A Strange Compliment

Wednesday, July 12th was my last day in class. I was to leave Utah a week earlier than all of the interns because I had planned a trip to Michigan with my fiance to see relatives before returning to work in Tucson. It was a strange day overall...our first professor tailored the class to fit our "needs" because he thought all of us were leaving that weekend. This is exactly what happened last year, which I find funny. It's like they know it's their last chance to hit us with what they see as the most important doctrine or thing to know, and don't care if the others in the class are bored with it. So, this class was devoted to a summary of the "Plan of Salvation" which, unbeknownst to him, we all pretty much knew by heart. But, there were points of clarification which I found interesting. The Plan of Salvation from an LDS perspective is not what we think of as Evangelicals. I imagine if we were to describe this, it would be something about how man and God are separated because of sin and the effects of the Fall and how God had to send Jesus to be our Reconciler to God. He had to pay the penalty of sin for us so that we might accept God's free gift of salvation, repent, and be saved. Sound about right?

Well, for the LDS, the Plan of Salvation begins with the Pre-Existence, where we all existed as spirit children in heaven before being given bodies here on earth. Earth is a test to see if we will choose God again and become worthy to live with Him for all of eternity. This plan extends into the holding period before heaven in which everyone has a chance to accept Christ and the necessary ordinances (such as baptism) done for them in proxy by people on earth, so that they might progress to a higher level of heaven. After this comes the description of the different levels of heaven and a brief mention of "Outer Darkness" which is reserved only for the worst of sinners or those who knew the whole truth and rejected it. One guy told us that only like 5 people are bad enough to be there. Anyway, so it goes from start to finish, with the focus on achiving the celestial kingdom. This is the center point, the culmination. Christ is not.

The other strange part of the day was a compliment I recieved from our second professor, the one who I have said less about this whole time. He is a smart man, educated in religion at Princeton. He tailored almost every class because we were in the audience, and seemed to, well, have a "chip on his shoulder" towards Evangelical Christians. He would tell stories of the ways he has been persecuted, misunderstood, and mistreated by Christians through the years....so I partly understand why he is the way he is. Anyway, without going into detail, I will just say that we got the impression that he wasn't terribly happy with our presence nor did he trust us. Despite all of this, when I went up to him at the end of class to shake his hand, offer my thanks, and say goodbye, he asked if he could speak to me in the hall. I agreed, and we went into the hallway. He proceeded to tell me (and I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but to show how God works when we don't see Him working) that he has felt a very bright light in me and has been impressed with me as a person. I think he also said something about feeling the Spirit strongly and knowing that I will go far in life. I offered my thanks for such a compliment, but said that it isn't anything I have done on my own, but only Christ in me. He said, "Well, then Christ must be very pleased with you." The reason I thought this so unusual and unexpected was because I had said very little in his class, comparatively, and hadn't let a prayer or a "scripture thought" the whole time (not to mention that I didn't think he thought well of any of us because of our religious affiliation). So, I'm not sure what he was judging me from. But, it speaks to God's ability to use us even when we don't realize it, and how just our demeanor, our respect for others, and the way in which we speak and treat others (even when we say little) can speak volumes.