In 1988 President Ezra Taft Benson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asked the members of the church to "flood the earth" with the Book of Mormon. He said at the October General Conference of the church: "The time is long overdue for a massive flooding of the earth with the Book of Mormon for the many reasons which the Lord has given. In this age of the electronic media and the mass distribution of the printed word, God will hold us accountable if we do not now move the Book of Mormon in a monumental way."
Recall that in 1988 the Internet was in its infancy. The World Wide Web had not yet made its appearance. Smartphones were not yet invented. How far we have come in the technology that President Benson envisioned for flooding the earth!
The commandment to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon has never been rescinded. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I needed to do more with the technological gifts at my disposal to keep this commandment, so I started my Flood the Earth blog in 2016. I was not so naive as to think that I was going to flood the Internet with the Book of Mormon. I just wanted to add my drop. As the old saying goes, if we each add a drop, pretty soon we'll have an ocean.
I “finished” my blog in 2019, meaning I had made my first pass through the Book of Mormon, having posted 774 verses with comments and pictures–my 774 “favorite” verses, out of 6,604 possible choices. That is a lot of favorites. The pictures I posted were to add color and interest to my blog, and at least a few provided emotion and context to the accompanying verses. My comments came from my notes during personal scripture study over several years. The real heart of my blog, however, was neither the pictures nor my comments, but the verses themselves, the Word of God as written by ancient prophets and translated through God’s power by a modern-day prophet. I had simply put a few drops of God’s Word in the digital ocean in the hope that someone who needed a spiritual boost might stumble on just the right verse to brighten a bad day or lift a heavy heart.
Therefore, as I prepared my posts, I looked for passages that expressed hope and grace embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ. And I found them! Over and over again! Hundreds of them. I realized as never before how profoundly and thoroughly saturated the Book of Mormon is with messages of Christian love and encouragement and good news. Jesus permeates that book, and as I came to see the love Christ has for us, my heart became permeated with Him. I always knew Heavenly Father loved me, but I learned through this experience that Jesus loves me–really loves me.
The scriptures are an infinite well of inspiration from which we can dip endlessly. I had pulled up only a thimble full, but it was good and satisfying, and I wanted to put it into a form that would last longer than the brief flash of the World Wide Web.
Therefore, this book came about. I have selected my favorite “favorites”, the most hopeful and joyful and transformative passages, the ones that resonated most for me and sparked my deepest reverence and worship.
So drink with me; immerse yourself with me; taste the droplets until they become a stream, and then a river, and then an ocean in our lives. My mother used to say a person could drown in a teaspoon of water. If we all bring our teaspoons to the fountain, the Word of God can become a sea to cover the earth.
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