An Angle I Haven't Realized

You receive news from your medical doctor that your wife has a terminal illness.

Cancer.

She doesn't have long to live. You so much want her to stay. You know you are ready to pass onto the next life at any time, but there is still so much you want to accomplish in this life.

You begin researching for solutions. You are sure that your doctors and the many researchers have missed something, and that you can find it.

Your wife wakes up each morning to you reading science blogs, looking up traditional remedies and emailing around to people about the miracles you've heard they've experienced.

You spend hours on your knees each night, praying for your wife's delivery from this illness.

A similar situation came to a man more than two millennia ago. His illness wasn't terminal but socially unacceptable to the point of severe exclusion in the traditions of his people. It wasn't his wife that was ill, but leprosy had taken hold of himself.

As many women would do in love, Naaman's wife encouraged him to seek counselling. In their time, a prophet of God was heard to reside nearby, and Naaman went to find him.

Naaman met not with the prophet, but with his messenger.

"Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." (2 Kings 5:10)

Why Naaman was furious. He wanted to be healed, and he had his own preconceptions of how it ought to be done. "He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper" he said.

"Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage." (2 Kings 5:11)

I have been like that in life sometimes. I know God has a solution. I know He knows answers. But what He gives me isn't "enough" for me. I find seemingly logical and valid reasons why it's too simple.

To us comes the whispers down the corridors of time of the lesson Naaman and I need to learn. "And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls." (Alma 37:7)

I may research the miracles of science, the successes of traditional medicine. But He who has power over the elements - surely it is He who I can trust more than all the knowledge and accomplishments of mankind. Not only does He know all, but He loves more than anyone on earth. Not only that also, but He has a plan for the eternal happiness of all of His children. Why would we not trust Him?

Add to this logic the words of Naaman's cluey servant: "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?" (2 Kings 5:13)

"Then [Naaman went] down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." (2 Kings 5:14)

An angle I haven't realized is that the solution presented by the prophet of God was a solution that science doesn't explain. Because it doesn't follow natural, deterministic laws that science searches for.

The angle I haven't considered is that the Lord works like this so many times - He beats the odds because He is in control of the events around us. He creates the outcomes because He is God. Has He not had declared for him that if He desired the earth to move backward from its directed orbit around the sun, that it would do so? Can science explain that? Not yet. Even if it could, the laws of science are that the mercy of Him who is in control of the elements.

Why would I neglect the counsel of God and pursue the riches of science when it is God who established the laws that science is working to discover? This leads us to the spirit of the scripture that says "to be learned is good if [we] hearken unto the counsels of God." (2 Nephi 9:29)

I should make clear that I believe in the importance of both - I love science, and know that God's command for us to gain education is in force for the good of His children. But we should know our priorities.

To the man whose wife is with terminal cancer, I have no words, for I have never been in his shoes. But I would direct him to the experiences recorded in the scriptures. Particularly to One whose beloved John the Baptist was taken - and as One who had power over death, who did not bring His beloved cousin back. But it was all in the wisdom of a bigger picture where happiness and freedom reigns over illness, sadness, loss and despair.

I would suggest to this man that the solution he needs may not be found on the internet at all.

How to Pray

I was going through a tough time. I had some serious questions about life.

For a while, I've wanted to spend so long on my knees, just communicating with God and hearing His voice, and discussing everything with Him. But I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel God's love. I couldn't hear His voice. I couldn't sense the power of prayer as I had for so long in the past, so many times.

But I knew prayer was important.

One morning, I was listening to a Mormon talk, delivered Ted-talk-like. At the time I was in bed watching and listening to this presentation. As I listened, an idea came into my mind that was in the form of a visual. It was of Christ coming into my room right now, and sitting on my bed.

Immediately the imaginary-Aaron began to engage with Him. Immediately, my interaction was honest, meaningful, expressive of myself - even if it was Adam-and-Eve-like, hiding, even though Christ sees all and knows all.

Well, we began conversing, and it was very open. It was very meaningful. It was eye opening. It was heart opening.

It was then that I realized that, dormant within me, was the knowledge of who Christ is. I don't know all there is to know about Him, but I know enough to have faith in Him. I also realize that I shouldn't be content with just knowing about Him and His attributes, but real power comes into my life when I know Him - which is different from knowing about Him.

I realized that one can walk the bridge from knowing of Him to knowing Him through prayer. All my scripture study, my church attendance, my teaching of the gospel could be limiting me to only knowing about Christ, and preaching of Him. Sure, I may have deep gratitude, but Christ's role in my life could be confined to Him being someone I just chat with.

But if I speak with Him in real conversation, and see Him behave and act as I have learned He would in all those years of studying and pondering His life and His words, He comes to life. The Spirit guides in what He would say. I notice that says things that I wouldn't even think of, and I know that that is Spirit-inspired.

A big lesson for all Christians to learn is that He doesn't expect us to add more into our lives to reach His level. No. He desires to become more a part of our lives so that He can make us more. Real power doesn't come in just knowing about Christ, but in making Him a part of my life, forging a relationship with Him, and then working together in whatever comes.