A few weeks ago a member of our ward who has a PhD in statistics gave a very interesting talk about how very very very very very… did I mention VERY blessed we all are. He continued to pummel how our privileged lives are the exception not the normal to how the rest of the world lives. The enjoyment of electricity, access to food and clean water, air conditioning, television, and refrigerators. Our world boasts standards of comparative luxury surrounded in freedom and wrapped in safety. He referred to us as the exceptionally blessed 1%. He said, the world population today is over 7 billion. Image a single filed line of 7 billion people. How big is that line? If this line was at the equator and everyone stood shoulder to shoulder that line would wrap around the earth 106 times! If you stacked each other on top of each other's shoulders their would be enough people to reach and touch the moon 26 times! That's a long line. Well when you look back at this enormous line, you should realize that 99% of that line, at least 6,300,000,000 people, are standing behind you in that line. In other words you are very blessed.
Now expand that further. How many have freedom of religion? How many have heard of Jesus Christ? How many have heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? How many are members? Approximately 14 million or .002% of the world. How many are active LDS (world-wide)? Realistically the estimates are only around 35% or 4.9 million or .0007% of the world! When it comes to the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ at least 6,995,100,000 people are standing behind you in line.
Why do I make this point? To boast our great fortune for being LDS? Our clearly obvious magnificent pre-earthly performances? Hardly. No, but rather how we waste the opportunities and possibilities of these blessings. How we live beneath our potentials and God's expectations of us. One of my greatest pet-peeves are LDS members who pontificate how chosen and clearly spiritually superior we are over the rest of the world solely on the fact that we are members of the church. They speak as if salvation comes from membership alone. That exaltation arrives if we just wait long enough as members. If you were to describe the type of being that God is (or that Jesus is to make it more comprehensible), what type of being would you describe? Would you be describing the members of your ward? If so how many really would you be describing? Would you be describing yourself? To be fair--no one is already like God, or they wouldn't be here. What I am trying to say is how many of us are truly trying to be like God? The fact remains, to be with God, one must become like God.
How then are we doing here in Utah? The statistics range from 60-70% of the state are members of the church, if 50% of those members are active that would be approximately 1 million of the nearly 3 million people who live in Utah are considered active LDS. With this comparatively extraordinary saturation of active LDS members scattered throughout the state (1 in 3 people) we should be living in a utopian society, enjoying the law of consecration, bathing is the waterfalls of modern revelation and playing dodgeball with arc angels! Yet in stead we find that Utah boasts the award for the highest number of subscriptions to pornography websites, one of the highest occurrence of underage drinking, gambling and prescription pill addictions and abuse. Continually, year after year, Utah also reports some of the nations highest bankruptcy rates, as well as the percentage of population suffering from depression and anxiety. Utah was also recently touted as one of the highest per capita use of plastic surgery in the nation. Basically, what Utah is telling the world is not that were Mormons, but that we are stressed out, insecure, envious, stiflingly horny, and a rebellious people!
The world is a messed up place. Why isn't it better here than it is? I think it is because somewhere along the way we lost perspective of how truly blessed we really are. Not just as LDS members, but as humans on this planet. We got spoiled. We grew spiritually weak, and pleasure fat. We live unrealistic lives and care too deeply how others perceive us. Our lives are too full of stuff and things that we do not need, yet we work tirelessly to obtain. We lost sight of what really is important and replaced it with things that don't last--things that are not even real: Cars, homes, beauty, pleasure, trips, comparisons, achievements, degrees, financial statements, etc. What we've lost along the way real family relationships, true friends, integrity, honesty, patience, enjoyment of small & simple things, time, opportunities, conversations, innocence, love, real priesthood authority, and unshakable testimonies.
We need to slow down. Get back in tune with God. Learn to feel the Holy Ghost again. Listen to what he is saying and then have the courage to do what he says. We need to cast off the artificial burdens we've placed on ourselves and stop worrying what everyone else thinks (remember they are just as messed up, insecure, and lonely as we are). We need to get back to the basics. I do not believe that this life is a 'test', I believe that we are here to learn, not be graded (yes in the end, but not along the way). We are blessed beyond belief -- why? who knows? But we have been nonetheless. It is then left for us to act proportionally to the blessings we've received. We need to act well our part.
Ask yourself are all your daily frantic doings and priorities making you more like God or more like Utahns?
