It is 5:09 am and a Sunday.  I have just enjoyed a lesson from the Holy Ghost.  He has taught me something about myself that helps me decipher the world.  It seems simple, but it is this: I am persuaded by the truth.  I want to share 4 experiences:

An Experience with My Dad

When I was in my early 20’s, I had a girlfriend named Renee.  Renee had blond hair and a lot of spunk.  Well, we decided that we would go with a friend of mine and his girlfriend to Seattle.  We planned to stay overnight at some person’s house.  I don’t remember now who the person was; it was probably a relative or a friend of a friend.

When my dad heard of the plan, he tried to dissuade me from going.  He noticed that I had a bit of a cough and tried to tell me that I shouldn’t go for that reason.

I looked inside myself and honestly thought that that was not a very good reason.  It was just a minor cough, and I felt fine.

I decided that I would go, and it turned out the trip ended up taking me in a direction I did not want to go.  I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say if I had followed my dad’s advice, I could have avoided a lot of problems.

The Chicken Coop with Annie

Fast forward about 30 years.  I decide that we should let the kids have chickens for the second time.  Adree and Taylor wanted chickens when they were about 4 and 6.  Now, Jamie and Haylie, about the same age as Adree and Taylor were, want chickens.  I remember the last time we had chickens and how messy they were and decide that I will fix that by creating the perfect environment.  I spend hours and thousands of dollars beautifying the backyard and getting a place prepared for the chickens.  I am determined that this time, the chickens will not be such a problem because I will have a great place for them to live.

I order a chicken coop for the chickens to sleep in.  And it is not any chicken coop.  It is a fancy Shaker-inspired one.

The chicken coop is delivered by a truck onto my front driveway.  It must weigh more than 700 pounds, and I have to find a way to get it to the backyard and onto a platform I have had constructed for it.

I determine that I am going to rent an extended reach forklift to move the chicken coop from the front driveway to the back of the property.  See attached.  It is an expensive machine that the rental shop won’t let me rent, but they will let my contractor friend rent.  So, he rents it for me.

The rental company drops it off in my driveway, and I get it started and start playing with the controls.  It is a fantastic machine!  The front wheels can be steered independently from the back wheels, and it can extend its forklift 30-40 feet.

I put the forklift under the pallet that holds the chicken coop and lift the chicken coop in the driveway.

I move the lift backwards and forward until I am confident that I know how things work.

Somewhere at this point or perhaps earlier, Annie comes out and starts talking with me about the forklift and the operation I am planning.  Annie asks a bunch of questions that I think are ridiculous.  I can only remember one now, but it was something like: when you drive the forklift onto the soft ground at the back of the property, do you think it will break the sewer pipes?

I think about that question for a second and I come to the quick conclusion that there is no way that would happen.  Annie’s other questions seem similar and just as ridiculous.  Finally, I tell Annie that do or die, I am going to move the chicken coop to the back using the forklift.

Annie and I enlist our next-door neighbors Emee and Stuart to direct traffic during the operation.  It is close to Summer, and I pick a time (around 8:30 pm) when cars are not going to be on the street.  And my plan works better than I hoped.

I have just had an experience funner than a day at Disneyland!  I drove a big forklift, and accomplished the riskiest part of my chicken plan!

About 2 years later, however, I suffer a series of events related to the chicken coop, one of which almost takes my life and the other one which about takes my mental sanity.

Experience with Fatigue and 7 doctors.

Now fast forward a few more years.  I have suffered a debilitating fatigue that is hard to describe.  It lasts for months.  And it recurs in 2 consecutive years.  I try everything I can think of to get out of it.  I have my blood work done.  It comes back great.  I ask western doctors what the problem is.  They say nothing.  I sign up with some naturopaths.  They say I have adrenal fatigue or insufficiency.  I try what they propose.  That doesn’t seem to work either.

8 months after the first time the fatigue hits, I find what I think is a way out of the fatigue.  But about 6 months later, it hits again.  I struggle again for what seems like an eternity, but in reality is only about 8 months.

The second year, I talk to about 7 different health professionals.  I try 2 Western doctors.  They give me nothing.  I try a different naturopath.  I research and find a person I believe is the foremost expert in the country on adrenal fatigue.  I enroll in his clinic.  After a self-administered test, the health coach I am talking to says I likely have adrenal fatigue and that it will take 6-9 months to stabilize me.  I start working on his protocol.

But I don’t stop there.  Because if I can’t get this thing solved, I likely won’t be able to keep my job.  So, I continue to query other doctors as I work with the health coach.  One of the doctors does a test where he finds bacteria in my blood.  I insist on doing a stool analysis and find a parasite and overgrowth of bacteria.

I go to sleep doctor.  I go to a psychiatrist.  I pray; I plead with God; I ponder.

I get better.  I feel at 120% of normal.  My life and energy have returned.  I am so grateful and relieved that I have been guided by God out of this mess.

An experience with my boss

Fast forward 7 months.  I am having a conversation with my boss.  I won’t go into the details, but he wants me to change something I am doing.  He is asking a lot of questions and making points that don’t make sense.  They don’t seem right to me, but he is persisting in his questions and assertions.

I ask him some questions and come to a realization of a truth: it doesn’t matter what the benefit is of the course I am taking; in this case, it is the perception of others and potential problem that is the issue.  When I recognize that, the decision becomes easy.

My Learnings

So, you are going to ask: what do all these experiences have in common?  As I look back on my experience with my dad, I recognize that he saw or felt that going on the trip was not a good idea for me.  He tried to persuade me with man-made reasoning, but his reasoning was faulty.  If my dad had told me, “John, the Holy Ghost has warned me that if you go you will regret it,” I would have listened.

By not just directly telling me the truth, but instead by warning me with man-made reasoning that was false, I become more convinced that the path I was contemplating taking was what I should do.

My experience with Annie is similar.  Annie made some assertions and statements that to me were blatantly false.  But Annie must have had a feeling that something would go wrong, and it did.  Even though Annie didn’t know it, Annie had been sent by God to warn me, but I wouldn’t listen because the reasons Annie gave me were man made and seemed ridiculous.  And in the end, none of Annie’s man-made reasons actually materialized, but I did experience some direct consequences because I didn’t perceive what was really happening.

Now when Annie tells me I should be doing or not doing something, I pay a lot more attention to her and less attention to her reasoning.  I will sometimes even ask Annie if she feels what she is telling me is from God, because if Annie feels that, I will stop what I am doing and reverse course.

For my experience with fatigue, I went to so many doctors because I was desperately searching for a way out of my problem and was not satisfied with what I was getting.  When I found the truth, I was persuaded by it and took action that helped me get out of my fatigue.

My experience with my boss is similar to my experience with Annie and my dad.  My boss gave me some reasons that I thought were totally false.  But he was patient with me and transparent.  And when I truly understood the conflicts piece, the decision was easy.

So, what do I get from all this.  Many things, but one is this: what the Savior Jesus Christ said in John 8 is true:

31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The truth is our most persuasive ally and best friend.  We should focus on finding and using it in all circumstances.

And the words of the Hymn “Oh Say, What is Truth?” resonate with me more strongly than ever:

Oh say, what is truth? ’Tis the fairest gem

That the riches of worlds can produce,

And priceless the value of truth will be when

The proud monarch’s costliest diadem

Is counted but dross and refuse.

Yes, say, what is truth? ’Tis the brightest prize

To which mortals or Gods can aspire.

Go search in the depths where it glittering lies,

Or ascend in pursuit to the loftiest skies:

’Tis an aim for the noblest desire.

The sceptre may fall from the despot’s grasp

When with winds of stern justice he copes.

But the pillar of truth will endure to the last,

And its firm-rooted bulwarks outstand the rude blast

And the wreck of the fell tyrant’s hopes.

Then say, what is truth? ’Tis the last and the first,

For the limits of time it steps o’er.

Tho the heavens depart and the earth’s fountains burst,

Truth, the sum of existence, will weather the worst,

Eternal, unchanged, evermore.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog entry.