The Role and the Goal

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I was introduced to a concept this week in a way that made it easier to understand. Although I have previously given thought to things in advance of their putative arrival, it was always about decisions. These were mostly things about what I would do if X or Y happened or if people invited me to option 1 or 2. What about things I might one day be?

Prepare for things that may be true in your life. As we consider our possible choices in life, we too infrequently think of our roles in life. What if we become parents? Teachers? President of the United States? What would we be? How prepared would we be? What would I do in this position to meet the goals I would be asked to achieve?

One of the things I resolved to do as a consequence of this conversation was learn to put a carseat in my car. At least then I wouldn't look like a complete nutcase on the way home from delivery with my first child! I remember months back, a friend of mine invited and impressed upon me that I hold her son. You could tell very well that I had never held a child before, because I had absolutely zero idea how to do it and looked as awkward as a hobbit in Mordor. We all know that children don't come with a handbook for much of the minutea of parenthood, and although we basically know how and what to teach them, we frequently do not know how to handle the roles that come upon us.

How we handle things is what makes us what we become. After work Monday night, I spoke with a young woman who was divorced last October. She still referred to herself as a 'divorcee' and I told her that we are not what happens to us. We are what we make happen. Now that she is in the role of a single woman again, what are her goals? What will she decide to be?

The example for us is that of Noah. When he was called to be a prophet, he was given two assignments; call the people to repentance and build a boat. Noah wasn't a lecturer, a professor, or a philosopher, and he certainly wasn't a shipwright. Yet, from stem to stern of his tenure in that office, he commended himself to the Lord and acted out his role. On a stone in a small Scottish town stand these words of inscription: "Whate'er thou art, act well thy part."

Today you may be understudy or stagehand. Remember that it is completely consistent with the Savior to call in strangers for the feast of the bridegroom (Matt 22:3-10). You may be in a minor role or not even on the program, but he has frequently drawn upon people who were available to fill important roles, especially where substitutions were necessary in case of wickedness or rebellion against his will. Neal A Maxwell in his book "Deposition of a Disciple" tells us that "God gives the picks and shovels to the 'chosen' because they are willing to go to work and get callouses on their hands. They may not be the most capable, but they are the most available." As understudies in the work of God, consider what you will do if you are asked to step into a different role, especially a leading one. As you keep in mind the goal and the role, you will find that you perform much more admirably than you or any other mortal expects, and it will be well with God and you.