Bain Capital's final audit

Reblogged from The Mormon Worker:

Someday Mitt Romney and the rest of the leadership of Bain Capital will stand at the judgment bar of the great Jehovah, where the books will be opened for a final audit. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the interview will include an exchange something like this:

AUDITOR: You know, I worked for several years at one of the plants you shut down. I was left unemployed with a family to feed, while you made . . . let’s see, where’s that figure . . . ?

ROMNEY: Um, excuse me, I’m sorry . . . sir . . . I don’t understand. You’re saying you were an employee of one of our companies? There must be some mistake . . .

AUDITOR: Truly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these–

You know the rest.

Disclaimer: My audit will be grueling, too, for different reasons.

Epiphany

He is the light and the life of the world--
a light that is endless,
that can never be darkened,
and also a life that is endless . . .

(Mosiah 16:9)

First snowfall

When I went out to walk the dog, I discovered that overnight we had received the first snowfall of the season. A nice way to start the new year.

So now I have to do my annual "snow quotation" from Angels in America: "Soon, this . . . ruination will be blanketed white. You can smell it—can you smell it? . . . Softness, compliance, forgiveness, grace."

We received just a dusting of forgiveness and grace, but still it's something.

I'm not sure why I find snowfall a spiritual experience. It's like, you look out your window, or you open your front door, and surprise! Manna from heaven! I remember once as a teenager in Utah, trudging to a ward youth gathering through thick falling snow in the dark. I came out of an alley shortcut, and there was this orange streetlight and the snow falling like ashes inside the parabola of illumination. I stood under the streetlight and looked up into the snowfall, which seemed to be radiating out from a point directly in front of me, and just had this quasi-rapturous experience.

Awesome. My love of life and my hope for the world have received a little shot in the arm today.

Christmas Eve

Nephi cried to his God
on behalf of his people.
And the voice of the Lord
came to him, saying:

Lift up your head
and be of good cheer.
See--the time is at hand!
On this night, the sign will be given,
and tomorrow I come into the world,
to show the world that I will fulfill
everything that I have caused to be spoken
by the mouths of my prophets.

(3 Nephi 1:11-13)

Advent 4

Keep the commandments
and the covenants to which you have bound yourself,
and I will cause the heavens to shake for your good.
The Evil One will tremble,
but Zion will rejoice on the hills
and flourish.

Then will come the time
when my people will be redeemed.
They will be led by my power,
and nothing will stand in their way.

Lift up your hearts! Be glad!
Your redemption is close at hand.

Do not be afraid, little flock.
The kingdom is yours until I come.
And I am coming quickly.

(D&C 35:24-27)

Advent 3

In former times,
we were slaves to the powers of this world.

But when the time had waxed full,
God sent the Begotten One,
born of a human mother—
born, like us, in subjection to the law,
yet with power to set us free.

Through him, we have been emancipated!
We have been adopted into God’s family!
God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of the Begotten One,
so that we, like him, may call God, “Abba! Father!”

Once you were slaves;
now you have become God’s children.
And because you are God’s children,
you are also God’s heirs.

(Gal. 4:3-7)

Advent 2

A voice calls out:
Prepare a path for the Holy One through the wilderness!
Pave a road for our God through the desert!
Fill in the gullies; level the hills;
smooth out the rugged ground and the rough places.
Then the Holy One will appear in glory.
All who live with see it!
So God has decreed.

O Zion, herald of glad tidings—
climb to the highest peak!
O Jerusalem, herald of glad tidings—
shout with all your might!
Do not be shy, do not hold back.
Let everyone for miles around hear you proclaim:
Here is your God!

(Isaiah 40:3-5, 9)