What is to be done?

I’ve been thinking… It’s been 14 days since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Following the drama has been surreal and deeply disappointing for me. My mind and heart have been captivated by the online noise and the tumult which has been so vitriolic and incessant. Today it reminded me of Joseph Smith’s account of a similar conflict almost 200 years ago: “In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?”

At this point, if I really want to know the truth about all this the ONLY way I could actually know it would be to “ask of God” just as James in the Bible directs.

But for what purpose? What is to be done about this deep and sweeping corruption? What would I do if I were in possession of the actual facts?

I’m not feeling called to run for office in any capacity, and my increased consumption of the news and social media over the last 14 days has not helped anything in my life that I can see. But it has weighed me down.

I think about the idea that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” and I don’t want to be a part of the problem due to my inaction. It’s not in my nature to back down. Still, I don’t want to waste effort addressing the symptoms of a deeper problem.

I’ve come away with the realization that while the signs are extremely ominous, the best thing I can do to combat evil in all its forms and move the work of the Lord forward is to keep His commandments. I don’t mean this in some trite kind of way. By this I mean, the general commandments He’s given to all of us about loving God and loving our neighbors, yes. But also in those small, unheralded ways, those gentle impressions, those small whispers to do good and be better. If these are messages from the Divine are not these just as binding as those etched in stone on Mount Sinai?

The words of the hymn “Great Things and Small Things” keep echoing in my mind:

To move a mountain,

To make the sea become dry land.

To cross an ocean,

To build a ship upon the sand.

Such things I could do

If the Lord should command,

But the Lord has commanded me

To love a neighbor,

And to forgive when I am wronged.

To keep a promise,

To have my word become my bond.

How simple and small

Are the things He has asked,

Are the things He has asked of me.

Great things and small things,

I can do all things,

All that the Lord may require.

Though the world may assail me,

God will not fail me.

He will remain by my side.

Whether He asks for the great

Or the small.

I can do them all!

He gave us weakness

And yet He calls us to obey.

And so He teaches

That we must call on Him for strength.

And such is the love

That the Father extends;

What we pray for in faith, He sends.

So, while I do get emotionally triggered when I see the dramatic decay in our country and the world, I feel confident that God is not surprised by any of this. I’m learning to trust that He has a just and righteous plan that honors the agency of all His children. I’m beginning to see that doing those small and mundane tasks that are the common lot of all humankind, are in fact, in some small microscopic way, the way I push back against the evil of our day.

Maybe, just maybe, our stumbling, bumbling, fumbling, but consistent attempts to raise up our children as good humans who love God and their neighbor (work done largely in obscurity) IS in fact the most important thing we can do to push back the darkness.

Isaiah said it thousands of years ago: God’s ways are not our ways, and if I can learn to surrender to His will, I’m becoming more and more confident that in the end, with historical hindsight on my side, I’ll be able to look back and see that God really was in the details and that my meager offering was actually a crucial domino in the calculus of His plans to overcome evil with something the adversary can’t seem to handle, and that is Love.