The Real World

When we go to our Sunday meetings, when we go to the temple, when we attend stake or regional conferences, we often feel that we are in another place, a place removed from the cares and problems of daily life: A place of temporary respite from the pressures and demands of earning a living, commuting to work, from overbearing and sometimes unreasonable managers and rude co-workers, from impossible deadlines, discourtesy, crudity, immorality, and depravity.

The Sabbath is not called a “day of rest” for nothing. The temple is not called “a place of refuge” for nothing. They are literally places of relief from the myriad problems and trials that beset us daily in this weary world. They are places of a few minutes liberation from the buffetings of the adversary, that treacherous being who is truly the root of all evil and the cause of all the ills of mortality. S. Michael Wilcox, in his book, House of Glory: Finding Personal Meaning in the Temple, says the following:

Isaiah calls the temple a "place of refuge." This is an image of battle and war. In life we fight daily against the forces of Satan and temptation. When we feel we are about to be swept away by the adversary's powerful advance, the Lord says: "Come into my place of refuge. Rest awhile. No enemy shaft can find you here. Feast from my table. Be strengthened and invigorated. Let your fears subside. The battle does not rage within these walls. Then you can return to the battle and wield your sword with confidence and the assurance of ultimate victory." It is no coincidence that the walls of the Salt Lake Temple are crowned with battlements. They suggest a fortress where the forces of evil cannot penetrate and where the righteous can seek the safety of unconquerable walls.

(About S. Michael Wilcox: He received his PhD from the University of Colorado and taught for many years at the LDS Institute of Religion adjacent to the University of Utah.)

But when we depart from the sanctuary that the gospel creates, at least temporarily, we often say – with regret – something like, “Well, back to the real world.” It’s an acknowledgement that there is a real, discernable difference between our Sunday meetings (for instance) and the world we live in every day.

During those three hours that we spend on Sunday, we seek the spirit in our lives through prayer and hymns of praise for deity, we participate in sacred ordinances that reconnect us to the Lord and his great sacrifice, and we teach each other and learn from each other. We are strengthened by true friends and the spirit of the Lord for our return to the daily “grind.”

May I humbly suggest that the world that we live in every day is not the real world but is the mortal world? It’s the place where we go to earn a living, to contend with Satan, to work out or salvation with “fear and trembling.” It’s the place where we are tempted and tried, where we succeed and where we fail and repent, ever progressing along the path toward Celestial glory. It can be difficult, distasteful, disgusting, evil, and sublimely beautiful. President David O. McKay in October 1956 General Conference, said this:

The spiritual life is the true life of man. It is what distinguishes him from the beasts of the forests. It lifts him above the physical, yet he is still susceptible to all the natural contributions that life can give him that are needful for his happiness or contributive to his advancement.

Elder L. Tom Perry provided further clarification in his book, Living with Enthusiasm:

It is in the world where we have been privileged to come and enjoy a mortal experience. It is in the world that we are to be tested and tried. It is in the world where we have opportunities to participate in sacred, saving ordinances that will determine our postmortal life. It is in the world where we have an opportunity to serve and make our contributions to mankind. It is to this world the Savior must come.

When we are “in tune” the veil is thin. The Holy Ghost, through the Light of Christ, reaches through the veil and touches us briefly with inspiration and guidance for the coming week. Sometimes problems are solved, understandings are received, and broken hearts are mended. This is true on Sunday, during the week, at the temple (especially at the temple), and any time we are on the Lord’s errand – Visiting teaching, home teaching, comforting the sick and the mentally and physically afflicted, giving and receiving blessings, and in fine, acting as the hands of the Lord on earth all call the real world into our lives. President David O. McKay said this in the April 1948 General Conference:

And it is… easy for me to realize that one may so live that he or she may receive impressions and direct messages through the Holy Ghost. The veil is thin between those who hold the Priesthood and the women of the Church and divine messengers on the other side of the veil. (italics added)

But it is not, in my humble, non-doctrinal opinion, the “real” world. The real world is the Sabbath and the peace and inspiration we are blessed with in the block meetings. The real world can be found in the temple. The real world can be found in family home evening, visiting those in need, taking a warm loaf of fresh-baked bread to a friend, and in so many other ways as to be uncountable. The real world is the eternal world that we find in those places and acts and ordinances that are the gospel. A very familiar scripture in Mosiah 2:17 reminds us:

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

Our mortal world is beset with a war that has been raging since the council in heaven. A war for the spirits of the children of the Father, the brothers and sisters of our Savior, a war that the adversary cannot win in the end, but one in which he wins battles every day. We are caught in the middle of that war. Satan would sift us as chaff and carry us down to destruction. The Lord would rescue us from the mortal world and carry us triumphant with cleansed garments into the Celestial kingdom and His Father’s presence. We choose which side we embrace. President Joseph Fielding Smith, in the fifth volume of his series, Answers to Gospel Questions, gives us greater understanding of our purpose here:

It is an indisputable fact that human beings do not come into this mortal world merely to partake of that which is pleasant, joyful, and free from pain and suffering. Mortality is part of our eternal schooling. We came here to gain experience that could not be obtained in any other way, experience that is essential to increase our knowledge and understanding and to fit us in the eternal world to come and to prepare us to become sons and daughters of our Eternal Father.

So perhaps when we have to leave the real world, the eternal world, we should say something like: “Well, back to the mortal world.”

As we re-enter that mortal world, the veil thickens again. The only way we can thin it is to bring the gospel into our lives and the lives of those around us every day. President (then Elder) Howard W. Hunter explains why this is so:

Sometimes prejudices half close our eyes to spiritual truths and obscure them from our view. As we live the purer life, through faith and prayer, our eyes are opened wider. The Apostle defined faith as "seeing things not seen," that is, we see by the spirit those things not visible through natural light. We are told repeatedly in scripture that the Lord shall be unto each of us an everlasting light. Christ said: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

This is the light that causes us to see.

Thin the veil: Give way cheerfully for that rude person who cut you off on the freeway. Give the benefit of the doubt to your boss, who is just as harassed as you are (and has a boss too). Try to understand the seeming discourtesy of a co-worker who is truly suffering inside a shell of rudeness. Come home with understanding and compassion to a wife or husband or children who have had a bad day. Do the Lord’s work: home teach, visit teach, visit those in need; reach outside yourself with whatever capability you have. Pray. Read the scriptures. The real world will be closer, visible through the veil, and God will not seem so far away.