Full Coverage vs Liability

OK, so you might be asking what's a Simpsons video doing up on a blog that supposed to be about something inspirational or spiritual? Well, believe it or not, there is actually a true concept taught within this clip (all the episode as a whole is a farce about healing revivals). But if we just focus on this clip there is a principle taught that not many people believe. It's a concept that we are taught all our lives as Latter Day Saints and that is the concept of constant repentance and constant obedience or doing good. When told that he would be covered even in the case of "sudden death" Bart replies with the phrase "full coverage!"
It kind of makes sense to think of consistency in repentance, obedience, etc as "full coverage" insurance where as lack of consistency as "liability" insurance. Full coverage offers a more substantial protection for our vehicles regardless of what might happen to them (in principle that is, arguing with the insurance agent is another deal) whereas liability does nothing to protect out vehicle, just that of another person if we are the cause of an accident. True, the premiums on full coverage are substantially higher as well, but you get what you pay for.
The same is true in the gospel sense. Constant obedience to gospel principles (full coverage) requires more out of us (higher premiums) than that of living a flaccid life and not doing what the Lord expects from us (liability) and in the end, that liability does nothing to protect us.
So let's live a life with full coverage insurance. Let's constantly be doing those things that the Lord would have us do.

Guts, Strength and Faith

The other night I was watching Transformers the movie (in preparation for the sequel that comes out next month) and got caught up in thought about a line in the movie. After Bumblebee had defeated the decepticon Barricade he motions for Sam and Mikaela to get in the car. Mikaela is hesitant to get in the alien car and Sam says: "50 years from now when you're looking back on your life, don't you want to say you had the guts to get into the car?" O.K. so I really didn't get caught up in the line at that time (I was too focused on the awesomeness that is Transformers) but the next day a series of events lead to me to remember that line and also a few others that have recently impacted my life.
So yesterday a friend and I decided to go take a quick ride in a little area of Pocatello called City Creek which is a series of trails that branch off into the hills before Kinport Peak. One of these trails follows a creek known as City Creek. After following up along the creek for a while we branched off into some of the upper trails and immediately found ourselves into some open plains. Now the vegetation in these plains was completely different from that near the creek. It wasn't as lush, green, or pretty to look at. The hillside was more brown than green and more friable as well. I made the comment to my friend that a year ago I noticed something similar in Havasupai Canyon (where it takes but only a small distance away from a source of water for things to start to die off) and had a little epiphany and related it to the gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ. When one is right next to the source of living waters then there is an abundance of spiritual life, but as one recedes farther from that source his/her spiritual life suffers due to the lack of nutrition. That comment began a discussion amongst the two of us that primarily focused on afflictions and sufferings and the difficulty in overcoming or enduring them.
We both related parts of our lives that we had thought would be different by this point in our life and how sometimes, when thinking about it, a sense of disappointment or sometimes even fear filters in. They ranged from occurrences that hadn't yet happened that we thought would have happened already, problems that we are faced with, fear about the future, etc. While discussing these I noticed that my friend was taking a more unoptimisitc side (I don't want to use the term pessimistic here because it wasn't so much pessimism, more like an insecurity) and I was trying to alleviate that with my usual bouts of optimism.
One thing I remember telling him was about an incident that happened just last week while I was helping my grandfather clean up some yard work. We were out in the yard and I was telling him about some of the different rides I had recently been on on my mountain bike and I told him that "there's no better feeling than conquering a mountain on a mountain bike." What Grandpa said I didn't expect, "That is true, but remember there only mountain worth conquering is yourself, and this is the hardest mountain to conquer." Later on after we were returning from dumping a load of branches and such we saw a wood chipper on the side of the road and I inferred that we should just hook up and haul it up to his house. That would solve a lot of problems with the remainder of the stuff we had to clean up. Grandpa came back with this, "Tyler, there are no such things as problems, just many opportunities." All though I don't believe he recognized it, but those two comments really stuck with me. However, Grandpa later said "But to tell you the truth, I am sick of opportunities." We both got a good laugh out of it. So our little discussion continued after the ride when we stopped off for something to eat. I used those two quotes from my grandfather to emphasize that what we consider as trials and tribulations might be more opportunities for our growth, which eventually will give us the strength to overcome ourselves. All these trials and tribulations are not necessarily to test our faith to him (because he already knows what our faith is) but to prove to ourselves our faith and also prepare us for future events.
Next I talked about how many times we are so set on those wants/needs that we wish we had and try so hard to get, that we lose focus on what we already have and how far we have already come. I emphasized that when we lose that perspective we forget the Lord's help in getting us this far. When we forget His help in our lives, we soon forget to look for His help in our future lives. And "in nothing doth man offend God...save those who confess NOT his hand in all things..." (D&C 59:21).
Losing sight of those two perspectives, the help of the Lord and the purpose of trials, it becomes easy to sink into that fear of what is to come. It becomes easy to get discouraged with things that, all though we wished would have already come to pass, have yet to happen in our lives. Some of those things being what we consider to be of more importance than others. I then referred back to an extremely steep and difficult hill (greater than a 20% grade) that we had to climb on our ride. I remember giving it what I had and pushing it all the way to the top and coming out victorious. My legs burnt and I was out of breath but I looked back on that hill and thought "Boo Yeah!" for two reasons; 1) I had conquered that hill and 2) I get to ride back down it in a little while, which we be a lot of fun. My friend gave it what he had but still had to walk up part of the hill. The important part to remember in that story was that we both made it up the hill. We conquered it, it didn't conquer us. It didn't matter how we made it up, we just did and it was a great feeling. I told him to compare that to our life right now. I know for me I'm at a point where it feels like I'm climbing a hill, much steeper and longer, ad I don't know when the end will come. As of now it's not in sight. However, I know that the feeling I felt just reaching the top of that little hill will nothing compared to the feeling that will come when I reach the top of this one I'm on. And again, it doesn't matter if I ride all the way up or if I have to hike-a-bike up, what matters is that I make it. I then re-quoted Transformers, "50 years from now when you look back on your life don't you want to be able to say that you had the guts to get into the car?"
That same quote, along with the hill analogy and the subtle teachings of a grandfather apply in all our lives at this very moment. We each have our personal trials and challenges to face, our ominous hills to climb, our own little alien transformer car beckoning us to follow him. The question is do we have the guts to get in, the strength to push through, the faith to endure? Let me be the first to tell you that on your own you don't, and you never will. However the Lord does, and he has plenty to share...if you go looking for it.