One the central themes running through
several Mormon Third Eye blogposts is the mind-boggling concept of
all-you-can-eat buffets. You can read more about them here and here, In summary, I grew up in a tightly budgeted
home where food was rationed. When I left the homestead and
discovered buffets, Chinese, American, and several shades in between,
I initiated a tradition of ingesting medically dangerous amounts of
food- affectionately known by the slang “eating myself into a
coma.” Steak, General Tsao;s chicken, and triple chocolate cake;
Korean barbecue, Mongolian barbecue, and bacon-cheeseburger pizza;
alfredo pasta, macaroni and cheese, and slow-roasted spare ribs. Need
I say more? After consulting with the crack team MTE of
psychoanalytic experts, I discovered that deep down inside, somewhere
between my upper and lower intestines, my brain was pulling buried
worries from distant childhood memories and messaging to the rest of
me the irrational fear that “I had better eat as much as I can now,
because there is no telling when this fantasy world will end and
food will be restricted again.”
Just as I was becoming more confident
that I had tamed this sector of my character, I have been challenged
by another vice- all-you-can believe spiritual buffets. Last week
was particularly hard. It was an overwhelming onslaught of day after
day of opportunities to feed my soul with spiritual delights. Monday
afternoon was spent at the Raleigh North Carolina Temple Recommend
Desk greeting worthy young men and women of Apex North Carolina doing
baptisms for their kindred dead. On Tuesday through Friday you could
find me traveling to Palmyra with the 306 of our stake youth to visit
the Sacred Grove, the Hill Cumorah, the Grandin Building where the
first run of the Book of Mormon was printed and published, and the
Whitmer Farm, where much of the Book of Mormon was translated and the
church was officially organized on April 6th 1830.
Oh the endless rounds of prayers
offered, scriptures studied, and testimonies born by sincere youth
truly discovering the gospel for the first time! The precious
opportunities to study scriptures and ponder precious gospel truths
under the same stars and in the same woods and farmland that the
prophet Joseph Smith frequented almost two centuries earlier! The
heavens are open again! God speaks to man! We know the true nature
of a perfectly loving and compassionate Heavenly Father! We are
literal sons and daughters of God! The great plan of happiness is
available to all! Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all mankind
may be saved! Through personal revelation, we can know the truth of
all things! My spiritual body is ready to burst! How can I keep it
all in?
But wait, there's more! Just when I
thought it was emotionally impossible to consume more doctrinal
truths and find more joy in serving the Lord, the next day I pulled
my regular Saturday morning shift at the Raleigh North Carolina
Temple. I didn't know when I would have another opportunity to
partake in such a massive spiritual feast, so I continued to perform
critical saving ordinances for the dead and feed my soul with even
more spiritual treats. And let's not forget that tomorrow is Sunday,
a traditionally popular day to grow closer to God. I am doomed.
What can I do to productively manage this running bombardment of
inspired input and prevent my spiritual body from exploding? I'm
already over my limit.
I guess all I can do is find
opportunities to share the gospel. I sense that missionary work is
the only sure release valve for pent-up spiritual overflow, although it too
has a tendency to turn around and feed you more spiritual food than
you can handle. I'm gospel glutton and proud of it. How about you?
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