Embracing Spiritual Resilience and Unity Amidst Modern Challenges - Episode 7

What if nurturing a spiritual life amidst the chaos of modern existence could be as pivotal as the very air we breathe? Join Todd Andrewsen on Your Spirit by Design as he shares personal insights on the parallels between the ancient fall of the Roman Empire and contemporary societal challenges. This episode is inspired by President Russell M. Nelson’s powerful message on unity and spiritual resilience. Todd examines how a personal relationship with God can be fostered even with a hectic schedule and explores the necessity of conversion to Christ to build unity and strengthen testimonies, emphasizing that harmony can be achieved by valuing love over uniformity.

In the quest for national unity and spiritual growth, Todd delves into the importance of staying true to foundational principles like the Constitution, the golden rule, and the Ten Commandments, echoing the insights of President Nelson. As societal divisions threaten the stability of not just the United States but the Western world at large, Todd highlights how collective change and a deep commitment to love and support can counteract this threat. He invites listeners to reflect on these transformative ideas and to share them if they resonate, fostering a community that strives towards overcoming divisiveness and embracing a path of spiritual growth and unity.

Chapters

• 0:11 Unity in Spiritual Design
• 18:00 National Unity and Spiritual Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

This is Todd Andrewson, with your Spirit by Design. Yes, your Spirit by Design. For those of you that are busy, sometimes can't make it to church because of your work schedule or whatever, my goal is to help you figure out how to design the spiritual life that you want so that you can have a relationship with your Lord and Savior. And Savior, I know, normally I release these early in the day. It is now almost midnight on Friday, the 4th of October, and I still hadn't recorded the podcast. Yet I am in, still hadn't recorded the podcast, yet I am in Wisconsin. Wisconsin, I know, Because as a pilot, I travel all over the place. I've been flying all day today, so I just didn't have time to record an episode. So, but I've been thinking about what I wanted to talk about all week, because there's so much going on, so much distraction, so much destruction, so much frustration.

Speaker 1: 1:35

Funnily enough, the prophet of the Mormon church, president Russell M Nelson, wrote an article in this month's Liahona magazine and what he talks about is very important for us. Going to go over some points that he said, because it doesn't matter if you're a Mormon Christian, which Mormons are, christian Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it doesn't matter if you're a member of the LDS Church. If you're trying to build your spirituality, improve your spiritual life, this is, the ideas that I'm going to talk about today are valid for you. So he wrote. We live in an age when a surging tide of discord and disputation is spreading across the globe, aided by technology and abetted by people whose hearts have waxed cold. These divine divisive forces threaten to fill our hearts with contempt and corrupt our communication with contention. Communal ties are breaking, wars are raging. Does that not sound like what's going on? I mean contention, division, divisiveness, wars are raging around the world in one way or another, and it's hard, if you're um a believer and trying to build your spiritual life, to navigate this cultural division that is going on and not lose your soul because you're trying to become better. Right, that's what I'm trying to do. That's because you're trying to become better. Right, that's what I'm trying to do. That's what you're trying to do. So what are some ways that we can work on this? So the Lord has given us the answer, and it is to be one. And if you are not one, you're not mine. You are not one, you are not mine. How many times did Christ say I'm in the Father and the Father in me, and we are one. What he's talking about is unity, unity of purpose. It is a hallmark of the Church of Jesus Christ. So how do we work against the forces of division and contention? How do we achieve unity? Those are questions that were asked. We have several good examples.

Speaker 1: 4:31

I mean I was just, but before I get to that I was thinking about, I had a discussion with the captain I was flying with today and I know you're not really supposed to talk about politics, and we weren't. We were talking about history, about politics, and we were talking about history. We were talking about the and I was explaining to him an article. I had heard video of a talk I had heard that discussed the history of the fall of the Roman Empire and how, in the last days of the Roman Empire, there were like these 10 or 15 things that happened. They turned away from God. They had wars in all sorts of places. They were dividing themselves within. They sought pleasure over everything else. They spent money like there was no tomorrow. In fact, their money was devalued. They spent money like there was no tomorrow. In fact, their money was devalued. The historians wrote that they couldn't tell the difference between men and women anymore in the capital, because they were dressing like the women and they were trying to get out of going to join the army. The youth of the Roman nation were, and so all of these things precipitated the fall of Rome, and you can see many of those things we have been going through in our country today.

Speaker 1: 6:01

So the divisiveness, all of this leads us to a precipice. What, though, can we do to combat this? And the word is, it's unity. Instead of being divided, we can unite, be united. So in the Book of Mormon, there's a story after Christ came, that he established this church, and it tells about how the people achieved a blissful and peaceful unity, and it gives a pattern we can follow.

Speaker 1: 6:39

The first is conversion Conversion to Christ if you're not a believer in Christ, but conversion to God, to becoming closer to God, but in this case, since I am a Christian, conversion to Christ, strengthening your testimony of the blessings that he brings to you, repenting of your sins. We unite. The prophet Nelson says we unite around the Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. As each person learns about Jesus Christ, his gospel, his church, the Holy Ghost, witnesses of the truth of each person's heart, we can each then accept the Savior's invitation to have faith in Him and follow Him by repenting. So it's an individual journey.

Speaker 1: 7:34

You know, one of the first things that we do when trying to repent and when trying to improve is acknowledge where we've been. Acknowledge God what we have done wrong, acknowledge our faults. If we're fat, we acknowledge that we've been overeating and not exercising right. These are things that we need to do. We make covenants, we get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. We enter into a covenant or a special relationship with God, and when we make and keep covenants, we literally take upon ourselves the name of Christ. So when you take upon his name, what are we trying to do? We're trying to live better. We're trying to unite and become one of those people. Does it mean we all think the same? No, but does it mean that we love our neighbor, follow the Ten Commandments? Yes, it does. Okay. In Exodus it says that we become the Lord's people, his special treasure, in Exodus 19.5.

Speaker 1: 8:56

So another way that we become united is fairness, equality and helping the poor. So in 4 Nephi it continues. There were no contentions or disputations among them and every man did deal justly one with another and they had all things common among them. Therefore, they were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free and partakers of the heavenly gift. So the Lord wants us to be fair, not just to one another, but he wants us to be honest and not defraud each other. As we grow closer, we will not have a mind to injure one another right, and the Lord commanded us to care for the poor and needy.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Notice how he doesn't say equity. It's not equality of outcome, which is what equity stands for. It's equality meaning that we are all brothers and sisters. We are all equal in the sight of the Lord. Some will have more, their needs will be more than others, and the thing is we should impart of our substance to help those in need. Some will be given more to be able to help those that have less. Equality does not mean equity of equal outcome. It means we all have equal opportunity. And then those that are blessed with more help and are commanded to help the poor and needy.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Now the next lesson that he talks about is that we are told to be obedient, meaning to walk after and follow the commandments of God. Does that mean we're going to be perfect. No, we should strive to work every day on improving, but it doesn't mean we're going to be perfect. Our obedience, says President Nelson, to the teachings of the Lord and his servants is essential to our becoming unified. This includes our commitment to obey the commandment, to repent whenever we fall short and to help one another as we strive to do better and be better every day. You understand, we're not going to be perfect, but that's why the Lord gave us repentance. But that's why the Lord gave us repentance.

Speaker 1: 11:32

Next, we should meet together. The Romans stopped going to church, they stopped worshiping their gods and they fell. You see what's happening since the 1960s, as God and religion have been removed from the public sphere and there are more atheists today than there ever have been, society and the bonds of society are starting to collapse. Are they not to collapse? Are they not? People are not feeling that love one towards another that you have when you have a God-like society that thinks, under the guise of love, your neighbor as thyself. Right, the golden rule, ten Commandments, the reason to meet together as Christians, as members of Christ's church, we partake the sacrament, learn, pray, sing together, support one another. Our gatherings are to help foster a sense of belonging, friendship and shared purpose. How many people do you know that have kind of lost their sense of purpose? Have you lost your sense of purpose? Do you have friends that you are able to talk about gospel teachings, about religion with? If not, that may be a good place to start is find some friends that you can talk to.

Speaker 1: 13:24

Okay, the love of God is something that we need to strive to have, and President Nelson says personal peace is reached when we, in humble submissiveness, truly love God. This is the first and great commandment. Loving God more than anyone or anything else is the condition that brings true peace, comfort, confidence and joy. As we develop love of God and Jesus Christ, think about this End quote. Think about this as people remove God from their life, their love for others diminishes and they stop seeing other people as human beings, and that's when bad things happen. Charity, the pure love of Christ I'm continuing is the antidote to contention, is the principal characteristic of a true follower of Jesus. Charity, the pure love of Christ and we have to pray for charity, we have to request it, and it's this idea. It started with the golden rule, but it's based on the love of God that we have towards God and towards our fellow men, and once all that happens, we're able to get rid of the labels that divide all of us and we just become people.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Okay, diversity and differences I'm quoting the prophet again can be good and significant to us, but our most important identities are those related to our divine origin and purpose. First and foremost, each of us is a child of God. Second, as a member of the church, each of us is a child of the covenant. Third, each of us is a disciple of Jesus Christ. I urge all of us not to allow any other identifier to be one with Christ, with God the Father, with each other. And it's not by being diverse and focusing on the diversity, it's not by focusing on the things that divide us. Again, I'm just repeating myself and saying it in a different way, right, but it's in focusing on the fact that all of us are brothers and sisters of our Savior, jesus Christ. We are all brothers and sisters and we should treat each other as such, with love of God and then love of man and then love of man.

Speaker 1: 16:43

If you focus on the ideas that I just talked about, it will help you to improve not only your spirituality, but improve your dealings with other people, because if you see them as a brother and sister, not as just a non-entity, non-human, because they're different than you, the rancor and the anger and the divisiveness and the frustrations and the contention that are going on won't occur when you're one-on-one with others. Right and as. We spread that, we can only spread it in our individual lives. We can only spread it one by one. Start with the people around you and progress from there. So start with yourself and start. Make a decision to treat others with the golden rule Treat others as you would want to be treated. Start by having a love for God, repenting of your sins and following the commandments. That's a good place to start and that is where I'm going to end it.

Speaker 1: 18:00

Today I quoted a lot of President Russell M Nelson, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it's words of wisdom for all of us to live by and I hope that you take notes, because unless we change as a people and unless we stick up for the Constitution and unless we show a love for others, we will continue to divide until the country falls. I'm talking about the United States, but all of the Western world is under the same threat because of the divisiveness that has been going on. I love you all. Thank you for listening. Share. If you like what you hear, let me know. Subscribe so that you get these every Friday and improve your spiritual life, improve your relationship with God, with Jesus Christ, and, as always, have a blessed day, stay you.