The Gospel of Christ During a New Normal (YSA 229th Ward, March 2021)

Personal Introduction

By way of introduction, my name is Bryan Tanner.

• 30 years ago, I was a kid in Redmond, WA; I lived just down the street from Microsoft campus and the U.S. HQ for Nintendo.
• 20 years ago, I was a freshman here at BYU, positive that I was going to revolutionize the biotech industry.
• 10 years ago, I got my first big-boy job in a completely different field, creating learning experiences for companies—first for the Air Force, and then for Church HQ. That obviously didn’t work out because a few years later, I came back to BYU as a student. I attended a South Provo ward in this stake. (For those doing the math, yes, President Hansen was Stake President at the time.)
• 2.5 years ago, I married my dream girl and we have a baby boy on the way. Last week, I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation on a potential model to help people in my field transition from academia into the business world.

Purpose

I’m grateful for this brief moment I have to be with you. I believe that the Spirit will help me to share those things that I know He knows you need most. The purpose of my talk is to encourage you to optimistically pursue your eternal potential by applying 6 principles from President Nelson’s October 2020 Conference talk, A New Normal.

Despite it being a short “temple-reveal” talk, President Nelson crammed some pretty powerful doctrine. Referring primarily to the effects of COVID on our standard discipleship routines, He said,

“Despite the world’s commotion, the Lord would have us . . . not spin our wheels in the memories of yesterday. The gathering of Israel moves forward. The Lord Jesus Christ directs the affairs of His Church, and it will achieve its divine objectives. The challenge for you and me is to make certain that each of us will achieve his or her divine potential. Today we often hear about ‘a new normal.’ If you really want to embrace a new normal, I invite you to turn your heart, mind, and soul increasingly to our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Let that be your new normal (emphasis added).

Sisters and brothers, you can embrace your new normal by doing the following 6 things:

1. repenting daily. 

2. Seek to be increasingly pure in thought, word, and deed. 

3. Minister to others. 

4. Keep an eternal perspective. 

5. Magnify your callings. 

6. And whatever your challenges, live each day so that you are more prepared to meet your Maker.”

1. Repent Daily

Not God's approach.

Satan wants to keep us from repenting daily. One of his tools is to make us believe that living with the painful effects of sin is preferable to daily repentance. In President Nelson’s 2019 conference address titled, We Can Do Better and Be Better, he counseled,

Too many people consider repentance as punishment—something to be avoided except in the most serious circumstances. But this feeling of being penalized is engendered by Satan. He tries to block us from looking to Jesus Christ, who stands with open arms, hoping and willing to heal, forgive, cleanse, strengthen, purify, and sanctify us.

Many people will do just about anything to avoid pain; especially so for those who may have felt unsafe sharing their negative emotions. LDS scholars, Terryl and Fiona Givens, wrote in their 2020 book, All Things New that the language we use to talk about sin is a barrier to healing:

Penance has the same root as penal and penalty—the Latin peonalis, which means “pertaining to punishment.” Underlying this sacrament of penance, then, is the rationale that sin is primarily an offense committed against God and that a penalty must be paid to obtain pardon” for that offense . . . How dreadful that an invitation to change one’s heart became instead a demand for punishment” (p. 120).

Our stake presidency gets it. President Hansen, a professional therapist, just taught us this morning in a high council training that we ought to challenge the Calvinist view that repentance equates to pain. Traditionally, the role of an LDS bishop and stake president in the 1970-90s is to facilitate “godly sorrow” by selecting the appropriate torture device for us, thereby disconnecting us from the blessings we need most—typically, depriving them of the sacrament and the temple. As a result, young adults moving around Provo play “bishop roulette” and have to gauge whether or not to be truthful regarding the heavy weight they carry. If they do not feel safe, they’ll find a way to justify their sin a while longer. If they do trust their priesthood leader not to upbraid them, as the boy Joseph trusted in God before seeking forgiveness in the Sacred Grove, they might, finally, cast their burdens on the Lord. Repentance is not about pain; it’s about clearing the pathway for connection with the Savior and others. "Sex, drugs, and rock & roll" is all about altering our emotional state. The reason we turn to sin is that we want to escape the bad feelings that already exist inside us. We don’t sin because we are bad people; we do things because we want to feel differently.

The purpose of the Bishop and Stake President in facilitating the repentance process is not to help us really feel the pain "required for repentance." Suffering is in the sin, not the correction of it. These priesthood leaders are there to help us increase our connection with the Savior and with others. When Christ called his 12 disciples in the ancient Americans, he counseled them on how to help guide people to come unto Him: 

Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them (3 Nephi 18:32).

Jesus Christ is the Great Healer. John 3:16-17 teaches us Christ's mortal part in the Great Plan of Happiness:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

In Koine Greek, a closer translation of the phrase sōthē or would be saved could be made safe, well, or healed. I testify that He stands ready to heal our every pain and sorrow. The only condition is our willingness to vulnerably be seen in our imperfection. His powerful arm is outstretched, not to strike down, but to lift up.

Aside: another terrific resource on repentance (if you appreciate metaphors), is The Great Divorce, my favorite C.S. Lewis novel.

2. Seek to Be Increasingly Pure

"...when I have grown a foot or two."

When surrounded by such incredible people in Provo, it can be easy to feel pressured to measure up; that we are never enough. Professor Brad Wilcox, in a 2011 BYU Devotional entitled, His Grace Is Sufficient, shared a story about a born-again Christian friend who said to him, “You Mormons are trying to earn your way to heaven.” And Brad said, “No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.”

In his April 2018 address, Until Seventy Times Seven, Elder Lynn G. Robbins taught: “Repentance isn’t [God’s] backup plan in the event we might fail. Repentance is His plan, knowing that we will.” Imperfection is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I believe the more we embrace the reality (and inevitability) of our imperfection, the more ready we will feel to turn to Christ for healing.

For me, daily repentance looks like joyfully waking up, knowing that I’ll never be enough to earn heaven. I’m just excited to grow that day in my personal discipleship with the goal of learning heaven.

3. Minister to Others

Serving others… The difference Between Heaven and Hell.

Ministering during COVID can be hard. The pandemic has been the perfect excuse for those of us with social anxiety to not reach out to people. Here’s an idea for those who are looking for new ways to minister: vulnerably reach out to those to whom you minister (or your ministers) and let them know what kind of contact you prefer and ask their preference in return.  Once the logistics are out of the way, the new modes of connection naturally fall into place.

I’ll share a personal example that may be a little extreme, but it illustrates what a “new normal” looks like for me: I minister to one brother who moved to Seattle to intentionally get “lost in the system.” He refuses to give me his residential address or return any Church-related texts, but I’ve subscribed to his Goodreads account and leave friendly comments on the stuff he’s been reading.

Helping others is what heaven is all about.  In The Happiness Contagion by Harry Bridgeman, fellow author, Gretta Brooker Palmer was quoted as saying, “Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.” Perhaps one of the greatest we can offer others struggling in these COVID times is to ask them how they feel and listen as they attempt to process their complex set of emotions.

4. Keep an Eternal Perspective

Creator: Andy Reynolds | Credit: Getty Images

[Bear testimony about the blessings I’ve received when focused on my eternal horizon. E.g., my self-worth is not dependent on my academic achievements.]

Aside: One of my favorite happiness quotes comes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

5. Magnify your Callings

If you have been using the pandemic as an excuse to not magnify your calling, may I suggest that you stop it? 

If you will forgive a video game analogy, incessantly praying for life to return to normal (life before the pandemic) is like finally making it to the underwater level in Mario, and then rage quitting after repeatedly running into those squid things because the physics are different than what you have been used to in the previous world.

We are smart, independent people adept at solving problems. Most of us don’t have any kids, and we do have plenty of personal time. Not to call out anyone calling in particular, but for example, I believe in the Sunday Munch & Mingle committee’s ability to find ways to gather Israel without munching or mingling. We all have been given the glorifying opportunity to creatively reimagine our church callings and responsibilities. This new normal forces us to reexamine the purposes behind our callings and not just fall back on routine and tradition.

6. Live Each Day so you are More Prepared to Meet your Maker

In the same 2011 BYU devotional mentioned above, Brother Wilcox also shared this idea regarding one's personal desire to change:

The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home but that—miraculously—we can feel at home there. If Christ did not require faith and repentance, then there would be no desire to change. Think of your friends and family members who have chosen to live without faith and without repentance. They don’t want to change. They are not trying to abandon sin and become comfortable with God. Rather, they are trying to abandon God and become comfortable with sin. If Jesus did not require covenants and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, then there would be no way to change . . .. Put simply, if Jesus didn’t require practice, then we would never become pianists.

While "practice makes perfect" is true, I find that that mindset is not a helpful focus in achieving our ultimate goal of exaltation. Why? Because we are not on earth to practice perfection; we will never be perfect here despite our Sysiphian efforts. Rather, we are here to develop our relationship with the Savior. And improvement is a natural consequence of closeness to Him. It's all about relationships. Heaven is less of a place as it is a way of relating to one another.

Conclusion

As we optimistically pursue our eternal potential in this new moment in mortality, the prophet has offered us the following blessing:

I bless you to be filled with the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. His peace is beyond all mortal understanding. I bless you with an increased desire and ability to obey the laws of God. I promise that as you do, you will be showered with blessings, including greater courage, increased personal revelation, sweeter harmony in your homes, and joy even amid uncertainty.

The future of the Lord’s church is secure. This is not a concern. Rather, we ought to tend to our own eternal potential, and invite others to enjoy the blessings of gospel living along the way. As we look forward with faith, and find creative ways to gather Israel, I know that we will not only find peace and happiness here on earth, but we will feel at home when we stand before God.