As a pre-mission teenager studying at Brigham Young University, I took a number of religion classes. It has been satisfying to look over some of the papers I wrote for those classes and to see how my understanding and writing style have progressed. While this text certainly doesn’t represent my best work, I thought I’d include it here just for fun.
“Quit daydreaming!” my fifth grade teacher yelled. “Pay attention.”
I jumped about a mile. Ms. Johnson had yanked me from my own personal world of pale, blue skies and long, summer days and thrown me into the world of long division. It was like taking an ice cold shower after getting out of a sauna.
“Have you heard a word I said?” she asked accusingly.
Glancing at the board, I quickly responded, “Yea. You were just talking about long division, weren’t you?”
Thankfully, she seemed satisfied and continued droning on at the front of the class. I returned to my daydreaming.
Unlike Ms. Johnson’s class, daydreaming — or, to use a more technical term — pondering, is essential in Honors Religion 121. Sometimes the Book of Mormon doesn’t readily apply itself to our day; after all, if we all went around scalping our enemies like Moroni I’d probably be bald by now. The key to applying the book to our lives is to make connections — parallels, if you will — between what happened thousands of years ago and what happened today. That’s were personal pondering comes in.
Sometimes I think people limit themselves because they think theirs a “right” way to ponder and a “wrong” way. Pondering is a lot like Brother Marrett’s test questions; there isn’t always only one right answer. Sometimes the most bizarre connections are the most useful ones. For example, the other day I was pondering the “stone cut out of the mountain that rolls forth to encompass the whole earth” when suddenly my mind made a connection: that stone is a lot like a bowling ball, and the statue it hits is like the pins. In the latter-days, the church will grow to encompass the whole earth and will figuratively “knock down” the false philosophies of the earth just like bowling pins; we’ll get a strike! Some might argue that such a strange connection isn’t very worthwhile, but I’ll always remember that bizarre image and will think about the scriptures more than I otherwise would. Remember, when it comes to pondering, there is not a right answer.
Part of the beauty of pondering is that you can do it anywhere. You don’t have to climb Mount Timpanogos and sit in solitude all day pondering the mysteries of the kingdom. You don’t have to lock yourself in your room and turn out all the lights so you can focus intensely on the scriptures. Pondering, like daydreaming, can take place just about anywhere. I like to ponder as I walk between my apartment and campus, and also as I walk between classes. It’s a great way to relax and commune with God, as long as you’re not distracted by the smoking construction workers or the beer cans in the parking lot. Sometimes to get into the pondering mood I send a quick little prayer heavenward as I walk. Pondering shouldn’t be something that takes place only in your head; prayer invites Heavenly Father into the pondering process, too.