What creates peace? Truth. Internalized truth. What is truth? Truth is a way of being that creates peace within and without. Transformation, also called "repentance", is about changing from within....permanently.
Let's take some examples:
If one has the desire to steal or cheat others, that desire is lost and replaced with a desire to be totally honest.
If one has the desire to lust after the opposite sex, to practice all forms of carnal acts, that desire is replaced with a desire to think only pure, uplifting thoughts.
If one has the desire to be materialistic, to live for the next pleasure, to value only possessions, to think only about gain and profit, that desire is replaced with a desire to serve others.
If one's only desire it to make others feel inferior, that desire is replaced with a desire to make others feel cherished and wanted.
If one has the desire to get even with those who harm him, that desire is replaced with a desire to forgive even his most bitter enemies, and to do good to them that persecute him.
When we think of 'love', we think in terms of loving our children, spouse, extended family, and friends. This is our human condition.
But...and here is the big BUT, do we want to love only those who love us back? Because human history has plainly taught us that loving only those who love us produces only one effect - our present condition of wars, poverty, and mayhem.
What then can drive people to transform themselves from within? Will words do it? Will the influence of others' example do it?
It takes more than that. To be transformed from within it takes the following:
1. First a sincere desire to be transformed. No one can force us to transform
2. It takes drawing closer to the powers of Heaven by:
a. reading scriptures
b. congregating with those who have similar desires
c. praying for transformation
d. allowing God's power to transform us
The transformation happens through God's power. It is not our power, our will, our visualization, our positive thinking that produces the transformation. It is God's power.
What can we compare God's power to? When God enters our life and begins to transform us, it can be a painful process. Sometimes, we may have to endure trials, painful experiences where people we thought loved us reject us, betray us. Sometimes, we must endure illness to transform, or even a near death experience.
Transformation can be "harrowing". To harrow soil is to lift it up, turn it upside down so that the part that was in the darkness is exposed to the light of the sun.
And so permanent transformation is not easy, but it is worth it.
After the transformation occurs, the things we used to value are no longer of any importance. We value new principles in our life.
And so, when we read for example the beatitudes given on the sermon of the mount, these lofty ideals take on a different meaning after our transformation. Suddenly, they make sense. Before our transformation, they seemed like impossible, silly, idealistic wishful thinking. After our transformation, they are the new matrix which shapes our world, our thoughts, our actions. We suddenly have become a little more like our Heavenly Father.
And this is the reason we are here on earth: to learn how to develop a character that is more like His. Because how can we possibly enjoy his company in Heaven if we not like Him? How can someone filled with hate, lust, and pride be comfortable with someone noble here on earth, let alone with God in Heaven?
No unclean thing can enter into the presence of God. This lifetime in which we have a chance to prepare ourselves to live the kind of life God lives. Latter-Day Saints are keenly aware that we are here to prepare, to transform over a lifetime, to become new creatures and we know that we can only accomplish this, not of our own power or self-will (which is the humanistic approach) but through the grace and power of the Atonement of one we regard as the Savior of the Lord, the God who came to earth to take on the form of man and condescend to our level so that he could show us by His example how to live our life, the one we know as Jesus Christ.
As we read His beatitudes, what do we hear? We hear an invitation to change:
To change the world the change must come from within each one of us.
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