Brief Introduction

As a pre-mission teenager studying at Brigham Young University, I took a number of religion classes. It has been satisfying to look over some of the papers I wrote for those classes and to see how my understanding and writing style have progressed. While this text certainly doesn’t represent my best work, I thought I’d include it here just for fun.


Big John Stockton Magnifies His Calling

“Durant, do you have any coordination?” Coach Neff boomed in his very most tyrannical voice.

“Um…well, I…ah…no, Sir!” I responded nervously.

“Against the wall, Durant. Get in push-up position.”

“But Coach Neff, I wasn’t late!” The injustice of his demand gave me the courage to speak up.

“Look at that insubordination, Coach Daniels!” he said to his colleague, thrilled at my mistake. Then he really tore into me.

“Against the wall, dirt-bag Durant.”

My head hung low as I slowly got up and joined my tardy class mates at the wall of shame.

“Nobody likes you, Durant,” Coach Neff hollered.

With his very next breath he announced to the class, “Dignity and respect is the motto from here on out.”

The irony was more than I could bear.

“As a gesture of dignity and respect,” Coach Neff continued, “I’d like you all to pick one student to run three laps on your behalf. The rest of you can just visualize running the mile.”

All eyes turned to Big John Stockton, as Coach Neff liked to call him. Big John had a mental disability, but he more than made up for it in effort. It was common knowledge that he was Neff’s second favorite student, after me, of course.

Almost regally, Big John rose to his full stature. The class watched in awe as he began to sprint around the gym. Big John was really big, but he didn’t let that stop him — I don’t think I’ve ever seen another human being run so fast. Each drop of sweat that fell from his face testified of how hard he was pushing himself. As he rounded the first lap, I noticed an almost guilty look on Coach Neff’s face.

“Big John,” Coach Neff yelled, “I was just kidding. Come and sit down.”

Big John would hear none of it. He’d been given an assignment, and nothing was going to stop him from completing it. He continued to bolt around the gymnasium.

After the third lap, Big John, panting and sweating like you can’t believe, collapsed into his seat. The class erupted in applause; thanks to Big John, none of us had to run the mile, although visualizing the mile wasn’t all that more pleasant. Big John had worked hard, and, in the process, spared us all from Neff’s inhuman running requirement.

The gospel is like that, sometimes. We’re all given assignments — callings — and it’s up to us go the extra mile (literally, in Big John’s case). When we complete our callings with the competency and energy that the Gospel requires, we bless the lives of countless others. Amulek is a prime example of a man who knew what it meant to magnify his calling, but his wisdom was not always so profound. Even this great missionary failed, at times, to magnify the Lord’s work.

In Alma 10:6, Amulek relates his story: ” Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart…”

Amulek was “called many times,” yet he chose to disregard the Lord and “would not hear…would not know.” How often do we as Latter-day saints “harden our hearts?” Maybe we don’t ignore the Lord’s voice as explicitly as Amulek did; perhaps we do accept the callings our Bishops give us, and we do show up every Sunday to go through the motions. But are we really giving it our all? Are we really doing all we can do, like Big John Stockton? Perhaps we are not rebelling against God outright, but are we rebelling against him in our hearts because we are not whole-heartedly working to further his kingdom on earth?

Fortunately, Amulek repented of the “slacker sin”; he began to hear the voice of the Lord and to do His will. In Alma 10:7-8 he reports: “As I was journeying to see a very near kindred, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto me and said: Amulek, return to thine own house, for thou shalt feed a prophet of the Lord; yea, a holy man, who is a chosen man of God; for he has fasted many days because of the sins of this people, and he is an hungered, and thou shalt receive him into thy house and feed him, and he shall bless thee and thy house; and the blessing of the Lord shall rest upon thee and thy house. And it came to pass that I obeyed…”

We, too, can cast off our slackishness if we will do the will of the Lord. Often rather than angels He sends the Holy Ghost, by which the angels speak. That’s the key to magnifying our callings: we must listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost as we strive to do the Lord’s will. That way, He can direct our energies in the most productive paths. Finally, we must obey, as Amulek did. Once we have received inspiration through the Holy Ghost, we must act on it.

We, like Amulek, are “called,” yet often we do not “hear” and “know” our calling. In order to cast off our slackishness and magnify our callings, we must 1) listen to the promptings of the Spirit and 2) act upon those promptings in order to further the Kingdom of God.

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