I have no idea what got me started thinking about this certain thing that I'm about to start talking about. Maybe it's just 'cause I like to think about Jesus. I find that I catch myself thinking about Him quite frequently.
I was born and raised in a certain Christian religion, and I feel happy to state that that religion is still so meaningful and important to me. Thus I have been hearing about, learning about, and talking about Jesus Christ basically ever since I could start forming words as a tiny tike.
A tiny tike gets to a certain age where he or she acquires the ability to remember life events, and consciously take note that he himself or she herself is, in fact, thinking about something with his or her own mind. I suppose about myself that, as the years have gone by, from my tiny-tike days until this present day, I have gradually become more and more consciously controlling of my own thoughts. Little by little, I have become more and more aware of the specific things I think about.
If this here supposition about myself is correct, I also suppose that I have always been thinking about Jesus, possibly ever since I was born. However, because I have been getting older, my remembrance of Jesus has become more pronounced with time. Yesterday (or perhaps it was the day before yesterday?), I feel like my pondering of Him has actually reached a whole new frontier, which may be interesting to absolutely no one but me.
Ever since I became learned enough to get a super-basic conceptual grasp of what Christ's "atonement" is, I've been telling myself that "I have faith in Christ's atonement."
And I do. I do have faith in it. I feel like I can almost literally touch the thing that is my faith in Christ's atonement. Almost tangible, it is.
But yesterday (or the day before), like a bolt out of the blue, some mysterious/philosophical/hypothetical being or force asked me a question, and I'm thinking I may never forget that moment: "What are the specific things that you have faith in?"
And that was it. That was the question: short, sweet, pure, simple.
I think about this verse of scripture from the Book of Mormon: "And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (Alma 32:21)
I'll extract a phrase from that: "ye hope for things." That phrase now speaks to me. I'm sure it's spoken to me before, but never like this.
Remember what the hypothetical force asked me? What are the things...? For me, that question matches up with the phrase that Alma conveyed in 74 B.C.
After some earnest mental effort, I made a short list of what are some of the specific things (about the atonement as well as other gospel aspects) that I have faith in -- that I believe in:
- How an event in a Jerusalem garden, which apparently lasted for only a few earthly hours, was a long enough time for Jesus Christ to be able reach out to and perfectly lovingly and courageously redeem each and every living soul that ever existed in the universe at any time: past, present, and future. Just a few hours? For millions, billions, possibly trillions and beyond? Is this logical, according to even the most genius human mind? Does this make any sense? I can't figure out how it's all possible. I don't know if any person can explain... But it's still something that I believe to be true. Something that I have faith in. I've really seen divine redemption and heavenly help give aid to not only myself, but to countless other people, and it's enough to validate that what I'm believing about Christ's atonement is good and right.
- How God (the three Godhead members) can keep perfect track of everybody at all times ("waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light" ~ "Be Thou My Vision") -- in an incredibly individual fashion -- especially when there's so many gall darn people . . . and God is just always there for everybody . . . He is so very omnipresent, and so faithful and loyal to each of us! Like, this is the most dumbfounding thing of all the things... To me, anyway... But I believe in it!
- How there is a life and a world after this, where I'm going to see loved ones I've lost here on earth
- How, after we die, we will live again and never die again. We will become immortal and our bodies will be perfectly restored
- How, in the life and world to come -- rather, in the eternity to come -- families can be unbreakably close-knit families forever. Forever!
And like such as. For me, these all are things that are not only nice things to think about... Ya know, like, Ah well, ya know, like that would be nice and all, buuuuut...... Nah, nah, there's not any "but" about any of it; it's all stuff that is true! Granted, I don't have a "perfect knowledge" about it all (look back on that Alma verse). But it is all stuff that I hope for, that I can't see with my own two eyes, but nonetheless are still very true.
And so, Mr. or Ms. Hypothetical Inquisitive Force, here is the answer to your question. These are the things I hope for. This is where my faith lies. This is what I believe.
