Like most of you, I used to quip the quote "The only guarantees in life are death and taxes". This past weekend in Utah, after some reflection, I no longer believe that phrase.
If you believe in God and have ever read the Bible, you know there are exceptions to the first eventuality. Elijah, Enoch and his entire city, and others were taken to heaven without the sting of death. So, although Christ himself died, to overcome death, some men had already escaped it as a "guarantee".
If you pay attention to the news at all, you know that many members of the Obama administration don't pay taxes. From Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner to the recent member of Congress who failed to disclose $3 million in assets from 2002 to the present, we know it's not a matter of oversight. Plus, there are 40% of the American people who don't pay taxes at all, many of whom still benefit from tax "credits" to their non-payage of taxes, meaning that we send them money even if they pay nothing. So, taxes are not inevitable.
The only things that I believe are guarantees are the decrees of the almighty. To put it in a couplet:
I will be the first to admit at the close of these thoughts that I do not understand the ways of the almighty. He has asked me to do a great many things that make absolutely no sense. He has also made me promises. I will bind him to them as I continue to live the best I know with what I have.
If you believe in God and have ever read the Bible, you know there are exceptions to the first eventuality. Elijah, Enoch and his entire city, and others were taken to heaven without the sting of death. So, although Christ himself died, to overcome death, some men had already escaped it as a "guarantee".
If you pay attention to the news at all, you know that many members of the Obama administration don't pay taxes. From Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner to the recent member of Congress who failed to disclose $3 million in assets from 2002 to the present, we know it's not a matter of oversight. Plus, there are 40% of the American people who don't pay taxes at all, many of whom still benefit from tax "credits" to their non-payage of taxes, meaning that we send them money even if they pay nothing. So, taxes are not inevitable.
The only things that I believe are guarantees are the decrees of the almighty. To put it in a couplet:
In life the only guarantees
Are the things God himself decrees --me
I will be the first to admit at the close of these thoughts that I do not understand the ways of the almighty. He has asked me to do a great many things that make absolutely no sense. He has also made me promises. I will bind him to them as I continue to live the best I know with what I have.
What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself, and though the heavens and earth shall pass away, my word shall not pass away but shall all be fulfilled, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. --Doctrine and Covenants 1:37-38
May I have strength to keep to this conviction.
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