Two people emailed me today to say that YouTube had congratulated them on being in the top 0.1% of viewers. It seems that you had to watch over 300 videos in the past year to unlock this achievement. Of course, those who watch videos here on upwardthought.org, through spotify, or the new RSS feed (which apparently doesn't work, but we are working on it) wouldn't get recognition for watching (or listening to) more than 300 videos. But it raises interesting questions. What if we made t-shirts indicating high volumes of watch time and handed them out to those who earned them for the next cookout? What if certain access to this information were only unlocked through stratified achievements? What if there were a way of measuring application of the ideas instead of just time spent accessing them? [1]

In heaven, internal differences between people are outwardly evident. People are clustered with those who are most like them. Access to those holier than you is brokered by the heed and diligence toward greater holiness that you exercised in mortality. Very few people have taken advantage of the light and truth that God has made available to us, and very few of those have done more than just a little with it.

We are mixed up here in order to provide what cannot exist in heaven: access to people with greater light and truth than you and the opportunity to obtain and live it yourself against the opposition that exists here.

As time progresses, you will see the degree of outward difference accelerate across levels of heed and diligence. Over time, things on earth will proceed closer to how things are in heaven. The manifestation of God's glory can be delayed, but not forever. Truth means "that which cannot remain hidden," and the spirit of truth will make itself and its bearers evident, whether we like it or not. The benefits begin skewed towards those with the least light. The noble and great ones sent early come to suffer at the hands of the wicked, advancing their familiarity with suffering and, through it, their glory with God. The noble and great ones sent at the end progress past what the wicked can offer, and God's justice cannot withhold their continued blessing, even if it requires the destruction of the wicked.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8)

If you are alive and relatively young, the odds of you surviving to see the fulfillment of this scripture are high. The odds of whether you will be among them depend on your choices right now and until then.

Along those lines, how do you recognize those who have greater light than you do? This is a large topic on which much will be said in the next few years. Until then, you already have access to many tools that you probably aren't using. Here's an interesting one brought to my attention by a friend.

If you had to send someone back through time to persuade your younger self to live a better life, who would it be? This question cuts through the human weakness of filtering our invitations to improve based on how pleasant they are. With so much at stake, would you send back a gentle, pleasant person, or one who would stop at nothing--giving even their lives, if that was required [2]--to persuade you to improve as much as you were willing to? If you would send this person to your past self, why not listen to them now?

A similar line of thought was raised by someone else: if you woke up in a third world jail with no idea how you got there and no way to get out, but you were given one phone call, who would you call? This tool could be called "imagine the worst possible problem where you would be rendered completely helpless. If you could choose one person to help you, who would it be?" This question exposes the human weakness of assuming we are capable of independently conquering the problems we face because our ignorance includes the scope (and possibly existence) of our actual problems, which are much larger than we can solve by ourselves. If you would entrust your life to such a person in dire straits, why not seek out their advice right now? You may well be in a prison right now, even if you don't see it.

The hierarchy of heaven on earth is hidden. You can discover it by finding those who succeed where you fail, who have what you seek, and who continue where you quit. Find those who have solved the problems that beset you, who have answers to the questions that befuddle you, and who have the blessings that elude you. Ask for their help.

[1] For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. (Romans 2:13) But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:22-25)

[2] In the film Terminator 2, a particularly tenacious robot was sent back to save the child who would eventually lead the resistance against the machine army bent on destroying the human race. The model famously stopped at nothing to accomplish its mission. You will find many scriptures describing the tenacity of Christ and how his servants emulate this quality to different degrees. For example: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles....He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law." (Isaiah 42:1, 4)