What you are about to hear will change your life. At least it should, or you are likely wasting your time. I’m not necessarily saying that what you read in these posts will change your life, but what you hear from the Spirit as you read your scriptures, attend church, read or listen to other uplifting content will change your life. But only if you let it. Only if you act on the thoughts and promptings you receive can you become a changed person. Only by acting on the advice and premonitions we receive to do good do we progress. And isn’t that what we’re here for? Isn’t that why you take three hours out of your Sunday, or a few more hours in the Temple, or hours studying the scriptures or other uplifting material?

 

I was recently asked to speak in church on a topic that felt daunting. It was so broad, and so elementary, that my mind went blank when I was assigned. “Why is the Savior important in our lives?” As I imagined giving this talk in front of other believing members in Sacrament meeting I thought, “don’t all these people know this already?”

 

As I thought harder I realized that the question of the importance of a thing is a question of value, and I had had an experience two weeks earlier that taught me a lesson on value.

 

I’ve always been grateful that the Lord refers to the Sabbath as a day of rest, and I try to take advantage of that title as often as I can. Two weeks prior to my talk I took a nap and had a dream. In my dream I was on the phone with my father who was telling me that my grandparents were away on a trip “exploring the great continental divide.” Feeling anxious, I asked my dad, “well, when will they be back? How long will they be gone? I wanted to go with them! Don’t they know we don’t have that much more time with them?” It was then I awoke and had to remember that my grandparents had already passed. I reflected on how I spent my time with my grandparents while they were here; and, although I felt I had a good relationship with them, I recall more time eating sugar cookies, drinking soda, and watching cable TV than I do in conversation with them. Feeling regret and hoping my children can avoid the same, the question came “how do you teach or instill the value of something in someone else?”

 

I believe there are ways to at least suggest and show someone that something is valuable to you by the way that you care for a thing, talk about a thing, and/or the time and attention that you give it; but sadly, it appears to be part of the human condition that we often don’t realize the value of something until it is gone. Realizing this, and trying to answer the question of why the Savior is important in my life, I began to ask what life would be like without Jesus.

 

In Moses chapter four and other modern scripture we know that two plans were presented in the council in heaven – our Father’s plan and Lucifer’s. When the Father’s plan was presented, Lucifer requested that he be sent claiming that if he were not one sole would be lost. The scriptures also explain how he thought he could achieve this – by “destroy[ing] the agency of man.” (Moses 4:3)

 

In chapter six of the book Life Before by Brent L. Top he describes, using quotes from modern day prophets and apostles, what Lucifier’s plan would have looked like in practicum.

 

Spencer W. Kimball said:

“Long before you were born a program was developed by your creators. There was rebellion in the ranks. The proposed program called for total controls by each individual of his personal life, including restraints, sacrifices, and self-mastery. The rebellion with its warring elements and conflicts was of such proportion that our civil war of rebellion, and even our World War II are insignificant as to number of people involved in the conflicting armies and the principles fought for. Had the rebels won that great war you and I would have been in a totally different position. Ours would have been a life under force. You could make no decisions. You would have to comply. Every determination would be made for you regardless of your will. Under compulsion you would do the bidding of your dictator leader in whose image the Khrushchevs, Hitlers, Napoleons, and Alexanders were but poor and ineffectual novices in comparison. Your life would be cut out for you and you would fit into the mold made for you.”

 

B.H. Roberts said:

“Under this plan, Intelligences were to have an earthlife in which there would be no losses; a world where there was nothing adventurous and dangerous, a “game” in which there are no real stakes; all that was “hazarded” would be given back. All must be saved; and no price is to be paid in the work of salvation…. There could be no seriousness attributed to life under such a plan, since there were to be no insuperable “noes” and “losses”; no genuine sacrifices anywhere;… Man was to have nothing to do in the achievement, all was to be done for him. He was to be passive, merely. Not a thing to act, but something to be acted upon. Such only could be the outcome of a world where all mankind would be saved, “that not one soul should be lost.”

 

Based on the above quotes then, if there was no Jesus to accept the role of Savior for us, and the Lord chose Lucifer’s plan, we would be on earth either compelled by fear to trudge through this life or kept in ignorance as to right and wrong, simply doing as we’re told in mindless subjugation.

 

Now I, like Brent Top, do not believe that Lucifer’s plan would have been chosen if Jesus had never been, but you can see that either under the plan of Lucifer or if Jesus was never there to accept the assignment of Savior we would be stuck in a state of little to no progress.

 

Bruce R. McConkie explains the lack of progress found in Lucifer’s plan as:

“[Under Lucifer’s plan], none would be damned; damnation would not be a viable alternative to salvation; there would be no agency-no freedom of choice, no election to serve God or to flee from evil and turn to righteousness. But if there is no freedom of choice between damnation and salvation how can either exist? They are opposites; without one you cannot have the other….

… To be like him [God] is to gain eternal life. To gain this greatest of all rewards, the seeker of salvation must be free to choose between the Lord and Lucifer, for without the damnation of the devil, there can be no salvation with the Savior.”

 

If Lucifer’s plan was not chosen, and Jesus not accepted the assignment as Savior, we would likely still be in heaven, without bodies, and without any meaningful way to progress.

 

Why then is the Savior important in our lives? Because without Him we could not progress.

 

Among the many gifts and blessings we obtain from Jesus is the opportunity to progress. Are we truly grateful for this gift? Are we taking advantage of this great opportunity that our eldest brother gave his life for? Or are we floating along the waters of life, listlessly going wherever the current takes us, not caring about our direction or destination, and blindly assuming that we’ll end up where we hope to be at the end of the journey?

 

I know I’ve taken this gift for granted. Here’s to the beginning of my repentance.