this world,” Joseph said. “It will take a long time after the grave to understand the whole.”
There are many methodologies for teaching and learning. For some, auditory learning is effective, some prefer visual, some kinesthetic, and there are many other approaches that have proven effective. I tend to learn best through experiential means — by doing or practicing with guidance. I would venture to say that we all probably learn best in this manner. Therefore, I think it’s no surprise that this is the same method that we learn to become like our Heavenly Parents in this school called life.
My former seminary students know that I’ve been very impressed by the talk given by Brad Wilcox, His Grace is Sufficient. He gives a great and simple analogy of how the atonement of Christ enables us to learn and become more like him. Allow me to quote a few passages:
“Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher. Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn to her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice! Does the child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but in seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve.”
He then interjects the analogy with this quick anecdote:
“I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, “You Mormons are trying to earn your way to heaven.”
I say, “No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.”
He then continues:
“But Brother Wilcox, don’t you realize how hard it is to practice? I’m just not very good at the piano. I hit a lot of wrong notes.” Now wait. Isn’t that all part of the learning process? When a young pianist hits a wrong note, we don’t say he is not worthy to keep practicing. We don’t expect him to be flawless. We just expect him to keep trying… Why is this perspective so easy to see in the context of learning piano but so hard to see in the context of learning heaven?”
I love how simply and beautifully this analogy describes the miraculous gift of the atonement and how grace empowers us to learn and practice becoming more like our Savior.
Neil A. Maxwell taught, “gaining knowledge and becoming more Christlike ‘are two aspects of a single process.’… Thus defined, the gospel is inexhaustible because there is not only so much to know but also so much to become. The vital truths are not merely accumulated in the mind but are expressed in life as well.”
I remember while at BYU, I was in a humanities class learning about Deism, which is the belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The analogy that is often used to describe this philosophy is that God is the creator who wound up the grand clock of this universe, established all of its laws, and set it in motion, but does not interfere in the day to day activities of man.
I remember being struck by this notion – my initial impression was that it made some sense, and certainly addressed a common rebuttal to the existence of a god, which is that if there were a god, how could he let bad things happen to good people.
Upon further investigation and reflection, I learned that deism was incorrect, because it denies one of the fundamental doctrines of the true gospel, which is that of revelation. Also, I remember being more deeply struck by the words of the Lord himself, in D&C 59:21, “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.”
D&C 88:41 says, “He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever.”
These scriptures completely shatter the notion of a passive, uninvolved creator. So if we are to understand that God is in everything, in all things, in every detail of our lives, how does that change our perception of the events of our lives? In the example I gave earlier, why do bad things happen to good people, or more pointedly, why do bad things happen to ME, I must acknowledge that somehow, and for some reason, God is in that thing. He may be trying to teach me something. Even when people use their agency irresponsibly and cause immense pain and suffering, God can teach us, heal us, and prepare us to be more like he is, knowing all things. In this light, my instinctual, reactive behavior to groan, “why is this happening to me?” will perhaps evolve to the humble question, “what can I learn from this experience?” or “how is this preparing me to become more like my heavenly parents?”
On a Sunday morning, not long after moving into our house, I was getting ready to hop in the shower when the sliding glass door of the shower became dislodged and jammed. I tried for a moment to slide it back and forth to get it back into position, but was unsuccessful. I looked briefly at the top rail and at the bottom, and made another effort to pop it back into the right position. In an instant, my hand broke through the glass, and down came a waterfall of tempered glass shards in front of me. My wrist was sliced in 2 places, miraculously on the side, narrowly missing the delicate tendons and arteries on the inner wrist, and I only had a couple of minor cuts on my chest, legs and feet. After cleaning up a bit, Erin called our hero of a friend, a fantastic nurse who lived in our area, who dropped everything, rushed to our aid and sewed seven stitches into my wrist.
After all of this, I sat puzzled on my bed, holding my wrist up in the air to minimize bleeding, wondering what had just happened. As Erin and I discussed the matter, she asked me what I learned from this bizarre turn of events. I thought for a moment and it occurred to me that I simply applied pressure and used force without understanding how the sliding door fit in the rail. If I had the knowledge of what the actual problem was, I could have lifted the glass in the right way and perhaps fixed the problem. My mind immediately made a connection to lessons I was learning in parenting. When trying to teach my children, how often did I seek to really understand them before applying pressure or discipline? Additionally, I clearly saw the tender mercies and protection I received in spite of the injury. Our heroine nurse even shared that not long before this incident occurred, she had felt impressed to ask permission to bring home a suture kit, which she used on my wrist that day.
I will never forget a conference talk from 2011 called What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be, by Lynn G. Robbins. At this time in our lives, we were experiencing firsthand some of the challenges that come when a firstborn’s life is disrupted by the introduction of a second child in the family. Erin and I were exhausted, bewildered, frustrated, and often felt overwhelmed. It felt like Elder Robbins spoke directly to us when he said:
“A sweet and obedient child will enroll a father or mother only in Parenting 101. If you are blessed with a child who tests your patience to the nth degree, you will be enrolled in Parenting 505. Rather than wonder what you might have done wrong in the premortal life to be so deserving, you might consider the more challenging child a blessing and opportunity to become more godlike yourself. With which child will your patience, long-suffering, and other Christlike virtues most likely be tested, developed, and refined? Could it be possible that you need this child as much as this child needs you?”
I would like to invite all of us to consider for a moment, what does God have us enrolled in right now? Is it Faith: how to navigate your current crisis, or perhaps, finding Faith in the midst of soul-crushing doubt? Is it Trust: believing that everything is going to work out. Perhaps it is something like Patience: there is no last straw. Or maybe it’s Endurance: when it feels like there is no end. Or maybe it’s Forgiveness: How to forgive even when it doesn’t feel deserved. Or it may be Charity: the unconditional kind of love. Or perhaps overcoming loneliness or the difficulties of parenting a wayward child or facing persecution, rejection, or abuse… which, our Savior Jesus Christ knows perfectly and absolutely will carry us through, one step at a time.
“For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.” 2 Nephi 28:30
This verse brings to mind a notion that I have sometimes heard in the church, which is that if we just do the basics, we are all set. Good to go. This mentality implies a complacency in our learning, and sets aside the command to search, seek, inquire, feast and ask.
Alma 12:9-12, “It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.
And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.
And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.”
The mysteries that are spoken of in these verses are not the abstract, esoteric concepts of the eternities, but rather, as Elder Maxwell has stated, the things which can only be revealed to us by God. With this definition in mind, we should diligently seek to know the mysteries of God in our lives.
“...he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.” D&C 50:24
I would encourage all of us to seek learning, by study and by faith, and recognize the lessons God is teaching us now. Our opportunities for learning are vast, immense and eternal. We, grace for grace, may receive light, truth, knowledge and become perfected through Christ.