Moana and Faith

Moana or faith, Moana or faith? Ok. Both.

When I first heard "How Far I'll Go," it resonated with me. I was in DC, feeling unsettled, like I needed to go west. For me, it wasn't the sea calling me, but the mountains...and Idaho. Ok, mostly Idaho. Whatever. You know that story already.

Here I am, in the mountains. I've journeyed farther on my own than my family. Utah, as you know, isn't my stopping place. I've learned a lot while being here, I've had a lot of really neat opportunities, and a lot of amazing experiences.

"I Am Moana" came up on my playlist, and this part struck me.

I am everything I've learned and more
Still it calls me

And the call isn't out there at all
It's inside me
It's like the tide
Always falling and rising
I will carry you here in my heart
You'll remind me
That come what may
I know the way

There are no external forces driving me to Idaho. The call is inside--though it'd be easier to explain to my friends back home that I am going to move because of an awesome job. ...I don't have it yet, but I will find it. ...and until I do, friends back home think I'm happily settled in Utah.

Come what may, I do know the way. I just keep my covenants, and everything else is gravy. I will figure it out, I'll make it work.

Now, faith. Moana is a story of faith and finding one's self. She trusted in the feeling inside of her, even though she had no idea what the outcome would be. As a result, she restored the heart of Te Fiti, and showed her people what was possible. She reminded them of who they were.

It required a lot of faith to do what she did.

The past few weeks, I have been working on the YW Personal Progress value experience on faith to try and help me develop more faith.

Alma 32:34 teaches that if you have knowledge, then your faith is dormant. This is because faith is a "hope for things which are not seen, which are true (32:20)." If you have knowledge, then there is something that you have experienced or seen to give you that knowledge, and therefore it doesn't require faith for you to believe in that thing.

With that in mind, I have very little faith. I know a lot of things, but I have faith in little that I don't already know.

That's my problem.

I have little faith where I'm concerned. I'm working on changing that.

This thought came to me at some point in my musings on faith: President Nelson, the current prophet of God, warned us that we need to increase our ability to receive personal revelation.

That requires a lot of faith. Luckily, Heavenly Father knows me all too well and is helping me in this, but I want to share a realization I had.

If we're to increase our ability to receive revelation, why should we expect that the revelation to only come the way we're used to getting it?  That doesn't make sense. That would be like expecting to light a whole room with only one match. If you want to light a room, you take the match you have lit, and you light candles. Candles emit similar light, but they're different than a match. Maybe in the course of lighting candles, you find a lamp. You turn that on, and it gives off more light, but in a different way. The lamplight helps you find your way to the light switch, and when you turn it on your mind is blown by everything you see in the room. 1) You had no idea how bright light could be, and 2) you had no idea how much there was to be seen!

With that in mind, I find it's easier to push my faith in building off what I've already had.

However, I don't know how to have faith in something completely new.

That's why I'm working on faith.

But I do have faith that I'll be happy in Idaho, and that I'll find a job there soon.