Nerds & Never-ending Stories

Nerd Alert: I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan.  And Narnia fan.  And Doctor Who fan.  And anyone who has ever read or seen any of these, or perhaps any other story, understands the emotional difficulties in saying goodbye (I mean, I hope, because if it's just me then that's odd...).

Allow me to demonstrate:  I have an almost love-hate relationship with my ultimate favorite trilogy, the Lord of the Rings.  Now toss in the Hobbit and you've got a decent set of four books, or six three hour films to keep you going for a while, and even longer if you go for the extended versions and all the other Tolkien offerings.  Every time I watch the movies or read the books I am enthralled again and again by the tales, adventures, morals, and every word constructed into a world of imagination.  Though I have gone through the plot a dozen times, it still has the power to captivate me and open my mind and heart.  The latter part of this most often happens at the end; as the last page is turned or the last scene displayed, I get all teary-eyed and rooted to the spot as I linger over the last tidbits of this adventure.  It's so awfully sad, so depressing that the story ends.  Yet I think I've figured out why.

It goes against the truth.  Whether you know it consciously or not, you existed before your life on this planet, and you will continue to exist far after your mortal death here.  You are an eternal being, extending both into the past and future indefinitely.  You have not a beginning, nor an end, for you will always be. So when these stories seem to drift to a close and your heart yearns for more, recognize the truth that is being testified to you:  Your story never ends, and the eternal adventure must go on.

What will you write into your never-ending story of life today?

Here's a wonderful story of a young man who uses this principle to overcome a trial in his life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYRb4DNf8wc

Oh Oregon: Video Post

Adventures from Thanksgiving Break 2013:

View on Vimeo here.

Would Have Been

Today is Thursday.
Today is January 30th, 2014.
Today is the day I would have entered the Argentina MTC en route to the Uruguay Montevideo Mission for an eighteen-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But here I am.

A few months ago I made a post about how I made my decision to stay at Brigham Young University and serve the Lord in other capacities instead of serving an LDS full time mission at this time.  In just the short amount of time I have made that decision and stuck to it, I have learned a great deal about my relationship with God.  I have been able to serve His children, my peers, in a fuller capacity than before.  I have learned that all I have comes from my Heavenly Father, so keenly aware of my needs and tribulations each and every hour.  Perhaps most importantly I have learned that this is where I need to be at this time.

Tonight was also Poetry Night for me, my roommates, and others we invited into our home to share in some fun.  Some may say by coincidence, but I disagree, that Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken was one of the first poems we shared.  All of today I have thought about today's date, and how if I had taken the other path before me I would be on another continent right now, prepared for a very different sort of adventure.  This poem hit home, as I pondered the many forks in the road that we may encounter, and how I took the one less traveled by in the plans of my life.  If I could only choose one principle which I have taken from this turn of events, it would be to trust God with all of my heart, always willing, and never doubting.

And that has made all the difference.