two thoughts

Today at church I had two thoughts.

First: recently I was accused of immaturity, on the count that I act differently with different people. This is a true fact: I act differently around Carl than I do with you, and I probably act differently with you, whoever you are, than I do with random strangers and than I do with my best girlfriends or my parents.

And I was thinking about it, and I thought of singing. In singing, it's a terrible thing if your voice stands out. You're supposed to blend with the people around you, because it makes all of you sound better. You never change the overall sound of your voice, but you lift your soft palatte differently, change the shape of your lips on a certain vowel, or change where you hold your tongue. You retain your individuality while trying to match other people, for the sake of comfort and unity of the choir and audience alike.

My other thought had to do with modern revelation. I read the preface to the Doctrine and Covenants today, and that section is intense.

The opening verses:

" 1 Hearken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of him who dwells on high, and whose eyes are upon all men; yea, verily I say: Hearken ye people from afar; and ye that are upon the islands of the sea, listen together.
2 For verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men, and there is none to escape; and there is no eye that shall not see, neither ear that shall not hear, neither heart that shall not be penetrated.
3 And the rebellious shall be pierced with much sorrow; for their iniquities shall be spoken upon the housetops, and their secret acts shall be revealed.
4 And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days.
5 And they shall ago forth and none shall stay them, for I the Lord have commanded them.
6 Behold, this is mine authority, and the authority of my servants, and my preface unto the book of my commandments, which I have given them to publish unto you, O inhabitants of the earth.
7 Wherefore, fear and tremble, O ye people, for what I the Lord have decreed in them shall be fulfilled."

This is intense stuff. The rest of the section is really intense. You can read it here.

Anyway. In RS we were talking about how so many people refuse to embrace the idea of modern revelation through prophets, instead embracing revelations of the far past, for instance, in the Bible. But even in the Church we do it, reading the Book of Mormon and even the D&C and using those to replace the words of the prophet every month in the Ensign. Why? My teacher posited that it's because people are more comfortable with the words of the past--the words of God today expose all the corruption of our beliefs and our society, and most people just don't want to deal with that.

Interesting.