Showing posts with label Zion's Camp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zion's Camp. Show all posts

Monday, August 23, 2021

Your “Free Agency” is Infringing on Mine

        Sundays meeting was quite awesome. Our bishop tackled the sensitive subject of following the counsel of the prophet.  He started off sharing one incident in Church history in which the saints were being persecuted and how the division that exists today was alive back then.  I notice that during my studies how often our own lives parallel with the saints.  In a way we are marching to our own Zions Camp (here) as we struggle to do the right thing and shed our pride or judgment.  

https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/3-
little-known-details-about-zions-camp?lang=eng

       We have our free agency to follow the prophet or follow the crowd.  But I often feel that the free agency abused by others infringes on my own.  I remember airlines, restaurants, hospitals and other places who offered smoking sections as if the smoke is seriously going to linger  only in those sections.  Come on!  I happen to be allergic to cigarette smoke.  Lighting up from two to ten feet away from my nose is the same as blowing it directly into my nostrils. 

       Eventually workers who came in contact with the second hand smoke started to experience health problems that were similar to the smokers.  So the smokers had their freedoms for a time, but eventually they were taken away.  Some places offer smoking sections but it seems like the majority of buildings (at least in the western states)have a no-smoking-anywhere-in-the-building policy.  Not only does the smoker have to go outdoors but are required to remain a certain distance from the building and only on a certain side.

       I cant speak for everybody, but I enjoy the quality of non-polluted air.  I can breathe a lot freer in a building that doesnt have that stench lingering.  I cant even smell it when I am around it, but my body still reacts negatively when it does happen to linger in my presence.  So yesterday we were infringing on the rights of the smoker vs. the non-smoker.  Todays issues are mask and no mask and the vaccination.  Its a trial that each of us is dealing with.  Are you going to stand up to President Nelson or Joseph Smith or God?  Are you going to say they got it wrong and you know better? 

       Im certain that it was not an easy talk to give.  I hope all those who were present (even those who attended virtually) were able to feel the same spirit that I did.