Life

While volunteering at the MTC today, I was reminded of just how much people have to learn before they accept the gospel. Six pláticas really is nowhere near enough. Then again, 25 years of being an active member hasn’t taught me everything that I need to know.

I also saw Chantelle LaCouture, one of my students from GE 105. She teaches English as a second language. They changed the schedule a bit, and now in addition to Spanish they have ESL on Saturday nights. Today was the first time, and I had a few ESL groups. It was quite weird to open the door, see Hispanics, say “Buenas Tardes,” and have them reply “Hello.” Pretty fun though. I met an elder from Zacapa.

Last week at the MTC, I was reminded of something I believe. What follows is the gospel according to Ivan, so take it with a grain or two of salt (or limón if you are latino). I would be interested in any doctrinal insights, especially if I am wrong.

Life is not a test. It bothers me when people say this in church. One cannot say that life is a test, and believe that God is omniscient. The two are contradictory. If God knows everything, then he knows what we will do before we do it. He would know who would “pass the test” long before we ever took it. As near as I can tell many people in the church profess to believe both. I used to believe the first, and take offense at the second. My position has slowly been changing for several years, and although I wouldn’t say that I am completely comfortable with the second proposition, I have definitely come to disbelieve the first—at least as the sole purpose for our sojourn here on Earth.

I have several problems with the test analogy:

1. You are supposed to know everything before taking a test
2. No one knows the outcome of the test for sure
3. Everyone wants to do well on a test

While some missionaries were teaching me last week, the thought came to me, “Life is like an interview.” I believe in many ways it is. An interview, like a test, is made of questions (think trials) to determine whether one will be hired. Thus in some sense it is a test, but it is more than that. There is direct interaction between both parties, and most importantly, both parties are trying to decide whether the arrangement will be mutually advantageous. I learned from some Chemical Engineering class, that the interview is as much to determine if I want to work at a particular company, as it is for the company to decide if they want me to work for them. In the same way, a significant purpose of our life is to determine whether we like good or evil better. If we would rather do things that God wants, then we will be happy living with him, and we will be so rewarded. If we choose to be evil we will be rewarded by being with those who have chosen similarly. God will send us to the place where we can be happiest.

We can think of heaven as a large benevolent corporation who is willing (even anxious) to hire us. All we have to do is decide what job we want, and interview for that position. We can be a Vice President, or we can be a janitor. Some people in this world apparently like being janitors. I remember my father telling me of a neighbor who actually wanted as mindless a job as possible! This may difficult for me to fathom, but that doesn’t make it any less true. I think the same may be true of people and the gospel. Perhaps some people want to be evil. Sadly they don’t know what they are missing.

I don’t think it’s that simple however. I think that under different circumstances, my neighbor would have enjoyed a challenging career. Had she made different choices as a child and young adult, she would probably have turned out different. I think the same is certainly true of evil. I don’t believe (maybe can’t believe) that some people are predestined to enjoy evil. I think, like most things, we may have different inherent amounts of goodness and evil, but that if choices are properly made, we will all come to enjoy and choose good. The analogy of an interview doesn’t reflect this dynamic very well. Perhaps an apprenticeship, or internship would be better.

I admit that I have not had an internship or apprenticeship, but from what I can gather it is much like a long interview. You and the company are trying to decide whether each is right for the other. At the end of the evaluation period either side can terminate the relationship. If life is a test at all, it is like this: Both sides taking it, and deciding if the other is the way that we want to spend eternity. We get to choose what job we want after working a day or two at everyone. That, I think, is partly why we must experience so many things. It’s why we must come to earth—to experience all of the “jobs” in a temporary (temporal) setting. We can try being the janitor for a day, decide we don’t like it, and not be stuck with it for eternity.

More than all this however is the idea that we can grow to like working at a company. When we first start working somewhere, we may take exception to some policies. We may do so for many reasons, some good and others less so. In the corporation of the Lord, where the policies are always sound, the reasons must necessarily be bad. As we work longer we grow to appreciate some of those practices that before we had despised. This is much like growing to enjoy being good. At first we delight in doing wicked things, but with practice and time we can grow to tolerate and then love righteousness.

This life is more about learning and becoming than it is about being tested. We are here to learn things that we couldn’t learn in the pre-mortal world, otherwise we would have learned them there. We are here to become something which we couldn’t have become without coming to Earth, otherwise there would be no reason to come. Remember that next time you are passing through a trial. What can you learn? What can you become? Everyone can become an A student, but if you haven’t made the effort to do so, you won’t be comfortable in the presence of such people.