"You've got post!" I mean, I'm back to writing my blog again. I just like that British AOL inbox greeting...that I heard about once which thereafter always made me giggle to imagine hearing. Anyway, it's finally my last semester in Logan, but no, I won't be graduating till fall. I plan to student teach in Salt Lake, where I can get free rent from my brother...right, Brother? I imagine him saying "right" in a British/Aussie-ambiguous accent (which makes a lot more sense than a certain radio commercial with a German/Jamaican-ambiguous accent), though I'm sure he wouldn't do that. Probably would just shrug and say "sure". <---Does that period belong inside the quotations marks or outside? *shrugs* I guess I'll wait till the week is up to update you on my classes. I actually thought it would be a better day today, but I did a lot of trudging and slipping up and down snowy hills and streets. Oh, I hate winter for every practical reason. That does leave a few impractical reasons which keep it from being loathed :) But I suspect a much better semester than the last. It is little worth speaking of. However, what with finding myself without a tale to tell of how well my first day of my last semester in Logan went (I don't think mentioning the coupon books would be sufficient) I actually have decided to share my testimony that I wrote for some teenage boy in the UK whose name I don't remember now, who I met on the Bebo social network back when I used that. I found it while I was rummaging looking for a check book...to buy a text book...because my funds are insufficient until midnight...because I deposited a check on the weekend...and checks trick people into thinking you are good for it, now. Haha! See, who cares about that?? Anyway, like me this boy has interests in philosophy and science, but believed that you cannot be an intelligent person and believe in God, because there is no proof. I'm not sure what conversations we had prior to me writing this testimony, but it is the only time I have shared it with a relative stranger, so, I thought it deserved a blog post.
I'm impressed by your intellectual mind, especially at your age. How can I have faith in something so false as God, you ask? How, when there is no evidence? I would like to share with you my own personal testimony. However, I must ask you to suspend your intellect for a moment. As Paul said to the Corinthians: "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:10-14)
No appeal to science or philosophy can ever prove that God exists, but only the witness that the Holy Spirit brings to our hearts. I testify to you that I have had this witness. I know that God lives, and that he is our Eternal Father. I know that his son Jesus Christ lives, and that he is my Redeemer. I know that I have been given the power to direct my life by the divine gift of choice. I know that good and evil exist. What is good fills me with peace and joy and a belief in Jesus Christ. What is not good fills me with confusion and doubt and disbelief in Christ. This is my standard for Truth, which of a necessity must be rooted in my faith in Jesus Christ.
It says in Hebrews that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I have my evidence that these things are true, and it is my faith in the witness of the Spirit to my heart that has revealed this truth. It is stronger than physical evidence. But there is physical evidence too. You need only look up at the beauty of the night sky. What order and cosmic design! Everything I study, especially science, testifies to me of Christ and divine creation. I am now studying biology, and find the intricacies behind life to be astounding.
I know that our lives are eternal, but I value and treasure this time and this earth as well. "Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul." (Doctrine and Covenants 59:18-19)
Nietzsche proclaims, "Become who you are." I find that very interesting, realizing that growth is necessary. Progression is essential. It will take time to become who I am meant to be. The Prophet Joseph Smith reveals, "If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves." So, to "become who [we] are" requires faith, God, and the power of our will to accept the Savior.
Philosophy (philosophia) may be the "love of wisdom," but faith in Christ is the exercise of wisdom. It is the finest thing I have. I thank you for letting me share my testimony with you, it is of precious worth to me. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.
Maybe I'll start to blog my testimony regularly on fast Sundays. I haven't been up to the pulpit in a while.
