It has always been amazing to me how we human beings are so much alike and at the same time so different. We all fall somewhere along a continuum in terms of intelligence, looks, weight, height, spirituality, etc. In regards to spirituality, we are so very different; there are young children that are spiritually mature and elderly people who are spiritually immature. Why is one aglow and another not? Even within the same family some of the members are alive spiritually and other members have little or no interest in things of the spirit. The scriptures tell us that Jesus said “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” ( John 8:31–32) I believe therein is the key. If ye continue in the ‘word’ (the ‘word’ being the Gospel) then you will know the truth. So, if you do not continue in the ‘word,’ you will not be blessed to know the truth. From a spiritual point of view, you will not be free, if you do not know the truth.
Many years ago President Garfield said, “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” We are told that none are without sin and therefore knowing the truth demands some behavioral changes. Moving away from some of our comfortable but sinful or inappropriate behaviors can make us a little miserable. There are withdrawal pains from practically all behavioral habits, not just drugs and/or alcohol. Garfield was correct in that learning the truth, in order to be set free, can indeed make one miserable.
There are several ways to view freedom or the state of being free. For example, there is a story about an Air Force C-130 airplane that was flying on a mission when an F-16 pilot flew his plane up next to it. The cocky fighter pilot told the C-130 pilot, “Watch this!” and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. He then asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that? The C-130 pilot said, “That was impressive, but watch this!” The C-130 droned along for about five minutes, and then the C-130 pilot came back and said, “What did you think of that?” Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, “What the heck did you do?” The C-130 pilot said, “I stood up, stretched my legs, went to the bathroom, then I went to the back of the plane got myself a drink and a sweet roll” That was an expression of freedom that the F-16 pilot did not have, as he was scrunched up in his very small compact cockpit.
The freedom that the Lord was referring to might best be described by the following story:
An elderly female professor of Theology at the University of Munich was given the Book of Mormon by a couple of young missionaries. She spoke at her baptism several weeks later. She said, “Before I’m baptized I’d like to tell you my feelings. In Amos chapter 8:11, it says there will be a famine of the word of God. I’ve been in that famine for 76 years…I’ve been hungering for truth and have been unable to find it. Then eight and one-half weeks ago, two boys walked into my home. I want you to know these boys are very nice and wonderful young men, but they didn’t convert me. They couldn’t; they don’t know enough.”
And then she smiled and said, “But since the day they walked in my door I have read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, all of Talmage’s great writings, Evidence and Reconciliations by John A. Widtsoe and 22 other volumes of church doctrine.” She said, “I don’t think you members know what you have.” Then in her quiet, powerful way, “…After those years of studying philosophy, I picked up the D&C and read a few little verses that answered some of the greatest questions of Aristotle and Socrates! When I read those verses, I wept for four hours.” Then she said again, “Don’t you understand the world is in a famine? Don’t you know we are starving for what you have? …over these eight and one-half weeks I have been able to feast in a way I have never known possible.” Her powerful message ended with her favorite scripture, paraphrasing ( John 7:8) “For don’t you see, the truth can make you free.”
She was one who found the ‘word,’ continued in it, and it set her free. So many of us struggle with being in the world, with the problems that we all must face and endure. Problems of life are like puzzles that frustrate us and we struggle against them, trying to solve them or escape and set ourselves free of them. Instead of fighting them we need to try to understand them in the context of the value they may hold for us. We will conclude that their purpose and value is to help us grow and gain experiences as we progress through this life.
While continuing in the ‘Word’ we must learn to accept our challenges and realize that, in the long run, they are freeing experiences. For as we learn and grow we are setting ourselves free from the unknown, the mental and spiritual darkness that may have enslaved us. I listened to the Tabernacle Choir sing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” this morning and I love the verse “Christ was born to make men holy, let us live to make men free.” May God bless us to learn the truth, and share the truth, the truth that will set men free.