Stapler

Basically, I can't think of a good title for a post right now.  So that's the subject upon which my eyes rested - the stapler.

 

Enjoyed church yesterday - made myself go to Sunday School.  No, actually I had determined not to go, but to find some quiet corner and sort out all of the scraps of paper in my purse and make up a to do list to start organizing my life.  But after Sacrament meeting, I couldn't find a way to not go to Sunday School without looking like a total slacker.  i had to just keep walking right on into the classroom.  The Sunday School president even talked directly to me about going to class (he was gently trying to get people to go to the less attended class room).  So there I was in Sunday School, even though I had determined to be apostate.  It was a good thing.  There are times when I just don't want to go and then I do and I always feel good about it.  As opposed to the times when I don't go and instead feel guilty for not going.  Then there are the times when I have a really good reason not to go - family things and such.  I don't feel guilty then.  I'm blabbering.  I think maybe I should title this blog "Stream of Conscious."

 

I had a fun insight though in Sunday School.  We were studying Doctrine and Covenants (i hate it when people say "Dee and See" because that's medical lingo for Dilation and Cuterage which just is uncomfortable to think about)  section 136 where Brigham Young receives a revelation before the Saints set out upon the westward trek.  One of the first things that the Lord says is that the poepl need to make a covenant to obey the laws and statutes of the Lord.  The teacher asks what that could mean - why the Lord would put that first. 

The lawyer in me saw something that never occurred to me before:  these people were purposely leaving the jurisdiction of the U.S. and of any other governing body.  In the trek, there were going to be problems, accidents and conflicts and they would have no recourse to any sort of legal system - no personal injury lawyers or judges where they were going.  And so it was critical that they agree to follow the Laws of God in order to avoid and to resolve the inevitable conflicts.  Otherwise there is the danger of rule by violence and/or anarchy, instead of the rule of law. 

It reminded me of the pilgrims on the Mayflower who created the Mayflower compact before landing in an area they considered to be outside the jurisdiction of the English law.  They knew that the rule of law is critical.  I'm assuming they did the compact the way they did because of the "strangers" among them who wouldn't so easily agree to a religious covenant with a bunch of freaky puritans.

In church it is so easy to get used to using these very general spiritual type words and metaphors.  That is good because then it's easier for each person to think of their unique situations and have the whole group be able to apply what's being taught.  But in my mind, the gospel is a practical everyday thing.  God cares about the wagon axles and the bad hair days and everything that we care about.  The gospel applies to everything - specifically.  God cares about these trivial things that we care about because he cares about us becoming good.  In as much as something trivial affects our character, affects what kind of person we are, God cares about it.  And so when He gives us commandments, it's not trivial.  He's telling us what we need to do, even with the things that we classify as trivial, in order to become the people he wants.  So His laws apply to the practical every day things like returning what you borrow and if you don't tell your "creditor" why; like not begin jealous of the good things that others have. 

I'm really rambling.  If I had more time I'd make this make more sense, but lunch is almost over and I have to spend brain juice figuring out to make a 12(b)(6) motion make sense.

Cheers!

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