So my stake president is a genius. I think just empirically probably he is, but he's also a great teacher, and he's great at reading/working a crowd. For example he teaches Econ 110, which I took from him and enjoyed in spite of myself and the 14-hour review sessions made possible by my stepdad, an economist himself, and the B+ which is not a great grade for me but was the hardest-earned grade of my life.
Yesterday we had stake conference. The topic was the restoration, and President Dr. Kearl talked about agency. Specifically, he talked about agency as God's mandate/allowance for us to make something of our lives. Some really interesting points that he brought up and which I'd like to remember/share:
1. Decision-making isn't a one-time thing, it's a process. The point he was making here, which sets my poor mistake-hating soul to singing is that you make the decisions that you've already made the right decisions every day of your life. That is, we act in ways to justify the decisions we've made, we accept them and make the best out of them and make them the right decision.
2. Wasting time in regret is an error akin to sin. I loved this point (which is of course related to the last). We make decisions. We live with them. What a waste of time and resources to revisit and agonize over decisions we've already made. "They're in the past" he said, "and so you have no power over them any more. Stop wasting time thinking about them." Sunk costs, in other words, are sunk.
3. God will not make decisions for you. Your agency was bought at too high a price for God to undercut it by telling you what to do. He cannot answer a prayer that says "tell me what to do" and so instead we should pray to find out if the decisions we've already made are right and for self confidence, to make decisions, and to make them work, without doubt or fear.
4. He talked about choices that have consequences tied to salvation and ones that don't. The point being that some decisions have eternal consequences in that they help to form your personality/character in ways that will effect you permanently, but just because their consequences are eternal doesn't mean that they have anything to do with salvation. This is a huge relief somehow.
5. Stop thinking about right and wrong decisions, start thinking about smart and dumb decisions. I liked this one, mostly because President Dr. Kearl got to be blunt and mildly abrasive, which suits him. Also because I think we (I) tie far too many decisions to some external morality which takes control away from me so leaves me feeling powerless. I don't not hang out with cute boys alone in my room at 3 a.m. not because it's necessarily wrong to do it, but because it's dumb.
Anyway. A genius because the most useful thing for an auditorium full of college students to hear is: cowboy up. Make your decisions, make them right, don't be afraid, and trust. A genius because we're so young still and have so much time to make something of our lives. Love it.
Monday, March 10, 2008
President Dr. Kearl
Posted by Kjerstin Evans Ballard at 4:27 AM
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9 comments:
Wow I wish I was there to hear it. Thanks for posting those thoughts. I love the thought that "we MAKE it right" and I do love to hear a call to cowboy up. :O)
Hm... if you have further explanation on #4 that would be cool... I don't think I QUITE followed on that one.
The example he gave on #4 was choosing where to work after he finished grad school. If he would've gone to New York, he would've been eternally different--his personality would've changed, his friends would be different, his church experience would be different, he would be a markedly different person. But the difference which affected him eternally would not have gotten in the way of eternal life, it would simply have changed his path to it. Good?
I see. Yeah, that makes more sense.
Great post! Professor Kearl is someone who you can tell THINKS quite a bit. And most people who think end up having some great insights, especially those who think/ponder about eternal things. I believe Kearl does that often.
And, being completely honest, he is extremely disciplined. That also gives him an edge over us "mortal men" :)
I like President Dr. Kearl. I also had him as my stake President/Teacher (same semester) and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
One thing I liked about him (and this may or may not be relavant to your post) is that he is loud and animated in the classroom, and quiet at the pulpit. That always fascinated me.
Thanks for posting this, Kjersten, it gave me some things to think about, and also some comfort as I start having to make those "important life decisions."
Interesting. I took econ 110 back when I was a glorified high-schooler (Pre-Mission). The only thing I didn't like was that he was too good. He made econ seem deceptively easy. He was so easy to follow in class that I was tricked into thinking that I didn't have to study my brains out to get it.
It would be interesting to hear him in a different context.
I like the things that President Dr. Kearl said, as you report them. I also like that you combine his titles. It suits him.
I have to admit, though, that in the back of my mind I have two reservations. 1) I bristle at the cult following/hero worship that has developed around Dr. Kearl. This however, is probably more a critique of the sheep-like qualities of many BYU students (actually college students in general). 2) I tend to bristle at using econ concepts to understand the gospel because at some very basic level, econ assumes that we are all self-interested and says that that is a good thing. The gospel says that learning to be other-interested is what is good. I worry that econ comparisons can make us spiritually lazy and quick to justify selfishness. Again, however, I don't see Pres. Dr. Kearl saying this in you report of his remarks, so it's not a critique of what he says. It's just a nagging thought I get when we start talking gospenomics.
One final thought: I love the idea of thinking about things as smart/dumb rather than moral/immoral. It reminds me Oscar Wilde saying, when asked if a certain book was obscene, "No, it's worse than that, it's poorly written." I also love the idea of putting the past in the past. I've always been fascinated by Enos saying that he knew that God could not lie, "therefore my guilt was swept away." So cool.
And now this post is too long. Sigh.
FANTASTIC!
As for the morality of economics, sometimes efficient isn't moral, as Dr. Wimmer taught us in Amer. Econ. Hist. today. But choice is a principle of economics and a principle of the gospel. So its right up his alley, so to speak
jkc, I agree with your thoughts on Kearl's deceptive teaching in Econ 110!
Also, to give him some credit, at the end of the semester that I took Econ 110, President Dr. Kearl closed with his testimony and urged us to NOT be acting out of self-interest in our lives. He took everything and taught us basically that economics is a study of how things naturally happen, and that we should strive to not always be "the study." I was okay with his implementation of gospel principles, because I felt like he showed how God works with our tendencies.
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