Pray: Perhaps a Rant

Well I suppose if you haven't noticed yet, my blog is mostly reserved for inner rants that seem to flow into cyberspace. Today will be no different, so if you have some other pressing matters to attend too I would advise reading no further and going back to something productive.

For those who have been on a mission know how blown out of proportion it is to come home off your mission. Most missionaries have like this big ol' melt down that they are going home, that they never want to leave the mission field, [insert more whining to your discretion]. Anyways, this isn't a post about what it's like to come off your mission, but it leads into what I want to rant about- Apostasy. Apostasy was one of the things that was most poignant to coming home. I had spent 18 months trying to help others come unto Christ, sure we met a lot of rejection, but I wasn't prepared to come home and see how many had left after having known the truth! So many families who were now apart because one spouse or the other had gone off the deep end...or even just small things that led to a lackadaisical approach to living the gospel. It's been on my mind and I've been wondering why is it that people leave? What is so alluring to just fade into the world?

I've found a few answers.
1) People want an easy God. 
While a missionary, I can't count the amount of times that people would say that they were spiritual rather than religious, or that it didn't matter what they did now, that God would forgive them for whatever they do, just as long as they believe.  "Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds." The Cost—and Blessings—of Discipleship, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
 God requires us to change. He requires us to become more like him so we can be comfortable in his presence.

2) There is a common belief that truth is dependent on belief 
It's really returning to the childhood game of peek-a-boo or hide and seek. When a child covers their eyes, they believe you can't see them because they can't see you. Even though the child believes you can't see them, it doesn't change the reality that they are still standing in front of you. Whether we believe a truth or not, that truth is unchanging. Truth doesn't change.
"If a teaching fits their lifestyle, they accept it and it becomes part of their faith. If it does not, they develop their own man-made faith. Faith and spirituality are now viewed as consumer products. Materialism has taken over and replaced God." Helping others find faith in Christ -Elder L. Tom Perry  
We either accept truth- all of it or we reject all of it. The teachings of Jesus Christ are not to be taken in a cafeteria manner- we can't pick and choose.

Last one, 
3) People want easy happiness.
People create themselves to be their own masters, they "invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside of God, apart from God and out of hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history, money, poverty, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery, the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make them happy."- The truth about Eden (it's a great book, I recommend it) We want happiness to be easy- we don't want a God that would require us to change, because change is uncomfortable and sometimes painful.

I think these are characteristics that are just part of the natural man. We would all love it if we didn't have to do anything- just sit back, eat, drink and be merry, it would be great if we could all just pick and choose what commandments we wanted to follow and have no consequences and it would be awesome if lasting happiness came from sex, drugs and rock and roll (what does come from that are mostly STDs) ......but I'm here to say....LET"S NOT BE STUPID. (sue me for being blunt). Perhaps living the gospel, the full gospel, seems sometimes difficult, sometimes inconvenient, but in my personal opinion...the alternative is a lot harder and causes a lot more problems. 

Living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the anchor for my soul. It directs me to happiness, sometimes I don't see it all clearly, but I know that for every commandment, every responsibility, there is reason, and that reason is to help me change to become more like my Saviour Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father.
  Give yourself a pat on the back if you managed to to stick around long enough to read this whole thing. Have a happy week! I accept positive and negative feedback ;) Though, if it's negative...I'll probably ignore it.