Deep Symbolism of "The Ultimate Gift"

Maybe it is a no brainer, but as I was watching "The Ultimate Gift" yesterday with my kids, it struck me that it is far more than teaching us how to appreciate and live a better life.  To me, it seems like this is like the relationship between our Heavenly Father and us.

(available on Vidangel for $1 or Amazon for about $3, I understand)

He has a series of lessons for us, challenging and perspective changing, which requires us to take action.  At one point, the grandfather says that the first gifts the grandson learned were pretty straightforward but that the last ones required a little more on the grandson's part to make them meaningful and effective.

I feel like that is like us and captures the beautiful relationship between grace and works.  God has greatness and glory for us: we need to do things that either open our eyes or show our trust in Him in order to prepare for them...or even receive them!  This spoiled young man was unable to get the gift of personal family happiness until he put himself in the awkward position of trying to be grateful when it was hard...trying to sacrifice for others which ran counter to all he was raised to believe and live.

But when he acted, he learned and gained these precious gifts.  However, in the end, it was the greatness and glory and grace of his grandfather that gave him what the world would term "the ultimate gift" of the 2 billion dollar inheritance.  It was the grace that saw a truly humbled if imperfect heart totally turned over to doing the work his grandfather had been doing in his life.  "It is by grace ye are saved after all ye can do."

I contest that the ultimate gift was not the money but in a heart reborn and completely dedicated to his grandfather's work: the money was merely the means with which to carry out those noble desires to bless others.

Can you see the amazing parallels?!  Our Father has a series of tests and experiences for us to change our hearts, to receive these gifts he has for us.

"Every blessing we receive is predicated upon obedience to some law..."

After we go through these tests (however imperfectly) it is the changed heart that we will have when we stand before our God, our God that we have shut out sometimes as the young man shut out his grandfather...our God who loves us and has so much faith in us.

In the end, the grandfather says something about how if the young man got to that point, then he would have exceeded all the grandfather's expectations and hopes.

The cool thing is that if we get to that point, we will just be reaching that potential that God saw within us all along. :)

Maybe the movie makers intended the symbolism, but somehow I wonder if God worked his miracles once again and made something like Les Miserables with multiple depths.  All I know is I love what it has done for me!

Don't miss out on your Ultimate Gift: a changed, a God-like heart.

Apostolic Warning for the Last Days...

...which we live in, Elder Ballard says!

I happened across this talk from a recent 220-stake conference to the Utah Salt Lake Area led by Elder Ballard. (Click on "this talk" for the video and text of it.)  We can be so easily led astray and it was eerie, yet comforting, for him to address how even the very elect are being deceived by false prophets and teachers who "have great signs following them."

I raise my voice as Paul did, that there are those “that trouble you pervert the gospel of Christ.” I would be shirking my duty if I did not raise my voice to warn you of the challenges we face today.
My brothers and sisters, never forget that there are two powers in the universe; one invites us to choose the right and experience eternal joy and happiness, and the other invites us to choose the opposite, bringing sadness and regret. Our doctrine teaches us that life is a test—a time to see which invitation we will accept.
I remind you of Jesus’s prophecy regarding the last days in which we now live (see?  crazy!): “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”^[5] We are saddened when we witness some of the “very elect” deceived as Jesus warned.
Recently I visited a small grove of sequoia trees planted many years ago on the BYU campus. A friend of mine explained to me that sequoias are the world’s largest trees and that they can grow to between 164 and 279 feet tall in the wild. They can live to more than a thousand years.
Another interesting fact about the sequoias is that their unique and resilient bark protects the trees from forest fires and also repels bugs and fungi that can damage and kill a tree.
One of the trees died and the dead tree needed to be cut down, leaving only a stump to remind anyone passing by that a tall, majestic tree once stood there.
The campus arborist wanted to know what killed the tree, as the sequoia certainly did not die of old age. After an examination, he determined that the tree’s feeding roots had died from a lack of water.
How was that possible since the tree had flourished there for more than five decades?
The arborist discovered that the aquifer that nourished the little grove had shifted as an unintended consequence of the construction of a new building, just east of the grove.
To me this is a perfect analogy of what happens when stalwart Church members, the “very elect,” those who for all appearances seem to stand tall and erect in the faith, die spiritually.
Like the dead sequoia, these Church members once received their spiritual nourishment from the well of living water offered by Jesus Christ. But for one reason or another, they have shifted away from the source of spiritual nourishment, and without that nourishment their spirit was dulled, and they eventually died spiritually.
Now I ask you, brothers and sisters, how can we ensure that our spiritual feeding roots are always connected to the well of living water?

As a messenger from Christ always does, he gave us the tried and true ways to stay connected with Heavenly Father and not be deceived.  Ways to find out for ourselves what is right and ways to hold fast to the iron rod.

My patriarchal blessing warns that if I do not read daily and faithfully from the scriptures I will be led astray.  No maybe about that one.

When darkness and confusion, frustration and dispair cloud over me, I know  that I can say a prayer, go to the temple, listen to the prophets, read my scriptures and partake of the sacrament, my feet will be firmly planted. 

I stand with the brethren and look forward to hearing their words this weekend.  Great talk.

Quotes from "Discovering Isaac"

"Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced that we are loved: loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."
--"Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo

"Joy, in all its glory, can only be obtained through unselfishness"
--"Discovering Isaac" by Behunin

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us." --Joseph Campbell 

And I would add, "...the life that God has waiting for us." 

 The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own."

--Benjamin Disraeli

 

"Don't be discouraged by failure. It can be a positive experience.  Failure is,in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid."

--John Keats

 

Stop and Savor

I was thinking yesterday about time, how there are so many good things that I want to do :)!

"God can slow down time, if He wants to," I thought, thinking of the war in the Bible where the sun was slowed and stopped in it's place.

"Right now," the answer came, "your job is to pick one and savor it."

Immediately, the book we have been reading as a family, the "Remembering Isaac" series by Behunin came to mind, the story of a potter.  A very slow story.  One book takes up about 2 weeks of the character's life.  But it is a beautiful story and very interesting. It is truly an author savoring his tale as he unfolds it, full of truth and meaning.  The potter lives a very simple life and I think that is what I am to be learning from it during this reading...the beauty of simplicity.  Wow. This is unfortunately going to be a hard lesson for me and one that may take some time.

Another character in the book comments about the art of pottery, how it takes time moreso than most art forms.  It just takes time.  People had come to the previous potter to watch him work, to talk, to learn from his quiet wisdom.  The new potter, Jake, learns from these stories considers whether this is the life he wants to choose.  This whole book is about choices: choices learned from and choices to make.

God truly is the potter and we all are the work of His hands.  As we strive to become like Him, we take our own lives and slowly shape it.  Some parts require firing.  Some require sitting.  And some parts require motion and action and shaping.  I guess it helps to try and recognize what our seasons are:

 1 To every thing there is a ^aseason, and a ^btime to every purpose under the heaven:
 2 A ^atime to be born, and a time to ^bdie; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
 4 A time to weep, and a time to ^alaugh; a time to ^bmourn, and a time to dance;
 5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
 6 A time to ^aget, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
 7 A time to ^arend, and a time to sew; a time to keep^bsilence, and a time to speak;
 8 A time to love, and a time to ^ahate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
 9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he^alaboureth?
 10 I have seen the ^atravail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be ^bexercised in it.
 11 He hath made every thing ^abeautiful in his time: also^bhe hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the ^cwork that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Re-Post of "Finding Self-Worth in a Selfie World"

Just in case you didn't follow the earlier link, here is the short article I referred to in my last post.

I was 11 years old when I realized I had no friends. It was the beginning of 5th grade in a new school, and, besides, everybody probably feels similar when they’re that young anyway. But even if that’s true, it didn’t soften the blow when the Val-O-Grams—those special valentines students purchased and had sent to their best friends—were delivered to all the classrooms and everyone seemed to get ten and I only got one—and it was from my mom.

I was 17 years old when I experimented with the harshest of hair products because the statement I was making with my ripped jeans and worn boots wasn’t getting enough of the attention I wanted from my high school peers. If they weren’t looking at or talking about me, it was as if I didn’t exist.

I was 21 years old when I knew I was the worst missionary in the history of the Church. I wasn’t baptizing as much as others, I wasn’t called to leadership positions when younger missionaries were, and I simply didn’t feel the persistent, all-encompassing glow I once associated with missionary work and righteousness and following the rules.

I was 26 years old when I finally graduated from college and was offered a job I felt I had to accept to feel like a contributing adult. And soon after I took the job, I silently wished that I could go back and start over again. Because, at the time, I wasn’t brave enough to say no to a job I knew wouldn’t fulfill me even though it would pay my bills. Because I wasn’t traveling the world or interning at Universal Studios or playing in the NFL or publishing bestsellers or making the kind of money that would ensure an early and prosperous retirement. I was at a desk. And it appeared everyone else was living their dream.

And I was 28 years old when my wife was diagnosed with a terminal lung disease. And beyond how many friends I had, how good-looking I felt I was, how respected I was by my peers, how glamorous or rich I was or wasn’t, my understanding of self-worth became how I used my new pain and past experiences to acquire the compassion necessary to truly love someone other than myself. And what if that’s the secret? What if pouring yourself—the good and the hidden—into those around and beyond you afforded you the kind of self-worth you can’t get from social media or one of the thousands of self-help books crowding our shelves? What if outward compassion rather than inward reflection is the barometer with which God measures our intended purpose and value? Well, I think it might be. Or at least it’s a strong component. Because I’ve never felt more worthy as a son of God than when I first started washing my wife’s hair because lifting her own arms to shampoo her hair became too much for her lungs to handle. I’ve never felt so purposeful and satisfied than when I made the obvious choice of disappearing into the full-time care and round-the-clock concern of a most precious and delicate daughter of God.

Maybe not having friends in 5th grade meant I wasn’t being a friend to my classmates. Maybe not feeling attractive in high school meant I needed to step away from my mirror and look out my window. Maybe not receiving the leadership roles I felt I needed in order to really make a difference as a missionary meant that I wasn’t fully serving those closest to me—my missionary companions and the families who were looking to us for gospel understanding. Maybe feeling enslaved to a job that wasn’t the coolest or most lucrative meant that I didn’t yet understand that it would be outside the hours of 9 to 5 where my happiest, hardest, and most sacred work would be done. And maybe feeling cheated by 78 “likes” on a posted picture that I thought deserved a million means I’ve swung too far from what I once understood about self-worth and have parlayed my divine identity into an idea of someone I’m not quite and perhaps never will be.

I’m now 29 years old. And maybe that’s too young to know exactly who or what I am. But being 29 is probably old enough to know what I’m not. I know I’m not merely a resume or a cultural demographic or a body type or a tax bracket or a profile picture. And I know I’m not reduced to those arbitrary things because I know I am more than simply myself.

I am what I am to my wife and to my friends and family and to my neighbors and coworkers and fellow freeway drivers. I am what I am to the 54-year-old server who cleans up after me and thanks me for coming in even though I under-tipped. I am what I am to the person who doesn’t like me and especially to the person I’m not too fond of either. I am what I am to those I should be serving more, to those I should be reaching out to more, to those I should be writing to instead of writing this. I am how I love others because that’s one of the few things I can actually control in this life, and it’s possibly the only way I can tangibly measure my true self-worth. But mostly, I am how I love others because that’s all God asks of me—and because that’s all I can give Him. And maybe that’s good enough.

---

Henry Unga is a proud native of Provo, Utah, with a degree in literature and a voracious passion for food and his family. When he isn't blogging, hiking, or searching for the perfect burger, you'll find him sitting next to his lovely wife on a nearby park bench reading War and Peace, which he'll never finish.

True Faith: Believing Even "If Not"

Quick thoughts from scripture reading and seminary with my son...an answer to my "whine"?

 1 Peter 2:20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it ^apatiently? but if, when ye do well, and ^bsuffer for it, ye take it ^cpatiently, this is ^dacceptablewith God.

From the following talk:

A furious Nebuchadnezzar told them that if they would not worship as commanded, they would immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. “And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”2The three young men quickly and confidently responded, “If it be so [if you cast us into the furnace], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand.” That sounds like my eighth-grade kind of faith. But then they demonstrated that they fully understood what faith is. They continued, “But if not, … we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”3 That is a statement of true faith.

They knew that they could trust God—even if things didn’t turn out the way they hoped.4 They knew that faith is more than mental assent, more than an acknowledgment that God lives. Faith is total trust in Him.

Our scriptures and our history are replete with accounts of God’s great men and women who believed that He would deliver them, but if not, they demonstrated that they would trust and be true.

He has the power, but it’s our test.

What does the Lord expect of us with respect to our challenges? He expects us to do all we can do. He does the rest. Nephi said, “For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do...”19

Our God will deliver us from ridicule and persecution, but if not. … Our God will deliver us from sickness and disease, but if not … . He will deliver us from loneliness, depression, or fear, but if not. … Our God will deliver us from threats, accusations, and insecurity, but if not. … He will deliver us from death or impairment of loved ones, but if not, … we will trust in the Lord.

Our God will see that we receive justice and fairness, but if not. … He will make sure that we are loved and recognized, but if not. … We will receive a perfect companion and righteous and obedient children, but if not, … we will have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that if we do all we can do, we will, in His time and in His way, be delivered and receive all that He has.20