There are some things in life that are unexplainable. Even when we try to speculate on the workings of the spirit, some things we just cannot explain in words.
A person would have to experience it themselves in order to know what you’re talking about. There will be times that you will offer your testimony to another person. You’ll share with them the things that you know to be true and they’ll laugh at you for it. They’ll ask you how you can know such things. They’ll ask for an explanation or for evidence of the things you’re testifying of.
One day, I was skiing at Snowbasin and listening to some Forest Frank. One of my favorite songs came on and the snow was as good as it gets. No one could tell that I had headphones on, and I couldn’t help but dance (while on my skis) all the way down the mountain. The people I passed on the way down and those sitting on the lift must have thought I was insane. But I wasn’t… I was just listening to the music. Music that they couldn’t hear. I distinctly remember this quote coming into my mind:
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music”
How do you explain in words, something that moves you so profoundly. Sometimes it’s impossible. The only thing you can do is invite someone to experience what you’ve experienced.
Regardless of your education or eloquence with words, you’ll be at a loss for what to say sometimes. But don’t worry. You’re in good company. President Boyd K. Packer was also at a loss for words during a conversation on an airplane with an atheist he was sitting close to. President Packer had borne his testimony of the gospel and the atheist asked him to describe to him how he knew what he knew. There was no way he could describe it. The awkward silence coupled with a sudden burst of inspiration produced the following question in President Packer’s mind and he described it as follows:
I said to the atheist, “Let me ask if you know what salt tastes like.”
“Of course I do,” was his reply.
“When did you taste salt last?”
“I just had dinner on the plane.”
“You just think you know what salt tastes like,” I said.
He insisted, “I know what salt tastes like as well as I know anything.”
“If I gave you a cup of salt and a cup of sugar and let you taste them both, could you tell the salt from the sugar?”
“Now you are getting juvenile,” was his reply. “Of course I could tell the difference. I know what salt tastes like. It is an everyday experience—I know it as well as I know anything.”
“Then,” I said, “assuming that I have never tasted salt, explain to me just what it tastes like.”
After some thought, he ventured, “Well-I-uh, it is not sweet and it is not sour.”
“You’ve told me what it isn’t, not what it is.”
After several attempts, of course, he could not do it. He could not convey, in words alone, so ordinary an experience as tasting salt. I bore testimony to him once again and said, “I know there is a God. You ridiculed that testimony and said that if I did know, I would be able to tell you exactly how I know. My friend, spiritually speaking, I have tasted salt. I am no more able to convey to you in words how this knowledge has come than you are to tell me what salt tastes like. But I say to you again, there is a God! He does live! And just because you don’t know, don’t try to tell me that I don’t know, for I do!”
The Holy Ghost communicates truths to us that may be hard to convey to other people without them doing the work and having the experience for themselves. The Holy Ghost has two main functions according to Joseph Smith: that is to be a “revelator” and a “sanctifier.” The Holy Ghost “reveals” things to our minds that we previously did not know or forgot (see John 14:26). We become “sanctified” through our obedience to those promptings or revelations. The most powerful gospel teachers will learn how to help others recognize when the Spirit is speaking to them. When that happens, you won’t need to teach or explain. Words won’t be necessary. The will hear the music for themselves.
