My Life, Gaming, and the Gospel: Sneak Attack!

Time played a rather rude trick on me a few days back.  As missionaries, we each pay $400 a month into a missionary slush fund to diffuse the cost a bit.  It goes towards rent, electricity, gas, and all that fun stuff.  Less expesive missions need less, while more expensive missions need more.  In this mission, we get all of the housing taken care of, and we get $130 per month to spend on food.  Since we go grocery shopping every monday, and since October has five mondays, this means that this month we have slightly less pocket money than usual.  I was sitting at my desk, looking at the calendar and the amount of cash that I had left, working on my budget.  I flipped up the calendar to the month of November, to see how many weeks were in November, when I stopped short.  The six week period we're in, at the end of which I return home to Washington, ends half-way through November.  I just sat there and thought a bit: in three weeks in this month, and three weeks next month, I'd be sitting at home.

So what do I do now?

It kind of felt like something out of Dungeons and Dragons.  There's this whole class called the Rogue.  They're schtick is that they sneak up on something and stab it.  It does more damage than usual, and is a real pain.  (Since I like to play big guys with big swords, I'm usually the target.)

Sometimes, we have something similar in life.  We're just going about, doing our job, helping others, when something comes out of nowhere and smacks us.  Why does this happen to us?  Is God punishing us?

Of course not.  To say that bad things only happen to bad people is also to say that good things only happen to good people.  God is not punishing you.  He loves you, and wants you to be happy.  Sometimes bad things just happen. 

However, God has a plan.  It is so wide in scope that we really can't take it all in.  He has his eyes placed on Eternal Life.  These eighty-or-so years that we have are just a drop of water in the Pacific Ocean compared to that.  While it seems everything to us, God knows what is truly important. 

I know that as we trust in Christ and repent, and are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end, we will have the eternal life that God wants so badly to give us.  If we move forward even in the tough times, we'll have eternal life.

And now, the definition of a sneak attack:

Life, Movies, and the Gospel: Pirates of the Carribean

So, raise of hands, who here loves Pirates of the Carribeans?  I mean, you have a coming of age story, an unlikely hero, a romantic love-interest, a cuckoo captain, black magic, aztecs (a long time before the movies anyway), the aztec's gold, and a whole lot of funny moments.  What's not to like?

This is, of course, only about the first movie.  The second movie was a two-and-a-half hour long advertisement for the third movie, and the third movie was a three-hour-long tie-up-the-loose-threads exercise.

So, let's start with Will Turner.  I really think that he's the main character, because he's the one who actually does stuff.  (You know, character progression?  That kind of thing?)

At the start of the first movie, Will is basically a nobody.  He's the under-appreciated apprentice of a drunkard blacksmith.  He knows nothing about who he is, except that he was taught to fight pirates.  Accordingly, he learns to fight pirates, prompting this interchange of dialogue when he meets the pirate Jack Sparrow:
Jack Sparrow: [looking at all the swords] Who makes all these?
Will Turner: I do. And I practice with them three hours a day.
Jack Sparrow: You need to find yourself a girl, mate. Or perhaps the reason you practice three hours a day is that you already found one, and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet. You're not a eunuch are you?
Will Turner: I practice three hours a day, so when I meet a pirate, I can kill it.

Unfortunately, Romantic Interest Elizabeth Swann is kidnapped by pirates, who turn out to be undead, cursed pirates.  With an undead, cursed pirate monkey.
And thus, an unlikely hero in search of his romantic interest accompanies the cuckoo captain to combat the ghastly ghosts.  (Would they be zombies?)  Along the way, Will comes to know who he really is: the son of a pirate.  With that in mind, he really starts to grow.  He returns to combat more pirates, and eventually defeats them.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we should compare Piracy with anything in the Gospel.  Maybe I am.  What I'm talking about is growth.  Let's think about what would have happened had Will just been told he was a regular guy?  I mean, no memory loss, no mysterious past, just a loving adoptive family?  Nothing.

In the same way, were we to just be here on this earth, everything hunky-dory, we would never grow.  We can never underestimate the value of this time here on earth.  We can choose to grow, to learn, and to become more like Jesus Christ.  However, we can also choose to do nothing, become less, and eventually lose all that we have.  It's all up to us.

On watches and fish hooks

So, yesterday, I found myself in need of a new watch.  Rather, say not that I needed a new one, but that I rather desired a new one.  While we were in Family Dollar yesterday, to buy my companion a desk lamp, one of the watches at the front desk caught my eye.  It looked good.  Stainless steel, with three dials, month, date, and one dial that I still don't know what it's for.  I checked out the price tag, and was shocked to see that it was only $8.00.  Snag that one, I said.  Picking it up and congratulating myself on being such a savvy businessman, I bought it and took it home.

It looks something like that.  Now, that's a mighty handsome watch, I thought as I cut through the packaging.  Pulling off the bit of plastic that held the crown away from the body, I began to adjust it, to try to move the date hand to the 1st of September.  However, after about thirty seconds of watching the hands go around the face, I realized that I had been taken in.  This watch, almost too good to be true, had turned out to be just that.  My desire to get something good for less led me to get just what I paid for:  a normal, good looking watch, with three extra dials glued onto the face.

So, not so savvy.

Sometimes, we do the same thing in life.  We look at something, and say to ourselves, "Now that's nice."  Whether it's a car, or a nice house, a boat, for me it might be a good set of books or a computer, we say, "Dang.  If I had that, I would be happy."  It begins to occupy our thoughts, and we begin to obsess.  When we get it, we open it with relish, only to find out that this package doesn't contain happiness.  It only contains a product of the world.

You see, Satan doesn't want us to be happy.  He's bitter that he lost the war, and I believe that he knows he'll eventually lose the war with God.  However, he and all his followers have dedicated themselves to taking down as many as they can with them.  Like the old proverb says, "Misery loves Company."  He tricks us, promising us happiness if we do what he says.  When we, like a fish entertained by the promise of an easy meal, go after Satan's worm, he sets the hook.

The best things in life are never easy.  I'm trying to lose weight by eating less, because I believe the end goal to be worth it.  My companion and I teach people every day a message that is radically different from the world and its standards.  Obeying these rules would place most people out of their comfort zones.  In this world, it is not popular for people to not drink coffee.  It's not popular for young men to just give up two years of their life and about ten thousand dollars to serve God.  It's not easy.

It's not meant to be.

The greatest gift that God has for us is eternal life.  As a friend of mine once said, "There's only one thing that  we need to change in order to go to heaven:  Everything."  It made me laugh then, but it's true.  If we truly expect to be in God's kingdom, we must give up everything and trust in Christ.  He has paid the price for us, and is willing to help us.  If only we would allow him to help us, we could be happy.  And this is the kind of happiness that lasts, joy.

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." ~2 Nephi 2: 25

I know this is true.  Although I am a bit disappointed at myself for buying what I should have known would be an inferior product, I am happy because I am doing what is right.  God loves us.  He's made a way for us.  If we, as disciples of Christ, hope to follow his example, we must be prepared for our own small moments in Gethsemane.  It's difficult.  But it is oh so worth it.

Why bother?

Why bother?

I mean, really?  What's the point?  Why go through all the troubles of life?  Why suffer?  Why do we work so hard to get people to do what they really don't want to do?  We get up, we go to work, we jump through all sorts of hoops, and in the end we're a day older and not a lot smarter.  We've given up twenty-four hours of our life, usually in a place that we don't want to be, doing something unpleasant for people we may or may not despise.

Why bother?  Why did we choose to come to this miserable sphere we call earth?  Why do we keep at this?

Well, why do you work?  What do you get from it?  Hopefully, you're being paid for your labors.  The pay is a good reason, right?

Why do people run marathons?  I would be miserable!  I'd be dying by mile three, and there's still eighteen miles to go!  But isn't the prize worth it?

I saw a tee-shirt in Lindenwold once.  It said, "Working for God: The pay isn't that great, but the retirement plan is out of this world!"  The statement invites a chuckle, and the best part is that it's true.

So long as we keep our eyes on the prize of eternal life, we're able to keep going.  God has many promises for us, and I know that it's worth it.  We might question God at times.  Why does bad stuff happen?  Why would he let someone die?  If instead of focusing on all the bad things, we should focus on the good, and even more on what happens afterwards.  God loves us, and he wants what's best for us.

And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. ~Doctrine and Covenants 122:7

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. ~John 3:16

I know that this is true.  God loves us, and if we will focus on the prize, we will win.