Borne of Four

This story in the New Testament has always been a favorite of mine. I love that four friends make it possible for a man to change his life. This young man, sick of palsy, hears of Christ and seeks to be by him. Sadly, he cannot get there on his own. So, his friends take him to the house Christ is at, but are met with a road-bump; the house is far too full for them to crowd in with their friend in his bed. Not ones to be easily discouraged they decide to "simply" carry their friend to the roof, take off the top of the roof, and let him down by rope to the Savior. That in and of itself is a story worth thinking about. But what I love most is what happens next. After this herculean effort, Christ tells the man "thy sins are forgiven thee." Imagine how this man must feel. After all of that he is still stuck in a bed, and now, there is a large crowd staring at him in the center of the room, wondering what he is doing there. On top of all this, some Pharisees begin to mumble, saying "Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?" (Mark 2:7). Of course Christ realizes what is going on, and he asks them a powerful question, "Why reason ye these things in your hearts. Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?" (Mark 2:8-9 )I find that a very fair question. But I love what Christ does next. He turns to the man with palsy and says, "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house." (Mark 2:10-12) 

What I love about this story is that to me it is a perfect teaching moment for all of us. There were two types of miracles this man witnessed; the healing of his physical ailment and the healing of his spiritual ailment. To me, initially, the physical healing was most impressive. In my limited perspective I thought that young man would be most thrilled to be able to walk again, I mean, that is why he came in the first place, right? To me that was the miracle. And yet Christ asked the Pharisees, is it easier to forgive sin or enable this man to walk again? That made me think. I looked back at that very fair question-which is easier? And I realized that the real miracle was far beyond that young man being able to walk again. I saw the two miracles a little differently. Christ essentially looked at the young man and offered him two things; the taking away of a trial (physical healing), and the enabling to deal with trial (spiritual healing). And I have to ask myself; what would I rather have? Would I rather have my miracle be the taking away of trials? It would certainly be easier for me and for God to do. But wouldn't I much rather have the more permanent solution? Wouldn't I rather have the Atonement work within me so that no matter what happens or doesn't happen in my life I can still feel happy? That when tragedy strikes I am prepared to deal with it, grow, and keep moving rather than just try to survive it til it goes away? In Helaman 5:12 it says-"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." As I read this I realize that that is the greatest miracle of all. That is the power of Christ through His infinite Atonement. That when the raging storms and winds of life hit, they shall have no power to make me miserable, downcast, impatient, despairing, angry, or anything else for that matter. I begin to realize the real miracle of Christ. I begin to realize which miracle I should seek after, and which miracle that young man of palsy would treasure most. And yet I remember that, in His mercy, Christ heals him physically as well. He takes away that trial or storm of life. So, when I see this picture of the man borne of four, I remember the miracle to pray for. I remember what to seek. And I remember that a lot of times, Christ in His mercy, timing, and wisdom, gives me both-and I am everlastingly grateful that He does.

Keep Moving Forward

Lets see, take responsibility for my own actions, or blame you?

Meet the Robinsons is by far one of my all time favorite movies. Its about this kid, Wilbur, who loves to invent things but is always falling just short of success with them. He lives in an orphanage and worries he will never be adopted because of his wacky personality and inventions. One day, he decides to invent something to help him remember his mother so he can find her and bypass the whole adoption scene. Sadly, a mysterious "bowler hat man" rigs our heroes invention unbeknownst to him and causes a very large accident at his school's gym during the big science fair. Needless to say Wilbur is dejected and downcast; ready to give up on his dream of being an inventor. In a semi-complicated series of events Wilbur ends up in the future, and gets a glimpse of the wonderful changes the world will see in his lifetime. Here he is asked to repair a time traveling machine in order to stop our mysterious bowler hat man from ruining the world. Wilbur, still smarting from the science fair, doesn't believe he can fix the machine. Over and over his friend tells him to just "keep moving forward". Annoyed at this constant barrage of motivational therapy Wilbur snaps at him, asking him why he keeps saying that. His friend tells him its his Dad's motto, and that, by the way, his Dad is the one that invented all the great things that made this future world so great. He tells Wilbur this is what his Dad tells himself in hard times.

In the thick of all of this Wilbur ends up right in the clutches of the bowler hat man. As Wilbur asks why the bowler hat man is doing all of this he unfolds an interesting story. The bowler hat man is really Goob, Wilbur's old roommate from the orphanage. Because Wilbur worked far into the night on his inventions, poor Goob could never get a good night sleep. In consequence, he fell asleep during his baseball teams big final game and dropped what would have been the game winning catch. Filled with despair he spends the rest of his life doing "nothing", thinking he can never succeed. Years go by and he is still at the orphanage, having accomplished absolutely nothing with his life. All the while he hears on the radio stories of the great Wilbur Robinson who makes the world a better place with his brilliant inventions. Filled with anger he decides to seek out revenge on Wilbur and pay him back for all he did.

Upon receiving this explanation Wilbur realizes that he has great things he is capable of, that he himself is the man that would eventually make the future so incredible. He realizes that he has a choice; let failure rob him of his potential, or move forward and become the great Wilbur Robinson he knows is in there. Filled with realization he tells Goob, "If you would open your eyes you would see I didn't ruin your life, you did. All you had to do was let it go and keep moving forward." (sound familiar?) Goob responds with my favorite line of the movie, "Lets see, take responsibility for my own actions, or blame you? Ding ding ding! Blame you is the winner!"

Personally, this line cracks me up. In fact, its my favorite part of the movie. But lately I have been thinking about how true it all is in life. None of us can control our background or circumstances, but we can control how we deal with them. So often we let hard things determine the outcome of our character, our future, our very lives. When hard things strike we have a choice; to act or be acted upon, to be built or broken, to press on or fall back; in short, to be a Goob or a Wilbur. Wilbur saw his potential, and used that distant hope to press forward towards it, despite his past failures. In contrast, Goob let failure destroy his hope and shatter his view of all he could be. Let us be a Wilbur. Let us all look forward and realize all we can be. Let us all, no matter what happens, "keep moving forward", or as the scriptures tell us "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the words of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus sayeth the Father; Ye shall have eternal life."(2 Nephi 31:20)  We all have the potential to do and be great. We all have the potential to live with our Father again. So, when failure strikes, don't let it get you down. Remember Wilbur Robinson, remember you can be great, remember to always keep moving forward.