The Race We Run

We have often been told that God loves us despite our shortcomings. I think that phrase is offensive to our Father in Heaven. He gave us our physical bodies and their shortcomings. He does not confuse who we are with the temporary limitations of this earthly life. He loves us, not despite our shortcomings, but because he knows who we really are.

Transcript

 The Race We Run

Welcome to the Verbal Motivation podcast. Where we talk about the things that motivate our lives, our religion and our relationships. My name is Nathan Vail. 

If you have an opinion about the subject matter in today’s podcast, please leave it in a voicemail at 530-876-4153 or you can send an email to verbalmotivation@gmail.com. 

This is episode number 22 called, The Race We Run

My two sons both played sports in high school. One played baseball the other ran cross country. It is hard to describe the joy we got from watching them compete. 

But there was a fascinating cultural difference between the two.  Let me just generalize here for a minute for the sake of making a point. Baseball is a sport where there is a fixed and small number of positions. Each athlete who wants to play is driven to be better than the others vying for the same position on the field; creating at times animosity amongst the players and parents, especially if we think our child is better than the one chosen to play in their position. Fans also become very animated by bad calls and unfair practices by the other team, like leaving a good pitcher in longer than is allowed.  I saw many overanxious parents at baseball games screaming at umpires and even other teams players. I even saw two parents get into a fist fight in the parking lot of the little league field over a bad call. To be clear, I support playing sports, keeping scoring and winning and losing, But I was shocked at the completely different environment surrounding track and cross country sports.

Every person there is also driven to push themselves and win the event they are competing in; Yet, every athlete encourages the other athletes, even those they will compete against. I saw many young people after finishing a race, go back and run next to and encourage those they just beat. Despite the many events and the fierce competition that surrounds them, everyone competing in track events or cross country, from the fastest to the slowest was focused on the same thing, beating their own record. It almost felt like the others competing were just there to help pace, encourage or drive self improvement in each other.

Imagine, for the sake of understanding the point of this podcast, that you run a race against others and you win handley and as you are dancing around and celebrating you realize that everyone else in the race is wearing one of those large 50 miler type backpacks weighed down with an enormous load. As you stand there watching them struggle across the finish line, you suddenly don’t feel like a victor anymore. Because the race wasn’t actually against them, it was against your own record. Beating them proved nothing and now you feel selfish and self absorbed. 

In similar fashion, life is a race but only against ourselves. It is technically irrelevant to us where others stand in their race. Because none of them will be at the judgment bar with us. Only our actions and intentions stand with us there. 

It is actually true that we don’t know what physical, emotional or spiritual challenges the others around us are carrying, as they work their way through life. Yet we become animated about perceived and actual injustices. We do victory dances and become judgemental when we do better than others, even though it is not always an even playing field and in actuality, they might be doing better than us when their individual burdens are taken into consideration.

I think we should all take a deep breath, and adopt a cross country attitude by considering those around us a means of pacing ourselves and of challenging our own individual record.

I was something of a nerd in high school. Not much has changed there. I was chased home enough times by bullies to know that it was better to be caught near a chain link fence rather than the wood fence because the chain link fence doesn't leave splinters in your face. 

It is very easy in this life, especially as a younger person, to feel like we are the sum of our shortcomings or the judgements of others.

But just as an intellectual exercise. Consider this...  What if we are actually spirits that have come here to earth, temporarily housed in physical bodies with a veil drawn over our minds so we don’t remember who we were and making it so that we can only see what is currently around us. For the sake of this example, imagine these bodies that house our spirits are endowed, some with talents and others with deficiencies that don’t necessarily reflect who we are as spirits.

In addition to that, let's just say for conversation sake, that a loving Father in Heaven pre-programmed these bodies to want certain things and then He commanded us in ironical fashion not do those things or do them in only moderation; for the purpose of teaching us self control.

Now, I am obviously being facetious, because that is exactly what is happening. 

The purpose in  life has never been more eloquently described than the phrase you have all heard, “We are not humans having a spiritual experience, we are spirits having a human experience.”  

If we consider the fact that the humanity we live in now is temporary and we actually have no control over what talents or deficiencies we are blessed with in this life, it makes no sense to judge ourselves or others based on them. With that perspective in mind, it becomes all about overcoming our individual challenges and helping our brothers and sisters do the same.

Phillips Brooks wisely taught, “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger… Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”

I happen to love bumper stickers. I don’t own any myself, but I have this morbid curiosity at stop lights and on passing cars to read them. Sometimes they are actually useful. I saw one the other day that said, “You are not the car you drive”

What a beautiful rebuke of people who think their wealth, social status or talents makes them better than other people. From that bumper sticker I came up with the phrase, “You are not the body you drive.” Meaning simply that we very likely have enormous talents that are not currently manifested in our temporal bodies and we also have shortcomings that are very likely isolated to this mortal world. 

Just like the hand inside a glove is unseen but animates the glove, our spirits are unseen yet animate our bodies. And just as the glove may be a different color or texture than the hand it covers, our spirits are unlikely to be tall or short or have physical disabilities the way our bodies do. 

Just to be clear, before I move on, I am talking about random physical attributes like height, sports inclination and other talents that only relate to life on this earth. But in the same way you could not put a foot into a glove, we do have eternal attributes that have come with us, are manifest in our physical bodies and will remain with us forever. 

THE FAMILY, A PROCLAMATION TO THE WORLD for example says, “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”

Elder D Todd Christofferson in Oct 2023 said, “The very reason the earth was formed was so that families could be formed and sealed together.”

In truth we know very little about our spirits other than they will separate from our bodies at death and will be permanently re-united at resurrection with a perfect body. 

If I could throw in one last comparison. Elder Dale G. Rundland in a talk called Latterday saints keep on trying. Told a story about a missionary every mission president prays for. He was focused and worked hard. At one point he was assigned a missionary companion who was immature, socially awkward, and not particularly enthusiastic about getting the work done.

One day, while they were riding their bicycles, Curtis looked back and saw that his companion had inexplicably gotten off his bike and was walking. Silently, Curtis expressed his frustration to God; what a chore it was to be saddled with a companion he had to drag around in order to accomplish anything. Moments later, Curtis had a profound impression, as if God were saying to him, “You know, Curtis, compared to me, the two of you aren’t all that different.” 

In kind of a similar way, I personally believe that race and nationality are physical earthly traits that did not come with us from the pre-existence nor will they be taken with us into the eternities. We are all children of God. And just like the experience this missionary had, if God was in the room with us, I think it would be said that, compared to His brilliant light, we aren’t all that different from each other. 

Last Sunday was Easter. A day that we celebrate Jesus conquering death and enabling us all to be resurrected. Something that only He could accomplish. Not as a comparison to Him but using Him as an example, there are many things that only we can do. We are each unique  and individual children of God. We each have purpose here. Satan has no greater tool than to make us feel we are nothing more than a sum of our shortcomings. 

We often say that God loves us despite our flaws.. I think that phrase is offensive to our maker. In Ether 12:27 He declares,“I give unto men weakness, that they may be humble” God is not confused about who we are nor does he confuse us with the shortcomings that he intentionally gave us. There is purpose in our creation and I think very little angers him more than when we judge each other based on random earthly attributes.

I watched a documentary once about the progression of animation from pencil drawings to today’s computer generated images. One of the artists said that the greatest challenges of computer animation is that the characters are so perfect that they don’t look real. It is our tiny imperfections that make us beautiful and impossible to replicate on the screen. 

Acts 10:14-15

“But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”

Every year for as long as we have lived here and had children at home, our scout troup took the older scouts on a 50 mile hike. It was a grueling 6 day adventure and finishing was no small feat. Each day of the hike it was a thing of pride to be the first one to arrive at camp. I went several times with my two older boys and my objective was just to keep up or at least not embarrass them. Some years I did ok. Other years not so much. The older they get, the harder they are to keep up with. One year on the last day of the 50 miler, we were done breaking camp and the boys were all having a meeting. I decided that this was my day to shine. I was going to be the one waiting for them at the last stop. So I threw on my backpack and rushed off pushing my aging knees as hard as I could. The resulting pain is hard to describe but there was a smile on my face as I raced down the mountain. I was just feeling like I might have pulled it off when I heard thunder. I looked up but there were no clouds. Then I realized, to my dismay, that it was coming from behind me. It was the pounding of young feet running steadily with heavy backpacks. I knew instantly that my plan was foiled. I didn’t even turn around, I just stepped to the side panting heavily as a herd of young boys raced past me with pots and other utensils clanking violently against each other on the outside of their packs. I took a long defeated breath and was about to step back on the trail when I felt an arm on my shoulder. I looked over in surprise and it was my son with a sly grin on his face. “Let’s finish together, dad,” he said. With a smile and a slight tear forming in my eye, I stepped back on the trail and we walked down the mountain together. 

In similar fashion, Jesus walks with us in this life. We always says that He loves us anyway, but I wonder if He would put his arm around us and say, I know you can do better. He loves us, not despite our shortcomings but because he knows who we truly are.

My name is Nathan Vail and this is the Verbal Motivation Podcast

Honestly, it feels unfair, that God would send us down here to face this life making us short when we want to be tall, uncoordinated when we want to be sports stars. But is it possible, if we feel like it is unfair, that we have forgotten the purpose for which we have come