Joyful Wells | Sharing Cups of Water

"A fanciful and flowery and heated imagination be aware of, because the things of God are of deep import, and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Your mind, O man , if you will lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost Heavens, and search into and contemplate the lowest considerations of the darkest abyss , and expand upon the broad considerations of eternal expanse. You must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God than the vain imagination of the human heart? None but fools will trifle with the souls of men."   ( Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839 ). It's my belief that the best place to begin contemplating "the lowest considerations of the darkest abyss" is within ourselves.  Specifically, the darkness we are capable of. 

To be saved, we must be like the Lord ( Lectures on Faith 7:9 ).  "Eyes like a flame of fire" are characteristic of a saved being. For those of us not yet like him, the fire of the Lord's eyes proves us until we are. If we allow it, his all-piercing eye can guide us further toward the salvation we seek ( Psalm 32:3 ).    The reason we need his light is because our eyes are closed. We journey through life lacking greater knowledge, intelligence, and the ability to see things as they are. Other words used in scripture to highlight our condition are blindness ( Isaiah 15:10 ), darkness ( Genesis 4:15 ), lack of vision ( Proverbs 4:115 ), stumbling ( Isaiah 21:2 ), and being asleep ( 2 Nephi 1:3 ). Or, to put it concisely:   Verily, verily I say unto you, darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face ( Teachings and Commandments 124:6 ).   Of the terms describing our condition ab...