5 Thoughts On Sunday

Sometimes (all the time lately) I have too many blog posts to write, so I have decided to do a whole bunch of short ones at once before they get replaced by new ones and I never get around to it. So here are 5 Things. Some of them are mind blowingly awesome, others might not be, but I had to get them out. (If you have trouble commenting try try again. I don't know what the heck is wrong and why people can't comment sometimes. If you know, please help. Thanks!)

One- I Heard a Good Rumor

Back in June I heard that the Bishops's Storehouse is going GMO free. I haven't heard anything since then, so if anyone can confirm or disprove this rumor, I would be grateful. If you don't know, the Bishop's Storehouse is part of the welfare program of our church, so they give food to the poor in our country and I think it is also the source for food to send overseas.

If you don't know what GMOs are, it stands for Genetically Modified Organisms. Sound tasty, right? It means the food was made or altered in a lab. GMOs are not only linked to infertility, low birth weight, and ALL kinds of other problems, but they deprive a person of vital nutrition. Sure it seems like you are eating healthy, but wait.... it's actually not food. I have read studies to back all this up, but I am a notoriously bad source citer and I'd rather you go do the research and not take my word for it.

The reason I think this is soo cool if it is true is that it means that some out there is reading the Word of Wisdom (which is kind of our LDS code of health) the same way I do and that is that all things that were created by God were ordained for the good and for the use of man. Things made in a lab are not made by God. I have way more I could say on this, but I will refrain. So I hope the rumor is true. Next best would be if they went organic.

Two- The Age of Experience is Getting More Experiential

Back in March I wrote a post explaining some of what the Aquarian Age is all about and how our Prophet and high ranking church leaders totally get it, even if they aren't calling it that. One of the big points is that it is the age of experience. It used to be if you wanted to know something you went to school or a book or to someone smarter than you who had done a lot of school and book learning. Now it's about having the experience yourself, specifically of having the experience of God within you and personal revelation. While this has ALWAYS been our church doctrine, until now we hadn't been living in a word that was friendly to that concept. Now we are. And I just heard another rumor, from a private correspondence, that the Bretheren (church leaders) are doing everything they can recently to encourage members to get their own personal revelation and answers and to live by those answers. Temple presidents have even been recently counseled not to answer any questions about symbolism or meaning in the temple--not even to give their own opinions in private meeting within the temple. We are all to see our own inspiration and divine experiences and manifestations. Sounds like the age of experience. It's time to find out what you believe. Not what "we" believe.

Three - I'm Doing a Podcast

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In April, I said out loud that I wanted to do a podcast. I have no idea why. I don't even listen to podcasts. But I knew I needed to do it. Several months later, Andy Rasmussen, who has taken my meditation class, asked if I wanted to co-host a podcast with him and we're going to do it. Andy has lots of radio experience, so he's taking care of things and all I have to do is show up. It's going to be titled Zion Consciousness: Mormons in the New Age. (Or something like that.) The format may metamorphasize as we grow into it (we may interview people, we may  not), but the general concept is that we will discuss and connect the Mormon idea of Zion with some of the New Age concepts out there. We'd like to give Mormons a vocabulary to bridge the gap between our culturally Western religious experience and the Eastern idea of increasing levels of consciousness.

Andy said it well in an email to me:

"There are so many members of the Church right now that are feeling the stirring and find themselves drawn to new dimensions and experiences of spirituality. - And on the other side, there are many others that are stumbling across "new" (not really) information that they perceive as challenging the foundational LDS stories upon which their faith rests." 

This podcast would be for both groups. It will give the first group permission, without feeling like they doing something wrong, and it will help the second group dispel fear and see that it is the "same God who worketh in all." 

As you see in the thought #2, this is the age of experience, so besides merely discussing these things and showing you how deep and smart we are, our goal is to create or give the audience something that can be applied and experiential. I'm still not exactly sure what that looks like yet, but God will guide the way. I'm excited. It should be up in about a month. Right now we have everything we need, but we'd love to have help with sound editing (simple stuff, adding some intro music and out music, etc and making it sound professional) if anyone out there is interested in that would love doing it. We could do it ourselves, but the thought came to see if anyone wants to be involved. So if you can reliably help + or - one hour/week, please comment or send me a private message. 

Four - The Best Two Years Of Your Life - Huh? 

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Today in church 4 people were asked to talk about their mission experience and what they learned from it. These were all people who had at least 25 years or more between them and that experience. 

Here are some notes I wrote:

• They were the best 2 years because for 18 years you focused on you and for 2 years you didn't focus on yourself. Like Christ did. 
• Learned to love the people. 
• Why can't we just all focus on others, be like Christ, love people in our town NOW and have great years. 
• They prayed about what to do and where to go that day. What if one did that now. Maybe tomorrow I will put aside my to-do list and say where do you want me to go/do today? I wonder if we'd all get way more done toward mission in life stuff and be way less frustrated. And maybe all the mundane details on to-do list would take care of themselves. This is what I will do tomorrow. 

Five - The Gathering is Now

Remember how we are living in a prophecy? Yeah. It's now. Here is an excerpt from an email I got from Robyn in Idaho. Perhaps this is why I felt the need to teach a retreat in Idaho this month. 

"So the other night an 'emergency' meeting was called for all of the bishoprics, EQ presidents and HPQ leaders in our stake. Basically under the direction of the First Presidency our Area Authority directed all of the stake presidencies in our region to exercise the keys of gathering in their stakes and wards. They were told that this was the time of the last great gathering and that the lowering of the missionary age was also a part of this."

Of course, this is not a super surprise. The church even launched a website about the Hastening. The emphasis is on missionary work and reactivation, but I think that the keys of gathering involve more than that.  And if this hasn't happened in your area yet, maybe it's because certain places are going to be hot spots for certian events sooner than others. The point is, the time to up-level and prepare is now. And as Lani wrote in a recent post, mediation is a great way to prepare for Zion. It give you a straight pipeline to God. What could be more a appropriate guide/protector/friend/light through the Aquarian Age. 

That's all for now. Xo. Sat Nam. Love Comments.