Eternity and Exaltation

My lesson in high priests quorum the week before Christmas was on exaltation. The promises of exaltation have mystified me for some time. D&C 132:19 promises "thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions." As one quorum member observed, it sounds like a lot of work, and as another observed, these rewards are not very motivating. In fact, I had started the lesson asking each quorum member in turn what they valued, before they knew what the lesson was about. No one valued ruling others, which is the essence of the blessings, at first glance. After all, as I suggested, who wants the United States and its headaches, let alone a place like Afghanistan.

We puzzled on this a while. Obviously, countries are not what is promised, but I suppose worlds might be, and those are pretty similar. But as we talked about it, I began to realize, thanks to the comments of others, that this scripture must tie in with D&C 121:41-46. In these verses, we are told that if we live righteously, we will influence others for good. Perhaps the promise of exaltation, then, is that we will live so well that others will want to be like us and will improve their own lives as a result.

This is an amazing blessing! I think of all the times that I make imperfect judgments, that I hurt (or at least fail to lift) others through misplaced words or ill-considered actions, or that I am too slothful or short-sighted to see the needs of others and how to aid them. If I can rid myself of these imperfections and instead influence others for good, without compulsion, just by example, then, yes, this is something that is motivating and worth lots of work.

The scriptures also talk about priesthood power being used to move mountains or rivers. I think mastery of elements must come along with the sort of righteousness necessary to achieve exaltation. Such mastery is also motivational to me, but for more prideful reasons. I just think it would be really cool to manipulate elements to see what is possible.

In the end, all of this ties into the idea that the glory of God is intelligence. Exaltation must therefore be about perfect intelligence: an ability to fully understand people and nature, their makeup and trajectory. As a social scientist keenly aware of our limitations in understanding and predicting human behavior, such a state of affairs does indeed seem heavenly. As a human being who marvels at nature and who takes deep satisfaction from the shape of ice in a stream and the color of a flower, it is doubly awesome. I can really place my hope in such a vision of heaven.