Covid-19 / the Coronavirus Pandemic is ravaging the earth. I have not been directly impacted, but friends and family members are sick from it. And I fear.
So it was with interest and hope that I watched the 190th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which I am a member.
Did I hear a cure embedded in a Conference talk Saturday evening? Or preventative medicine against the Covid-19 virus? I think I did!
An Apostle Speaks Truth … And A Pandemic Cure?
In the Saturday evening special session, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, spoke. At about the 9:30 point of his talk, which you can watch here, things got interesting.
Is The Pandemic Cure Contained In This Talk?
I re-listened to his talk this morning. I typed as fast as I could: I’ve paraphrased some, and quoted some. Listen to his talk for yourself, and take notes on what YOU hear.
Elder Oaks said: “We’ve been taught great principles of eternity.” He then encouraged us to have our eye single to receive these truths of eternity, “so our bodies may be full of light.” Elder Oaks then discussed the Savior’s sermon (in both The Bible and The Book of Mormon), where the Savior taught that “mortal bodies can be full of light, or full of darkness. ”
The Savior “used the example of our eye,” Elder Oaks said, and talked about the eye being single. “If the eye is single to truth and righteousness, to that which is good, then thy whole body shall be full of light. But if the eye seeks evil, then the body will be filled with evil. That is, if we look for evil and take that into our bodies, then our whole body will be filled with darkness.”
“Mortal bodies can be full of light, or full of darkness. Listen to messages about truths of eternity. If we are concentrating on receiving eternal light and understanding,” thy whole body shall be full of light.”
“The light or darkness in our bodies depends on how we see or receive the eternal truths we are taught..”
How I Heard This Talk About Light = Pandemic Cure
His discussion about filling my body with light caught my attention: If we desire this and have our eye single to receive truth and light, “the Savior promises that the truths of eternity shall be opened unto us.”
Is this the prevention — and the pandemic cure — for Covid-19? I’ve found that, in recent months, I’ve been extremely negative and critical. I’ve criticized people and politics and processes on Facebook, in my daily interactions. While I haven’t sought wickedness, I haven’t been positive, joyful, or (for me, at least), happy. And as I’ve acted that way, I’ve felt darker, more weary, more down and downtrodden.
What if I start looking for truth? What if I start looking — again — for goodness, for joy, for happiness? What if, instead of grumbling about having to clear out the invasive trees on my property, I rejoice in getting to go outside on beautiful, sunny days? What if, instead of complaining about the rain, I give thanks that’s, when it’s over, the ground is so soft that I can pull out weeds and non-native trees easily, instead of struggling to cut them down? What if, instead of complaining about people I think are politically negative, I’m glad we live in a country where we can have different opinions?
Yesterday I wrote a press release about a Ultra-Violet disinfecting machine, recently shipped to one of my clients, that sanitizes health care facilities with LIGHT. What if internalizing joy, happiness and truth fills my body and soul with light? And what if, if my body is filled with light, THAT is the prevention — and the cure — to this pandemic?
In the time of Moses, the Children of Israel had a plague of poisonous serpents. Moses raised up a serpent on a staff. To be healed, someone who was bitten just had to look upon the staff (which was a symbol of the Savior Jesus Christ) to be cured. The task was simple. Yet because it was so easy, so simple, many didn’t do it, and perished.
What if this simple thing, given by an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the answer to this pandemic, as well as to other woes? What if we all looked for the good, the truth, the light?
Will people still die from this and other ailments, even if they are full of light? Of course. That is the human condition. Will it save everyone? Probably not. So why try to fill our souls with light? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know my answer. I don’t like darkness or evil. I’m going to change, to do this simple thing, to look for truth, for good, for joy. I’m going to fill my body and my soul with light.
#HearHim #ChurchofJesusChrist #GeneralConference
Every evening,
.
Each day we breathe in/
My world is not their world. Not at all. Oh! How I wish I could share the noise that surrounds my house on this hickory’d hill. For where they have city silence, I have none but nature’s noise. Just this morning, I stepped outside to a cacophony of chirping, squawking, barking, and sweet voices laughing, calling.