Erised, Vision, Faith, and Identity

Also published in the U.K under the title “The Long-windedness of Ked”

I also engage the long-ness alert!

vision |ˈvi zh ən| noun

1 the faculty or state of being able to see

• the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom

• a mental image of what the future will or could be like

faith |fāθ| noun

1 complete trust or confidence in someone or something

Elder Oaks, on visiting our mission answered a missionary's question on faith by saying that it is trust, just like above, so I like this definition.

I tried to simply everything you said by making an equation. So, if I summarize correctly, your equation would be

vision + faith = success

Now, we should probably clarify each section of the equation.

Vision is the ability to plan or imagine what the future will be or could be. In an address to Harvard, J.K. Rowling talked about imagination. She didn't speak about it terms of creating whimsical fantasies. She worked for a place like Amnesty International where refugees came in. She said that imagination was important because it allowed people to hope for a better world. It allowed Britains to think of a better world for refugees and it allowed the refugees to dream of a better life than war, famine, and political turmoil. Change came after imagination and I must say that with that imagination came hope.

Yes, I believe vision is important. “Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18).” Sure this may be centrally about revelation, but I think there is a correlation. If you have no vision, your goals aren't as clear as they could be and really you aren't going anywhere. Like Alice. If you don't know where you want to go, it really doesn't matter where you go. Stephen R. Covey says start with the end in mind.

So, vision incorporates imagination and hope to some extent. Well, I think most of us try to imagine good things.

Now faith. When I first read the Lectures on Faith I was surprised that Joseph Smith used such a basic example of a someone planting seeds and having faith that they would grow. So, as I have thought for a long time there are two kinds of faith. Sort of. The first is trusting that as we do what is asked of us then we will be blessed and eventually we will be saved and exalted. The other faith is not necessarily more secular but less tied to eternal salvation. It is believing that somehow we can accomplish something. However, I still do not think that this version wholly separates from religion. It is a principle of power in the eternities to believe in something that is not yet or something that can be. So, while the thing being undertaken is not essential to our salvation, it requires an element of faith to actually complete it. Perhaps it is faith that, in our status of being children of God and with the help of the Atonement to overcome our weakness, we can accomplish anything we really need to and want to (if it's righteous). I don't know. But I do know that many non-religious people know that faith is important. Look at psychology. They teach people to change their thinking and believe that things are going to happen. This is true for addiction, depression, etc. If you believe you are going to lapse again then suddenly WHAM! It happens. However, it is when they believe a change is coming that actual things start to happen. A change in the brain to have a more faithful attitude and eventually even alters brain chemistry. Whoa. Heavenly Father hardwired our brains to use faith. So, I guess there is one faith to salvation and the other is to accomplish things.

In 1 Nephi 5:5 Lehi says”But behold, I have obtained a land of promise, in the which things I do rejoice.” Lehi has already claimed the promised land before he's gotten there! What great faith! So, maybe we should say “What a great radio show we did!” Also a thought! Perhaps he also had vision of it. Perhaps he simply had great faith and said “let's go!”

But we know that faith needs work. Without it it's...finito, kicked the bucket, gone to the great ice cream shop in the sky, pushing daisies, do not pass go and do not collect $200, dead as a doornail (where did that come from anyway?). Does finito work? It just sounds cool. So, Lehi got a promised land and then packed up his gear to head towards it.

So is this modified correctly? vision + faith + works = success

But it seems like something is missing. These things could lead us to success. But what about the motivation part? You said yourself that the rewards for a radio show should motivate you enough. Should the rewards alone produce the faith necessary?

My brother once worked for a company that built amusement park rides. A customer company asked them to build a roller coaster with a “whisper quiet” ascension device. Maybe you've been on one of those roller coasters where you ascend and it goes CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! Well, my brother's company signed the contract saying they'd build that. Hmmm....Nobody had such a thing. The technology hadn't been invented yet. However, they knew they could figure it out. Simple faith that it could be done. Why not? Their incentive was a lucrative deal. Was that what produced their faith? Or encouraged their faith? Or was it the fact that they knew the power of invention and that was their faith while the money was the motivation? Something to think about.

Sometimes motivation comes from what we want. What would you see in the Mirror of Erised from Harry Potter? However, have there been things that I've thought I wanted and just didn't have what it took (motivation) to get them? Yes. Herein I've discovered something else that may come in to play. I shall give an example from my own life.

Numerous times in my life I have had the desire to write novels.I've had some great ideas. One idea caught me like fire and for months I couldn't stop thinking about it. I kept a little notebook and wrote some sixty pages of notes on ideas for the story. In about five months time how many pages had I written? None. I'd only done a few warm-up writing exercises.

Can I write? I'd like to think so. I've written for a newspaper, the Rollins Center for eBusiness, for an online blog, and for LDS Living Magazine. I had several teachers tell me I wrote well. I took several creative writing classes. There have been many times where I have thought to make a career out of writing.

However, I learned something pretty fascinating about myself. One time, when my parents came to visit me in Provo, I showed them lots of schoolwork I'd done and hobby work.. Did I show them any articles that I'd written? No. What did I show? I showed photos from my photojournalism class, costumes I'd made, sculptures, and videos I'd created. I realized I didn't care about the writing. I cared more about the visual stuff I'd made. I have a hard time getting up in the morning and writing. Yet, somehow I can get up and draw, sculpt, or photograph for hours if I want to. I don't feel it is something I simply like, but I feel it is part of who I am.

So, some of my motivation comes from desires that are also aligned properly with who I really am. I think it would be hard for someone who doesn't care about money to work in a money-centric industry. It would be hard for a shy person to become...president of the United States or a boisterous public speaker.

Can we change who we are? Yes and no. Who are we really? We're children of God and thereby have unlimited potential. Can't change that, but we can change things about ourselves and can change our natures to some extent. Could a shy person become the President? Yes. Could I write a book? Yes, and someday I still hope to. It's just not on my the top of my list of priorities. I have other things that I do better and other things I want to spend my time doing.

That's another thing. Priorities. Sometimes there are things I really want to do, but other priorities step in the way. Family. Earning money so we can say...eat. So that motivation may be stronger (as it sometimes should be).

So, what did I really try to say in all this? Currently my motivation for projects I'm working on and schooling come from my vision of what I can be, what I want life to be like in the future, who I really am inside and from priorities that I have right now.

Ooh! One more thought. Goals. Elder Ballard has a quote in Preach My Gospel and he says that if we don't learn goal setting we will miss out on our potential. This is another thing I think I need some work on. I could get more done if I set goals and worked for them. Sometimes we have good ideas, but we don't really set the goals necessary to provide a path to work on them. Ideas sound great by themselves, but they are like seeds that sit in the packets. Absolutely useless (except for to sit on the shelf and show that something is in stock at the store). Ideas that have turned into creations are the bomb diggity. Bridging the gap is what matters. It is the hardest part. That's why so many people never do it.

Vision + Faith + Works = success

Is there something missing? Is the radio show simply something that's not a priority? Is it something we think we want, but really isn't lined up with who we are? Or is one of the things in the equation missing? Do we not have the vision, faith, or works to back it up? Or is this equation even complete?