Keeping the First Great Commandment and Fasting in Harmony

It saddens me to see thousands, if not millions, of people misunderstand the purpose of fasting.

The first point and crucial bit of understanding is the first great commandment: to love God with all your heart, might and mind.  To love God means to love His designs and order of the earth and cosmos.  If he sends rain on the land, we must love it.  If He sends floods to the land, we must love it too.  We must take the perspective of God and not cling to the limited understanding and fleeting desires of people.

The Taoist story of the old farmer exemplifies this mindset.  The old farmer had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

"Maybe," the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"Maybe," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

“Maybe," answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“Maybe," said the farmer.

To explain this point a bit differently - God will do what He wills and people must not have the audacity to question His will.  To quote an LDS scripture: "As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream" as to hinder or change the will of God.

Therefore, how do we keep the first great commandment in harmony with the purpose of fasting?  The real purpose of prayer and fasting is to allow yourself to more fully introspect to see and love the will of God.  The purpose is not to change the will of God.  To ask for something contrary to the will of God is to break the first great commandment.  And many times, because of our limited perspective, we think we are praying for something to happen and when it does happen, we think we've supplicated God and he altered his course, when in fact, His course was going that way anyway!

The correct view on prayer and fasting is to humble ourselves to see the cosmos and Nature as it really is and to come to love it as it actually exists!  In this way, we are fully focused on the correct purpose of fasting and obeying the first great commandment.

This is why, in my opinion, people who advocate prayer and fasting for the purpose of getting some external blessing, have a grossly incorrect understanding of it.  If they wish to advocate for this stance, they must always add to their prayers and fasts the reserve clause "if it be Thy will."  This is vital, as it helps people always to keep in mind the first great commandment.

My wish, for all my fellow sisters and brothers in the Mormon community and those who will participate with them, as they enter a special fast on April 10, that they take the time to introspect and consider the question: "what is God's will in all this?" and "what is God's will for me in all this?"  Have we all considered the possibility that this pandemic is what God really wants?  And if it is what He wants, then why would we ask for him to change His mind?  Don't we want the wisdom of God to lead our lives?  Are we saying our wisdom is better than His?

Recognize that much of this (the pandemic, God's will, the economy) are out of our control.  What is in our control is our attitude and our acceptance of events as they actually happen.  Furthermore, what is in our control is how much we will contribute to charities that will feed the hungry, the poor, the unemployed and the elderly.  What is in our control is how we will serve others and how we can brighten people's lives as many of us are in isolation.

An ancient Roman Stoic philosopher counseled his students with some wise advice: Don't ask for things to happen as you would like them to, but wish them to happen as they actually do, and you will be all right (Epictetus, Enchiridion 8).

Further reading on the correct view of prayer and fasting: Fasting is Not Twisting God's Arm

Flooding and Prayer

My faith in God continues to grow stronger the more I humbly realize how little control I have over things and events.

There was a time when I believed that this equation was the best way to navigate life:
1. keep all the commandments
2. pray; thank God for my blessings
3. pray; ask God for blessings
4. if I stay obedient, I will receive the blessings I asked for

When I received blessings, in my mind, it was because God found me worthy and granted my requests when I asked him in prayer.

And when I didn't receive blessings I had asked for, it was because I was not worthy or it was because God had some other reason - perhaps there was something He wanted me to learn by not granting me what I had asked for.

My understanding of prayer has evolved over the years.  My perspective on prayer has gone from a "Christmas wish-list" concept and ask for many, many things, to one where I only ask for one thing, every single time.

If you are of the mindset of having a list of things to ask of God; anything from asking for help in finding your lost keys to asking God to cure a loved one who has cancer; then I would contend your prayers are answered maybe about 50% of the time.  You probably feel blessed when you receive what you asked for and you probably scratch your head and ask yourself "Is it I?" when you do not receive what you ask God for.

But what if I were to tell you there is a way to have 100% of your prayers answered, would you be interested?  I'll tell you further below how this is possible.  But first, we need to observe the world and universe.

In this first story, ask yourself if what Irene Corbett prayed for was righteous?  Was she worthy?  And lastly, why was she not saved.  And what about the missionaries?  Why were they spared and not she?

In the second story, which is a personal one, we learn of full-time missionaries serving in Guatemala.  They relayed their experience to me about how they were taught, constantly in Zone Conferences and one-on-one interviews with the Mission President, that if they strictly obeyed the rules, they would find people to teach and have success in baptizing souls.  They obeyed precisely; got up at 6am on the dot, and did everything by the book.  But their success the Mission President promised, was not realized.

The last story has to deal with the Houston Temple.  In 2015 and 2016, the Houston area saw heavy rains in May and April respectively.  The 2015 flooding was know as the Memorial Day flood and the 2016 flooding was known as the Tax Day floods.  Many members recounted stories of the temple being saved from the 2015 and 2016 floods and how it was a miracle.  But then August 2017 and Hurricane Harvey happened and the temple was flooded.  What did this mean?  Did God pass judgement on the Houston members?  Some members thought so, and they went so far as to say members were negligent in using the temple, so God took it away from them.  No one talked much about the temple flooding, but there were lots of positive stories of people travelling to Dallas and San Antonio to attend the temple in those cities.

Now back to my point about having 100% of your prayers answered.  There is only one thing you should pray for: to be content with God's will, no matter what happens.  Jesus taught this when he taught his disciples how to pray.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

We are to simply ask to have our will be aligned with God's.  It is God's will for us to live as long as He wants us to live and it is God's will that we live a life of virtue (forgive others, live with courage, justice, wisdom and temperance).

We are not to ask God to save our life or to protect it before we get on a boat.  We are not to ask for specific success in baptizing people.  We are not to ask that a building be saved from the elements.  All of these events are ultimately out of our control and are only known to God.  So instead of trying to change the will of God (events that happen in the world and universe), we ought to ask to be content and accepting of God's will - no matter what happens.  If you do this, and you do the work to be content with whatever happens and to be positive and happy (entirely within your power), then your prayers will be answered all the time.

To be clearer, let me cite a couple of Stoic philosophers:

Epictetus said, "Don't ask for things to happen as you would like them to, but wish them to happen as they actually do, and you will be all right." (Encheiridion 8)

Marcus Aurelius said of prayer, "A prayer of the Athenian people:
Rain, rain, dear Zeus: rain on the cornfields and the plains of Athens.
Prayer should be thus simple and open, or not at all." (Meditations 5.7).

Marcus also wrote, "Universe, your harmony is my harmony: nothing in your good time is too early or too late for me. Nature, all that your seasons bring is fruit to me: all comes from you, exists in you, returns to you." (Meditations 4.23)

If you pray simply, and if you align your desires to the will of God and His universal, cosmic, domain and all the events that happen therein, you will want exactly what God wants!  And what more could you possibly want than what God wants?  What God wants is good!

And so, this week, after spending three hours navigating the flooded roads in the sheets of rain on my commute home; and after watching the weather forecasts of more projected rain and knowing that our home flooded a year and a half ago; and knowing full well that our home could flood again - my sincerest prayer was not for God to protect my family and home from harm, but rather a prayer of "thy will be done."  Make no mistake about it - I want my family and home and possessions to be protected, but what I want more is to have my will be aligned with God's.  And so I'm not going to presume to ask or tell God how to do His job.  Rather, as a child, I ask Him to help me be content and to even love His will - no matter what.

If God wants me to be sick or to have cancer, then I want that too.

If God wants me to be wealthy and healthy, then I want that too.

If God wants my wife or children back, then I want that too.

If God wants me to flood (again), then I want that too.

I want what God wants.

Now, does that mean I sit back and don't act?  No!  I have my free will and I act within my span of control.  God granted me and everyone else, the ability to think and reason and act.  But as for events out of my control - that is the domain of God and I only want what He wants.