Progression is a Process – Choice and Accountability

Although Who's Packing Your Parachute was posted in December it was really a catch up post for November. December's post is below.

One of the Young Women Values – Choice and Accountability – has sparked my interest. When embracing this value young women of the Church promise:

I will choose good over evil, and will accept responsibility for my actions.

Such a commitment requires long-term dedication to the gospel and the Great Plan of the Eternal God (GPEG – Alma 34:9). Learning to choose good over evil is a lifelong process. Knowledge is the key to right choices. We cannot make good choices if, because of lack of knowledge, we cannot recognize a good choice. I have used the following quote from Mary Wollstonecraft before, but it seems appropriate here:

No man [or woman] chooses evil because it is evil. He [or she] only mistakes it for good; the happiness he [she] seeks.

Mistaking evil for good is the result of a lack of eternal knowledge concerning good and bad choices. Among other things, learning to differentiate between good and evil is why we are here in mortality.  During the April 19,^.2015 Music and the Spoken Word program Lloyd Newell said this:

…progression is a process, and we resist putting undue pressure and unrealistic expectations on others—or on ourselves—knowing that it will only hinder growth and create frustration.

It is a great comfort to me to know that the Lord does not expect me to become perfect in one fell swoop. He knows that I will not always make the best choices. Rather, He hopes that we will begin at the age of accountability (or whenever we become converted to the gospel), when our accountability is very small, based on our simple knowledge of the gospel. We begin to travel the return path to our eternal Father by acquiring knowledge, spirituality, and testimony. Doing so increases our accountability slowly and at a pace that we can accommodate. As our knowledge increases, so does our understanding of what we must do to progress. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, in his book, Men and Women of Christ, said this;

Paced progress not only is acceptable to the Lord but also is recommended by Him. Divine declarations say: "Ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now" (D&C 50:40); "I will lead you along" (D&C 78:18). Just as divine disclosure usually occurs line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, so likewise we will achieve our spiritual progress gradually (see D&C 128:21; 98:12).

In my mind, accountability is a very complex doctrine. It seems obvious that a child of eight cannot be held accountable for the doctrine of the new and everlasting covenant of eternal marriage. Nor would the Lord hold a new convert accountable for that most complex and beautiful doctrine, because a convert’s “age of accountability” begins with their baptismal date. But those of us who have received the eternal gift of endowment and accepted the very solemn covenants we made in the temple will be held responsible for our actions with regard to these sacred things.

Accordingly, as we grow in knowledge we grow in accountability, faith, and understanding. But rather than accountability (properly understood) becoming a burden, broader and deeper knowledge of the path to salvation propels us along the path to the celestial kingdom with less and less deviation and more and more resolve.

As we grow in accountability, we grow more able to shoulder the burdens of this life and we gain in understanding of the joys of mortality and the world to come. But it is equally true that we will not be held accountable for those things we have never been taught, or did not understand – if we truly had no opportunity to receive them. There are myriad nuances that must be considered as part of this doctrine. Luckily for me and you, the Lord will be the judge of circumstances and opportunities as they apply to our eternal progress and accountability.

It seems to me that accountability is a gift rather than a burden. We are counseled to study, ponder, and pray about the scriptures and the doctrines of the gospel. As we do so, we gain eternal knowledge and truth. What follows defines for me four steps to the freedom that the Savior talked about. As we gain knowledge, our accountability increases. As our accountability increases, so does our ability to live our lives in a way that pleases the Lord. As we please the Lord and use the knowledge we acquire, our agency increases. The key to agency is knowledge and accountability – the more knowledge we have, the more agency we have. Choices are limited when knowledge is limited. When we have knowledge, we have the ability to make good choices based on eternal truth rather than our own mortal and flawed reasoning. Then we gain the freedom that the Lord spoke of in John 8:32, when he said:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

That’s why I see accountability as a gift without which we could not obtain what we seek eternally. I see the sequence leading to becoming free as follows: Knowledge, accountability, agency, and choice, which leads to true freedom. As a matter of fact, all of these are gifts bestowed upon us by our Father-in-Heaven; gifts which properly used will lead us back to His presence.

But as we grow in knowledge, we learn that constantly seeking knowledge and understanding and constantly growing in righteousness and love for the Lord are responsibilities distinctly defined and identified by the GPEG.

If we let it, knowledge can become a burden that exerts pressure on our souls and stultifies our ability to gain further light and knowledge. We find that we cannot raise our heads to look up at the eternities, or even to look for the comfort that comes from true knowledge of the joy and happiness that comes from the gospel.

This is another of Satan’s counterfeits: “It’s too much. You can’t do it. You will never live the gospel adequately. You are weak and wicked. You might as well quit now. Give it up and just enjoy life.” Satan whispers to us daily of these things, but a true understanding of our accountability and the great gift that it is brings eternal joy rather than the despair that the adversary would have us feel.

Knowledge and agency without accountability is anarchy and  chaos. It would be impossible to achieve perfection without accountability. Knowledge and accountability give us the ability to choose and to repent. The adversary would have us believe that we need not be accountable for our actions. Anarchy and chaos are exactly what he seeks. But without accountability and agency, there is no progress.  In 2 Nephi 31:20, we read:

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

Eternal life in the celestial kingdom is “the good, the happiness we seek.” As we gain in knowledge by pressing forward, seeking further light and knowledge, we will prepare ourselves to hear the Lord say, at the judgment day, as he is quoted in Matthew 25:21:

Well done, thou good and faithful servant.: Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

True eternal knowledge, together with service and charity, is the key to this joyful approbation being pronounced upon our heads at the last day.

So at this Christmas season, let us be grateful for the gifts of knowledge, accountability, agency, and choice that God the Father has so graciously bestowed upon us, which leads to the fifth gift of the true freedom of which the Savior spoke.

Who's Packing Your Parachute?

Recently, I have been troubled by back pain that has made it difficult to write my thoughts for this blog. I have resolved to continue to post each month regardless of circumstances. Please continue to come to these humble pages in the future.

I received this narrative recently in an e-mail from a good friend.

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.

"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

You could learn to be a parachute packer. You could learn to align the cords, make the folds, and pack it carefully in its bag. The military teaches technical school classes for parachute packers. You could perhaps even save a life if you executed your task properly. In reality, we are all figurative parachute packers at one time or another in our lives, when we respond to someone’s cry for help, spoken or unspoken, when we speak a kind word, when we offer a loaf of hot bread, when we help move furniture for someone, when we comfort the sick, or when we perform any one of a myriad of selfless acts, we help pack someone’s parachute – their lifeline in this life – perhaps the single thing that they need to keep them on the path to salvation.  The e-mail continued:

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone when something wonderful has happened to them, offer condolences for difficulties, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.

When we do these things, we help to align some strings or make some folds in another person’s figurative parachute. Sometimes, these small things can be lifesaving. Recently, we ate lunch in a restaurant; our waitress was obviously having a hard day. I paid her a small compliment about her service, and she burst into tears! People at another table had been rude to her, her children had kept her up all night, and she had to come in early for an extra shift. You never know.

Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley often said: “Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

As I read this narrative, the thought occurred to me that the anonymous parachute packer is evocative of the Savior and the grace he offers us. There are mortal parachutes, both real and figurative, and there is an eternal parachute. Of course, dear reader, you must realize that I am going to suggest that the parachute packing supervisor, manager, and quality assurance inspector for our eternal parachute is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, in an April 1983 General Conference talk, said the following:

We poorly serve the cause of the Lord, at times, with programmatic superficiality and by our lack of empathy for those who drift in despair .Truly, we live and walk on "a streetful of splendid strangers," whom we are to love and serve even if they are uninterested in us.

It’s easy to help others when they are grateful. It’s easy to reach out when you feel that they reciprocate. It’s easy to love and serve, even strangers, when they have some appreciation for our efforts.

When gratitude is not expressed for a kindness we render, when the recipient offers no thanks for service rendered, the real test of our faith and desire to serve comes. As described in Luke 17:11-19, the Savior encounters ten lepers who wanted to receive the benefit of his healing powers:

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

So the Lord’s grace and power helped the leper pack his own parachute. The interesting thing is that when we help to pack someone else’s parachute, we are also packing our own parachute. At the end of this mortal sojourn, when we enter the spirit world, all we will take with us is the service we have rendered, the good we have done, and the aid we have offered. Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Everything in mortality is transient. The gold we acquire, the accolades we receive, the status we achieve,are flickers in eternity, and are lost when we depart mortality. Only when we lose ourselves, only when we are more intent on helping others pack their parachutes, only when we truly serve, do we create eternal gold. Ethel Percy Andrus (A long-time educator and the first woman high school principal in California, she was also an elder rights activist and the founder of AARP in 1958). said:

What I spent is gone; what I kept, I lost; but what I gave away will be mine forever.

Service to others is the key to eternal salvation. Selfless service, with no thought to reward or recognition, is the epitome of service. George Bernard Shaw said:

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.

Elder Henry D. Taylor, Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles, told the following story in General Conference of April 1959:

Gratitude, brethren and sisters, results in love, unselfishness, and consideration for others. It has a refining influence, and when expressed, can be a beautiful thing. A recent newspaper account carried an interesting incident:

"The District of Columbia police auctioned off about 100 unclaimed bicycles Friday. `One dollar,' said an eleven year-old boy as the bidding opened on the first bike. The bidding however, went much higher. `One dollar,' the boy repeated hopefully each time another bike came up.

 "The auctioneer, who has been auctioning stolen or lost bikes for 43 years noticed that the boy's hopes seemed to soar highest whenever a racer was put up.

"There was one racer left. Then the bidding mounted to $8.00. `Sold to that boy over there for $9.00,' said the auctioneer. He took $8.00 from his own pocket and asked the boy for his dollar. The youngster turned it over—in pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters—took his bike and started to leave. But he went only a few feet. Carefully parking his new possession, he went back, gratefully threw his arms around the auctioneer's neck, and cried."

The crowd never knew what the old auctioneer did. They didn’t see him render precious service to the boy who wanted that bicycle, but the Lord did. The Lord knows what we do. He is the judge of how well we pack our mortal and eternal parachutes, and how well we perform as we help others pack theirs. An eternal parachute, properly packed, will help us land safely in the Celestial Kingdom, no more to go out.