A Frightening Reminder

Most speakers at General Conference open their remarks with an amusing anecdote or remark, perhaps even a joke or some other manifestation of wit and humor. Not Elder Jorg Klebingat. He began his message by asking such questions as would fill with fear the souls of anyone who has a soul and is aware of the fact. And since Halloween is approaching, and this talk seems far more interesting to me know than the previous two talks which I intentionally skipped and might get back to later, I thought I'd repeat Elder Klebingat's questions to give us all a good scare.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your spiritual confidence before God? Do you have a personal witness that your current offering as a Latter-day Saint is sufficient to inherit eternal life? Can you say within yourself that Heavenly Father is pleased with you? What thoughts come to mind if you had a personal interview with your Savior one minute from now?

I can tell you right now that if I knew that I was going to have a personal interview with the Savior exactly one minute from now, those would be the most terrifying 60 seconds of my life. I am not ready to die. Elder Klebingat went on to ask whether our minds would be filled with memories of sins and regrets, or whether we would actually look forward to meeting our Maker and greeting Him as we would a friend. Of course, Jesus is supposed to be our Friend. Or rather, He is our Friend and we are supposed to be His. But for most of us, there is some concern about what Jesus must think of us, and more particularly of what we've done. Personally, I'd spend those 60 seconds repenting, and fearing that I was repenting too late.

How many seconds do you think I have left? More than 60, I hope. Several thousand, perhaps? A few million, even? A song I once heard reminds us that there are 525,600 minutes in a year. Multiply that number by 60, and you get 31,536,000 seconds in one year. Given that I'm in my 20's and have at least a few more decades left in me, the number of seconds I have left could be up in the billions. In light of that, I should have plenty of time to get my life in order and fully repent of all my sins. But do I?

In a few minutes, I'll be on my way to Math class. I'll go carefully, of course, but others might not be so cautious, and I may not see them in time, assuming I see them coming at all. The truth of the matter is that I could die almost any second. I may not have as many as 60 seconds left. If I would choose to spend my last 60 seconds on earth repenting, and if I know that I may or may not have quite that much time, why am I not repenting right now?

God has a funny way of blessing people sometimes. Sometimes, He inspires us with visions of heaven, encouraging us to do whatever it takes to get there. Other times, He inspires us with a healthy fear of hell and a strong desire to do whatever it takes to stay away from there. Sometimes, God needs to scare us to get us to repent. Preferably, He shouldn't need to. Whether we have only a few seconds left, or several billion, we should spend at least part of that time repenting. And for our sakes, we had better do it soon. Our final interview is coming. We'd do well to get ready for it.