Ask hard questions

A few weeks ago I was reading news about a member of the LDS church who was excommunicated for teaching and encouraging false doctrine. Many claim that you can be excommunicated for asking too many questions, but that is simply not true. Anyway, I came across a story of a woman who wrote that everytime there was a doctrine or church history event that she didn't understand, she would put it on a special "shelf" in her mind. The shelf was full of things that she planned on asking God in the next life. One day her "shelf" broke. There were too many things on it. Too many things she didn't understand.

As I have pondered this, the Spirit has taught me some important things.

First, God wants us to ASK! "Ask and ye shall receive," "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." In fact, our church exists because Joseph Smith humbly asked God which church was right! And what an answer he received! God and Jesus Christ appeared to him. There is nothing we can't ask God. Why don't women hold the priesthood? Why did Joseph Smith have more than one wife? What's the deal with the seer stone? And who better to ask than the Creator of all things! We don't need to put our questions on a shelf to save for when we see Him face to face. Isn't prayer a blessing?

Of course, if we are going to ask, then we need to diligently seek the answers.

Another thing I have learned is that God's ways are not my ways. I just need to trust that He knows what He is doing. He is able to do his work.

Finally, I think historical context is important. You may hear about things that happened a long time ago and feel mortified that such a thing occurred, but we never have all the facts. For example, if you read the history books you might determine that Franklin Roosevelt was an amazing president. But if you talk to my great-grandfather, who served in WW II, you would get the opposite story. You always have to pay attention to who is telling the story, and then remember that things change quickly. So we can't judge what was done in Abraham's day, or in Joseph Smith's day and compare it to how we would do things now. There are too many factors involved. But, we can (again) trust that God knows what he is doing.

I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because I believe it is Christ's restored Gospel and Priesthood on the Earth again. It has wrought more good than any other organization that I know of, and I always say you can judge an organization by it's fruits.