By Sarah Bills
Individuals must use discernment to successfully journey along life?s three tracks: of materialism, intellectualism and spirituality, said Arnold H. Green at a BYU devotional yesterday.
Green compared life?s three tracks respectively with the destinations of Babylon, Athens and Zion.
Students can strengthen their power of discernment in each of these areas by exercising it as they would a muscle, he said. This is essential for living in the world but not being of the world.
?Discerning our journey through the world entails, first choosing worthy destinations rather than just drifting somewhere,? Green said. ?Floating with natural currents usually takes us downstream to Babylon?s Sodom-like districts.?
Living in Babylon, which represents the material world, requires individuals to freely choose right actively living in human society, he said. Often exercising discernment entails changing destinations.
Along the journey, students should work to maximize their intellectual capacity and discernment, symbolized by Athens. Students should use intellectualism not just for the purpose of navigating routes, but also for that of magnifying their stewardships over themselves, he said. The Lord commanded his children to love him with their whole mind as well as with their strength and soul.
?So we want to love him ? not with an empty, small or flabby mind ? but with a mind as large as vigorous and as disciplined as we can possibly make it,' he said.
Green urged students to strengthen their powers of intellectual discernment by seeking a broad education and not avoiding ?big ideas? or ?hard questions? as they study.
God made individuals independent to act and to learn for themselves, not to merely parrot brilliant and well-known scholars, he said.
But while striving for intellectual self-reliance, Green said, students should still be humble and realize that their thought processes are still relatively juvenile.
?With humility and open minds we should read the great thinkers ? to exercise our brains and to discover and refine nuggets of truth,? he said.
Generally greater education correlates with stronger commitment to gospel principles, he said.
Zion represents the spiritual destination in life?s journey, Green said.
?For every difficulty of physical, professional or intellectual traveling ? drifting, obstacles, sidetracks, pitfalls, misinformed conclusions, sophomoric pride ? there are spiritual equivalents with spiritual consequences,? he said. ?But the stakes are higher.'
Individuals establish Zion while dwelling in Babylon by beginning with themselves and working outward, Green said.
?We can do it by sanctifying the nooks and crannies of Babylon that are nearest to us ? our own bodies and minds, our families and homes, our wards and precincts,? he said.
As well as helping individuals recognize their own weaknesses, spiritual discernment helps individuals to feel God?s goodness, love and redemptive power, Green said.