Interludes – Avoiding Myopia

I started this website to write about church history, and more specifically, to demonstrate that faith in Christ that can be found as we study the history of the church. But discovering faith in Christ requires much more than just studying church history.

In my own faith journey, I spent a significant amount of time studying the history of the church, but I found faith in Christ as I chose to intentionally live the covenants that I made with God. So if my purpose is to write about my own discovery of faith in Christ, I want to write about my full experience and not just my study of church history.

The next several posts will explore topics that I’ve studied, including a significant study project that I’ve undertaken over the last few years regarding the sacrament. I’m calling this “interludes” because it’s a break from writing about church history, although the intent is still to help discover faith in Christ.

What is myopia?

Myopia is defective vision that causes distant objects to be blurry, also called nearsightedness.¹ But when used figuratively, myopia means “a lack of foresight or discernment: a narrow view of something.”²

In the October 2020 General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson gave a talk called “Let God Prevail.”³ He spoke about the wife of one of his grandsons (who he called “Jill”) who was struggling spiritually because her father was dying. President Nelson’s response to this spiritual struggle was one word: myopic. This response can seem unkind and maybe even harsh. But as Jill pondered this one word response, it helped her change her heart:

“Jill later admitted to Wendy [President Nelson’s wife] that initially she was devastated by my response. She said, ‘I was hoping for Grandfather to promise me a miracle for my dad. I kept wondering why the word myopic was the one he felt compelled to say.’

“After Jill’s father passed on, the word myopic kept coming to her mind. She opened her heart to understand even more deeply that myopic meant ‘nearsighted.’ And her thinking began to shift. Jill then said, ‘Myopic caused me to stop, think, and heal. That word now fills me with peace. It reminds me to expand my perspective and seek the eternal. It reminds me that there is a divine plan and that my dad still lives and loves and looks out for me. Myopic has led me to God.'”⁴

Don’t miss the forest for the trees

A common idiom is to “miss the forest for the trees,” which means “to not understand or appreciate a larger situation, problem, etc., because one is considering only a few parts of it.”⁵

In June, 2019, my family took a vacation to the Redwood national and state parks in California. Walking in those forests was a tremendous experience, and each tree was its own wonder. This picture shows my sons next to the “Big Tree,” and although this closeup view shows the immense size of this tree, there’s so much that can’t be seen or experienced from this one picture.

What if this was your only view of the Redwoods? This doesn’t give the “big picture.” It’s a narrow focus, or “myopic,” of a park that is over 139,000 acres and has been called “one of the world’s most magnificent natural wonders.”⁶

A myopic focus causes us to not see the whole because we’re concentrating on only one small detail. To truly develop faith in Christ, we need to study and understand all principles of the gospel. We can’t miss the forest because we’re consumed with one tree, no matter how impressive that tree might be.

The Great Plan of Happiness

In 1993, Elder Boyd K. Packer spoke at a symposium for religious educators. He emphasized the need to help students understand the plan of salvation, and to locate each doctrine’s place within the plan:

“Individual doctrines of the gospel are not fully explained in one place in the scriptures, nor presented in order or sequence. They must be assembled from pieces here and there. They are sometimes found in large segments, but mostly they are in small bits scattered through the chapters and verses. . . .

“Our youth need to know how to mark the scriptures, and they need to have some kind of filing system. In addition to that, if you give each one of them a framework upon which the truths they discover at random can be organized into a personal testimony, you will have served them well. . . .

“A brief overview of the ‘plan of happiness’ . . . if given at the very beginning and revisited occasionally, will be of immense value to your students.”⁷

To help the teachers accomplish this objective, Elder Packer gave them an assignment:

“I have an assignment for you. You expected that, didn’t you? You are assigned to prepare a brief synopsis or overview of the plan of happiness—the plan of salvation. Design it as a framework on which your students can organize the truths you will share with them.

“At first you may think that a simple assignment. I assure you, it is not. Brevity and simplicity are remarkably difficult to achieve. At first you will be tempted to include too much. The plan in its fulness encompasses every gospel truth. . . .

“This may be the most difficult, and surely the most rewarding, assignment of your teaching career.

“Your overview of the plan of happiness should be but a sweeping glance across the unfolded scroll of scriptural truths. Your students can thereafter locate themselves in respect to the plan.

“Young people wonder ‘why?’—Why are we commanded to do some things, and why we are commanded not to do other things? A knowledge of the plan of happiness, even in outline form, can give young minds a ‘why.'”⁸

I first read this talk when I was a student at BYU. I was working as a teacher at the Missionary Training Center, and we were given this talk in a training to learn how to better prepare missionaries. The encouragement to create an outline of the plan had a significant impact on me, and so I accepted the assignment given by Elder Packer and worked on creating my own outline of the plan of salvation. That continued for several years as I pondered the plan and continued studying the scriptures. In the middle of my own faith crisis (after I had turned 39), I once again turned to the outline of the plan of salvation, and started a project to study the scriptures with that outline as a reference for my study. This emphasis was a significant benefit to me as I worked through my own concerns. As I reflect on my own faith journey, I don’t think I would have discovered my faith in Christ if I had only continued with my myopic study of church history.

We can know for ourselves

A primary message in the gospel of Jesus Christ is that God answers prayers: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”⁹ The First Vision, a foundational event of the restored gospel, is evidence that God answers prayers. This message is taught clearly and often in the Book of Mormon:

“And it came to pass after I, Nephi, having heard all the words of my father, concerning the things which he saw in a vision, and also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost, which power he received by faith on the Son of God—and the Son of God was the Messiah who should come—I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men.

“For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.

“For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.”¹⁰

To know, we have to study

A significant aspect of the plan of salvation is agency and work. As a result of the fall, God told Adam and Eve that “[i]n the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,”¹¹ which teaches the fundamental principle of work. That principle applies not only to temporal work, but also to spiritual work.

To Oliver Cowdery, the Lord said, “Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.”¹²

We need to discover and develop our faith, and we do that as we study and live the principles of the gospel: “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”¹³

In my opinion, one of the greatest scriptures on gaining a knowledge of truth is also one of the most simple: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”¹⁴ If we want to know the truth, we have to live it; if we are going to live the truth, we have to learn it; and to learn it, we have to study. Study, then live, then know.

Although I intend to continue writing about my experience with church history, for a while I will be writing about some of my thoughts on the plan of salvation, gospel principles, and primarily, the doctrine of Christ.

References

1. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “myopia,” accessed December 7, 2023, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myopia. ↩︎
2. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “myopia.” ↩︎
3. Russell M. Nelson, “Let God Prevail,” Liahona, November 2020, 92-95, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2020/11/46nelson?lang=eng. ↩︎
4. Nelson, “Let God Prevail,” 93. ↩︎
5. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “miss the forest for the trees,” accessed December 7, 2023, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/miss%20the%20forest%20for%20the%20trees. ↩︎
6. Precious Rongmei, “Redwood National Park, land of the tallest and the oldest,” The Times Of India, April 16, 2023, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/redwood-national-park-land-of-the-tallest-and-the-oldest/articleshow/99522350.cms#: ↩︎
7. Boyd K. Packer, “The Great Plan of Happiness,” in “Teaching Seminary: Preservice Readings,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2004, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teaching-seminary-preservice-readings-religion-370-471-and-475/the-great-plan-of-happiness?lang=eng&id=title1#title1. ↩︎
8. Packer, “The Great Plan of Happiness.” ↩︎
9. Matthew 7:7. ↩︎
10. 1 Nephi 10:17-19. ↩︎
11. Genesis 3:19. ↩︎
12. Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-8. ↩︎
13. Doctrine and Covenants 88:118. ↩︎
14. John 7:17. ↩︎