Thorns

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. If it were possible for blog posts to be transferred straight from my head into type I'd write a lot more. At any rate, this post is titled "thorns." The Apostle Paul wrote about "a thorn in the flesh" that buffeted him. He asked God to take it away, and the answer that he got was that God's grace was sufficient to perfect Paul in spite of his weakness.

We all have thorns. It seems like some people have a harder time with them than others; it's likely some people have more or larger thorns than others do. This doesn't seem too fair, and so I've been stepping back and reevaluating what I know about the gospel and the plan and how thorns fit into it.

The book I wrote about a while back (Change Your Brain, Change Your Life) was fascinating as far as evidence that has been found of how our brain function correlates with our behavior/thoughts/feelings. They seem to be affected by each other, not in just one direction but working off of each other. In other words, my genetics and environment affect my brain's ability to help or hinder me in different aspects of my life, but conversely my choices seem to affect the very biology/functioning of my brain. Another way to look at it would be to liken it to "Satan's chains" that are talked about in the scriptures. If a person thinks negatively for a rather consistent amount of time, their brain will start to function in that way, and for them to change what's going on in there they will have to purposely and consistently change the way they're habitually thinking. Reading this book made me want even more to be free. Every time we think in ways that are uplifting and true, we strengthen our very ability to think that way again in the future.

The other thing that this book brought out was that there are people walking around with all sorts of varying abilities, due to the way their brains work. Someone with a huge temper problem may be working with all their might to overcome it, but it may be a huge thorn that they were given, perhaps because of genetics, or head trauma, or habits that were formed with a mixture of their environment and choice. We really just don't know how hard another person is trying. This reminded me even more that a main purpose of this life is to serve as a test, and there is only one true Judge. I like how Christ, when talking about the parable of the sower, said that the good seeds brought forth fruit, and that some brought forth thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. I think the point is that we bring forth fruit; some people are able to bring forth more than others, and that's not what really foundationally matters (similar to the parable of the talents).

The fact that we have thorns, though, doesn't discount the power of grace. I believe that the Book of Mormon is the most true of any book, and I believe that what it says is what is really the underlying truth. There is a straight and narrow path and there are a lot of ways to be lost. I believe that when we are really on that straight path we can see straight ahead. We aren't perfect, but we're whole. We feel the Holy Ghost reassuring us. We have at least a rather consistent element of joy (we are after all commanded to let our hearts rejoice).

There were things written in that book that I recognize in myself. I continually want to try to stay close to the path by guarding the way I think, taking the time to study the scriptures, and trying to remember Christ and have an eternal view of my life. I also think it's important that we remember that each test is so very individual.