If I could save time in a bottle...

These are something of a stream-of-consciousness exercise for me, if my reader (as if there’s more than one!) will bear with me.

Yesterday I managed to squander some major blocks of time. Naturally, this brings some remorse. I can be a team player, but ultimately responsibility rests upon myself as to what I must answer for. Earlier this week a powerful realization came to my mind: a lot of what I’ve managed to accomplish in life was either a divine gift, or because of what I chose to do while others were doing something else. That latter step has not always been entirely voluntary, and is certainly not intended as an insult to or isolation from others.

I turn to President Monson to help this entry take shape (and many of these thoughts are contained in various sermons):

Work will win when wishy-washy wishing won't. . . .

There is no place for procrastination, defined by Edward Young two centuries ago as "the thief of time."

Procrastination is really much more. It is the thief of our self-respect. It nags at us and spoils our joy. It deprives us of the fullest realization of our ambitions and hopes. But procrastination is a guest who prefers to visit the lazy, and never feels at home with the busy and diligent. . . .

Our noble thoughts must be part of a purposeful plan, if the dream castles we have envisioned are to become a reality. The Lord taught, "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing." (D&C 88:119.) A reading of the book of Genesis gives one insight into the painstaking planning undertaken by God himself.

At times the preparation period may appear dull, uninteresting, and even unnecessary. But experience continues to demonstrate that the future belongs to those who prepare for it. And if we are to become leaders, we cannot skimp on our preparation. . . .

Spirituality is not like a water faucet in that it can be turned off or turned on at will. Some make the fatal error of assuming that religion is for others now and perhaps someday for us. Such thinking is not based on fact or experience, for we are daily becoming what we shall be. . . .

It has been said by one, years ago, that history turns on small hinges, and so do people's lives. Our lives will depend upon the decisions we make, for decisions determine destiny. . . .

When the time for decision arrives, the time for preparation is past. (Be Your Best Self [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1979], 117, 121-122, 126, 131; see President Kimball’s extensive exposition on “procrastination”; for the more earnest reader, consider how seriously Church leaders have applied an interpretation of the parable of the ten virgins to the Church)

Time! The plight of mortality: “The future is something that everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is” (C.S. Lewis). Or: “We seem free to move around in space at will, but in time we are like helpless rafters in a mighty stream, propelled into the future at the rate of one second per second” (J. Richard Gott III, Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time [Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001], 4-5). God, if not outside of space-time in ways we couldn’t dream of comprehending, is at least the very Master of it. (So it’s not “Einstein’s universe.”) Furthermore, there’s little need for physical travel through time for one who is master of all possibilities, or when under the workings of the Spirit our own minds may just as easily traverse such distance (if that’s an adequate term for something which has neither temporal constraints nor geographical boundaries, and requires considerable expansion of the understanding).

We mere mortals are prone to let the pundits of modernity define our lives for us. We depend upon technological advances to wow us into thinking it’s amazing what we can do nowadays. God could do it all along, and we are only enabled to do so at His sufferance. (Need I whip out the quotes about our progress of the last couple of centuries being a sign of the times?) Practically all of holy utterance is scrapped because it contradicts—as my Nibley quote in the previous entry somewhat alluded to—the picture painted by puny mortals trapped in the trend and tempo of the present. With information more available and less desired, we are squelching a certain degree of imagination, and this contributes to precluding personal revelation. Look to the giver of every good gift! (See Moroni 10:18-19.)

I recall a neuroscience major roommate of mine who appreciated my sharing this thought:

His [Father's] method of conveying intelligence is far more rapid than that of light. Light, how slow! Only 185,000 miles in a second. It would take three and a half years at that rate for light to come from one of the nearest fixed stars. A long time to wait, especially if you were in a hurry to get an answer to any message you may send; you would have to wait three and a half years for the message to go, and probably for the same time, for the returning answer. Now, the Lord has powers beyond those with which we are acquainted. (Orson Pratt, JD, 19:294)

In the movie K-Pax, an individual tells the incredulous psychiatrist that he has traveled faster than light a distance of something like eleven (?) light years. He then has to correct the psychiatrist, saying it would have taken eleven (?) years if he’d only traveled at the speed of light. That fictional conversation illuminates the need for something that the correct definition of the light of Christ answers, a medium by which Heavenly Father instantaneously communicates with the entire universe (see D&C 88:4-13). That light came into the world and was rejected by it, and in large measure still is.

Surprisingly, in light of my lack of left brain, my mind once opened up, however briefly, to much of what physics describes as time travel. What if both components of this process (e.g., “time” and “travel”) were rendered obsolete by the eternal processes at work? What if energy is matter, and the mode of universe operation is organization? Science is currently undergoing lots of rethinking in relation to matter and energy. We have the assurance (D&C 131:7), with special reference to spiritual bodies, that “there is no such thing as immaterial matter.” We also know that inanimate objects are clearly animated with spiritual forces beyond the possibility of measurement by scientific instruments, and that these heed God’s commands even when man doesn’t! (The bestowal of sentience, upon beings described as being intelligences themselves, apparently does not guarantee what I’ve long called the ultimate form of intelligence: obedience.) But what I want to discuss is time usage, not evasion. I also steer away from the closest thing to speculation in which I ever engage. All I will add is a quotation with strong bearing upon my considerations of this topic:

Fortunately, a limited understanding of the physics of helium does not constrain its lifting power. But an improved understanding does enhance one's ability to tap into that lifting power. So it is with faith. The lifting, buoying, saving power of faith in Christ that can be accessed by believing children and believing adults is not constrained by the level of our understanding. Thus I firmly believe that if we will hold to the string of faith and reach out for our Heavenly Father's hand we will be lifted into heaven. (Stephen D. Nadauld, Justified by Faith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2001], 2)

“Time only is measured unto men” (Alma 40:8), but the feature that makes our timed labors really matter is this: “it was appointed unto men that they must die; and after death, they must come to judgment, even that same judgment of which we have spoken, which is the end” (Alma 12:27). How awful it would be to finally escape time and death, both temporary conditions, but never more be able to escape your own torment of soul!

I like how this one man, in agreement with scripture of which he was unaware, captured that scenario:

Think whether, when the Bible says anything about your soul, it means this mysterious being that you call "I." . . .

Then realize that whether you exalt or degrade it, it is with you for ever. YOU CAN NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GET AWAY FROM YOURSELF. You will be the very same self after death as before. (J. Paterson-Smyth, The Gospel of the Hereafter [New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1910], 27-28)

Hence the importance of these scriptural words:

And the wicked shall go away into unquenchable fire, and their end no man knoweth on earth, nor ever shall know, until they come before me in judgment.

Hearken ye to these words. Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Treasure these things up in your hearts, and let the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds.

Be sober. Keep all my commandments. Even so. Amen. (D&C 43:33-35; see D&C 76:40-49)

Many, many prophets have counseled that we are already in eternity. That sort of perspective can’t help but have a profound impact upon one’s acts. Does the thought of the veil literally being lifted to disclose that God’s eyes are upon us do anything for one’s motives? I have said many times that the real and utmost importance of the sealing power is that it makes things eternal in what we perceive as a trap of entropy. For weal or woe, some sort of future state will become eternal for us, whether we are sealed unto the fate of the devil (Alma 34:35) by our own consistently poor choices or unto eternal lives by the Holy Spirit of promise.

It appears that I tackled a portion of this subject in 1993, in an understandably juvenile fashion:

In the six thousand years or so since Adam's fall, one of the single most important factors upon human life has been time.

Given time, all governments will change or fall, worlds will pass away and worlds will be created anew. . . .

It is simply impossible for us to conceive the notion of never ending, and especially never beginning.

In an effort to preserve our sanity, we established a system by which we measured a small allotment of eternity. We set forth days, months, years, and millennia. Thus we note the passage of time.

But all is the same to God. While we live and die throughout the centuries, very little seems to have occurred from the immortal side. He sees no need in determining the elapsement of time, since it has no hold on him. There is no fear in heaven of anything ever decaying or ending.

I wrote the following on 05/18/96:

Lasting happiness can only come from lasting preparations and holds only with lasting principles. What can the chaos about us offer that will still be here in 10 billion years? . . . Even if Satan managed to continually renew the interest in such evil through the generations, God would not suffer it to carry on for so long. Our world will soon fulfill its purpose, and then where will many of these people find themselves?

Back to a prophet, for eternal perspective . . . .

I will give you a figure that brother Hyde had in a dream. He had been thinking a great deal about time and eternity; he wished to know the difference, but how to understand it he did not know. He asked the Lord to show him, and after he had prayed about it the Lord gave him a dream, at least I presume He did, or permitted it so to be, at any rate he had a dream; his mind was opened so that he could understand time and eternity. He said that he thought he saw a stream issuing forth from a misty cloud which spread upon his right and upon his left, and that the stream ran past him and entered the cloud again. He was told that the stream was time, that it had no place where it commenced to run, neither was there any end to its running; and that the time which he was thinking about and talking about, what he could see between the two clouds, was a portion of or one with that which he could not perceive.

So it is with you and I; here is time, where is eternity? It is here, just as much as anywhere in all the expanse of space; a measured space of time is only a part of eternity.

We have a short period of duration allotted to us, and we call it time. (Brigham Young, JD, 3:367)

Tolstoy reduced it to laughable simplicity:

"Why is it hard to imagine eternity?" asked Natasha. "There's today, there will be tomorrow, and forever; and there was yesterday, and the day before. . . ." (War and Peace, trans. Ann Dunnigan [New York, New York: Signet Classic, 1968; orig. 1869], 632)

Indeed, why so hard when we continually strive to please a Holy Being who is the same (stated in many verses) “yesterday, today, and forever”? That stability certainly wins my admiration, confidence, and devotion for His perfect system of laws, not to mention the happiness that derives therefrom. My faith therein has often been fortified since at least the tender age of four, and one journal entry (07/26/95) attests:

I have obtained the Holy Ghost, and my most solemn thoughts are opening up worlds of pondering and joy. I can be saved through Christ, the Atoning One! The universe is open to all who would obey God. I simply cannot express how I feel on this paper. . . . I cannot understand a life without the vision that I have now.

It is only one feature or another of mortality (whether our own or others’, or God’s specific plans for this mortal real estate) that ever places a limitation upon what we can do. “All things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).

I’ve had occasion to contemplate a television show—not truly adapted for spiritual reflection, though I seem to insist on it—and many of its plot elements. It leaves one pondering about the effect that we might have upon a hideous future (in our case, that preceding a day great and dreadful enough in itself), with arguments landing upon neither determinism nor fatalism. Knowing precise details about impending events scarcely makes a difference when people will not listen or prepare, so God often forebears from heaping further condemnation upon the deaf.

In reality, too certain a knowledge would paralyze some. Elder Joseph F. Merrill stated, “If we were assured of success we probably would be less deserving of success, the reasons being readily apparent; and if we knew that discouragements, troubles, and failures awaited us we would likely lose heart, thus making these adversities more severe. A moment’s thought will convince us that it is best as it is—that a kind Providence wisely withholds our future from us” (MS, 96:8). Small wonder that Isaiah referred to his “burden.”

Much like the show’s unique storyline, there are momentous events that we cannot avert. (At some point in coming days I’ll locate the reference for Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith expressing dismay at the commonly taught idea that by our actions we can sway the Lord’s mind as to when He comes.) The question, in a universe where the worth of every soul is great, is how many people we can help change before the inevitable strikes. I often view the future as something like hardening cement, with many markers driven indelibly deep into the ground. Prophecies are given in generalities, with the Lord being more sparing as to how He reveals individuals’ places. Some prophecies are conditional; many are not. As the show also recognizes, the voice of warning tends to get one ousted, committed, or worse. “You may go into any court in the world and say, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ and they will kick you out. Try it and see” (John Taylor, JD, 5:188).

To quote from a Persian in Herodotus again: “No one would believe us, however true our warning. This is the worst pain a man can have: to know much and have no power to act” (The Histories, trans. Aubrey de Selincourt [London: Penguin Books, 1996], 504). Whether commanded to preach (3:2-3) or forbidden to do so (1:17), Mormon certainly felt helpless (3:16).

With some hesitation, for fear that personal, practically private, musings may be mistaken for public assertions, I’ll share a dream of mine (December 2000) that exposed me to some inkling of what that feeling of frustration must be like:

I detected so many evil spirits that my head was buzzing and I was almost brought to my knees. Everyone ignored my pleas that we depart from the awful place. They just wanted to gaze in the pit. . . . I looked away fearfully and saw someone walking on the valley floor. This man was in a fine black suit and I knew him instantly as Lucifer himself. . . . I anxiously told this to my companions, but they simply responded like, "We don't see any devil. You're annoying us. Stop it." . . . Then they began to feel an otherworldly influence. They were terrified and called out for me to help them. I said something to the effect of, "I can't help you now. It will be all I can do to get myself out of here." I exerted all my spiritual force to beat a hasty retreat.

It’s pretty painful, but I’d still contend a worse pain would be to know much and not warn, or, worst by far, to know much and not even act for ONESELF upon that knowledge.

Speaking of a mortal condition becoming eternal, I discovered for myself the recommendable majesty of Dickens’ Christmas Carol. One passage serves as dramatic warning to the careless, while further helping me to harp on using our agency while in mortality:

Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face.

'Mercy!' he said. 'Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?'

'Man of the worldly mind!' replied the Ghost [Jacob Marley], 'do you believe in me or not?'

'I do,' said Scrooge. 'I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?'

'It is required of every man,' the Ghost returned, 'that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world--oh, woe is me!--and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!'

Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands.

'You are fettered,' said Scrooge, trembling. 'Tell me why?'

'I wear the chain I forged in life,' replied the Ghost. 'I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?' . . .

'Jacob,' he said imploringly. 'Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!'

'I have none to give,' the Ghost replied. 'It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more, is all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house—mark me!—in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!' . . .

'Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,' cried the phantom, 'not to know, that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I'

'But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

'Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. 'Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!' . . .

Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked out.

The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.

At one time I was actively admiring the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, acquiring newfound respect for Raoul Wallenberg, and not even attempting to repress disgust over such facts as provided in, for one, While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (Wiesenthal talks about all of Europe looking the other way, when they must have known what was going on.)

With surprising ferocity, I wished that I could go back and at least be one more person against the tide of evil which fomented the Holocaust. Then it came to me that the participants of that day will all go to their corresponding reward; the past must lie where it is. God already made every provision. Ours is the battle of the future, and the war is still on! (I hope this wasn’t remotely akin to those saying they’d die for former prophets but wouldn’t for the current one.) My desire became to join the ranks of those to “foil Satan’s best-laid plans.” Thanks to a great mother, I’ve been constantly reminded of the obligation to resist evil heedless of apparent outcome, since many a time she’s told me to remember that Abinadi didn’t even know he’d made a difference.

Still, it is characteristic of Satanic whisperings to argue against the possibility of change, in our own lives or others’. The captain of our salvation makes it otherwise. In his frequently reiterated message, we may read Elder Richard G. Scott’s hope:

The Savior gave His life that even the most serious transgressions can be overcome and an individual can be made new, clean, and pure through repentance and obedience to the Lord’s commandments. To believe otherwise would be to deny the power of the Atonement of our Savior. (Ensign, Jun. 1997, 55)

Yes, in a chilling assessment, Satan even makes his own prophecies and actively seeks to carry them out (see Heber J. Grant, Gospel Standards, 364, for but one example along lines I don’t have time to develop). It may just be that frequently only the living, active power of the true gospel of Jesus Christ is sufficient to rebuke such demonic design.

Let’s serve as forward-looking time travelers, realizing that present choices have eternal consequences. Whether you know little or much, you DO know the future: prepare accordingly. Arm yourself even as you move at sixty minutes an hour toward appointed events. The victory has already been obtained through Jesus Christ, and He has empowered us with so much. Myriads of prophets foresaw what should befall the inhabitants of the earth “unto the latest generation,” at which time there shall be time no longer, and their accounts are written with useful clarity. Modern revelation helps us understand exactly how to combat the evils unleashed at this particular segment of time. We have been given every needful thing—we must simply prepare, and act at the same time. Fear is our adversary’s weapon, continually directed against those willing to step up to the challenges ahead.

The Prophet Joseph Smith wrote with a sort of poetic rapture (TJS, 595):

When I contemplate the rapidity with which the great and glorious day of the coming of the Son of Man advances, when He shall come to receive His Saints unto Himself, where they shall dwell in His presence, and be crowned with glory and immortality. . . . I cry out in my heart, What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness!

In winding down this agitated tone of discourse, I return to where I started: a sense of guilt. As a result of my recent poor time management, I’ve slackened in some duties for which I had to account today.

I feel, frequently, that if we would go about doing our duties properly and fully, that somehow out of the small as well as the great experiences of our lives would crystallize the great thing for us, the thing that we most need. I cannot understand eternal life any other way. I do my duty, little by little, day by day, year by year, and then the Lord takes the deeds of my life, and as we use bricks in the building of a house, he builds for me eternal life. We may have forgotten that, at times, in our eagerness to accomplish. (John A. Widtsoe, CR, Apr. 1935, 81)

Six days a week the devil works,
Works overtime on Sunday.
And then is ready once again
To go to work on Monday.
And if all evil we would shun
And keep our conscience level,
We must get up at early dawn
And work--like the devil. (used in William H. Bennett, "Make the Best Better," BYU Speeches of the Year, 14 Jul 1970, 3)

I’m piecing together a great number of clippings from one of President Joseph Fielding Smith’s books, again mostly for his clearness of style, which does not vary from the other prophets in information. The reader may skip over it if in some strange likelihood putting up with such wonderful paragraphs would fatigue them too much to read the conclusion.

It is, of course, a gloomy picture; but is it not the duty of the elders of Israel to speak of these things with warning voice? Shall we close our eyes and our ears and seal our understandings simply because some things are unpleasant to the ear and to the eye? Shall we refuse to raise a warning voice when danger approaches? When trouble is near? When destruction is at our door? Such a course would be cowardly if we know the truth. We cannot cry “all is well” when danger lurks on every side. We must not lull the people to sleep in a false security. President Woodruff declared that “no man that is inspired by the Spirit and power of God can close his ears, his eyes, or his lips to these things!”

The cup of indignation is full and the Lord’s wrath is being poured out upon the wicked as he said it would be. Yet we are seeing only the beginnings of sorrow. The whole world needs repentance—repentance and the humble acceptance of the gospel as it has been revealed. This is all that will, or can, save the world from the destruction which awaits it. . . .

We need not “kid” ourselves into thinking that this world is growing better. If so, then the prophecies have failed. This world today is full of wickedness. That wickedness is increasing. True, there are many righteous people scattered throughout the earth, and it is our duty to search them out and give unto them the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring them out of Babylon. . . .

What is astonishing to me is the nature of some of the questions that some of the members of the Church write to me about, which, if they would turn to their Standard Works and spend just a little time studying them, they would not have to ask the questions, because they are all answered, and the Lord has given them to us. . . .

I feel that the Latter-day Saints . . . are under condemnation before the Lord because he has given us so much pertaining to our present needs and our salvation, and yet the great majority of us, if I have the right understanding of us, we don’t study, and we don’t hunt for these things and we don’t know about them, and so we are in danger—danger of being led astray. . . .

We are in a wicked world. I know there are good people in the world, yes. But the Lord says it is wicked, and if he says it is wicked, I think maybe I can, too, and I think it is getting more so every day. We have many responsibilities, but none of them to cause us to neglect our homes. . . .

I get quite a number of letters from people who don’t want to observe the Sabbath day, and they are trying to find excuses and loopholes so they won’t have to keep the commandment. It isn’t a grievous commandment to keep. The Lord never gave us a commandment which was hard to keep. I have heard people say it is hard to keep the commandments of the Lord. I don’t want to confess a thing like that. I don’t want to say his commandments are hard to keep. They are not hard for anyone to keep if they make up their minds to keep them. And in keeping them, they get great joy and satisfaction. And the pleasure and happiness that comes from the keeping of those commandments is far greater than the little pleasure they get out of breaking them. . . .

We [my good brethren] were discussing a few days ago the power of Satan. We were discussing about our Savior—and somebody asked the question: Does Satan really know that in the end he is going to lose? Then someone raised another question: Well, if he is sure he is going to lose, he would give up the struggle. We had quite a discussion. Then one of our brethren said, “He already has 90 per cent of the people who have lived on the face of the earth.” We have all been on his side, or nearly, at times. You stood out and opposed him in the spirit world. He has captured most of the inhabitants of the world and perhaps he thinks that when the final war comes he will be strong enough to win the battle. I wonder if he does!

I think he is here this afternoon, so I am going to tell him that he is going to lose the battle. He is usually with us, he is right in the way. That’s one thing we ought to learn—that his forces are organized and he would rather destroy a member of this Church than anyone else on the face of the earth, and he has a force big enough to send a legion after any one of us if he thought it took that many. Don’t think he is sleeping and has lost any of his energy, whether he knows he is going to lose eventually or not. That matters little. But it does matter much whether we are going to be on his side or on the side of Jesus Christ. . . .

Satan today is busier than he has ever been in the history of this world. He is filled with more hate and rage and determination, in my judgment, than ever before. Now John saw this and spoke of it. It is recorded in the Book of Revelation that this would be the case, and that he would put forth his efforts with greater vigor because he knows he has but a short time. . . .

We have reached a stage in our history, according to my understanding—and I have had some experience through the years—that the fashions of the world and the things and the pleasures of the world find more place in the hearts of members of the Church than ever before. I would like to have somebody point out to me that I was wrong, but I don’t think they can. Many of our young people are growing up with the love of the world in their hearts, and the fashions of the world and following of the world. . . .

The children of the Latter-day Saints today are becoming rebellious and disobedient, and I think it is largely due to the fact that there is neglect of the responsibility the Lord has placed upon us to be exercised in the home. . . .

In the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 86, it says: “He that seeketh me early shall find me, and shall not be forsaken.”

Procrastination as it may be applied to the gospel is the thief of eternal life, which is the life in the presence of the Father and the Son. There are many among us who feel that there is no need for haste in the observance of the gospel principles and the keeping of the commandments. We are living in the last days. Bad habits are easily formed. They are not so easily broken. . . . Do we expect that our bodies will be cleansed in the grave and we shall come forth with perfect and sanctified bodies in the resurrection? . . .

One of the greatest responsibilities that is ever entrusted to any human being is that of building his own personality. The chief business of our lives is to build a house that will bear the weight of eternal life. . . .

The greatest waste in mortal life is that men love evil instead of righteousness. We come to this world to be tried and proved to see if we will keep the commandments when we are shut out of the divine presence. Most human beings live below their possibilities. Mortal life is short at best. It is, however, the life in which we prepare for eternity. . . .

The words of the prophets are rapidly being fulfilled, but it is done on such natural principles that most of us fail to see it. . . .

If the great and dreadful day of the Lord was near at hand when Elijah came, we are just one century nearer it today. But some will say: “But no! Elijah, you are wrong! Surely 136 years have passed, and are we not better off today than ever before? Look at our discoveries, our inventions, our knowledge and our wisdom! Surely you made a mistake!” . . .

Is not the condition among the people today similar to that in the day of Noah? Did the people believe and repent then? Can you make men, save with few exceptions[,] believe today that there is any danger? Do you believe the Lord when he said 136 years ago:

[D&C 1:35.]
[Ibid., 99:5.]
[Ibid., 1:12-13.]
[JS-M 1:34.]

Shall we slumber on in utter oblivion or indifference to all that the Lord has given us as warning? I say unto you,

[Matt. 24:42-44.]

(Take Heed to Yourselves! [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1966], 182, 207, 243, 263, 278-279, 304-305, 353-354, 413-415, 428, 431-433)

President Monson will also help me close this entry (and I additionally hope the way I word that sounds more like deference to him than misusing him):

One writer said that the door of history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. If we were to apply that maxim to our lives, we could say that we are the result of many small decisions. In effect, we are the product of our choices. We must develop the capacity to recall the past, to evaluate the present, and to look into the future in order to accomplish in our lives what the Lord would have us do. (Ensign, Nov. 2007, 59)

Such would seem to be an invitation to keep past, present, and future continually before us (see D&C 130:7) in imitation of our Father in heaven.

This joined several other talks that stressed the importance of taking action now to reap benefits in eternity. Our stake president refers to prophetic priorities. I snatch just such a phrase from Wilford Woodruff (DWW, 103, 260): “We have no time to waste.”

Last of all, since my call to action was already abundantly enunciated, I append two pertinent statements that President Monson made in the October 2000 Conference:

Inscribed on the wall of Stanford University Memorial Church is this truth, that we must teach our youth that all that is not eternal is too short, and all that is not infinite is too small.

President Gordon B. Hinckley emphasized our responsibilities when he declared: “In this work there must be commitment. There must be devotion. We are engaged in a great struggle that concerns the very souls of the sons and daughters of God. We are not losing. We are winning. We will continue to win if we will be faithful and true. . . . There is nothing the Lord has asked of us that in faith we cannot accomplish.”

We cannot call back time that is past, we cannot stop time that now is, and we cannot experience the future in our present state. Time is a gift, a treasure not to be put aside for the future but to be used wisely in the present.