Divine Destiny

At Institute this afternoon, I saw a New Era article titled Divine Destiny. The article ended up being about a person named Destiny, but still, it got me thinking, do we have a divine destiny? If so, what is it?

I know that we all have a divine potential. Any and all of us can live righteously, follow the Gospel, and eventually become as God is. We can become divine. But there's no guarantee that that will happen. Destiny is, by many descriptions, certain.  They say that one's destiny cannot be avoided. In contrast, it's so easy to avoid exaltation that most people do it by accident. We have divine potential, but we're not destined to achieve it.

However, we are "destined" to be resurrected. Everyone who has ever lived will be given an immortal body, the same kind of body God has. One might even call it a "divine" body. And everyone who has ever set foot on Earth will get one. So, in the sense that we are all "destined" to receive a "divine" body, I suppose one can say that we all have a divine destiny, but I don't think that's really what one thinks of when one thinks of having a Divine Destiny. I think we mean something more than just a body that never gets sick, injured, or tired, as awesome as that is. I want more from my divine destiny, but I know that I'm not guaranteed to get it.

There are diverging thoughts on the subject of destiny. Some say that destiny is something that is bound to happen, whether we want it to or not. Some say that whatever happens is what was destined to happen, even if it took work and/or luck to make it happen. Some say that destiny doesn't exist. I suppose I could pick a definition and start splitting hairs, but determining whether I have a "divine destiny" or not isn't going to change how the world works. We all have divine potential, but it's up to us to determine whether we live up to that potential. Sure, whether we end up getting exalted or not may have been "destined" (or rather, "predicted") since before the dawn of time or whatever, but it's still up to us to make it happen, and it's still on us if we don't. We determine our own destinies, and we decide by our actions whether our destinies are divine.