Biggest Loser style...

So a few Sundays ago, I taught a lesson in Relief Society based on the talk from April's General Conference by President Packer in which he talked about the importance of the name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our status and responsibilities as members of the Church. One of the questions that I asked was, "What should a Latter-day Saint be like?" This question echoes those that we often hear about the expectations of living as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I thought of all those people out there who think that the Church lays all these stringent demands, all these unrealistic or unattainable expectations upon us, but I think those people forget that it's not the Church that asks those things of us: it's God. And with God, all things are possible.

For the student journal that I'm working on this semester, we recently did a first edit of the pieces that will be in the journal. One of the articles I read was by a young woman who expressed her internal struggle and her coming to grips with all the expectations that "the Church" had heaped on her though her life. She felt that she could never live up to what was expected of her, and the bitterness that resulted made her angry at herself and at the Church.

As I drove home that Sunday, I was meditating on all of these things, when suddenly an analogy popped into my head. Granted, this analogy is most likely The Biggest Loser-induced, but I still think it applies.

What do you think of when you think of the word "membership"? Not in the context of the Church, but just in general. For me, I think of a gym membership (thank you, Biggest Loser). So what does that mean, to have a gym membership? Let's say that Ramon (my favorite person on The Biggest Loser right now) gets a gym membership. What is he hoping to get out of it? I think it means first of all that Ramon wants to get in shape; he wants to be healthy and fit and enjoy all the advantages of a healthy lifestyle. What happens when Ramon actually goes to the gym? Do people make fun of him for not being able to do all that they can do? Are the guys over by the weights yelling at him and telling him that he's fat and that he's not good enough and that he ought to just give up? Probably not. Why not? Because the other people in the gym are there for the exact same reason as Ramon is--to be in shape, and to have a healthy lifestyle (except for the creepos who just go to the gym to hit on people)--so of course they're not going to make fun of him (ideally. Granted, some people are just jerks no matter what). Chances are, they're going to encourage him. They're going to say, "Ramon, you can do this. Here, let me show you a good leg exercise that you can do on this machine." Maybe Ramon or even the others who go the gym aren't always constant in their quest for a healthy lifestyle. They might eat one too many pieces of Halloween candy, or they might decide to spend an entire afternoon watching TV and eating potato chips. But they still are striving for that healthy lifestyle. They are still going to try and go to the gym and make time to exercise as well as making better choices in what they eat or how they spend their time.

Now if Ramon is really dedicated, he will not only go to the gym, but he will also get a personal trainer. His trainer isn't going to say, "Okay, Ramon, this is going to pretty much be impossible because you're so fat, and you're probably not going to be able to do it. There's just too much to be done and you're not good enough." Au contraire, the trainer is going to do all he can to motivate and uplift Ramon and help him believe that his weight-loss goals and healthy lifestyle goals are attainable. The trainer is probably going to be really tough on Ramon--he's going to make him work harder than he ever has in his whole life. Ramon is going to want to quit, to take the easy path of his old life. But the trainer isn't going to let him give up because he sees Ramon's potential and knows what the results will be if he holds out strong and finishes what he started. The trainer knows from experience that people can change and that they can lose weight, so now he just has to make Ramon believe that. In exchange, Ramon has to trust his trainer and trust that all the crazy things he makes him do are going to be worth it in the end. And after weeks and weeks of sweat and tears and pain, Ramon finally catches a glimpse of the potential that the trainer saw in him from the beginning. With that glimpse, Ramon has the strength to continue on his journal of becoming healthy, and he can finally achieve all his goals.

Alright. Compare that to our membership in the Church. Yeah, maybe a lot is expected of us as members of the Church. But it's our choice to live up to those expectations or not. It's up to us to go to the gym, as it were--go to Church, be a member of the Church for the right reasons. Compared with the healthy lifestyle that the gym can bring, what are the results that solid membership in the Church can bring? Well, happiness, for one thing; the reassurance of the plan of salvation, the safety of keeping the commandments, the eternity of families, the hope of eternal life. These are goals worth working for! And if can just look at our membership in the Church as a means to accomplish our eternal goals, I think that a lot fewer people would look at the so-called demands and requirements of the Church with more appreciation and less resentment. Gym-goers don't resent the equipment at the gym--the barbells, the treadmills, the machines; we are chuch-goers should not resent the equipment that we have either. And we have the best personal trainer of all--Jesus Christ. He is there every step of the way with us because he's been through all our pains, sorrows, and heartaches. He knows how to mold us into the people we need to become: His people.

I also came across this quote from Elder Wirthlin that I think applies:

"Some mistake the Church for a place where perfect people gather to say perfect things, think perfect thoughts, and feel perfect feelings. May I quickly dispel such a thought? The Church is a place where imperfect people gather to help and strengthen each other as we strive to return to our Heavenly Father. Ever one of us will travel a different road in mortality. We will each progress at different rates."

I for one am so grateful for the Church and how it helps me on my "road." I would certainly have fallen off the path and been eaten by bears by now if I didn't have it. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (. . . and The Biggest Loser :) ) and how it helps me become better, even though I still have a long way to go.