Love the Greater Thing

The second summer after we were married, we were living in a fourplex in Orem.  Our boy was only a couple of months old. The neighbors that lived on our same downstairs level were also a young couple and were pregnant with their first.  One of the things that his local family loved to do together was to ride motorbikes.  They all had the big, growling ones.  One weekend, the family rode up Provo Canyon.  Our neighbors got caught up in loose gravel on the side of the road and crashed.  It killed him and left her in a wheelchair with large pins sticking out of her leg, which was stretched out in front of her in a cast. It also left her a widow in her early 20s and a single mother to be.

We went to the funeral.  His family kept talking about how he had died doing the thing that he loved, so it was okay.  Not only okay, but should be celebrated.  As I looked at our tiny baby, the only thing I could think of was, "Well, then, he loved the wrong thing."

So often when I hear about sudden, accidental deaths, I hear that they died doing what they love.  Too often it was something stupid.  You see it as a plot theme in movies all the time.  So and so died doing what they loved, chasing this crazy dream in anaconda infested waters.  They would want us to continue chasing this crazy dream in anaconda infested waters.  

On the converse.
Yesterday a good man died doing what he loved.  He was with his scouts on their high adventure summer camp when he collapsed. He wasn't just a bishop going along because he felt obliged to go.  These were his boys.  He counselled them and led them.  He was actively pursuing their salvation.  This death and the sacrifice that went into it sanctified it.  He died doing what he loved.  He does want these boys to continue on in the path he set for them.

We don't need to hide from the world and try to avoid danger at all cost.  We don't need to stop all of the things that we enjoy because there is risk

We do need to choose to love the greater thing.  When our mortal time is up, where will we be standing?  What will the people who love us say that we loved?  Will it be them?  Will it be those whom we serve?
I would be content to die peacefully as I read a good book, but if that's all my family gets from my life, I've done this whole thing wrong.

*A lovely article on Boyd K Packer that I read after writing this.  This is what I mean.