Putting your faith in the right place

I think it's troubling when people have a crisis of faith after reading some comment or blog post on the internet. Come on, are you really going to believe the words of some random internet troll and ditch your faith in God that easily? Dieter Uchtdorf, a prominent leader of the LDS church, said: "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."

A lot of people say, "I can't see why you belong to a church that has terrible people." What makes you assume I go because of the people? I don't go because I think that it automatically makes me, or anyone else who goes, better than everyone else. I go because I honestly believe God wants me to. I admit there are more dirt bags in my religion then there should be. I also assert that my religion has TONS of wonderful people, which people should be just as eager to point out.

But my faith is completely independent of anyone's actions. Which is actually quite liberating, because I'd be stressed if my devotion depended on the actions of 15 million people spread out across the globe; or if I let myself be influenced by the 7 billion people on this planet with their endless variety of opinions.

Plus, God is reliable: maybe some of those people are right about some things, but God is always right about everything. I'd rather trust in His all-knowing and perfectly-loving powers than in the partially-knowing, sometimes-but-not-always-friendly opinions of other people.

Trusting in God is a win-win situation: Only one person whose opinion should matter to you, and he knows everything and loves you perfectly. That's awesome, if you ask me.

By the way, if you were to completely disassociate with every group of people (religious or not) that had bad people, you'd probably end up living by yourself on an island: every country, business, religion, race, club, etc. has terrible people. But they all have wonderful people, too.

So quit being so judgmental, and quit letting other people's actions be the barometer for your own behavior.

Some people are never happy

During my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I met hundreds of people from all walks of life with every imaginable (and unimaginable) opinion. I came to realize the reality of this simple truth: you can't please everybody.

I reflect on this truth whenever a group of people whine that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't exactly they way they think it should be. And a lot of times those are random, silly things that people are viewing through the lens of the latest cultural fads, instead of with the eye of faith.

What's next, vegans picketing the BYU and MTC cafeterias for serving meat products?

Environmentalists picketing the Church office building for producing too much trash?

Cheapskates picketing Deseret Book and the Distribution Center for charging money instead of handing out items for free? 

Hollywood critics saying that Mormons are lame just because they don't always produce good movies?

When the LDS church was young, Joseph Smith started a bank in Kirtland. He was a prophet, not a professional banker. So it should have come as no surprise that his bank failed. But, consequently, many people who invested in the bank had a serious crisis of faith, seriously questioning Joseph as a prophet.

But it wasn't enough for them to stop attending church, or to disbelieve his sermons. They joined mobs that wanted to kill him. All because they were rudely awakened to the fact that even if this man was chosen by God, he still didn't know how to run a bank; they strictly adhered to the foolish belief that a divinely appointed prophet should also be a good banker. Then they became guilty of things that were much more damning than starting a failed bank.

Anyone who has a chip on their shoulder can find, or imagine, any grievance they want.

To the leadership of BYU

Dear BYU leadership: Pestering a single person about why they're still single is just as insensitive as pestering an unemployed person about why they haven't got a job yet.

And would you tell an unemployed person, "You're not trying hard enough"? Even though that person has been submitting dozens of resumes and been to several interviews and has been rejected by all leads? Then why would you say something like that to a single person who's been diligently putting themself out there?

I was frustrated with all my bishops and stake presidents at BYU who operated under the assumption that anyone who was single wasn't trying or didn't want to get married. I lost count of how many times a religious leader looked at me dumbfounded when I said, "I've asked lots of girls on dates for years and nothing has worked. What should I do?" It was even more frustrating that they didn't have a satisfying answer, which tells me that such an idea never occurred to them. If they paid attention to the lives of the people around them, they might have been aware of this fact.

And you know what the irony is? We believe in eternal marriage. So in the grand scheme of things, what's the difference of getting married at 20 instead of 30? Or 40? Or maybe not until after you're dead? The prophets have made it clear that the faithful will be blessed with a spouse, either in this life or the next. So why stress out BYU students by making them believe that if they don't find an eternal companion during their 4 years at BYU that they'll never get married?