Make It To the Playoffs

     "And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

  Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." (2 Nephi 31:19-20) 

   Quite simply, the "strait and narrow path" this scripture is referring to is entering into the waters of baptism and making that covenant with God. It is saying that just because we are baptized, does not mean we can put our lives on "cruise control" and chill. We must endure to the end...

   Let me put it like this. I always got to throw sports into it so it makes more sense to me. I love baseball. Every year in high school, my baseball team looked really good. We had big strong guys who could hit the ball hard and far. We had pitchers getting looked at by pro and college scouts. Every spring when the San Diego area newspapers would discuss which high school team could win it all, or at least do very well, our team was usually thrown in the discussion. We had so much potential. We would start the year off really well. We usually would win 4 of our first 5 games, and maybe 8 of our first 10. We would ride sky high. Our confidence was high. We thought that we could beat anyone without hardly even trying. The problem was, a high school baseball regular season is about 30 games long, plus a few extras maybe. So we always did well for the first third of the season. And then we got complacent. We started making mistakes, dumb plays and being lazy during practice. And we paid for it. In my years of high school baseball, we never made the playoffs. Not once. We had players in the top 10 in the county in homeruns, batting average and for pitchers, strikeouts. Yet, we could never quite....endure to the end. You see what I am trying to say? My team didn't understand the concept of enduring to the end. We must fight and strive to always improve. Our opponents took advantage of our complacency. This lesson does not just apply to baseball teams. 

   In life, once we are baptized into the Church, and head on the path that "leads to eternal life," we aren't exempt from any more work or progression.We must always work to get better and endure to the end. How do we endure to the end? We keep going to church every Sunday, we read the scriptures everyday and pray daily to our Heavenly Father. We strive to keep all the commandments of the Father.We serve our fellow men and fulfill our callings and duties with all our hearts. Easy enough, right? With God, it can be. And if we are complacent, just like my baseball team was, our "opponent" (Satan) will take advantage of us and we will fall off the path. We must always be on our toes and not be complacent with where we are. Enduring to the end is an essential part of living the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word "endure" implies that we will face challenges. We can rely on the Lord in prayer and scripture study to get us through them. We have to make it to the "playoffs," which is eternal life. We must endure. We must beat Satan. That's the only way we will make it to the playoffs.