Thy Mind O Man Must Stretch!

"The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo

I have to apologize, but this will be something of an abbreviated post (and all of those reading now smile with satisfactory approval :)).  It seems that graduate school is going to force me to earn my spring break before I get to go to Utah for a week on Friday.  I must confess that sometimes I am not as excited as I ought to be about the wonderful educational opportunities I have been given.  Somehow the pressures of papers to be written and presentations to be prepared co-mingled with the threat of appearing foolish and unprepared during seminar lectures seem to obscure the fact that the opportunity to learn is a rich blessing that very few are blessed to enjoy.  Hopefully I'm not the only person who doesn't always enjoy being stretched by my responsibilities at work, school, church, and home.

But even though the stretching process can often prove to be stressful and, at times, even discouraging, the opportunity to stretch and be stretched is one of the great blessings of this life and part of the reason that we came here.  As any athlete will attest, although it is often unenjoyable, stretching is essential to athletic success.  And so it is in every other field where we seek to accomplish anything of real value.

The Prophet Joseph laid our eternal goal out before us in these words:  "If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses, for if we are not drawing towards God in principle, we are going from Him and drawing towards the devil....Is not God Good?  Then you be good; if He is faithful, then you be faithful.  Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, and seek for every good thing" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 216-17).  In the midst of that sermon to the sisters of the Relief Society, Joseph alluded to the weightiness of this challenge.  He said, "Search your hearts, and see if you are like God.  I have searched mine, and feel to repent of all my sins" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 216).  Without question, the challenge of becoming like our Father in Heaven is a goal that will require more than a small amount of stretching (some of it very painful stretching), a fact that the Prophet clearly understood.

I am convinced that learning and education are an integral part of our efforts to become like our Father, and this means stretching.  Imprisoned in Liberty Jail, the Prophet Joseph wrote an impassioned plea for just this kind of soul stretching learning and personal growth.  To the saints in Illinois, he wrote, "The things of God are of deep import, and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out.  Thy mind O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity--thou must commune with God" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 137).

Perhaps in these moments of stretching mental exertion, we can see more clearly the truth that such experiences prepare us to do the work of the Lord and ultimately to go where He is.  Challenging as these moments may be, they are precisely what we came here for.  Further, as we reach out with all our capacity, we will realize like Michelangelo's Adam that God has been fervently and anxiously reaching out toward us also, expanding our meager efforts to reach heaven by the might of His hands and the power of His eternal love.

Brett