Back in Black

This post has nothing to do with the color black, just mostly to do with the fact that I'm back.

I almost just wrote something really clever and funny and possibly offensive anecdote, but I'm not going to go there because I don't want to offend anyone. And if it's offensive, is it REALLY truly funny? I think not.

Today, I'm just going to organize some of the thoughts I had while I was driving down the freeway on my way to pick up some free closet doors. We'll save the rest of my saved up, juicy, blog-worthy stories for later posts. 


The subject of the LDS (or Mormon) religion has been swirling around with record exposure as Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has become front page news. This type of exposure can go two ways: good or bad. When it's bad, it's really bad... but when it's good it's awesome. There are a lot of rumors, misinterpretations, and actual truths about the church that have been brought up and discussed and ignored and refuted on a scale the LDS church has never seen. 


Not surprisingly, some of the early leaders of the church have once again come under public scrutiny. I have heard a fair amount criticism of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young in the media lately. Although I'd love to say that my confidence in the church and my testimony of the Gospel are untouchable entities far above any worldly attacks, I AM human. Hearing the inflammatory accusations and deliberate twisting of historical facts which paint our early church leaders as despicable evil liars DOES in fact bother me.

I have spent hours upon hours in the last few years pondering and studying and praying in hopes of gaining a stronger testimony of the events which took place in the early church, as well as building up a better emotional defense against seemingly tireless verbal and literary assailants.

This brings me back to my experience this morning. I have always accepted that the Lord's ways are not always (read: rarely) understood by his children. Even so, I have been confused and frustrated at times by historical occurrences and doctrinal principals for which I was unable to immediately fathom a rational purpose with my mortal mind. While driving along and reflecting, casually thinking about the progress I've made in this area of my life, a wonderful thought entered my mind. All at once I realized that it really just comes down to this:

The church is not about what anyone did 200 years ago. It's about what Jesus Christ did for us 2000 years ago.

If we can't remember this, we're missing the point. All of the Lord's prophets, apostles, disciples and followers who have ever walked the earth have been mortal men and women. We are all imperfect beings in a fallen world. Let's not let the misunderstood or yet unexplained actions and choices of fellow mortals distract us from the divine purpose and direction the Lord has in store for our existence. Jesus Christ perfectly balances an equation for which we have absolutely no hope of finding the solution to on our own. In a perfect world, I would always remember that.