Never learn?

After finishing our alphabet nonfiction challenge, I decided my next reading challenge would be to read every book we own. And if you know us, you know I’m wise not to set a time limit on finishing. Although I might never get around to reading Brett’s chess books or his lexicons.

To start I decided to tackle the bookcase in the front of the house. This bookcase contains church books I’ve collected over the years, the majority of which I got when my Grandpa Nelson died. I love reading books he and my Grandma read. Right now I’m reading Stand ye in Holy Places by President Harold B. Lee. Today I started a chapter titled “The Abundant Life” which is based on a General Conference talk he gave in 1946. Make note of that date. Sixty-six years ago.

The talk is about the scripture John 10:10

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

What is the abundant life? President Lee talks about how politicians have been using slogans for years (already in 1946), promising abundant physical possessions. Promoting the idea that it is in the possession of things that gives you the abundant life. He gave some examples:

• We stand for a full dinner pail.
• We stand for a chicken in every pot.
• Two cars in every garage.
• Full employment for everybody in America and a pint of milk for everybody in the world.

This was him in 1946 remembering past campaign slogans. Has much changed? Politicians are still “giving more and more to an individual in return for less and less from him.”

Do we value things we don’t work for? If you’re given everything in life, do you appreciate it?

President Lee quotes an unnamed university president who said:

But the ideal of comfort which is the best we have been able to think of for ourselves will never do as an aim for a world order. Men can never be comfortable enough; we can never have enough material goods, if material goods are what we want. Any world order with this ideal will be torn to pieces by the divisions to which it leads.

Promises of material benefits, of something for nothing, has lead to the destruction of every culture and economy that has tried it. Yet politicians have been promising it probably since the beginning of politicians. How cheap is your vote for sale for?

The most amazing thing to me as I read my grandparents’ books is that the problems these books are talking about are still problems we face today. In fact, they’re worse. The other thing I’ve noticed however, is that the solutions suggested back then are still valid solutions today. I can’t implement them at a national or global level, but I can make them part of my personal life.