Truth
HAL B. HEATON
21 June 2005, BYU Devotional
“Truth is terribly constraining. You see, if 2 + 2 =
4, then we are not free to believe that the total is 5 or 10 or 103. Only one
right answer is constraining. You can believe anything you want, but on the
other hand, if you want to be free to build a rocket that is capable of flying
to the moon, then you had better believe 2 + 2 = 4. Without the terribly
constraining nature of truth, we could not be free to do anything!
“In high school I did my homework, I didn’t sluff class, and I was terribly constrained. A lot of kids laughed at me (and others like me) because we didn’t have any freedom. They had freedom: they sluffed class, didn’t do any homework, smoked, and drank if they felt like it. We didn’t have freedom: we only did what we were told to do—according to them.
“It is interesting to look at the same issue several years later. I graduated with a good GPA, got a scholarship, and had a big choice of schools I could attend and a wide selection of majors. As time went on I worked hard and had freedom to do anything I wanted to do. I was constantly faced with a bewildering set of choices. I had more and more freedom to do more and more things. Some of those who thought I had no freedom in high school didn’t graduate from high school, couldn’t get a good job, couldn’t afford a house, and couldn’t go back to school because they were earning so little they didn’t have enough time or money. Over time they had less and less freedom. I am sure they feel trapped today.
“The same is true in the gospel. Doing what you are asked to do may seem like anything but freedom. But you see, God gives us commandments because He wants us to be free. Suppose you knew a child better than the child could possibly know himself, and you knew that the only thing that would make that child truly happy would be to, say, become a neurosurgeon. What would you tell the child to do? Go to school, don’t sluff, take the hard classes, get good grades—terribly confining stuff. But did you give him the commandments to make him miserable? No, you gave him the commandments because you knew that the only way he was going to be free to achieve the greatest possible happiness and do what he really wanted to do—if he only knew it himself—was to follow your rules.
“It is the same way with God. Truth may appear to be irritatingly confining—think of the BYU Dress and Grooming Standards and the Honor Code. Other schools look at us and laugh, just the way my high school friends used to look at me and laugh. Now the greatest agony of my high school friends who thought they were free is knowing what might have been. I believe the greatest agony of mortality and eternity is knowing what might have been. Note that the LDS version of hell, “outer darkness,” is only for those who know the truth and reject it. Knowing the inexpressible joy that might have been and never experiencing it can certainly be expressed as the agony that is much like being in eternal torment or, as the scriptures often put it in a metaphor, “burning.”
“Don’t go through the agony of knowing what might have been when it is too late. Learn the truth now. Obey the truth. I promise you and, more important, the Lord—who knows you better than you know yourself—also promises you that you will achieve a happiness so great, so awesome, so far beyond anything you can imagine you simply cannot comprehend it. If you really understood that truth, you would sacrifice anything—everything—to achieve it. Understanding this truth is central to your purpose for being on the planet.”
“In high school I did my homework, I didn’t sluff class, and I was terribly constrained. A lot of kids laughed at me (and others like me) because we didn’t have any freedom. They had freedom: they sluffed class, didn’t do any homework, smoked, and drank if they felt like it. We didn’t have freedom: we only did what we were told to do—according to them.
“It is interesting to look at the same issue several years later. I graduated with a good GPA, got a scholarship, and had a big choice of schools I could attend and a wide selection of majors. As time went on I worked hard and had freedom to do anything I wanted to do. I was constantly faced with a bewildering set of choices. I had more and more freedom to do more and more things. Some of those who thought I had no freedom in high school didn’t graduate from high school, couldn’t get a good job, couldn’t afford a house, and couldn’t go back to school because they were earning so little they didn’t have enough time or money. Over time they had less and less freedom. I am sure they feel trapped today.
“The same is true in the gospel. Doing what you are asked to do may seem like anything but freedom. But you see, God gives us commandments because He wants us to be free. Suppose you knew a child better than the child could possibly know himself, and you knew that the only thing that would make that child truly happy would be to, say, become a neurosurgeon. What would you tell the child to do? Go to school, don’t sluff, take the hard classes, get good grades—terribly confining stuff. But did you give him the commandments to make him miserable? No, you gave him the commandments because you knew that the only way he was going to be free to achieve the greatest possible happiness and do what he really wanted to do—if he only knew it himself—was to follow your rules.
“It is the same way with God. Truth may appear to be irritatingly confining—think of the BYU Dress and Grooming Standards and the Honor Code. Other schools look at us and laugh, just the way my high school friends used to look at me and laugh. Now the greatest agony of my high school friends who thought they were free is knowing what might have been. I believe the greatest agony of mortality and eternity is knowing what might have been. Note that the LDS version of hell, “outer darkness,” is only for those who know the truth and reject it. Knowing the inexpressible joy that might have been and never experiencing it can certainly be expressed as the agony that is much like being in eternal torment or, as the scriptures often put it in a metaphor, “burning.”
“Don’t go through the agony of knowing what might have been when it is too late. Learn the truth now. Obey the truth. I promise you and, more important, the Lord—who knows you better than you know yourself—also promises you that you will achieve a happiness so great, so awesome, so far beyond anything you can imagine you simply cannot comprehend it. If you really understood that truth, you would sacrifice anything—everything—to achieve it. Understanding this truth is central to your purpose for being on the planet.”
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