I don’t believe there are as many idiots in the world as I’m being told. Everywhere I turn, I feel like people are being categorized as idiots for how they understand the world. I’m using idiot as a general term to represent anyone who’s intelligence is demeaned with words like stupid, dumb, crazy, simple, or small-minded. With this many idiots, I’m surprised how many amazing things keep happening in the world.
When my dad was a kid, his best friend was a guy by the name of Denny Mallet. So many of my dad’s best stories involved Denny. One of my favorite stories was about how Denny had the coolest car in the neighborhood (amongst the teenage boys). One day, long after Denny had purchased his car, he told my dad something about his gray car. My dad stopped him and said, “Denny, your car is green!” Denny was colorblind and didn’t know his car he had been driving for a significant amount of time was green.
Another story of people seeing things differently comes from Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget wanted to understand the development of children, so he created different experiments to gain understanding. In one of Piaget’s experiments, Piaget included a ball that was black on one side and red on the other side. Piaget would let the child see the entire ball, they knew it was two different colors. He would then hold the red half toward the child, and ask them what color he (Piaget) saw. Children would say, red. Piaget would then remind them the ball had two sides. He would then run the experiment again. The results would usually stay the same, with the child saying the color was red. It wasn’t until the young children grew and developed, that they would then recognize that the color Piaget was seeing was different than what they were seeing.
My dad loved Denny Mallet, when he found out that Denny was colorblind, they had a laugh and my dad loved him even more. When we have a disagreement with someone, this is the experience we want to have. We want to find out the other person has something wrong with them. Or, as Hallmark’s movie empire would suggest, we want to believe the other person is wrong because of a miscommunication. Luckily, when they find out they’re wrong, things will work out, and they’ll understand we were always in the right.
As I get older, I’ve begun to recognize how few and far between experiences like this really are. Conversely, I now recognize how often I’m looking at a black ball, while the person I’m talking to is looking at a red ball. It’s important to recognize, I’m not looking at a gray ball, and the other person is looking at a white ball because my side is shaded. My ball is black, the other person’s ball is red.
There are times in life where two people’s understanding of a single situation cannot be reconciled as easily as one of them is colorblind, or one person is in the dark and the other is in the light, so the ball appears different colors. People have different needs. People come from different backgrounds. People are different and they understand things differently. It’s interesting that things like ‘love languages’ are so widely accepted, and we’re okay with at least five of them. However, when we consider everyday understandings in life, we are continually told (in large part by the media) there are only two ways to see this, and one of them is wrong. So what do we do with this?
A big clue to how we should act can be found in reading Alma’s teaching to his son Helaman. Alma recounts his conversion to Jesus Christ. He then talks about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and discusses the sweet peace and joy that comes into the lives of those who embrace it. He then gives him council on the world he’s living in and the people he’ll be serving. Alma then tells Helaman to council with the Lord in all of his doings.
What is fascinating is that after all of these great things he’s taught his son, he summarizes it in eight words that tell the entire story. Alma 37:47: “see that ye look to God and live.” In a world where so many things compete for our time, energy, and money, Alma says if you really want to live, look to God. As we look to God what do we find?
At the bottom of this are listed some scriptures to understand God, but let’s read passages from Moses 7, which is a conversation between God and Enoch. In these verses, Enoch sees God weep, and asks him, how He, God, can weep.
29: And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?
32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;
The only record we have of God weeping, and the reason he gives is that His children hate each other.
So what does this have to do with the red ball, black ball? Humanity continues to put the red ball, black balls of life between each other. We then focus so hard on what color we’re looking at. We focus so we can convince the other person about what we’re seeing. We want them to come to the same understanding we have. We want them to stop being idiots. We begin hating them for not understanding what we see.
The harder we focus on the ball, the color, and our arguments, the less we can see our sister or brother on the other side of the ball. Because we’re so focused on the ball, we can’t see them in pain. We can’t see them crying. We can’t recognize that they’re scared. We don’t see what God sees.
When God looks down, He doesn’t see idiots, He sees his children that He made. Children that were created to have joy. God’s work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, not to win arguments. Am I helping my sisters and brothers experience joy? What’s my work and glory?
Scriptures to understand God...
Matthew 6:14-15: For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
John 13:34-35: A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Ephesians 4:31-32: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
2 Timothy 1:7: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
