This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the October 2010 Conference.
I was going to write about a different talk today (Elder Uchtdorf's; I love it; it makes me feel so peaceful) but I can't stop thinking about a phrase from another talk so I guess I'm going with that! The phrase is "economy of heaven," and this is the context of it (from the talk Gospel Teaching and Learning by David McConkie):
Brothers and sisters, it is contrary to the economy of heaven for the Lord to repeat to each of us individually what He has already revealed to us collectively.
I think it stuck out to me because I'd just encountered that word in the Come Follow Me lessons; Doctrine and Covenants (section 77):
Q. What are we to understand by the book which John saw, which was sealed on the back with seven seals?A. We are to understand that it contains the revealed will, mysteries, and the works of God; the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence.
So what are the hidden things of "his economy"?? I can find just a few more times the exact phrase "economy of heaven" has been used by prophets and apostles:
1. In the economy of heaven, God does not send thunder if a still, small voice is enough, or a prophet if a priest can do the job. (Neal A. Maxwell)2. It is contrary to the economy of heaven for the Lord to do for us that which we can do for ourselves. (J. Devn Cornish)3. In the economy of heaven the Lord never uses a floodlight when a flashlight is sufficient—and so it is in receiving personal revelation. (L. Lionel Kendrick; he must be playing off of Elder Maxwell here)4. Disciples of Jesus Christ understand that compared to eternity, our existence in this mortal sphere is only “a small moment” in space and time. They know that a person’s true value has little to do with what the world holds in high esteem. They know you could pile up the accumulated currency of the entire world and it could not buy a loaf of bread in the economy of heaven. (Elder Uchtdorf)5. When the saint of God considers, and the visions of eternity are open to his view … he soars above the things of time and sense and bursts the cords that bind him to earthly objects. He contemplates God and his own destiny in the economy of heaven and rejoices in a blooming hope of an immortal glory. (John Taylor, quoted here by Brian K. Taylor)
There may be more, but those were about all with that exact phrase, and what strikes me about the first three is that they…I don't know quite how to say it, but they sound a little mean. Stingy, you know? Like God is going to expend the minimum effort on us that He can. If he can help us with LESS effort, He will. And maybe that is fine. Maybe there's some divine conservation of energy principle which makes that make perfect sense, like then He'll have more energy left over to help other people or something (though with an eternal and all-powerful God, that hardly makes sense). Regardless, I am willing to accept that perhaps there's some celestial principle behind "Use the minimum possible effort/resources needed to do the job." Why not? God is in charge and if what He gives us does do the job—what else matters?
However. Also. That interpretation doesn't really make sense with the way Heavenly Father seems to have worked in my life. True, there are many times when I've received small, seemingly unimpressive answers to prayer. (Though very seldom unimpressive to me!) But on the whole, one of the most defining characteristics of God is that He’s so generous. In fact, often the "economy of heaven" often seems to mean that He blesses multiple people through one thing. He helps you and he helps those you’re helping. He's not minimizing effort, He's maximizing it! So I feel like "the hidden things of His economy" can’t mean that God is trying to save Himself time or effort by "reusing" revelation multiple times on different people. There must be something else to that “economy.”
The fourth and fifth quotes, above, maybe hint at that a little bit. Elder Uchtdorf's seems to say that the worth of a soul is much higher than rational calculation would tell us; meaning God will go to much MORE effort for one of His children than seems reasonable or "economical." And indeed that is what I've seen in my life. God seems to do an extraordinary amount of work to arrange things, put plans in place, move earth and heaven, all for the tiniest most personal little tender mercies—things you'd think would never warrant so much effort! Why? How does that fit into "the economy of heaven"?
And the John Taylor quote implies that if we really understood the economy of heaven, it would give us hope and confidence because God is so magnanimous, so generous with the riches of eternity. Again, this is consistent with the God I've seen—never stingy, never holding back, but just eager to pour down blessings the moment we turn to Him, even when we are so undeserving.
So, possibly "the hidden things of His economy" mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants hints at just that (apparent) contradiction. Maybe God does "re-use" His revelations and "never send thunder if a still small voice will do" etc etc.—but—those things doesn't show the laziness or lack of effort we might ascribe to them. Maybe somehow those things are even more evidence of His care. Maybe the fact that He somehow manages to take these words Joseph Smith received and wrote down two hundred years ago for someone else—multiple someone elses—and still make those words relevant and helpful and inspired for ME today, not to mention for all the other people reading them in all times and places since they were given, is the most extravagant "economy" of all. Maybe that still small voice will be better and more lasting and more sustaining than thunder ever could have been.
It's like the loaves and the fishes: what could have been one blessing becomes many, sent out in baskets to bless larger and larger circles of people, until what was simply nourishing for the first receiver becomes astoundingly miraculous for the thousandth. Maybe when we see those "hidden things" come to light, we will be astonished at how God has made abundance out of the smallest effort and prosperity out of the poorest gift. And we'll realize our mortal minds didn't really understand the "economy of heaven" at all.
