Look Not Behind Thee

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

- Dr. Seuss's   Oh, the Places You'll Go


      Well, here I am sitting, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Thursday mail truck. On Tuesday. I'm typically very good at waiting (much to the chagrin of anyone on a tight schedule who asks me for a ride), but I'm really doing badly this time around. I suppose that I'm not unique, though. Anyone who can just sit and calmly wait for the mission call they've intensely dreamed about for about 3 years should go hang out with some of those Himalayan monks who sit and meditate all day long.

    As if the idea of moving away from my family (and almost certainly my state) for two years wasn't enough of a hint, I've gotten some more wallops to the head lately. A devotional at the UofU Institute (one of the most incredible places on earth) last Friday was centered around the talk "Remember Lot's Wife" by Jeffrey R. Holland. Of course, me being me, I decided to listen to the Apostle's actual talk right after the devotional ended during my time before Physics. I felt a very strong impression that it was time for me to leave Sodom and Gommorah and not look back (No, that doesn't mean I hate Layton, UT haha. It has been wonderful here. It just means that here is a place of comfort and familiarity, like how Lot's Wife saw the ancient city)

    Another big hint has been my family. I've watched the dynamics of each family member and their relationships to each other and to me morph, grow, and develop for the last few years. Miraculous things, though not particularly exceptional to onlookers, have occurred, and the whole lot of us are a lot better off and a lot happier than we were before. Though we still have a lot to do, if this keeps going, I look forward to a lifetime of family fun and good relationships!

    Perhaps what brought this all to a cohesive head (how do a mission, a talk by Elder Holland, and family change relate?) is how I spent a recent evening. I was able to enjoy a long talk with a friend about life and about what lies just ahead. As they opened their heart to me, I was shocked to see how much I had changed. In their words, in which they said little directly about me, I saw a mirror of myself, and was honored that I would be so trusted. That one evening touched the nail point to the window pane as the hammer of all of these other forces swung with all their might to shatter an unconscious preconception that I had that people, especially I, don't change.

    I've always known it academically. I'd learned it both in secular and religious settings. And I'd seen plenty of examples of how people change for the worse in my own circles of acquaintanceship. But in the unconscious part of myself, I don't think I believed it. I was even afraid of it. But now the weight of evidence has fallen upon the eternal truth that people can and do change for the better. My family has changed for the better. My friends have changed for the better. Incredibly, I have changed, and for the better! And with that realization, I know that it is about time for me to set off in the new paths placed before me. It's time to leave Utah and family. It's time to leave preconceptions about people. It's time to leave old ways of thinking about my own life for better ones.

    I won't pretend for even a second that I've done it alone. That Dr. Seuss quote I used at the beginning captured a lot of how I feel right now, but it is flawed, because it says that we are alone. I've had close family. I've had amazing friends. And greatest of all, I have a loving and caring Heavenly Father who sent His Son down to Earth, to ensure that we could not only change to become more like Them, but that I wouldn't have to do it alone. For those who do not know the enabling power of Christ's Atonement to alter behavior, thought, and habit, to wipe away our old selves and become New Creatures through Him, I would urge that you seek diligently to understand what Christ has to offer you. Which is everything. It does not matter the request, for if it is righteous, there is no bound or limit that the power of the Atonement cannot cross or destroy. I know many of you out there have heard this in churches or conversations with others, and perhaps it's intellectually an old topic, but there is nothing that can compare to finally truly understanding even a small part of Christ's love and sacrifice for us. There is nothing more valuable than that.

    Well, now that I've expressed myself and said my piece, I will say Bon Voyage to anyone actually reading this, but really probably to the entire world just in general. It's time to start life, and find whatever challenges and treasures it has in store for me. God be with you till we meet again!

B. Richie