Rejoice, The Lord is King

Hello Humans! Wow. This is my first LDS General Conference that I have watched alone and away from my family, in my almost 20 years of life. Because of the time change, I had to wake up super early, 5:45 am to get everything set up and ready to tune into Conference. I mean, the sun was JUST coming up. But boy was it worth it. Immediately, the spirit and excitement filled my whole soul as I got to watch our dear apostles teach us the words and will of our Heavenly Father and Savior. A couple of talks struck me deeply, which I will talk more about later this week, but one topic kept coming back to me. That was that the commandments and teachings of the gospel aren’t a set of rules that keep us from doing fun things. Quite the contrary actually. They are very closely related to the Laws of Science.

So, if I were to ask you if the Law of Gravity kept you from doing fun things, you would probably say no. You can kick a soccer ball, and have it come back down to the ground, go sky-diving, and jump on a trampoline because of gravity, and the pull it has on your body. If I were to ask you if the Law of Attraction among electrons and protons prevented you from having fun, you would also probably say no. This Law of Science literally holds our world together, and we wouldn’t exist without it, therefore, we couldn’t have fun. If I were to ask you if the Law of Motion kept you from having fun, you would probably say no, as well. This lets us run around, with friction keeping us from sliding all around. What about the Laws of Pressure? This allows us to fly airplanes to travel to far-away places, and to run water through pipes, which lets us not have to walk to a well every time we need water. Conservation of Mass? This makes it so that we don’t just disappear at any given moment, or the Earth we live on. Evolution? This has allowed us to adapt to so many different climates and habitats, as well as having doggies for pets. Light? Allows us to not live in the pitch-black dark. Photosynthesis? Allows us to have nutrients for our bodies, as well as a beautiful green planet. All of these Laws of Science make it so that we can have fun, while living inside the bounds of them. But some people might look at the Law of the Conservation of Mass, and say, “Man, I wish the Law of the Conservation of Mass didn’t exist so that I could create a slice of pizza in my hand, out of thin air.” But what this person doesn’t understand, that if you were to break the Law of the Conservation of Mass in one way, it would also be violated in the other way, because of Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion. Hence, something would disappear out of thin air. It could be a person, or it could be a bug, or it could be the sun for all we know. All we know is that if you were to violate this law, which is literally impossible, the person who broke it might have fun at first, but would later suffer the consequences.

As the Laws of Science are for the Physical world, the Commandments, or Laws of God are one and the same. The only difference is the Laws of God are these laws applied to our spirits. For instance, if I were to ask most people if the Law of Chastity kept them from having fun, they would probably respond with a “Yes.” They think that the Law of Chastity is prohibiting them from having a good time on this fallen planet. But, the consequences later on could be being impregnated, or regretting decisions when finding the right person to marry, or excommunication from the church, or getting a disease that could kill you. “But Mary,” you might ask, “Now we have modern technologies to keep people from being impregnated, and other bad things from happening.” Well, this is like violating the Law of the Conservation of Mass. Scientifically, we don’t know the long-term effects of Birth Control, and other preventative measures. And diseases and regret can still be imminent. Hence, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Even though it seems as though you’ve found a way around a law, you really haven’t, because there will be a greater consequence than “not having fun” in school. Another example of this is the Word of Wisdom. Again, most of the world when asked this question would say that it does prevent them from having fun. They may break only part of it, like drinking only coffee, or go all the way and do all the hard-core drugs out there. While they may be a functioning alcoholic now and having “fun”, and think they’ve found a way around it damaging their body and taking their mind away, they really haven’t. We’ve seen this effect more and more with the new discoveries in Science of how drugs, alcohol, and now, even coffee affect your bodies. Language? Helps us learn self-control, and keeps us respected among men. Respecting Parents? Keeps family relationships great, and you know, there's that whole you'll live a long and successful life. Loving God? Keeps you away form the adversary, and close to the spirit. Loving your Neighbor? Keeps relationships among men great, and fills you with Christ-like love. Marriage between a Man and a Woman? You get to go to the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom, if it's done in the temple, and create worlds without number one day. How amazing is that?! There are also many consequences due to not keeping these Laws, from Newton's 3rd Law of Motion. One day, you will have to suffer for them. And if you don’t pay now for breaking the Laws of God, with pain, suffering, many consequences and repentance, you sure will pay after your resurrection when your body can handle the pain of suffering “even as I.” If I were you, I’d repent now. It will be a lot less painful than waiting until the Great and Terrible day of the Lord.

But for those of us who know that following the Laws of God bring blessings, they are just the good consequences of us following the Laws of God, similarly how jumping on the tramp with your cousins, laughing until you can’t breathe anymore, is a good consequence of you following the Law of Gravity. Even the Laws of God must follow Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion. The only big difference between the two set of Laws is we have agency to choose whether to follow The Laws of God or not, whereas we have no choice but to follow the Laws of Science.

One other thing that struck me hard in conference, is how everything is in the Lord’s Hands. He designed the Laws of Science and the Laws of God to better our lives, and to help us become more like him. So, Rejoice! The Lord is King! And I will proclaim it from the top of the tallest skyscraper, and from the bottom of the ocean! Everything is in his hands, and that means that everything is going to be amazing.

I hope that this helps all of you Children of God see his commandments in a different and better light than a set of rules that we have to follow, but don’t allow us to have fun. In fact, it’s just the opposite, following these Laws help us have the ultimate happiness: Joy. Stay wild, flower child.