Change and Faith

This past Sunday we had a special stake meeting (group of congregations) that redefined the geographical borders of all the congregations within it. Big change for a lot of people. As a result all of the talks centered around being accepting of change.

We as a family have been thinking about this a lot as we move forward in life so I wanted to add a scripture I have been thinking about in this respect (3 Ne 13:25-34; emphasis is mine):

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.

Trusting in the future is the most difficult type of faith. Especially when things don't seem to be going to plan.

Dr. Joseph Dutkowsky

There was an interesting doctor, Dr. Joseph Dutkowsky,  interviewed in the NYTimes recently. I liked a couple of things he said:

“We have a culture that’s addicted to perfection. We’re willing to spend thousands of dollars to achieve it. The people I care for are imperfect. And I can’t make them perfect. I only hope that they can sense that I actually care they’re more than skin and bones, that we have a bond.”

I also liked when he said:

“For years, when asked why I chose this profession, I had no good answer, until I came upon the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Jesus and his disciples come upon a man who was blind from birth. The disciples asked Jesus, ‘Did this man or his parents sin that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered that the blindness was not the result of the man or his parents’ sin. The man was born blind ‘so the glory of God might be revealed.’ Every day in my work I find myself in the revealed glory of God.”

Forgiving the miss-citation (ch 9 of St. John in my addition at least), I found him to be very admirable.

The Lord of Pleiotropy

My wife and I were talking about missionary work and I said the phrase "He is the Lord of Pleiotropy!" and wanted to share it.

Pleiotropy is a genetics word, or my definition comes from there, meaning a gene that has multiple effects. For instance a gene could effect both the facial structure and mental capacity of an individual.

Anyway, in the context I was referring to with my wife I was making the argument that the purpose of missionary work wasn't just about helping investigators understand baptismal covenants and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is also important for the development of the missionaries themselves. We live in a difficult world and having the Gospel from your youth doesn't guarantee lifelong devotion to the covenants essential to endure to the end.

I think the title of "Lord of Pleiotropy" is more universal than just missionary work, our Heavenly Father seems to be able to manage a complex interaction of promises and purposes essential for His work. Another example is the scriptures. It seems every time I read them they were inspired for just that moment in my life.

Big Cats and Genetics

My family went to the zoo on Friday and saw the elusive snow leopard. Such a beautiful creature. My wife goes regularly and said the most she usually sees is a tail or spine. We got to see much more when I went, probably due to the late time of our visit. The leopardess looked pretty hungry or desperate to have her sick cubs:

Courtesy of my wife.

This morning I was reading the science page of The New York Times and came across an article about a different big cat, the cheetah. Dr. Stephen O'Brien, now of St. Petersburg State University in Russia and formally of the NIH National Cancer Institute, and some of his colleagues have figured out the genetic variant that changes the type of spotting pattern in different cheetahs:

The one on the right is called a king cheetah. This same gene, Taqpep, is also involved in tabby patterns of domestic cats. Overall pretty cool, and these types of discoveries are helpful in our understanding some questions in evolutionary genetics.

This gene is one of large effect. "Large effect" means that the genetic variant has a direct consequence on the appearance (phenotype). When people think of genetics this is usually the type of variation they are familiar with. Eye color (found in HERC2), hair color (red comes from MC1R), and others, but it turns out that most phenotypes are not derived from genetic variation of large effect, especially for ones of primary interest to us, such as diseases like obesity or autism. They call these latter type of traits complex phenotypes because they usually involve many genes of small effects.

Height is a good example of a complex trait because we know genetics contributes significantly to variation in height (nutrition is important as well). However, height is a composite of many different aspects of our bodies: the length of our necks, the length of our torso, the length of our femur, and so on. In other words height represents an amalgamation of genetics acting on multiple traits all with a much smaller effect. Only when taken together do we see the larger change.

I have been thinking a lot about the genetics of complex diseases/traits and how we may best understand them. I mention it here to introduce the topic, which I will hopefully talk more about soon.

Spanish fresco restoration again

I wrote about the story of the lady in Spain who painted over the fresco of Christ. She over estimated her talent, well now she is requesting compensation for it which she will give to charity.

I'm really not sure what to think. She claims that since there has been increased tourist traffic to the Church to see her "restoration", she should be given a portion to do with as she wishes. My guess is that it is more of a mockery than anything. They are not going to admire artistry, but a person going beyond themselves and making light of a monkey depiction of the Savior. Not a fan if that is the case. Hopefully I am wrong.

Makes me want to double check where I think my own skills are. And if I should be as confident as I thought.

Grateful

A grateful heart, then, comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. --Pres. Thomas S. Monson (source)

Forgetfulness and Self-introspection

I am unsure why last week was so hard to blog. I just completely forgot with everything going on. I'm not sure it was particularly busy, though a lot did happen. I think mostly I fell out of the habit of looking for things.

I taught Elders Quorum yesterday and really enjoyed the discussion. One of my favorite quotes from Pres. George Albert Smith was:

A man once said to me—or remarked in a place where I happened to be—“Why, these people here seem to think I am full of the devil, but I am not.” And I said to him, “My brother, did you ever know anybody that was full of the devil and knew it?” That is one of the tricks of the devil: To get possession of you and keep you from knowing it. And that is one of our difficulties. (source)

I like how it strikes at a fundamental issue we all face. Nobody wants to look at themselves and think, I am wrong or bad. We think we are generally good and give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. Its that old adage about how we judge ourselves by different standards than we judge others. My new favorite example of this is Judge Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. He considers himself the ultimate example of piety, but we learn through his actions that he is the true monster of the story.

As a class we came up with some solutions to protect ourselves or at least fight against this tendency: self-introspection, humility as the main issue here is pride, and listening to friends we trust. I think these are all good ideas and I know I could do better at all of them.