The Choice

In our church, we have a lay ministry. That means that we don't have paid clergy--instead, we all take turns doing the jobs needed to keep the church running. As part of this, each Sunday members of the congregation take turns speaking in our sacrament meeting. This week, I was one of the speakers. Below is the text from my talk.

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Shelece McAllister. Today the Bishop has asked me to speak to you on a great talk by President Boyd K. Packer called “The Choice.” Though President Packer gave this talk in 1980, he was speaking to those of us in 2016 as well. He noted that, “a careful account is kept of these proceedings, and through that record I hope to speak to those who are not yet born.” That’s us, guys.

President Packer opened his talk by saying, “I fear that when I have given this counsel, some will say, ‘Well, I knew that already,’ and regard it as prosaic, unimaginative, even dull. For what I want to say is so ordinary, so commonplace, that it is very difficult to have it universally regarded as important.” 

What does it mean to be successful in life? The world defines it differently than we do. If you listen to the media’s idea of what earthly success looks like, it’s easy to believe that success comes from two things: wealth and fame. A lot of people spend their whole lives chasing after these two outcomes. But in the end, neither one of these things has anything to do with happiness. It’s possible to be rich and famous and completely miserable. It’s possible to be poor and completely unknown and still be completely happy.

In President Packer’s words, “It is the misapprehension of most people that if you are good, really good, at what you do, you will eventually be both widely known and well compensated… I want you, our children, to know this truth: You need not be either rich or hold high position to be completely successful and truly happy. In fact, if these things come to you, and they may, true success must be achieved in spite of them, not because of them.”

The truth is, true success in life has nothing to do with fame or fortune. We’re not here on earth to seek money or the praise of others. We are here to be tested and tried, to grow to become more like our Father in Heaven. President Packer describes it this way, “the choice of life is not between fame and obscurity, nor is the choice between wealth and poverty. The choice is between good and evil, and that is a very different matter indeed.”

We first faced the challenge of choosing between good and evil before we were born here on earth. Heavenly Father created our spirits, and we lived with Him as His spirit children, learning and growing in His presence. But we were not like our Heavenly Father, nor could we become like Him and enjoy all the blessings that He enjoys without the experience of living in mortality with a physical body.

So Heavenly Father presented to us His Plan of Salvation. We would be born here on earth, without memories of our life before with Him. Here we would gain bodies and experience that would help us become like Him. During our lives, we would make mistakes. We would sin. But our Savior, Jesus Christ, would live a perfect life so that He could accomplish His Atonement—He would suffer for all of our sins, all of our pains, griefs, and sorrows—and through Him, we could become clean again so we could return to the presence of the Father.

But our brother Lucifer rebelled and did not accept Father’s plan. He wanted to force all of us to do his will, rather than allowing us our precious gift of agency—the right to choose for ourselves whether to do right, or whether to do wrong. Lucifer fell and became Satan.

We were faced with a choice—to choose the plan Father had for us, or to listen to Satan and follow him. A third of the host of heaven chose to follow Satan. But we—and every single person who has ever lived or will live on this Earth—chose to follow Heavenly Father instead. We chose good over evil.

The challenge of mortality is to keep choosing good over evil. President Packer said, “Our lives are made up of thousands of everyday choices. Over the years these little choices will be bundled together and show clearly what we value. The crucial test of life, I repeat, does not center in the choice between fame and obscurity, nor between wealth and poverty. The greatest decision of life is between good and evil.” End quote. Heavenly Father has provided us with many gifts to help us make right choices. Everyone is born with the Light of Christ, which allows us to distinguish right from wrong. After we are baptized, we have the opportunity to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost—his constant companionship helps us know what we should do. In D&C 11:12, the Savior counsels us, “put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit.”

Heavenly Father also sent His son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life. If we look to His life as an example, we can come to understand what Heavenly Father wants us to do.

Satan tries to distract us and to dissuade us from doing what’s right. One lie that he tells us is that the conditions of this test are unfair. He may tempt us to compare our lives to those around us—to people who are more successful by worldly standards, perhaps, or to people who aren’t facing the same trials that we are facing.

We must remember Isaiah 55:9, where the Lord says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Although sometimes it may appear that the trials we face are unfair, remember that our mortal view is limited, and we don’t understand the full picture.

For example, in the world, it may seem that those who are rich and famous are more successful than those who are impoverished and obscure. But in the New Testament, the Savior counseled that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24). That isn’t to say that it’s impossible for someone to be rich or famous or both and still live a righteous life. But it helps us understand that people who are wealthy or famous are not at an increased advantage spiritually. In fact, they may have a more difficult time turning to the Lord than those who are in more humble circumstances.

President Packer describes our challenges this way: “Some are tested by poor health, some by a body that is deformed or homely. Others are tested by handsome and healthy bodies; some by the passion of youth; others by the erosions of age. Some suffer disappointment in marriage, family problems; others live in poverty and obscurity. Some (perhaps this is the hardest test) find ease and luxury. All are part of the test, and there is more equality in this testing than sometimes we suspect."

That last line especially touches me—“there is more equality in this testing than sometimes we suspect.” I think most of us have experienced a time when we’ve seen a loved one suffer, through no fault of their own. Most of us have gone through a time when we ourselves have suffered. It’s easy to think, “Why me?” or to lament that it isn’t fair that you have to go through this.

But President Packer’s counsel reminds me—life is more fair than we think. With our limited mortal perspective, we cannot fully comprehend the trials that anyone else is going through. Don’t compare your trials to someone else’s. Just trust Heavenly Father that through the trials you pass through, you are growing to become more like him.

Sometimes it is easy to be discouraged in our life choices. We look around us, and sometimes we see people making poor choices who seem to be better off than we are, even though we are trying to do what is right. President Uchtdorf shared a powerful story from a time in his life that he felt this way. He said:

 “Every one of us is called to wait in our own way. We wait for answers to prayers. We wait for things which at the time may appear so right and so good to us that we can’t possibly imagine why Heavenly Father would delay the answer.

I remember when I was preparing to be trained as a fighter pilot. We spent a great deal of our preliminary military training in physical exercise. I’m still not exactly sure why endless running was considered such an essential preparatory part of becoming a pilot. Nevertheless, we ran and we ran and we ran some more.

As I was running I began to notice something that, frankly, troubled me. Time and again I was being passed by men who smoked, drank, and did all manner of things that were contrary to the gospel and, in particular, to the Word of Wisdom.

I remember thinking, “Wait a minute! Aren’t I supposed to be able to run and not be weary?” But I was weary, and I was overtaken by people who were definitely not following the Word of Wisdom. I confess, it troubled me at the time. I asked myself, was the promise true or was it not?

The answer didn’t come immediately. But eventually I learned that God’s promises are not always fulfilled as quickly as or in the way we might hope; they come according to His timing and in His ways. Years later I could see clear evidence of the temporal blessings that come to those who obey the Word of Wisdom—in addition to the spiritual blessings that come immediately from obedience to any of God’s laws. Looking back, I know for sure that the promises of the Lord, if perhaps not always swift, are always certain.” 

In closing, I want to share President Packer’s take home message from his talk:  “What, then, do we want you to do? Simply this: Be good! Study the gospel. Live it! Stay active in the Church. Receive the ordinances. Keep your covenants.”

I want to bear my testimony that the commandments Heavenly Father gives us are for our own good. Even when we don’t understand His counsel, we can trust that He knows better than we do. The scriptures often tell us to become humble like little children. Little children are so humble! They know that they don't know very much yet. That's why they ask so many questions--and they trust that their parents know better than they do. We are adults here in mortality, but we need to remember that we're still little children compared to Heavenly Father. He knows better than we do, and we need to trust Him. If we obey Him, we will be blessed.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.