Obedience - Or When YOLO Cannot Take You Places

YOLO stands for "you only live once" (comparable to "la vida es una") and has been THE life motto of the youth a few years ago. The basic idea behind it is that you can do whatever you want because there is no consequences. You want to buy overpriced clothes? YOLO. You want to jump off a cliff? YOLO. I think you get the idea. The funny thing is that this is not even a revolutionary idea; it has been around for centuries. Even King Solomon in his life went through a phase of YOLOism. >> So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. << (Ecclesiastes 8:15 NIV) But is this mentality really the best for us?

Obedience - Are You a Cage-Guy or Railing-Guy

I have talked to many people about faiths and beliefs. It is usually the atheists or the super-liberal Christians that do not really understand how I can live under so "strict" rules. Then they usually start talking about patriarchy, subordination, and so on...it can get really messy. Sometimes, people even say that they feel that God puts His people in a cage with all His commandments. I then ask them something like this: "Would more people die when we would have no railings at the Grand Canyon or the top of the Empire State Building, or would the number stay the same?" Typically, we can agree that fences or guardrails help keeping people out of dangerous territory. I wonder then why people think of God's commandments and our obedience to them in a different way. The cage analogy they use would take any freedom from us Christians. Is that what we experience in our lives? Our God never commanded me to stay away from my friends, to never eat pizza, to close my eyes when a football match comes on, or any other basic enjoyable things in my life. Yes, He has told me not to murder people because that would take away their freedom (because they die), my freedom (because I would be behind bars), and my eternal freedom (because I would be separated from God). God's commandments have helped me to stay away from trouble; they have been like a fence keeping me away from the hazardous areas out there.



Prophets - Your Divine Postal Service

Prophets throughout the scriptures may sometimes seem like a buzzkill. They come when people have the wildest orgies and tell them to stop or they would all go to hell. How dare they? But wait...are prophets really just the nerds that have been excluded from the cool kids' party? And who sent them? The thing is that prophets are regular people like you and me. They have been chosen from the middle of society to deliver a message and testify of the Lord. They do not preach to the other people because they have had enough with society, they are not mere social reformists. It is their divine job with which they come to us. Even more important, when a prophet speaks as such, he or she speaks the words of the Lord Himself. It is like getting a memo from the Boss. Again, those commandments may sound like a cage at first, but they really are intended to protect us from greater harm. Unfortunately, people prefer temporal fun over eternal joy, simply because they cannot fully understand what eternity is. For this reason, people have hated and shunned prophets throughout time. Imagine if a police officer would come to you and tell you not to go 100 mph in the city AND would promise you a billion dollars if you keep his commandment. What would you do? Of course it is dangerous to go so fast in the city and the promise of wealth is a nice bonus, too. Then why do we have such a hard time to understand God's commandments? Because there is someone else who desperately tries to keep us away from God, but close to his own despair. The one I am talking of is Satan. He has been expelled from God's presence and now wants to drag as many people with him as he can. I urge everyone who reads this: Do not give in to his tempting words.



I can testify personally that God truly wants our best. He does not give us commandments to watch us fail, He gives us commandments to make us better people. >> And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. << (1 Nephi 3:7) As hard as His rules may seem sometimes, there always is a way prepared for us to do what He told us to do. Being a church has its benefits, too. Whenever we are going through hard times, a brother or a sister is there to help us.





Picture Sources:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6b/20/c2/6b20c2134e761fa48a14f48c07cddcbe.jpg
https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1524230884579-66bf814f3945?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1000&q=80
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2003/10/139.Micah_Exhorts_the_Israelites_to_Repent-1596x900.jpg