SEEING TRUTH AMIDST DECEPTION

Seeing Truth Amidst Deception

I came across a simple riddle on social media yesterday, and thinking myself a fairly smart guy, I decided to take the bait and see if I could solve it.  After a bit of review, I was confident I had discerned the correct answer, but was surprised when I found I was mistaken and had been deceived.

Here is the simple riddle for you to see:

Someone’s mother has four sons.  North, South and East.  What is the name of the fourth son.  Private message me the name of the fourth son.  If you lose, you have to repost.

When I discovered I was mistaken, I decided to go ahead and share the riddle for others to see if they could see through what I had failed to see.  It was kind of an experiment to see how many would actually be able to get the correct answer.  There were many who responded, but NONE of them saw through the deception to recognize the plain truth.  And that is because the truth was so subtly hidden amidst the deception.

And there is a great lesson to be learned from this simple exercise in how the adversary attempts to deceive us in our daily walk of life.

As we look at the simple three sentence riddle, there is an obvious first choice.  With the other 3 sons named North, South and East, we would first assume the 4^th son would be named West.  But we seem to recognize this is an obvious deception, so nearly right off we don’t accept it.  Our pride kicks in and we put our logical, mortal thinking caps on.  The third sentence appears to be the question of who the son is, so we go back to the first sentence for information and come to the conclusion that the 4^th son’s name must be “Someone”.  Get it… “Someone’s” mother has four sons.  And that is the answer which I pridefully accepted and became confident in… and so did every single person who responded to the riddle when I shared it.

But the very clever deception and actual truth is hidden in plain sight within the 3^rd sentence: What is the name of the fourth son.  It is not a question at all, but a statement, with a period at the end, not a question mark.  The fourth son is named “What”.

This simple and clever deception, with the truth so plainly evident and hidden within such a short three sentences got me to thinking about how easily we can be deceived through cunning misdirection if we are not careful to recognize plain truth.

And that is often how the adversary works in our lives.  He knows we will recognize a clear deception and misdirection and will reject it and not play along.  So instead, he hides the truth amidst some subtle and clever deceptions so that we will feel the flavor of truth, but not recognize it because it is mixed in with what appears to be truth, but is actually the misdirection itself.

And having been deceived by the riddle, I then shared the deception with others who also fell victim to its snare... every single one of them who took the bait, got it wrong as well.  And thus the lie and deception was perpetuated.

There are many scriptures which warn us about the cunning deceptions of the adversary:

“O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.” (2 Nephi 9:28)

This was one of the prideful deceptions I fell prey to in the riddle.  I wanted to show I was smart and had figured it out, so in that small stroke of pride I declared my knowledge, only to find out later that I was mistaken.

“And thus we see how great the inequality of man is because of sin and transgression, and the power of the devil, which comes by the cunning plans which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men.” (Alma 28:13)

Recently Pres. Russel M. Nelson stated:

          “My dear brothers and sisters, the assaults of the adversary are increasing exponentially, in intensity and in variety.” (October 2018)

          “The long-standing objective of the Church is to assist all members to increase their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in His Atonement, to assist them in making and keeping their covenants with God, and to strengthen and seal their families. In this complex world today, this is not easy. The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually, we need counterstrategies and proactive plans.” (October 2018)

Sometimes the adversary works through others, who have succumbed to his follies, as we witness the political strife and deceptions and sleight of hand in the media in our world today:

“Yea, we see that Amalickiah, because he was a man of cunning device and a man of many flattering words, that he led away the hearts of many people to do wickedly; yea, and to seek to destroy the church of God, and to destroy the foundation of liberty which God had granted unto them…” (Alma 46:10)

James E. Faust so eloquently stated the following (which are only excerpts of his talk “Voice of the Spirit”, Sept 5, 1993):

          “The Spirit’s voice is ever present, but it is calm. The adversary tries to smother this voice with a multitude of loud, persistent, persuasive, and appealing voices:

Murmuring voices that conjure up perceived injustices.

Whining voices that abhor challenge and work.

Seductive voices offering sensual enticements.

Soothing voices that lull us into carnal security.

Intellectual voices that profess sophistication and superiority.

Proud voices that rely on the arm of flesh.

Flattering voices that puff us up with pride.

Cynical voices that destroy hope.

Entertaining voices that promote pleasure seeking.

Commercial voices that tempt us to “spend money for that which is of no worth” and/or “labor for that which cannot satisfy”.

          In your generation you will be barraged by multitudes of voices telling you how to live, how to gratify your passions, how to have it all. You will have up to five hundred television channels at your fingertips. There will be all sorts of software, interactive computer modems, databases, and bulletin boards; there will be desktop publishing, satellite receivers, and communications networks that will suffocate you with information.

           How are you possibly going to select what voices you will listen to and believe? The implications for you as individuals are staggering. To survive, you must:

          First, exercise your moral agency wisely. …Every moment demands that we choose, over and over again, between that which comes from the Lord and that which comes from the devil. As tiny drops of water shape a landscape, so our minute-by-minute choices shape our character.

          Seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; . . .

          Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ. [Moroni 7:18–19]

          You will not be able to travel through life on borrowed light. The light of life must be part of your very being. The voice you must learn to heed is the voice of the Spirit.

          I have suggested a simple solution for selecting the channel to which you will attune yourselves: Listen to and follow the voice of the Spirit. This is an ancient solution, even eternal, and may not be popular in a society that is always looking for something new.

          This solution requires patience in a world that demands instant gratification.

          This solution is quiet, peaceful, and subtle in a world enamored by that which is loud, incessant, fast paced, garish, and crude.

          This solution requires you to be contemplative while your peers seek physical titillation.

          This solution requires the prophets to “put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth” (2 Peter 1:12). This may seem foolish in a time when it is not worth remembering much of the trivial tripe to which we are exposed.

          This solution requires you to walk by faith in a world governed by sight (see 2 Corinthians 4:18, 5:7). You must see with the eye of faith eternal, unseen, spiritual verities, whereas the masses of mankind depend solely on temporal things, which can be known only through the physical senses.”

So how are we to see through the myriads of voices and subtle deception which swirl in confusion and misdirection around us?

Simply stated, we must learn, often through trial and error, to attune ourselves to truth.  And we do this best by immersing ourselves in the source of truth. We must become accustomed to its feel and flavor and recognize its sweet resonance.

We must go to the source of all truth rather than seeking through the internet or other corruptible and fallible sources.  We must come to KNOW Truth for ourselves, personally and individually.

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

Truth has a name – and His name is Jesus Christ!

We must come to recognize His voice, His guiding influence, His flavor and resonance above all the other myriad of voices and deceptions.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28)

This is the great quest and entire purpose of this mortal life.  To learn, by personal experience, how to recognize and respond to the call of Truth, the call of Jesus Christ which is lovingly leading us back to our heavenly home with his invitation to “Come Unto Me”.  And that through having learned to recognize and follow that voice, we will have become changed to become more like Him, so that we will feel welcome and comfortable in His presence.

May we take more heed to hearken to the voice of Truth, and become accustomed to its reliable resonance and reality, so that we can safely navigate through the cunning deceptions and misdirections which are laid like landmines all around us, and instead, walk the straight and narrow path which leads to truth, life and salvation.

“Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:5-6)

May we look to the source of Truth, so that we might find Him!

Fishing Lies

FISHING LIES

             With the warmth of another spring now approaching, I often find myself daydreaming during my full work schedule… longing to have a rod and reel in my hands and to be surrounded by the churning sound of river currents instead of the monotony of the daily grind.

            I learned to love fishing as a young boy.  My early childhood was spent in the rural town of Bishop, California, which was nestled up in the base of the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains.  My father worked as a milk delivery man and ran his route up in the beautiful resort towns and shops which dotted the surrounding highlands. I often rode with him on summer days when out of school to load and deliver the milk, cheese and ice creams to the various locals.

            Because his job started early in the morning, it also meant he was done in the early afternoon.  Many a weekend saw us loading up our gear on a Friday afternoon, piling the family and our dog into the van or pickup truck, throwing our camping and fishing gear in the back, and venturing out into the wild for a weekend of drowning worms, spinning lures and chatting the nights away around a campfire.

            Oh, those were days to be remembered, and such was the humble birth of my love for fishing.  Since those days, I’ve waded many a stream and river in search of that intoxicating and addictive sensation of a pole vibrating in my hands by the force of an unseen quarry beneath the ripples.

     In addition to those early California waters, my lines have danced the depths of the San Juan, Provo, Green, Madison and Kenai rivers just to name a very few scattered among Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Alaska.

     I’ve even had the pleasure of hoisting some delicious Halibut off the Ocean floor (along with a 300 lb. tangle of red sea kelp – but that’s another story altogether).

            But despite these many adventures and memorable catches, it is something altogether different I would like to reminisce about today.

            Now I will admit that a strange phenomenon often occurs between the time a guy pulls a fish from the water and when he has an opportunity to tell somebody else about it.  A magical force takes a hold of the specimen and somehow turns the smallest of pan fish into lardy lunkers that test the limits of a man and his equipment.  This power of piscatorial pettifoggery will often make an otherwise honest man tell a little white lie now and again.

            But the type of fishing deception I want to share today has nothing at all to do with the size of the catch, but rather the cloak and dagger ingenuity that was implemented to bring the bulging trout into our possession.

            It was in those early days of Bishop, California and I couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old at the time.  It was a hot, lazy summer day and my older brother, Dirk, and I had our slightly older early teenage cousin, Todd, staying with us for a few days.  Bishop was a great town to grow up in.  It was a carefree time in history when even young kids could roam a town from end to end without a worry in the world.

            Where we lived, at 352 May Street, there was a great city park only a few blocks and a short cut through a small field away.  In the middle of that park was calm, relaxing lake, which just happened to be stocked with rather large trout.  A boardwalk extended out into the middle of the lake where a large Gazebo allowed visitors to enjoy the water’s beauty and toss food to the large rainbows which swarmed below the surface.  Of course it was completely illegal to fish in the city park, so the trout grew huge, uninhibited and accustomed to human presence, which they associated with food.  For three bored boys who loved to catch fish, they mockingly glided beneath the surface, taunting us with twitching tails.

            For our young cognitive processes, it wasn’t a matter of whether we would break the rules to try and catch the illegal fish; it was how to do it without getting caught that was our moral dilemma.  You couldn’t exactly carry a 5’ pole out onto a public pond in the middle of broad daylight, cast, and reel a splashing fish up over the rail of a gazebo without being noticed.

            Our trio of mental powers combined for some time over how the task could be accomplished. A few orange sodas and ice cream bars later, we hatched a brilliantly devious “get-away-with-it” plan that would have made Houdini scratch his head and wonder how we’d done it.

            We scrambled home to grab our supplies and make the necessary preparations, our boredom now extinguished in the adrenaline rush that such vile, juvenile criminals as ourselves were now experiencing. Returning to the park to perform the dirty deed, we had to contain our enthusiasm for some time as other townsfolk lounged about the gazebo, taking in the relaxing view, as our impatient eyes drilled holes into their backs in attempt to make them leave.

            Finally, when we found ourselves alone on the gazebo, we unleashed our dastardly surprise.  Lifting our pant legs, we removed the rolled up fishing line tucked inside our socks, applied a small amount of bait to the hooks and dropped the line between the rungs of the gazebo and into the water below.  The fishing line ran all the way up the inside or our pant legs and came out the top of the waist where it was tied off securely on our belts.  Therefore, standing as nonchalantly as fishing delinquent boys can do, we appeared to be doing nothing more than casually watching the fish below.

            The real excitement started as soon as the first of us actually hooked a fish.  Then the process truly began!  Grabbing the fishing line at your belt, you had to haul the line upward, somehow getting the rather startled and never-before-been-hooked fish up out of the water, between the rungs of the gazebo and right on up into the now slithering and slimy inside of your pant leg!  Then it was a simple process of pulling your sock up over the fish’s tail and you were ready to go.

            Because the fish were used to being harmlessly fed, it was only a matter of a few minutes before the three of us had our catch and were walking homeward.  I’m sure it must have been a rather curious sight for any passersby who might have seen us; three young limping kids, each with one severely swollen lower leg that suffered periodic writhing muscle spasms and oozed a fishy smelling fluid.  We were lucky no one called an ambulance for us before we made it back home!

            When we safely secured ourselves in our fenced back yard on May Street, we extracted the now partially rigor-mortise fish from our pants and began our jubilant celebration of success, by finding a knife to begin the gutting and cleaning process.  Our victory was complete.  We had broken the rules of the stupid city adults, who had obviously only put them in place to prevent young boys from having fun… and we had gotten away with it!  No one had ever planned a heist so stealthy and sophisticated!

            “And just where exactly did you three boy get those fish?” Our mother’s voice of judgment called from behind us.

            We nearly jumped out of our skins!  BUSTED!!!  How could we have been so foolish and blind?  In our attempt to conceal our secret sins from others, we had failed to consider those who watched over us the most, our own parents.

            Mom was upset, but luckily, she was also forgiving.  She didn’t call the fish cops on us, but she did make us throw the fish into the garbage.  Despite our protests that we wanted to eat them, she didn’t let us have enjoyment in our misbehavior, and reminded us that the poor fish had regularly spent their lives dining on not only bread and fish food, but also all the cigarette butts, aluminum can tops, and any other garbage people threw into the water at them.  Not to mention that they had become half dried and covered with sweat from our legs in the summer heat on the journey home.  Instead, she made us wash up and provided some sandwiches for lunch.  It didn’t seem as exciting as frying up our fish, but it was probably the more healthy option.  The rest of the day included some chores as punishment, but also time to play games and enjoy some good, honest fun.

            And such it is with life.  For some reason, we often feel compelled, like stupid children without the foresight to see the consequences of our actions, to think we can somehow violate the laws and commandments put in place for our well-being, and get away with it.  But no matter how much we try to conceal our deviant actions from the probing eyes of others, our Heavenly Parent always knows of our indiscretions.

            Luckily for us, He is also very patient, loving and forgiving.  And while He doesn’t let us find lasting enjoyment in our sins, and sometimes makes us work our way back into His grace, He is quick to bless us and show a better way to true happiness and joy.

            After all these years, the addiction of having a rod in hand and a fish on the end of my line is still there.  But thanks to the lesson learned long ago in my youth, I have learned to find much more enjoyment in the process of fishing within the rules and regulations.

            Life teaches us many lessons… if only we were smart enough so we didn’t have to learn them the hard way!

            HAPPY FISHING!!!