Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Our Ultimate Quest in Life

In the Opening Message of the April 2020 General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson said that "Our ultimate quest in life is to prepare to meet our Maker." This is interesting, since, if you had asked me previously, I would have said that our ultimate quest was perfection, yet perhaps the phrase "in life" is important here. Perfection may be our ultimate long-term goal, but that's not practically attainable in this life. Preparing ourselves to meet God is. We don't have to become perfect to be able to honestly say that we are good. Perhaps that's good enough, at least for this life.

Naturally, God wants us to make as much progress as we can in this life, and that progress will continue through the eternities until we attain perfection, but for now, it might be enough to reach the point where we can stand before God without fearing His judgment. That goal sounds lofty enough, in my opinion. And yet, I think it's also realistic, so long as I'm realistic about how much progress God and I can expect of me. I'm an okay person now, maybe even a good one, but I think I can become a very good person before I die. I'll still be far from perfect, but I can at least be good.

Will I be good enough? That's hard to say. Right now, I don't like the idea of going to meet my Maker. I'm not ready. I have a lot of progress I want to make before I'm ready to face Him. So, that'll be my new quest. I still have the plan of getting there through Prayer, Hymns, and Meditation, but now the goal isn't just to draw closer to God but to prepare myself to stand before Him.

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