The Claw!

This morning I woke up and all I could think about was "the Claw" scene from Toy Story.  Remember?  Woody and Buzz find themselves trapped in a claw-game vending machine, surrounded by zealous little alien squeaky toys, only to be captured by Sid, Andy's nefarious and sadistic next-door neighbor.  As I thought about this scene, it made me chuckle how life is sometimes like this.  We find ourselves stuck somewhere, we don't know how we got there, and our next move is just as uncertain.  I also thought about the words of one of the aliens: "The Claw is our master.  It decides who will go and who will stay!" 



"Farewell my friends! I go on to a better place..."



Thankfully our Master is not an arbitrary, unfeeling metal claw, manipulated by greedy children; He is the Good Shepherd who lovingly invites us to follow Him and return home to our Father in Heaven.  But He knows better than we do.  He can see things from a top-down perspective, where sometimes all we might see are the obstacles in our way.  God and Jesus know all things, but they do not determine our choices.  We still have the ability to choose the path in front of us, but sometimes They nudge us along or warn us or direct us another way. 

So unlike The Claw, God does not force us one way or the other, but similarly He puts us where we need to be.  Then it's up to us to decide whether or not we will cheerfully follow His path or choose another.  Woody and Buzz made the best out of their imprisonment in Sid's house until they could finally make a break for it and return back to the loving arms of their beloved Andy.  We too don't always get to choose our circumstances, but we certainly can choose our reactions.

Food for thought.

Much Love,

Elder Spendlove

Image from http://porcelainexistence.tumblr.com/post/5655772108

I Will Choose Free Will!

Sometimes as missionaries we get little "freebies"--we were at this burger joint in Ukiah on Monday with a local member of the Church (I had an ostrich burger.  Yeah.  That just happened), and there was all this classic rock playing (Aside: as missionaries we don't listen to the radio or music that draws us away from Christ.), and I loved classic rock back home.  I was trying not to listen to it!  I promise!  Anyway, this song by Rush comes on and as I "wasn't listening", my ear caught hold of some of the lyrics, which are as follows:

"I will choose a path that's clear--I will choose freewill!"

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose freewill.

In between bites of ostrich, I really pondered the meaning behind those words.  We as humans value free will.  We (LDS people) believe it is one of the basic reasons we're her on Earth--to use our free will to choose God instead of Satan; we use our free will to"come unto Christ and be perfected in Him", like I posted last week.