It's my birthday!
I'm now 22
Since it was my birthday, it was also my twin's birthday.
He blew out all the candles before I got a chance (I was so busy laughing, I couldn't blow) :(
Removing the now blown out candles (which I didn't blow out...... ) :(
I can still play the piano with one hand!
Copy of talk given this Sunday
Grandview 19th ward - 30th July '06
Why is it necessary to teach repentance. Instead shouldn't we teach how to avoid sin, thus removing the need for repentance ?
For this reason, I believe just as important as learning to avoid sin, is learning what to do once you have sinned.
Our bodies were created with the ability to heal themselves from most minor injuries without aid. Sometimes, however, our bodies need a little external help. Just as serious injuries require the medical attention of a Doctor to help you in the healing process, serious sin requires the help of the Bishop.
I once heard a story of a young man who after a sacrament meeting ran up to the Bishop right before he was leaving and said "I just come to tell you I've finished repenting, and the last step in the process is to tell you."
As you can expect, the Bishop had to inform the young man that there was more to repenting that merely informing the Bishop.
Repentance is not intended to be fun, as that would promote sinning. Repentance is not only fixing the mistake, but it is a change in attitude towards the sin.
Elder M. Russell Ballard explains this best when he said “The day of the 'repent and go' missionary is over. I feel that too many people believe that the only thing that they have to do is stop [sinning]. The next step, and most frequently skipped, is [the] forsaking of your sins."
To forsake means to abandon. By Elder Ballard's definition of repentance, you can't truly repent without abandoning the sin.
Mosiah 5:2 further explains this. After hearing King Benjamin's speech, the people of Zarahemla understood this principle.
They this concept one step further. The mere thought of sin brought disgust into their hearts.
I had a friend in England. He was fair few years older than me, and had been inactive for several years. He'd made it known that before he was going to come back to church, he wanted to have fun.
This would be like me saying "I've broken my hand, so I'll have to go to the doctors anyway; I may as well just break my leg and have him fix that too!"
I can only assume his definition of fun meant doing things that would be inappropriate for a church member in full fellowship to do.
It's a common belief by many that you cannot have fun whilst obeying the commandments.
I suppose it all depends on your definition of fun.
Fun is a temporary source of amusement or entertainment. It is not joy.
The more fun my friend had, however, the less likely he was to ever repent.
He soon lost sight of his perpetually postponed goal to repent. He ended up not coming back to the church.
Elder Theodore M. Burton, Ensign, Nov. 1988. "I find that repentance in the church today is dealt with very flippantly. The idea of being able to sin today and repent tomorrow is a growing problem in the church. That is why in my opinion, tighter restrictions have been placed on new missionaries."
In a few seconds you can do damage that could take months to repair.
If I told you I'd been riding my bike at about 40 mph going down Provo canyon and deliberately jumped off just because I enjoy ridiculously overpriced E.R. bills you'd think I was insane. You'd be right, that would be insane, and, no, it wasn't deliberate.
One has to wonder whether God would view sinning as equally insane.
Knowing two simple things can help us arrive to this conclusion.
- Sin is, by definition, deliberate. It is a conscious action on our part that is not in harmony with the teaching of Jesus Christ
- We have full knowledge (especially as members of the church) that repenting from sin can often be painful and lengthy.
I'm sure at some time you've heard someone say "The Devil made me do it."
A statement like this is clearly ridiculous. The Devil asked you if you wanted to do it, and you said yes!
So, in essense, by choosing to sin, we're deliberately hurting ourselves spiritually. Not too different from jumping off a bike.
That brings the question. Why is it that we frequently hurt ourselves spiritually, yet we wouldn't deliberately hurt ourselves physically ?
The reason I wouldn't deliberately jump off my bike is not only because I know the immediate pain, but also the painful recovery process.
Just as your body has nerves to warn and protect you, those of us who are members of the church have the Holy Ghost, which essentially does the same thing, only it can also warn of spiritual pain.
Unfortunately, even when we are worthy, it can often be difficult to receive and understand guidance from the Holy Ghost.
It's much easier to notice a warning like pain or blood than it is to notice promptings from the Holy Ghost.
Although my topic isn't how to recognize the Holy Ghost, it is very closely related.
By not only recognizing, but heeding the promptings of the Holy Ghost, we can avoid serious sin, therefore canceling out the need for serious repentance.
I'm sure you've all have heard the phrase "The best defense is offense."
A lot of you have been taught in seminary to avoid bad thoughts by singing or humming a hymn in your minds.
We can expand on this idea. we can avoid sinning by doing just the opposite.
It would be rather difficult to read the scriptures and punch someone at the same time, just as it would be difficult to be praying and gossiping at the same time.
Idleness often leads towards sin. This could be one of the reasons the church has lots of activities such as Family Home Evening, and encourages spending time with the family.
Helping your neighbour indirectly helps you. This doesn't mean that helping your neighbour is a selfish act that you're only doing for personal gain. This means that because service is a gospel principle, it is necessary to progress.
It is because of this, that most return missionaries will tell you that despite the fact that they spent 2 years helping others, they benefited more personally than in any other 2 year period of their lives.
Pro-active behaviour can greatly reduce our desire to sin, our even our ability to sin.
My intent is not to bring about fear in the repentance process. We should not be afraid of going to the bishop if we need to.
However, the more we realize that repentance is not enjoyable, the more conscious an effort we'll make to avoid creating a need for it.
Clearly, the more we focus on others, the less we will sin ourselves. Why is this do you think ?
There are usually only 2 reasons for sin.
- For personal gain.
- Because we fear man more than we fear God.
What I'm trying to get across is that trying to avoid sin is so much easier than sinning and then repenting.
My mission president once gave a talk about how when he installed a Internet capable computer in the house, he called in a specialist to put a filter on it, and told the guy to put a password on it, and to not tell him.
As you can guess, the computer guy thought this ridiculous.
I remember my Young Men's Leader give a lesson once about peer pressure.
You might be familiar with it. It's about a group of youth doing something presumably borderline bad, or something that allowed them to be tempted.
When seeing that one young man was not participating, the others asked "Do you think you're too good for us?"
The answer he gave was the opposite. He wasn't good enough. He didn't want to chance being tempted just in case he were to fall victim to it.
By fearing God, we're promised extra help. This doesn't mean we should go looking for temptation expecting to be protected, but God promises us if we do our part, He will do His.
Avoiding temptation after all, will help us avoid sin.
Alma 34: 33 says that we should not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end.
"the end" referring to either the 2nd coming, or our death; whichever comes first.
But why ?
Why can't we procrastinate the day of our repentance until maybe the day before our end ?
This is explained very clearly in Matt 24:43.
This is similar to the parable of the ten virgins in that it's about being ready for the 2nd coming of Christ.
Since we don't know when he will come, we must try to be ready at all times.
The robber, Satan, is very clever. He's not going to warn you, and tell you "I'm planning on robbing your house tomorrow at 7PM; Be ready."
We also don't want to guess when the robber will come.
It would be stupid to turn on the house security system only on Mondays and Fridays because we think this is when he's going to come.
We need to have the security system on 24/7
The next verse in Alma 34 states what will happen if we are caught unready.
"Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."
Despite our every effort to avoid sin, we must be prepared to repent as we need it, instead of waiting and bulk-repenting infrequently. Only frequent repenting can help us to be ready no matter when judgment day comes.
update on pain
I went in to get surgery a few days ago.
My brother dropped me off, but had to work, so he left.
I waited (I was there at 6:30AM, and yet, they still made me wait...) and was finally called in after 10 mins.
The nurse came in and after jabbing me with the I.V., complemented me on my large (meaning easy to jab) vains :)
I then waited more.
I started sending text messages on my phone (which didn't really please the nurse, as since my left hand was out of action, I was using my right hand (the one with the I.V. in it)
They started getting ready to operate, and the anesthesiologist said to me "you're going to be asleep in about 10 seconds"
I replied "I bet it takes longer than that; I'm pretty resistant" and then started to count out loud. The anesthesiologist starts cracking up and I hear some cluttering going on on the table behind me (btw. I made it to 19, and then I don't remember the rest :)
I wake up in what seemed to be about when I would have got to about 20 (counting).
My hand is completely numb, bandaged up and with 4 huge pins sticking out.
The nurse comes over and asks me what kind of medication works best for me....
I reply "How should I know, I'm not a druggy"
I then go on to tell her I don't want any.
She gives me a prescription to Percoset (an extremely strong, and potentially addictive pain medication, that is basically Oxycodone with some other stuff mixed in)
I tear it up in front of her (and in the process, accidentally offend her)
I call Craig Meister, a buddy from Indiana to come and pick me up.
As he's arriving, the nurse gives some kind of disclaimer telling me that I couldn't make any legal decisions for the next 24 hours. I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow before suing that amateur bike shop for screwing me over.
I pretty much sat around for the next while at home, and decided (at around 11PM) that my hand was hurting, so the best thing would be to go to bed :)
A couple of days later, my thumb started moving around inside my cast (I'm not a doctor, but my guess was that this was pretty bad). I went in, and told them to put on a fibreglass cast, and not a cheappy plaster one like I had on right now.
They cut off my current cast, and I had just enough time to whip out my cameraphone to take a shot of the pins(....for all your enjoyment) before the P.A. gave me a dirty look.
He asked me if it hurt. I told him it didn't. He laughed and told me they be removing the 4 pins with pliers.......I replied "Well, I was hardly expecting the Doctor to remove them with his teeth" Here came Dirty look #2.
I left, and went back to work.
I'll try to get a shot next week with the pliers :)
Bike wreck
Lately I've been biking up Provo Canyon and back on my Cannondale F400.
I bike about 40 miles a day on average. From Utah lake all the way up the canyon.
I took my bike in to the bike shop on campus "Outdoors Unlimited" to get it fixed. After they supposedly fixed it, I rode up the canyon when my gears started rubbing. I was far from home, so I just carried on.
I took my bike back to the shop and let them have it. I don't think they actually did anything to it; just charged me to look at it. I told them this was unacceptable, as they'd charged me and not fixed anything.
The apologized and said they'd fix it for free this time.
Well, as you can guess, after the 20 mile ride up the canyon, it was soon time to enjoy the well earnt downhill cruise. I must have been doing about 40 miles an hour when my chain gets stuck and the gears jam. I would have been thrown from my bike, but I was wearing toe-clips. My face slams into the handlebars as I try to protect myself with my hands. Result - 10 stitches above my eye, and a broken thumb/wrist.
I got up right away about to go on my way when tons of blood starts dripping from my forehead. A guy who was running the same trail says "Are you alright?" I reply "Yes!" He takes a closer look at me and says "No you're not!" and calls the ambulance. Another guy stops and says "You're about to go into shock! You need to lie down and elevate your feet"
I ignore him and start to get on my bike. The first guy (who called the ambulance, and who also happens to be a firefighter) stops me telling me he's now responsible and can't let me go and he pulls away my bike (basically he was afraid I would sue him if I kept on cycling and fell again...... I told him I wasn't American and didn't do those kinds of things. He smiled, but still wouldn't let me go) and sticks duct tape over my cut to stop the bleeding.
The ambulance arrives and the paramedics try to force me in. (I then remember my brother telling me that just for setting foot in an ambulance they charge thousands of dollars. I decline. They try to make me, but I refuse. They then said I should call someone to come and pick me up. I call my brother, but he doesn't answer. I figure he's on a date or something (it was 10pm on a Saturday night), so I send a text message telling him to call me at that number (I didn't have my own phone with me).
He calls back and tells me he's in the middle of watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (I think to myself, Man, I would hate to get pulled out of the cinema) I tell him not to worry and I'll see him when he gets home (he didn't know I was injured).
I tell the ambulance people that I live nearby and will just ride down the rest of the trail. They make me sign a billion "I will not sue" forms and let me go.
I was about 10 miles from home and my left thumb really hurt and was swollen.
I felt every bump on the road as I tried to hold on to the handlebars.
I made it home. My bishop is an MD, so I go over to his house and ask him if I really needed stiches. He says definitely.
I go home and my brother gets back home a little after that.
We both spend about 30 mins looking for the insurance card, and then try to find out which hospitals accept what insurance (What a stupid country I'm living in)
We drive over there. It seemed like 12 different people (receptionists, Doctors, Nurses and some gophers all asked me what I'd done and where it hurt etc.... I don't know why everyone needed to know, or why they didn't just keep some kind of record so the next curious guy in a green coat could just read it instead of bothering me.
While getting my information, the receptionist asks if I'd lost consciousness. I tell her I'm fine, but I need stitches and an X-ray. To test my awareness she asks "Who's the President?"
I reply "Some idiot who can't read."
One of the receptionists busts out laughing and says "He's definitely ok" whilst the other receptionist glares at me.
They took an X-ray, and then stitched me up (after asking us a billion questions about insurance). I chipped the bone on my left thumb, so they put it in a cast and told me to call a hand specialist on Monday (I'm going to need surgery).
Then afterwards, as we were leaving the nurse asked me if we'd given our insurance card number to the receptionist. I say that I don't think so. She panics, and tells us in a stern voice "wait right here" (She probably called security too!)
the receptionist comes in, and tries to log in to the computer, only, the computer doesn't recognize her username/password. (she tyies four times to log in without success)
I jokingly say "Maybe your Caps lock is on" and then laugh a little.
She goes red, and then mysteriously the computer lets her in upon her next attempt.
We then leave.
be sure to check out pics of my hand post-surgery
