242: DISCONNECTED CONNECTIONS

There’s never been a time in the history of the world when we can communicate  with a wider assortment of people, while simultaneously fostering a shallower connection. We electronically communicate using technology and cell phones, send photos to each other that can only be viewed for a few seconds, and text acronyms instead of words. We rarely talk with each other using our voices and seldom in person. We are losing the personal and emotional bonds that last. We’re becoming masters of disconnected communication.

Two recent movies depict what happens when a loss of communication happens. I found it ironic that both movies were released around the same time. The movie, All is Lost, involves a man, in the middle of the ocean.. stranded...unable to transmit via his radio the need for help.  The other movie is about a woman astronaut,  who is adrift in space after a tragic Space Shuttle mission. Both movies contain a lot of symbolism. Both were in a "vehicle" that they were expecting to "remain intact" and transport them safely back home. Instead their vehicle became damaged resulting in a loss of communication to the only ones who can save them.

 

  

 To connect means to bring together two people, to join, to become in contact with, or to establish a relationship with. While we might be more "connected" with each other here on earth, we are probably becoming less connected to the heavens. However, there are few who are beginning to  understand the importance of connecting with the Heavens in preparation for the foundation of Zion.
   
"The foundation of Zion consists largely in reconnecting the children as a consequence of the promises that were made to the fathers, back again to the fathers. This is so there might be a welding link that connects the children who are on the earth with the fathers who are in the heavens. Not a connection to the dead who are in the Spirit world. They who are dead are in desperate need of your ministration to save them. For in connecting yourself to them is to connect yourself essentially to the damned, the dead, the disembodied. The fathers who are in heaven are the ones to whom you need to form the link. The whole purpose behind these promises and prophecy delivered to Joseph by Moroni was to fix this problem. Because if it were not so, the whole world would be utterly wasted, utterly wasted at His (and “their”) coming." Lecture on "Be of Good Cheer, Be of Good Courage."


We think that by expanding worldwide, building more and more temples, buildings, apartments, even malls, that we are hastening the work of the Lord and establishing Zion. But frankly I don't think we know what Zion is. The problem exists because no one has, and the scriptures are very careful to not include, a model for Zion. Is the model for Zion have a centralized control and command hierarchy? What happens when that command center becomes corrupt? The only way it can be fixed is requires knowledge about things that world doesn’t have. Only the Lord Himself can bring again. I don’t think we have the first inkling yet of how Zion is going to come about, or what it will require of us who are so hungry for it. Quite possible we might have the wrong picture in our head.

What I do know is that individuals need to connect to Christ. Him Alone. We do not go through any man to communicate with Him. He employeth no servant there. (2 Nephi 9:41)  Once individuals have connected with the Lord, they become one in heart and mind. And in that desire towards Christ.. they hopefully move forward, until Christ comes among them. 

Christ speaks of Himself as the “true vine” in John 15:1-6 to which we must connect if we are going to bear fruit.. None of us can bear fruit unless we are connected to the true vine. The vine is a genealogical term, it is a family of God term, it is a son of God term.

"Joseph received, in this first interview with the angel Moroni, an announcement about the first indications of the restoration of God's intent, to restore a holy family. God is telling us what He wants. He, God, wants to have upon the earth again His family. This is your dispensation, this is your time. You came down here with the intent of living and finding the things that will bring you back. This is your opportunity. Don't let some other group claim that it doesn't belong to you. These Scriptures are only going to be fulfilled when enough people awake and arise to realize that it is devolving upon you the obligation to find, to heed, to seek, to search, to pray, to obey and to form what is necessary in order to fulfill the promises and the covenants that were made to the fathers."
Lecture on "Be of Good Cheer, Be of Good Courage."


The only way we truly connect with others is through communication. A true Connection can not happen without communication between both parties, speaking with each other face to face.. without any digital device.

“We speak to each other in physical, analog ways. Our vocal chords vibrate. This initiates waves in the air, which are also physical. Those waves hit the eardrums of others, causing them to vibrate, which in turn creates tiny electrical signals that transport those vibrating patterns to the listener’s brains. In turn, the signals initiate neurons to zip around our brains, distilling the concept that the speaker wanted to convey. The key concept is that these are physical, mechanical phenomena. We don’t hear with our ears, we hear with our brains. Our wonderful ears are converter, they transform mechanical into electronic signals. 
 
 So far as we know, these physical, mechanical waves that convey speech don’t work in space, where there is no atmosphere. So if two astronauts took off their helmets on the moon and tried to talk to each other, it wouldn’t work, because there is no air in which vibrations can be converted into waves. So they need to talk electronically, not mechanically. 

This is a long way of saying that you should not expect God to speak to you by these physical waves that your ears collect. Rather, He dispatches the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of God to you, and His spirit can communicate to your spirit inside of you directly to your brain or your feelings- without going through mechanical-electrical conversions in your ears. A lot of people get confused because they try to hear God’s voice with their ears, and they don’t hear anything. Instead you need to listen inside your self. Sometimes you detect His voice as ideas, words, or sentences that just emerge inside your head as thoughts. More often you detect His message as a peaceful, warm feeling inside your heart. It is as if the Spirit of God went inside of you and gave your spirit a warm hug to say that “This is right”.   The Power of Every day Missionaries by Clayton Christensen pg 96-97

 I believe that on one level God speaks to us through the Holy Ghost, but I also believe He can and will speak to us face to face. It is that connection, that personal connection to the Living Vine, that we will need to have in order to survive the coming days.