Humility testimony

This is a private post for my own records. 

There was an experience with humility that is always in the back of my mind.  It was years ago but it's still vivid to me.  I've been around humble people before, and it struk me as a noble trait.  However, I had an experience that left a permanent memory.  There was a moment when I sensed a degree of humility emanating from the divine that was so compelling that when I encountered it, I was unable to maintain my composure. There was no pride in what emanated. The goodness of character was of such a degree that it permeated everything, namely my heart.  I lost it.  The obvious moral authority caused what felt like a loss or a draining of my own strength. The contrast between myself and what was communicated was too great to bear and it compelled surrender.  Had I not sat down I felt as though I would have fallen down.  

The good news of the Gospel I believe centers on the person of God and His attributes. It's very encouraging and very hope filling.  It leaves a permanent contrast in the mind. A contrast between the things of God vs everything down here in this fallen world. It resolves all dispute and question about who matters.  It's Him, it's Him who we need to get to know for life and salvation. I don't know why someone would fixate on a man, celebrity, or Church men and be satisfied with that when the Lord has declared himself knowable in the scriptures.  It's fun to get to know Him.   

I think the better definition of a testimony is not what someone believes, but something a person can testify of.  So with that definition, I have a testimony to some degree as I can testify of one aspect of God's nature.  He is humble, and meek.  In His words "I am meek and lowly of heart." This is truth.  

We all owe him everything.  We should listen to Him, and the messages He sends through those He has called.  All else is vanity.  

Uncertainty - political and prophetic

Maybe it's the Covid virus thing or perhaps the mess of the media with the 2020 election, but lately I've noticed an enormous number of news articles who's substance is founded on uncertainty. It's artificial. These headlines and articles use words and phrases such as:

Probably
Possibly
Possible
Potentially
Might
Could 
May  
Perhaps
Maybe

That's not substance.  Those are nothingness portrayed as predictions you need to pay attention to. Some of that is to be expected in the media but it's almost become almost part of the foundation of the media.  It's assumed that people accept them as almost prophecies. Which may actually improve the chances of some negative thing occurring because now people are expecting that thing the news fed as a probability. Smells like garbage to me.  Lo here, lo there.  

I'm not a journalist but constantly portraying an imagined fearful future of "might" and "could" "perhaps" as if it was a substantive news article seems like piss poor journalism. It's misleading. Bottom of the barrel way to drum up ratings and readers. Using fear and uncertainty which is something we are all vulnerable to.  And deliberately playing off of it to portray an artificial world founded on "might be" to entice people in.  Uncertainty is conveniently always deniable, because one can always point back to the fact that someone said "might" and thus get off the hook for the effects of them saying pretty much whatever they want.            

The virus never-solution: 

Why is the solution to this virus mess never to give the public as accurate of information as public governmental leaders are able to provide, and then let every man, woman, family, or business decide for themselves how best to protect themselves and carry out their lives according to their unique situations?  The news would have to simply state facts and not have to deal with bogus national or worldwide uncertainty risks that don't even apply to most people.  Just give facts, and let people choose.  

Prophetic Uncertainty:

In other recent news there was President Nelson's worldwide message and social media gratitude blitz video.  In the 11 minute video the Church too is also using uncertainty phrases that can neither be proved nor disproved and always has plausible deniability.  In the 11 minute Church video President Nelson said, with a look of uncertainty on his face: "Perhaps, this will fulfill, in part, the promise God gave to Father Abraham".  Perhaps? In part?  Is it possible to be any more more noncommittal about your statement?  This is proverbial emperor with not clothes type of statement.

As one writer put it:  Gratitude, social media blitzes, high-tech equivalents of the Rameumptom and virtue signaling are definitely NOT what God would be telling us to do to…they're not the "urgent and important" remedies for mankind's sins, and you know it.

The hashtag associated to this Church video quickly became the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter in the United States and was still the second-biggest trending topic more than two hours after the video posted and remained in the top five for several hours.  Popularity is apparently important to those producing these videos.  

For some reason they had President Nelson use eye color changing lenses for this video....    I don't even know if I want to find out why they would do something like this.  

I also learned that pretty much none of the Quorum of the 12 and President Nelson himself followed his own message to post on social media for 7 days.  None of them apparently took it seriously enough to follow along. See here.