0:00:00 - 0:00:26 I'm standing at the intersection of some events that happened in recent history in my life. And uh you know, and they're not particularly important, but they do connect to some very important themes and I just spent four hours um navigating some material and trying to get it sketched into words. Um I 0:00:26 - 0:00:45 don't know. So most of this has gone into one chapter. Actually, I was all over the place, but most of the things I did in relation to this went into one chapter and I don't know if it will end up there or not long term because it overlaps with some other content. And I'm not 100% sure as to how I should 0:00:45 - 0:01:11 arrange that. But as I contemplated this, it seemed like something I can't just hold on to um because it's communicable in such a way that I think it could be applied sooner rather than later. So, um and this is a very serious topic, but I do want to identify the fact, acknowledge the fact that there 0:01:11 - 0:01:35 is a giant campus cartoon monkey behind me and that, that's uh has to do with my family. It's just kind of we're, we're doing some work in the living room and my wife thought it was a great um opportunity to convince me to get rid of that picture there, um, that she doesn't really like. And so I moved 0:01:35 - 0:01:53 it into this room where you can't see, but they're already, there are pictures of animals that I took at the zoo. We went to once and they're, they're pretty nice pictures. They're little black and white pictures. Uh So there's a tiger, there's a, a crane, um, there's a leopard over there. And so this 0:01:53 - 0:02:11 thing, sorry, this thing was on the floor somewhere and uh I said this is gonna get trashed and it came out of one of the kids rooms because my wife was rearranging and um I guess a kid's too old for something like that now or whatever the decision was. And uh you know, it's a decent thing and she's 0:02:11 - 0:02:34 like, well, I don't know what to do with it. And I said, I'm gonna, I'm put it in the garden room. So it's acknowledged anyway, sorry for that deviation. Some of you are gonna spot that you'll be distracted. Um When, when we, when we witness the willful suffering of others on our behalf. Um There, there's 0:02:34 - 0:03:03 a collection of possible responses. One of them, which hopefully is the case always is we can choose to increase our gratitude and joy. Gratitude is a topic worth a lot of conversation. But just to tap it briefly here. Um We increase in how much we value something depending on our idea of its cost. The 0:03:02 - 0:03:29 most direct way to, to improve our idea of the cost of something is to pay it ourselves. Um But there is a great deal of value that that can be extracted vicariously depending on our empathy and our the the proximity of interaction with the person paying the price. Um So you might be more deeply affected 0:03:28 - 0:03:52 in seeing your son or daughter sacrifice themselves for someone else than you would in seeing someone you've never met before. Sorry, um pay the same exact price because it's a more distant example. And um you know, this, we see this in the things small and large. So for example, um you know, it's easy 0:03:51 - 0:04:17 for some people to take lightly the idea of the Lord's mortal sacrifice and it's something that's extremely intense for other people. Um And it, it usually has something to do, not always with how well they know him. So another way that we can react to a demonstration of someone suffering. Uh And, and 0:04:17 - 0:04:37 this is again, it's important to understand this is uh this is unmerited suffering. So they don't deserve this, but they're choosing to do it for the sake for your sake. We could choose to follow their example. This is obviously what the Lord wants us to do. When we see his example, he says, go and love 0:04:37 - 0:05:01 other people as I love you. Um I'm doing this to show you how much I love you, to give you all the reasons you need to go love others. This way. It's a very sacred idea. So maybe we respond by becoming a little bit more willing to do more for others than we were before. And that's a great response. The 0:05:00 - 0:05:22 third response is not so great. So whenever greater love is manifest, and that's what this is. Uh because love is your willingness to suffer for the benefit of someone else. When greater love is manifest, it is an inflection point. It's a fork in the road. It's a, it's a moment when you'll never be the 0:05:22 - 0:05:40 same again and you get to choose in what way. And on the one hand, the choice is to become more than you were before, whether that's literally becoming better than you were before, which is the option we just discussed or the one prior to that, which is to have greater joy than you did before, even if 0:05:40 - 0:06:10 you don't change what you're doing. So that's really important. The vast majority of people will exit this creation with that outcome. That is to uh find greater joy in all the same things they had before, which is pretty much what they'll have after. OK. So, um yeah, so it creates this fork in the road 0:06:09 - 0:06:35 and the alternative path. So you've got greater gratitude alone or greater gratitude mixed with greater giving and then the other fork is to willfully blind yourself. So you, when you see greater light, you can either respond with greater appreciation for light or by receiving and becoming greater light 0:06:35 - 0:06:57 or you can poke your eyes out. That's those are the three choices. So perhaps we could quibble about the degree to which if there are variations of how, how thoroughly you could poke your eyes out, but they're all rather unpleasant. And yet this is the most common reaction. The reason for this is that 0:06:57 - 0:07:17 most people are well trained to respond to pain or suffering or anything emotionally unpleasant with fight or flight. And we really have to train ourselves to be rational creatures. We have the capacity but not the tendency and it's very important. And you don't, you know, have you ever seen those videos 0:07:17 - 0:07:38 of the basketball superstars and some, some famous, some who never got there? And they dribble 24 7, they've got basketballs in their hand because they have to practice that much to be the best, you know. Well, it turns out that, um, rationality is an all or nothing affair for the most part, it's not 0:07:38 - 0:07:56 something you can practice part time. And, uh, there are deeper roots to this that I won't go into, but it's something you really need to do all the time. This is why most of what I'm going to be focusing on and then in the next bit, particularly in the books is, is going to be shockingly relevant to 0:07:56 - 0:08:21 your everyday life. Um, and a lot of people are gonna look at that and say, oh, I wanted the shiny fancy stuff and this is just daily stuff, daily life stuff. Well, that is the very next step for you. Um, until you've got that down, nothing else will make sense. Nothing else will be possible. And actually 0:08:21 - 0:08:43 , it's not minor at all. It will make an astronomically huge difference in your life more than anything else would it turns out? So, uh because it's a prerequisite for even greater things, but even just that is more than anything who doesn't have it has, which is huge. Ok? So what happens is when we 0:08:43 - 0:09:09 see the selflessness of another person and it exceeds our own, our brains get to work in how to excuse ourselves from that example. Because every example you see of what is better than you judges you, it's inescapable. And um there are only really two ways to deal with that in a positive way and I've 0:09:09 - 0:09:28 already told you what those are increasing your gratitude because you can't see it the same way anymore. So, so when you think things are similar, you can feel similarly about them. When you see they're very different, you can no longer be honest and feel the same way about both, right? And then the 0:09:28 - 0:09:51 other way is of course to rise to it yourself. Um But we don't want to do that. So, so the normal human reaction is to flee from this or fight it or somehow do mental gymnastics to excuse yourself from it. And uh you know, character assassinate the, the person that's giving you the demonstration or um 0:09:50 - 0:10:12 whatever make excuses for yourself, claim that. But one of the big ones is, and this is what we're gonna talk about. Mostly in this video is uh you diminish the example not by saying, yeah, they didn't do this, this big thing, but by saying it was easier for them to do it than it would be for you to 0:10:12 - 0:10:41 do it. It's so important. I'm gonna repeat it again. I'd say a very common response to this that falls into that third category of blinding yourself is to say yes, I acknowledge that this happened. But it was easier for this person to do than it would be for me to do it. Um Before we dive a little deeper 0:10:41 - 0:11:05 into that, I do wanna mention that another flavor of this third reaction is to disbelieve what you see. Um You see that referred to as unbelief in the scriptures. It's all over the place and it's amazing what someone can see with their own eyes, feel in their own heart here, with their own ears, experience 0:11:04 - 0:11:25 with their own body in any way and still deny. It's amazing. It's amazing. But if you are in doubt about this, just go read the scriptures, even if you don't have examples from your own life, which I'm sure there are abundant uh examples other people doing it to you or you doing it to them. But consider 0:11:25 - 0:11:43 , for example, the man who laid for, who knows how many years at the pool of Bethesda and Jesus came. And he said, why are you laying here? He said, well, because I can't get to the pool on time when the angel comes down and stirs it up. And the first person in gets healed and I can't get there because 0:11:42 - 0:12:03 of my handicap. And so I'm still here waiting to be healed and Jesus heals him. And then the first thing the guy does is he goes and rats him out to the Pharisees and people look at that and they're like, oh, that's such a weird response. No, that is a very normal response. It is very normal for pigs 0:12:02 - 0:12:32 to turn and rend the people that give them pearls. That's a very normal human thing to do. So disbelieving what they see, that's, that's a common response. So let's get back to this. Um diminishing the difficulty of the person doing it. The most dangerous consequence of this is that it mutes the power 0:12:32 - 0:12:58 of the example of Jesus in your life. Um It, it was not easier for Jesus to do anything he did than it would be for you to do it. There's, there's only one exception to that and I'm gonna tell you about it. The world freely diminishes what Jesus, what it cost Jesus to do what he did. They come up with 0:12:58 - 0:13:19 all kinds of crazy stories about superpowers he had and whatever, and God made him into some magical creature that could never sin it even if he wanted to. And he just had magical powers straight out of the womb and all these other things. And it totally defeats the purpose for which he came in terms 0:13:19 - 0:13:39 of his demonstration of what it's what we're capable of doing if we follow his example. So if he's a magical creature, so there's this topic and I don't really want to get too much into it today, although we are talking about it peripherally in everything I'm saying today and it's called suspension of 0:13:39 - 0:14:01 disbelief. And if you're a theater junkie, you'll know that term. I'm sure it comes up in other circles as well. But it's basically, you know, the goal in entertainment where you have actors and everything's fake. The goal is to get the person to suspend their disbelief, not so much to believe that what 0:14:01 - 0:14:24 they're seeing is real because they know it's not real, but to stop thinking about it as fake and to experience it as if it were real. Yeah. And the objective is not to believe it's real, it's just to stop not believing, right? And so if an actor is good enough, they'll play a part in the minimum uh 0:14:24 - 0:14:44 the minimum performance that, that achieves this goal and every person has a role to play literally. And the, the set factors into this, there's all the, all these aspects of the production that have to be at least so good in order for them to suspend disbelief. And it's the same for movies and anything 0:14:44 - 0:15:15 else. Uh even, even music, it's like this. Ok. And um this is such an incredibly important idea for the gospel and I don't think it's ever really been talked about. Um And I'll say much more about it, but if you minimize the example of what Jesus did, it's, it's impossible to believe anything really 0:15:14 - 0:15:40 that's related to the gospel. Um And, and it's super, super important for us to have examples of what is better than what we already are in order to suspend our disbelief. So when Jesus was interacting with this guy who had the afflicted son and he had been dealing with these issues his whole life. Uh 0:15:40 - 0:16:02 And he says, believe a style, remember that? And the guy says, help my unbelief. So it wasn't that the guy had to get to the point where he would believe what Jesus said, which is with God. Nothing is impossible. There's a, there's actually a better translation of that passage trying to remember which 0:16:02 - 0:16:29 one it is. This might be the v what was really one aspect of what was really going on is the guy said, well, if you're able to do anything, would you, you know, see what you could do for him? And Jesus says, um, oh, he says if you can do anything, do something for him. And so even in his asking for help 0:16:29 - 0:16:54 , there's severe doubt. It's laced with doubt, which was already the problem because he had gone years without taking advantage of opportunities to get this kid healed in one way or another. And so Jesus just kind of looks at him with the screaming eagle eyes and says, uh if I can, anything is possible 0:16:53 - 0:17:25 for those who believe. And it's amazing because not only is his scathing rebuke directly addressing the man's unbelief in him, but the larger problem had nothing to do with Jesus. He says, with God, nothing is impossible to those who believe. And he puts it right on that guy's shoulders. And that was 0:17:24 - 0:17:54 the point of the message was, hey, buddy, you're the obstacle here, not the kids sickness, you and um we become our own obstacle when we respond to these demonstrations of love with disbelief or this form of disbelief, which is minimizing how hard it was for that person to do it. We say, well, they're 0:17:54 - 0:18:17 just, you know, and, and we do this across the board. If you see a tremendous music performance, you say, well, that person was just born gifted, that's just their thing. I'm not like that. And sometimes people are born with certain gifts, but I don't know any professionals that don't practice at a professional 0:18:16 - 0:18:50 level. And I'm not sure that I have exceptions for that by, in any field. OK. So, um with love, the amazing thing is, it's so contrary to our nature that no one comes here with a gift for it. There is something that's retained from the, from what came before, but it's actually the inverse of the presence 0:18:50 - 0:19:15 of something. It's the absence of something, not the presence. And just so you don't think this is some grand mystery. I mean, it is, but it doesn't need to be. It's, it's the spiritual memory of your high water mark of God's love that you've experienced. It's not a conscious thing. It's not a tangible 0:19:14 - 0:19:41 thing, but uh like a fish out of water. People who experienced much more of God's love before this world was are way more uncomfortable here and have way more struggles than those who are born breathing air. And of course, this is on a continuum which is directly related to the points that I'm making 0:19:41 - 0:20:09 in this video that it's actually harder for the people who give you these demonstrations than it is for you. It's not easier, it's harder. And again, this is not a complete case. I'm just touching on it. So back to Jesus, um what he came to earth with was power over his whole his entire life. His, his 0:20:09 - 0:20:29 ability to continue living. Why? Because he was sinless from the beginning unlike any of us. So in Hebrews 415, we read, we have not and high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin, he didn't sin his whole life 0:20:29 - 0:20:58 . And because he never sinned, he wasn't subject to the curse of Adam, which was death, physical death. And so um he was able to suffer more than any of us could because to suffer that much, we would die. And that's not just speculation. We read in Mosiah 37. Uh This is a prophecy before he came. He 0:20:58 - 0:21:25 shall suffer temptations and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue even more than man can suffer except it be unto death for behold blood cometh from every pore. So great shall be his anguish for the wickedness in the abominations of his people. So there you have it. So it is true that you will never 0:21:24 - 0:21:59 suffer as much as Jesus did in this life because to do so would kill you. However, the example he provided in what he did and why, especially the why that is absolutely something that we can follow ourselves. You can't minimize the sacrifice that um that someone makes for others without minimizing the 0:21:59 - 0:22:22 reason they do it. And if, if Jesus did what he did just because it was easier for him to do it than it was for you. Well, then it wasn't the reason he did it, that, that makes a difference to you. It's just the fact that he did and that is the limit of the world's version of Christianity while Jesus 0:22:22 - 0:22:44 suffered so good for us. That's very limited and it's limited both in terms of what we become, but also what we appreciate because they think that Jesus had magic powers from the start like some kind of superhero in a movie. And therefore it's really easy to, to suspend disbelief because you're not looking 0:22:44 - 0:23:09 at Thor as I could be like Thor or I'm expected to be like Thor, you're looking at Thor as a God, you know, as guardian God who I could never be like, because I'm not an Asgardian God, while Jesus didn't demonstrate himself from heaven, he demonstrated himself from earth. And the reason was because that 0:23:08 - 0:23:31 ramp starts right where you're standing, that's the ramp. It starts right here. How you are? He started at zero just like we do. Uh and he was sinless, but he increased in favor with God. And man, as it says in Luke, he went line upon line learning more and he stayed faithful the entire time. And so 0:23:31 - 0:00:00 he proved that that was possible. And the tool he used to achieve that is fully transferable to me and you, in fact, you don't even have to wait for someone to give you anything. It's yours for taking right now. That tool is love. It was the intensity of love that he chose. Because love is a choice. 0:00:00 - 0:24:24 It's not a feeling, it's a choice he chose to love more than anyone else had. And if we choose to follow his example, we'll do the same sorts of things. So again, this is not just a theory we read in James 517 that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. He started just like we all do. And 0:24:24 - 0:24:49 yet he got to the point. It says where when he prayed earnestly that it might not rained, it rained, not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. So that's a nice measuring mark for you to get to. So how do you get there? You have to care if you wanna get there, you have to care. You 0:24:49 - 0:25:15 have to care a lot more than other people do about what about other people? Hardly anyone will do good things even to get good things for themselves. Hardly anyone. And that might sound surprising. But actually, if the world were half as selfish as people think they are, people would do a lot better 0:25:15 - 0:25:37 than they do, right? Um Because they turn away from what is obviously better and would obviously be better for them. And so it's not self concern. That is the problem that would actually be a step in the right direction, believe it or not. Um Which will make it less shocking what you'll see in the books 0:25:36 - 0:26:03 to come in these first steps that I've talked about a little bit. But the next step after that is to care more about other people and the more you get to know God, um you have to care about other people more because they go together and I, I started talking about this earlier. Um where is that in these 0:26:03 - 0:26:31 notes? Uh If he reveals himself more to you, you have a fork in the road, you can either blind yourself to that or appreciate it more or become more like it. And uh if you take any of the two higher paths, the two pads up, um you will absolutely have greater value for what you can do for other people 0:26:31 - 0:26:59 and more valuable things to do for other people. So in a past video, someone had asked me why I wake up so early and I said, um I wake up as early as I do because I haven't yet figured out a way to get up earlier than I do. And that person thought that was pretty funny or clever or something. Uh I think 0:26:58 - 0:27:22 , and um I think they said something and indicated that I don't remember, but it's, it's the absolute truth. It's funny. Um, yesterday at dinner, one of my kids said something because my wife had slept in a bit yesterday, which I'm really glad for. She, she um really appreciates her sleep and doesn't 0:27:22 - 0:27:46 get as much of it as she would like for reasons that are outside of her control. And, um, someone made a comment about her having slept in and, uh, either that same kid or another, I don't quite recall, said something about, um, well, dad gets up much earlier than you do and which is kind of a snide 0:27:45 - 0:28:12 thing to say. But, um, she immediately replied, well, dad doesn't need as much sleep as I do. And so I'm not calling my wife on the carpet here. It's, it's, it's necessary to show true topics with real examples. Ok. Um, and, and I hope it's super obvious from what I say here in general about this topic 0:28:11 - 0:28:42 , um, what my motives are with her, not that I care what any of you think about that. I don't, uh, I have one who judges me and I know exactly how he feels about it. So, um, anyway, in reflecting on that, I thought about these three reactions we can have to greater suffering, uh, demonstration or greater 0:28:42 - 0:29:05 suffering on our behalf. And, um, you know, it's interesting the levels of this because on the one hand, 11 of the very many reasons that I get up as early as I do, uh, that don't have to do with my choice directly is because she doesn't sleep well, you know, I, I could sleep in a different bedroom if 0:29:05 - 0:29:37 I wanted, but I wanna be with my wife. Right. More than I wanna sleep. So, um, I don't do that. And, um, it's interesting that, that having a role in the causes of this to turn that into. Well, it's easier for him was basically what she said, which isn't true at all. Um, at all. So every morning, uh 0:29:37 - 0:30:04 , I, I spring out of bed like a crouching lion. And this is an image I've actually seen sometimes more than once when the Lord is showing me things and I don't spring out of bed that way. Like, and my wife has made comments like this and I try not to so hard, I try not to. I've mentioned how I'm a ninja 0:30:03 - 0:00:00 in the room. Like I have a very precise layout of things so that I can get out of the bedroom as silently as possible. And I like grease doors and do all this stuff to not wake her up because she's a light sleeper. And I just want to do everything I can to not uh like we even have separate blankets. 0:00:00 - 0:30:47 So it's extensive. The the setup is extensive to, to minimize that. But she mentions how it's like a whale flopping, you know, like free willy. But every morning, the second I come into consciousness, there's no delay. It's the second I come into consciousness I jump out of bed and it's not because I'm 0:30:47 - 0:31:18 not tired. I am the most exhausted person I've ever met. It's because the second my brain starts working consciously. It is filled with overflowing value at what God can use with that time. God can provide in that time. It's because I know the value of what God has to give those who wake up early to 0:31:17 - 0:31:49 meet him. There was a time where that was something that I did through faith, but that didn't last terribly long, maybe six months. And thereafter it was knowledge. And once you know that even if you're exhausted, you can keep doing the things that are expected of you, you can't go back. I know why this 0:31:48 - 0:32:23 is needed and I know the power and the joy it gives and I mean, the things I do at the time, the writing, the videos, but mostly the writing, mostly the the yeah, obtaining and presenting what is received. I know uh I know what it's worth and I know what it provides and against what it provides, provides 0:32:23 - 0:32:54 it. And so I have and I will pay any price I know of for that. There's nothing withheld. And so the only limits on that are the physical limits, whatever physical limits the Lord leaves me in. So, so I don't stay up all night, right. I go to bed at a very reasonable hour and I sacrifice whatever else 0:32:54 - 0:33:18 I might do during that time to get to sleep early. And that's just how I've had to do it to offset to not rob my family of time and not rob my full time job of time because I need to do that, uh, to pay the bills and that's everything else is up to the Lord. But that's the full range of what I have the 0:33:18 - 0:33:43 knobs on. I have dialed them up completely. So why is, why does that matter at all? Well, again, it's because if we diminish the sacrifice, we have to diminish the reason for it. And that reason has nothing to do with the demonstration. It's independent because a reason is an idea and ideas are fully 0:33:43 - 0:34:07 transferable. There's no, I mean, we have patents and stuff, right. But as, as far as ideas about life, they're in the public domain. And if you see an example of anything in this world that somehow informs what, how you could do something differently, you have full right to immediately adopt that God 0:34:07 - 0:34:30 has already given you that power. And that's an amazing, amazing gift that we take very lightly. So if we cared, we'd be scouring the earth for the best of the best so that we can take it all for ourselves and become the best person we know in the flesh. That's, that's exactly what faith would do and 0:34:30 - 0:34:50 nothing less until you hit your own limits, actual limits. Like it's an actual limit that none of us can suffer exactly what Jesus did. And one reason for that is because your life is not in your own hands. The other reason is because he already did it. We have an example and therefore it will always 0:34:49 - 0:35:16 be easier than it was for him because he didn't have one in the flesh. He couldn't point to someone and say, well, that person did it as a man. So I can too. So that's an actual limit. Or, you know, if you don't have legs, you can't walk, that's an actual limit. OK? Although there are miracles, right 0:35:16 - 0:35:36 ? But anything less than that sort of thing, it's like, yeah, but you're just making an excuse, either crank up your appreciation for what's given to you or become it yourself, which will include that anyway. But don't dial down what's given to you because now you're just miserable, even though someone's 0:35:36 - 0:35:57 actually paying the price for you to be something much more. So the reason is transferable and it has nothing to do with the person demonstrating it. It has everything to do with God. God can give you that same reason he already has in a way because you have access to it like you have the right to pick 0:35:57 - 0:36:21 it up and use it. And then a person comes along and provides the tiny missing piece, which is the most minor part of it all, which is connecting you to who it comes from, which is God and then you can pick it up and go on your way rejoicing. So in every case of goodness, God gives you the right to the 0:36:21 - 0:36:50 same goodness, if you will just come to him and partake of the waters of life that freely flow from him. And that is an amazing gift. OK? So I had a bunch that I was hoping to get to about further evidence that it's always harder for the one giving the demonstration than it is for the one receiving it 0:36:50 - 0:37:06 . But I'm not sure I feel like going into that. So we'll leave it at this and I hope you have a good one.