By: Justin Hansen
We as human beings have within us an innate desire to know our Maker. He has placed wthin each of us a natural drive to know Him, and to seek Him. At times, this can fade due to sin, choices we make, results of others decisions that impact our lives', or other reasons. We all strive to one degree or another to progress in life. God has placed this in us (ADD note here, much of this I am gleaning from 2 Nephi chapter 2, Alma 11, and the talk "God is the Gardener" by Hugh B Brown). As we make choices that invite light, we progress, as we chose those things that lean toward darkness, we damn ourselves. A question that has been going through my mind is this; Do I have what it takes to make it in this life? A sister question to it is: "Do I have what it takes to help my family make it in this life?" These can be daunting questions. Thankfully, we have the gospel and a knowledge of who we are, and who God is, and the role of Christ in our entire existence. We must do what we can to cherish this knowledge and share it with others. I hope to continue to improve in all of this.
I am, for good or bad, a sports fan. I just finished watching the San Antonio Spurs fall to the seemingly upstart Memphis Grizzlies. The Spurs are a team that have won 4 championchips in the last 12 years or so (I was a Jazz fan until Jerry Sloan "resigned") But I switched sides if you will for 1 reason, the Spurs work as a team, much like the Jazz did for years under Sloan. They have seen good times, they have the heart of champions. They were outmatched tonight, but they know what it takes to win. Not one of my teams has ever won a championship that I can remember (BYU football was not part of my life in 1984) and the few chances my teams have had were good but they fell just short, mostly due to a man named Michael Jordan, and an empire known as the New York Yankees. Now, where does this tie in with the important stuff dealing with eternal life? Well, it is this: We are born with a built in drive to succeed and return to God. We are given the heart of a champion, how we use it is up to us. Many seem to falter, few move through this life to the top, so it seems. The good news is, we have a championship team all around us. Namely, The Holy Ghost, living prophets, local church leaders, family, ward members, home teachers, and other caring friends. For those of you not of the LDS faith, you also have God's wisdom and light, and the ability to have the spirit help you, as well as other supportive cast members. Champions work as hard as the can, and leave the rest to God. Now, some of our evangelical companions may say "There you Mormons go again, saying we have to earn our way to heaven." My point in the champion talk is; We must do our best to prepare for that which awaits us, the true champion is Christ, his work was done, his prize is our immortality and eternal life. We must show our gratitude to our great champion by our willingness to strive for our championship, eternal life and exaltation.
May we honor our champion, our Savior and Brother, in the way we so choose to live our life.
the comparison with sports is a common one. but flawed. In sports competition, there is one winner, and everyone else is not. In the gospel, everyone of God's children can be a winner. Think of it as an endurance race. Everyone who is still on their feet, striving to move forward when the closing bell rings is a winner. Another point of view is this -- there are two teams, the Savior's, and Satan's.
ReplyDeleteThe Savior's team has already won, because it is based on truth, and Satan's has already lost, because it is based on lies. All we need to do is to choose to join the team that has already won, stick with it, and don't give in to the whispering lies that try to get us to change sides or to sit on the sidelines. There is no contest. Christ has already won the victory (cf. the first few verses of D&C section 121). Who would not want to be part of the winning team?
I actually think this analogy worked pretty well. I remember hearing a talk once where a brother said the forces of light are the greatest army that has ever existed, and by comparison Satan and his angels are like children with water guns. Satan will lose, there can be no doubt. And yet, many of us allow him personal victories over us.
ReplyDeleteWe are God's children and as such there is no excuse for giving in to the enticings of wicked one.
-Michael
My point was to do all we could to become a champion working out our salvation and looking to the greatest champion to help us make up the difference, I was using the sports teams only to show that I have not seen a championchip team amoung those I cheer for, then tied the team into our individual life and striving for the prize.
ReplyDelete