A YOUNG WOMAN'S INSIGHT INTO THE HUMAN HEART

 My Surprising Conversation with Bethany

by Brad Scheelke

   Bethany (about 22) came to Oasis Books and Conversation September 11 and asked about a specific Tolkien essay. We chatted about Tolkien and CS Lewis and I asked if she was a student at USU. She was and I told her about Professor Kleiner and his class on Tolkien and Lewis. She was unaware but interested. The conversation turned to Viktor Frankl and his vision that we live by our awareness of meaning. She expressed curiosity about not hearing of him. I opened his favorite of his books and read from the preface about our lack of ability to choose to love, to choose to believe, to choose to hope, or to choose to choose. She agreed and was intrigued.

     I told her I thought she was a fully valuable person. She smiled and thanked me. This accelerated our conversation as we discussed implications and applications of this. 

She told me about her LDS mission to Brazil, from which she recently returned. She mentioned meeting many troubled people there who had been treated as worthless. When we talked about the importance of good expectations, she mentioned trying to do good. I pointed to the chalkboard behind me (shown here) and asked what she thought of it. She liked it. I then asked the difference between her word trying and the word trust on the chalkboard. She said trying focused on her ability and trust focused on God. I heartily affirmed her words and told her I often discuss this difference, but few people seem to notice the difference as she had. We discussed some implications of the difference.

What does the natural man (the flesh) want to do?

I asked what she thought of the natural man being an enemy of God. She said it was true, said the flesh and the natural man were the same thing, and then surprised me by saying the natural man wants to be alone and do good without God's help. I joyfully affirmed her words and asked how she learned this as nearly all of the many with whom I discuss the natural man have said the flesh wants to do bad things. She disagreed with them. I told her that it took me years, some significant frustration, and finally honesty about my confusion before I noticed the scriptures teach what she said:  the flesh longs to achieve good. She said she didn’t read it in a book or learn it on her mission. She just knew it.

What is corrupt about the human heart?

I asked her to read Jeremiah 17:9 to me. 

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”       -Jeremiah 17:9

She did and agreed fully with it even though it was new to her. I then told her I had memorized this verse in college as a new Christian, later memorized the context, and in reading it much over the years was blind to what the context said about the meaning of the deceitfulness of the human heart. 

I asked her to read verses 5-9 to me and tell me what the wickedness of the heart concerns.

“Thus says the LORD,

"Cursed is the man who trusts in man,

And makes flesh his strength,

whose heart turns away from the LORD.

For he will be like a bush in the desert

And will not see when prosperity comes,

But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,

a land of salt without inhabitant.”

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD

And whose trust is the LORD.

For he will be like a tree planted by the water,

that extends its roots by a stream

And will not fear when the heat comes;

But its leaves will be green,

And it will not be anxious in a year of drought

Nor cease to yield fruit.”

“The heart is more deceitful than all else 

And is desperately sick;

Who can understand it?”

-Jeremiah 17:5-9

She read it aloud and said the heart turns away from trusting God's strength and turns to trusting in human strength. She said the flesh is human strength. She liked Jeremiah's illustration of two plants in the desert, one nourished by a stream of water and one not. She saw trust as the issue and the object of trust as the difference. 

Is the fruit of the Spirit

 the result of possessing the Spirit or of trusting the Spirit?

I then told her the Apostle Paul says something similar to Jeremiah in one of his letters, but he leaves a word implied which Jeremiah declares openly. 

I turned to Galatians and asked her to read to me Galatians 5:16-25. She did and we discussed the word Jeremiah states and Paul implies. Does Paul imply trust or possession? Does Paul mean trusting the Spirit bears good fruit or possessing the Spirit bears good fruit? Does he mean trusting the flesh results in bad things or possessing the flesh results in bad things?

   “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

    "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”   

 -Galatians 5:16-25

She clearly saw the difference and said Paul’s point is all about trust and not about possession. Good things come out of our lives while we trust the Spirit and bad things come out of us while we trust the flesh—while we trust human ability to do good. I said in my circles people say possessing the Spirit bears good fruit and not possessing the Spirit results in bad things, and that this way of thinking easily leads sensitive people into discouragement when they see their performance as lacking.

What does it mean that God is the source of all goodness?

The conversation then turned to comparison to Christ. She said we should always make moral comparisons to Christ and never to other people. We discussed how this changes our view of ourselves and others—we identify with people rather than against them. We realize we all are together in the same boat as failures. I asked if thinking about Christ brought anything else to mind about what Christ did. She said that God revealed his love by sending Christ to die on the cross. She said that Christ’s death took care of all her sin, shame and guilt. We discussed the power of remembering to see a person as a fully valuable person; remembering to make comparison to Christ; and remembering that Christ died to take care of all sin. We discussed our practical experience of self-condemning thoughts and bad reactions toward others.

What does it mean that God is the source of all goodness?

 We then discussed how God is the source of all goodness and how we have no ability to be a source of goodness. As the sun is the source of all light shining from it and the moon, so God is the source of all spiritual light shining from Him and from all of us. We bear God’s image but not his reality. We are image-bearers who receive God’s goodness and overflow with it to others, while we are in our proper place of focus on his goodness. We are receivers and not achievers of the goodness we sense we need. 

The surprise of being a co-lover with God

 Then we talked about the nature of love and how our sense of love can mislead us. Since it is good to love we think we can love directly. Yet we often fail to love. Why? The surprise is that God calls us to love indirectly, to co-love with him. I do this by seeing him love a person. And while I see him loving the person his love overflows from my heart toward that person. 

At some point Bethany's eyes filled with tears. I gave her The Spirit is Moving and Thankfulness and Confession, urging her to begin thanking the Father for what Christ had done for her. She asked me for the Jeremiah reference. I gave her my card and wrote the Jeremiah and Galatians references. I urged her to get these things deep in her heart as many people are struggling in life and need to hear this message from her because they are confused about trying and about the flesh as well as forgetting to make comparison to Christ. I said all this is a heavy load for them. 

She said she is on campus only on Wednesdays for an LDS Institute class. I told her that was my day on campus to give away free books to students. I urged her to stop at the table on Wednesday for a free copy of Frankl's book.

 _____________________________

On Wednesday September 23, while I was at USU with the free book table, Bethany came to Oasis to talk. I wasn’t there and she wrote the following note for me.

 “I wanted to thank you for giving me a new perspective on Christ’s atonement. I really liked our conversation a few weeks ago. I hope you have a fantastic day!

-Bethany”