Sabbathought: "Behold, I make all things new"

Some of you have wondered about New Year's resolutions and goal-setting. Here are a few thoughts:

In a talk at the University of Utah institute of religion a generation ago, Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:

"We worship Christ, not success.
Our object is to strengthen faith, not to reinforce self-esteem.
We should speak of the godly life, not goal-setting."

Three common ideas the world fostered---success . . . self-esteem . . . and goal-setting---, which have found an unwarranted popularity and eminence among Latter-day Saints, and that not by revelation, but in the philosophies of men.

Arthur Henry King, a very literate and informed convert who was raised a Quaker in England, observed, "The word 'goal'. . . . I don't have any objection to the something hidden behind the word, but I don't like its psychological background and the mechanistic implication that our lives are to be directed by what we think up and fix in our heads. If setting goals does nothing else, it will tend to occlude the Holy Ghost."

I have heard of "occluded arteries" which are closed off or blocked so that the life-sustaining blood cannot get through. An insightful word as used here by Brother King. Imagine blocking off the life-carrying influence of the Holy Ghost for some preconceived goal or plan. Brother King continued:

"If we hold on to one goal in life---to act righteously at every moment---then all the other goals will fall in place. But if we set up for ourselves tactical goals, they may very well get in the way of our strategic goal. The great goal is so difficult that every other goal should submit to it. Every time we make a decision to do something, it should be made in the light of eternity, not in the light of tomorrow or the next day."

This is self-evident sound counsel for Latter-day Saints in our daily lives. At the same time, a prudent plan to attend the temple more often, or to read the New Testament in 2011, or to lose ten pounds by Easter are viable ideas. But they are limited in that they tend to constitute a Law of Moses approach of "Thou shalt do this and that". Even when such goals are met there is likely to be an essential spontaneous spiritual ingredient missing. As President Ezra Taft Benson taught, the Lord works from the inside out, the spiritual first. The world works from the outside in, the outward performance.

On January 1, 1897, President George Q. Cannon said:

"No New Year's resolutions. Among Latter-day Saints there ought to be no occasion for what is called 'swearing off' or for the general making of resolutions of improvement on New Year's day. Every day should witness with them a determination to lay aside weaknesses and take on more of the graces of godliness. Each day furnishes opportunity to look closely into one's habits, to examine and discard the worthless and cleave unto that which is elevating and holy.

"The partaking of the sacrament . . . , when done worthily, of itself implies an earnest endeavor towards improvement. . . . Not alone on New Year's, therefore, but on every day, should people seek to effect an improvement in their habits of life."

This is consistent with Brother King's views, and Elder Oaks's statement about "the godly life."

Starting this Sunday (January 2nd), Sunday School lessons throughout the English-speaking Church (and elsewhere for all I know) are centered in the New Testament.

I recall a talk to a general Relief Society gathering over thirty years ago by Elder Bruce R. McConkie, who knew something about the subject of the New Testament. His talk was entitled, "Drink from the Fountain." He said that the Four Gospels---Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John---are the place we go to, above all others, to fall in love with the Lord. He added that those who thus love the Lord demonstrate it by keeping His commandments (see John 14:15). And those who keep the commandments are then assured of eternal life in the kingdom of God.

It is a simple formula.

Perhaps if we pursue one goal---for "one thing is needful"---it might be to search the Four Gospels with the Spirit of the Lord, meaning the Holy Ghost. One thing I have found over the past few months as I have studied closely the Four Gospels is that I sense the Holy Ghost guiding and prompting my understanding when I am in no hurry to get to the end of the chapter . . . . I often spend thirty minutes or more on a few verses. Until they begin to speak to me.

We recall that Elder David Bednar of the Twelve urged the English Saints in September 2009 to study the Five Gospels (he included Third Nephi) in this kind of a way. And he promised that if we undertook such a careful study we should find a different Lord and Savior from the one we think we know.

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God . . . ."

Surely this is the one thing that is needful.

Happy New Year, beloved family and friends. . . . These things are true and faithful, you can hang your hat on them.

Best wishes for 2011,

Steve