Natural Affection

I was sitting in Stake Conference for the BYU 21st Stake a few weeks back and was caught up in one talk in particular that just struck me. The 4th speaker was the Stake's Sunday School President, one Bryan McKinnon, who spoke about traits that do not exist within a Zion-like community or individual. Toward the beginning, he made note of the Apostle Paul's observations regarding "natural affection" from 2 Timothy 3:1-4:

1. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blashphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy;
3. Without natural affection...despisers of those that are good.
4. ....lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;*

What resonated with me most was verse 3, the prospect of men being without natural affection. Paul did not expressly outline the definition of "natural affection," but from the passage one may deduce that it is essentially being sans charity, meaning the pure love of Christ, the love that innately starts out within us as the seedling known as the Light of Christ, that gently persuades us to do the good things we do.**  This particular passage reminded me of A Picture of Dorian Gray and Brave New World, which are two of my favorite books because they illustrate what may happen when man does not possess natural affection.

I guess it's the prospect of rampant indifference which disheartened me a little more, as I feel that Indifference is more of a stonewalling emotion, per se - a true lack of natural affection, as there essentially is none. At least with Hate there's the potential for Love to counteract because it's active and fluid, and bridling this passion can eventually lead to Love.  But with Indifference..... that's the silent battle dependent upon agency and counseling with one's Creator. Although, as I've developed this thought, it's come to my attention at how my suggestion for Indifference can be the same for Hate... Yet at the same time, I can't shake the impression that Hate can be helped more than Indifference, at least through the assistance of others. Please, feel free to proffer thoughts...

Wow, this post quickly turned into a downer, didn't it. I guess I better get on with the rest of my thoughts.

I'm not naive enough to not see that Paul's words aren't already occurring in the world, or that it doesn't exist in me to a certain extent.  I do, however, have enough hope in people that they're smart and aware enough to ultimately choose the least destructive paths that are always presented to them.  I mean, look around....  There are people bettering humanity out of the sheer goodness of their hearts because somehow they got the clue a number of us are all missing. Some may not be very consistent, and some may be trying to make up for misdeeds of the past, but the point is is that they're choosing to act upon how I think their natural affection is moving them to do so, which opens them up to some internal remodeling, if you will. (Sorry, I couldn't let this post get away without bringing in at least one health related analogy).

I guess the question then becomes, what more can we do to keep this flow going and prevent humanity from "drying up," if you will?  Brother McKinnon gave some thoughts as to how, and with your permission I'd like to add some others of my own that I've picked up from others along the way:

1. Rededicate yourself to a constructive cause greater than yourself.
2. Modesty in thought, action, self-presentation.
3. "Shelter yourself beneath the roof of self-mastery" (can you tell the good brother's a contractor?)
4. Be honest with yourself and even more so with those with whom you interact.
5. Love  (Trite? Simple?  ... Maybe....  But it's true.  And I DARE you to dispute me on this one)

Until then, we go on being us, I suppose...

*I hope you'll forgive my selective paraphrasing of verses 3 and 4 - verse 2 set the stage well enough, I believe, to be able to highlight the cruxes of those last two verses.

**If that's not enough, from the accepted definitions from Merriam-Webster, "natural" being innate and "affection" being "a gentle feeling of fondness or liking" potentially including "a physical expression of these feelings."