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Simple Math for Drawing Closer to the Lord

By Jennifer Kearon

From an address given to students at Ensign College in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, on December 1, 2020. Read the full text at ensign.edu.

Building our relationship with the Lord doesn’t have to be complicated.

After the past year, with all its ups and downs and unexpected turns, it would be wise for us to evaluate if we are learning the lessons we should and could from this pandemic and other recent events. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles posted this thought as he reflected on what he is learning through this very unusual time:

“I hope when things go back to normal—whatever normal is going to be—that I don’t forget the feelings and experiences I’ve had during these months of reflection and solitude. …

“… We would be foolish to miss out on this sacred opportunity to search our souls, do a little repenting, and look for how we can be better and kinder.”¹

With that as a foundational thought, let’s have a little math lesson. I love math, with its logic and precision and predictability, but we’ll keep it simple, because simple math is all I can do these days! We’re going to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

Add

With all the wild noise that surrounds us, with all the divergent voices clamoring for our attention and loyalty on our phones, on our screens, and even inside our homes, we need to add a holy place to our lives. Think about where you live; picture it in your mind.

Are you in an apartment?

Living at home with family?

In a basement?

With or without roommates?

Where do you go for stillness, for prayer, for connecting with God? And is it working?

Whatever your living situation, you can add a holy place to it—a space where you find stillness in order to hear the voice of God; to “hear Him,” as our prophet has counseled us to do;² to commune and find guidance and direction for your life.

Where in your living space can you add a holy place? Try to find a specific spot or a furnishing that can be your holy place. Maybe it’s your bedroom quilt once your roommate leaves for the day, or a certain chair by the heating vent where the hot air comes out during the winter months. Maybe it’s a fluffy rug you find online and put beside your bed to kneel on. This holy place can become a sanctuary for you. For some reason, and I speak from personal experience, strength and comfort can come to you from knowing that your quilt, your chair, your fluffy rug, whatever, represents your deliberate holy place and is where holy things happen. Turn off the noise. Create stillness—very deliberately—in order to hear Him! Jesus taught, “For all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:16).

President Russell M. Nelson has said, “I invite you … to make your apartment, your dorm, your home, or your room a holy place where you can safely retreat from the dark distractions of the world.”³

Subtract

Next comes subtraction. Think about how you spend the 24 hours you are given every day. Many of those hours are spent sleeping (probably not as many as you’d like!), and many of those hours are spent in class and studying. Many hours are spent working and earning money to live. The hours (or minutes!) that are left to you after your various commitments to school, work, and family you might call your “disposable time.” This is the time over which you have full decision-making power. How do you decide to spend that time?

Make a mental list of how you have spent your disposable time over the last few days. Then think about what needs to be subtracted from what you do during that disposable time. Are there pastimes or media choices or time-wasters that would be better either dropped completely or at least limited? What needs to be subtracted from your life? That could be a question for you to ponder and ask Heavenly Father about when you are in that holy place you are going to add!

Let’s subtract anything from our lives, especially from our disposable time, that offends the Spirit, whether that be actual activities or behaviors or habits, or whether it’s thoughts or attitudes or the language we sometimes use. If it offends the Spirit, subtract it. Let it go. Remove it from your life. And add more holy.

Multiply

Let’s move on to multiplication. What do we want to multiply in our lives? What in your life would you like more of, and I mean, a lot more of? Probably the first thing that came to your mind was money! Wouldn’t that be nice to multiply the balance in your bank account or the paycheck you receive, even if just by two or three?

But really think. What would you like to multiply in your life? What about love and loving relationships? What about feelings of peace and joy? What about forgiveness and healing? Don’t we all want a lot more of these things? We can put all of this under the heading of “blessings.” Don’t we just want to multiply our blessings—all the good things in our lives?

We believe in a God of abundance, a God of eternal and infinite capacity and resources—love, wisdom, and goodness. He wants nothing more than to mercifully multiply our blessings, but we must draw near to Him through a lifestyle of repentance and keeping His commandments. As we multiply our active pursuit of light, service, and the attributes of Jesus Christ in our life, as we multiply our quest for repentance and obedience, our Father then miraculously multiplies our blessings. It’s a simple equation.

And these blessings are multiplied again as we share our joy and faith and peace with others. We help to multiply their blessings and the goodness in their life when we give of our love and our desire to do good, lift others, and relieve suffering. All of this is multiplied yet again when we join forces with others whose goals are the same as our own. And on and on the multiplication of blessings goes.

Divide

Now for division. Hang on a minute. Do we want division in our lives? Jesus taught us clearly that if we are not one, if we are not unified, we are not His. He wants us to be one with each other, to create powerful unity out of our beautiful diversity, so that we can be one with Him. In order to achieve this kind of unity and oneness, yes, there are some things we must divide ourselves from.

Jesus taught, “He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, … and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another” (3 Nephi 11:29). So we must divide ourselves from contention, from being stirred up to anger against those around us.

Jesus also taught, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you” (3 Nephi 12:44). To even begin to follow that Christlike commandment, we have to divide ourselves from our pride, from our selfishness, from our prejudice, from any animosity toward groups different from us, and specifically from any form of racism. I’m sure we can all remember what it felt like to hear President Nelson say: “I grieve that our Black brothers and sisters the world over are enduring the pains of racism and prejudice. Today I call upon our members everywhere to lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice.”⁴ And so we must divide ourselves from contention, pride, and racism.

Inverse

There’s one more math operation I want to explore: the inverse. If you take the number 5, for example, which is really 5/1, the inverse is 1/5. Do you remember that? It’s sort of like the opposite—you simply flip the number. So, when you are facing adversity, which is just about all the time in one form or another, apply the inverse and flip it on its head! Instead of asking, “Why me? Why is this difficult thing happening to me?” try asking, “Why not me? What can I learn from this? What can I change? How can I grow through faith in Jesus Christ?” There’s such power in this.

When you are dealing with an issue that is causing you to doubt your faith, apply the inverse. By all means, fully explore the questions you have, but flip cynicism on its head by approaching your questions from a place of faith, from an eternal perspective, from an acknowledgment that God’s ways are higher than your ways, and His thoughts are higher than your thoughts, or anyone else’s thoughts, for that matter (see Isaiah 55:8–9).

You will certainly be able to identify other ways you could apply the inverse and flip a less faithful perspective on its head!

Let God Prevail

We all remember President Nelson’s invitation to let God prevail in our lives. He asked a series of questions: “Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow His voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever He needs you to do take precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to have your will swallowed up in His?”⁵

Letting God prevail in our lives is applying the inverse when we confront adversity and uncertainty and decidedly turning them on their heads!

So, to review, this math lesson has taught us to

add a holy place and hear Him;
subtract anything that offends the Spirit;
multiply our blessings by drawing near to the Lord through repentance and obedience;
divide ourselves from contention, pride, selfishness, prejudice, and racism; and
apply the inverse and let God prevail.

Jesus, the Master Mathematician, is our Savior and King. His perfect love for you is real, life-changing, and life-saving. Let Him prevail in your life, and you will find unspeakable joy.