Publisher's note: Perhaps the three most pursued and coveted things in our modern world are control, ownership, and independence. In Richard Eyre's mind, they are the three deceivers — and are ultimately both unobtainable and undesirable. They are, Eyre believes, the "false gods" that separate us from Heavenly Father and rob us of the things of the spirit. This column, exploring the obsessions we have developed with “CO&I” — and later outlining a better and more spiritual alternative for each — will open you to a new world of thinking that may change how you live.  Richard welcomes your feedback and inputs. Take a guess at what you think the Three Alternatives are.  Write to him at Richard@meridianmagazine.com . If you missed any of the four earlier columns in this series, you can go to the Deceivers Archive (see right sidebar) and catch up.

The Three Deceivers and the Arch Deceiver

C. S. Lewis said that we can make two mistakes with regard to the devil. One is to think about him too much, and the other is to think about him too little.  Neither he nor his ways is something to dwell on, but being aware of some of his lies — and defending against his temptations — must be a part of our life and of our goals. 

In recent years, several of the Brethren, including President Faust, Elder Oaks, and Elder Holland, have referred to Satan as "the deceiver," the "master deceiver," and the "arch deceiver."  Indeed, Satan's method usually involves deception, which is often more than a simple lie.  Deception can involve partial truth and subtle efforts to make good seem bad and bad seem good.

We know that the ultimate goal of Satan is to foil Heavenly Father's plan of happiness, to make us miserable like unto himself, even to claim us as his and take us forever away from God. He would like to make us all sons of perdition, but as that is usually not possible, he tries to pull us back from what we could be, to hold us to lower levels. If he cannot take us away from one of God's glories, he designs at least to dam or divert our progress and keep us in worldly or telestial realms of thought.

As regular readers of this column know, I believe that Control, Ownership and Independence (CO&I) are useful economic and political concepts that foster free enterprise, discipline, and certain types and levels of responsibility.  Yet they each become deceivers when carried into emotional and spiritual realms and when we begin to base our thinking and our goals on their paradigm. 

The "arch deceiver" uses their popularity and their self-centered appeal to pull us down and away from higher principles.  He popularizes and glorifies CO&I to the point that they become our measurements of success (for ourselves and for others) and to the point where they become first our obsessions and then our addictions — first our ideals and then our idols. 

Once he has got us wanting and worshiping them enough, he can dull us down and steer us off in various ways with sundry strategies.  One of these strategies can be called "overload."

What if Satan's Strategy has Shifted from "Adversity" to "Overload"

Much has been written about the value and benefits of adversity. None of us wish for it, but most of us have learned that it will always come, often in small ways and sometimes in big, and that if we survive it well, we will be better off for it.

The trouble is that the adversary (nicely named after his prime historical mode of operation) has learned the same thing. Tempting people with persecution and hardship and other kinds of personal adversity produces the kind of pain and suffering he enjoys for a while, but those people often arise stronger and more stalwart for it all, and thus move in opposite directions (discipline, devotion, empathy, service and happiness) from where he wants to send them.

So, like any fierce competitor, Satan changes his strategy.

He's got several currently much used approaches — comfort and ease, acute materialism, satisfaction and idleness — but one of his best new approaches could be called "overload." He knows that if he can make our world so complex, so demanding, so overflowing with options and alternatives — and then add an overlay of compulsive comparing and competitive envy and pride — he can completely distract us from introspective, contemplative things like prayer and reflection and the seeking of God's will.

He knows that if he can keep our minds on what we want, they will never stray to what God wants. He knows that if we are exhausted every day from our pursuit of the world, we will have little energy left to see the needs of others or to examine where we, ourselves, are headed.

He knows that if he can keep us occupied with our obsessions for control, for ownership, and for independence, we will have neither the time nor the desire to think about guidance, or service, or our dependence on God and our interdependence with others.

And what tools he has! Movies and media that portray amorality and materialism as the norm. Advertising that makes us think we need what we actually only want. Technology that helps us know more and more about less and less, and that substitutes virtual reality for real reality, and that sucks away endless hours of net-surfing and browsing and playing games with machines.

Asking the Right Question

Part of the solution is learning to ask ourselves the question of why a little more often.

We spend a lot of mental energy asking (and answering) the questions of what (what we own, what we want, what is cool, what will make us look good) and where (where we want to live, where we want to travel) and who (who are the best contacts, who do we want to be seen with) and when (when do we want our promotion, or our independence) and how (how do we get more control, how do we win the many games we are playing).

These are not necessarily bad questions, but they are mostly CO&I questions, and they can be dangerous when they are not preceded by what should be the first question — why ? It is the why question that causes us to think, and to ponder, and to prioritize, and to pray for guidance and inspiration and insight.

Why do we want what we want? Why do we do what we do? Why is a powerful question because it makes us dig deep and be honest with ourselves, and when we are honest, we know if the answers are good or bad. Answers that relate only to competing, and winning, and appearances, and comfort and ease are not good answers. Answers that relate to the true good of our family, the welfare of others, and the will of God are good answers.

Why is also a good question because answering it honestly often helps to simplify our lives and allow us to break free of the overload. When we don't have a good answer for why we do something, we may be able to stop doing it — to eliminate one more complexity from our lives, and to thus put greater focus and greater priority on a thing that really matters.

Mirrors and Windows

A second guideline (asking why being the first) is to think of our lives as a series of mirrors and windows. Mirrors reveal ourselves, and windows reveal others. We all need some of each.

We need to try to see ourselves, not through the selfish, competitive and covetous mirrors of the world, but through accurate mirrors of how we are measuring up to our potential, to our destiny, to our foreordinations. But it is so important to balance the mirrors with windows — to try to be transparent as much as we can, focusing on others rather than on our own reflections.

What does my child need? What does my spouse need? What does my friend need? What does this stranger need? "Need" is the key word — not "want." Questions of need make you think, and may help you to simplify and thus to again tackle the temptation of overload.

No question that "overload" is one of the adversary's favorite new techniques, and it is replacing adversity as the main tool he is using on many of us (So maybe "Overloader" is a better thing to call him than Adversary, and maybe both are involved when we call him the deceiver).

Living better and with more joy in today's complex, competitive, covetous world is all about simplifying, about asking why , about seeing needs, about striving for more awareness and perspective, and about looking for the Three Alternatives to CO&I.  

Both the benefits of adversity and the power of simplicity may have been in Shakespeare's mind when he wrote:

Sweet are the uses of adversity which,
like the toad, wears yet a precious jewel in its head.
And so our lives, free from public haunt,
find tongues in trees, sermons in stone,
books in the running brooks, and good in every thing.

May we keep all this in mind as we continue our search for the Three Alternatives.

To take a guess on what The Three Alternatives are, or to express your ideas or feedback, write to Richard@meridianmagazine.com As you make your own search for the Three Alternative, or as you send them in to me, remember that they must preserve all of the good aspects of CO&I (initiative, discipline, responsibility and so on) but eliminate all of the negative aspects (judgment, jealousy, conceit, presumption, envy, covetousness, and other deceiving and damaging qualities). The Three Alternatives must draw us closer to God rather than distancing us from Him.

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