I’ve spent many an hour contemplating what my life’s story would tell. The tale has evolved over the years, especially as I get older and the story comes into focus. I’m happily married, a happy father to four boys, and happily employed. I’ve experienced high and lows, love and despair, excitement for the future and deep depression. I still wonder what twists and turns may come along unexpectedly.

I think I came to this thought exercise through my adolescence. Movies had always been a part of my coming of age. I love a good Marvel movie. I recall many hours spent watching the original Star Wars Trilogy, or late nights watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the 37th time. My all-time favourite movie might surprise people who know me, but I’ve always been drawn to Casablanca. 
Richard Blaine was a jaded, cynical, sarcastic businessman in Casablanca during World War 2. He put on a rough shell to protect himself. He had a history. He used to be a freedom fighter, a sentimentalist, a lover, and a passionate man. He got hurt, so he shut down, and focused solely on his own needs. Through the movie, he learns the truth and is put into a position to hurt those who hurt him, or help them. His transition is the fun part. That, and the famous movie lines.

But this isn’t really a blog about Casablanca, it’s about focus, and that question, what will my story say? And why that sort of focus is dangerous.

It’s not that our stories are unimportant, because they absolutely are, just not in relation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. If we focus too much on our story, we forget why we are here in the first place, and risk putting our story on the same level of importance as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Adam S. Miller puts it, “Life is full of stories — many of them are beautiful, many of them are powerful and we wouldn’t be human without them — but life is not a story. Stories aren’t the whole of life. And God doesn’t love your story, He loves you!”

When we put our focus on our stories, we start to think that maybe, just maybe, God will love us and bless us more if we have the best life, filled with the best stories. That is false thinking, one that I struggled with for years. I put my value to God and to others based off my righteousness and what I could offer them. God does not love us because we are righteous, He just loves us. Period. He doesn’t love our story. He loves us. God loves us because we are His. We belong to Him. 

This is key, because instead of focusing on ourselves and our stories, what we really should be doing is focusing on our God, as Alma points out, ‘Life is the time for men to prepare to meet God;” Our Heavenly Father is so excited to see us reach our potential to become  like Him. Just like a parent who watches their child walk for the first time, learn to ride a bike, help their siblings, love, and grow; our Heavenly Father delights in our triumphs and successes. His heart breaks with ours. He is invested in and knows each of us. The Prophet Russell M. Nelson said, ‘When you begin to catch even a glimpse of how your Heavenly Father sees you and what He is counting on you to do for Him, your life will never be the same.’

What is Heavenly Father counting on us to do? One would be to return to Him. But another is to help Him. So, what is He trying to do? Moses 1:39 states, “For behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

His work is two fold. Jesus Christ accomplished the first, with His resurrection, He broke the bands of death and allows each of us to be resurrected. We will each have our bodies through the eternities. All we had to do to earn that was make a choice before we were born. That part is done. This second part is the real kicker, we need to overcome the focus on our own lives and look to others. We need to see that following God’s plan will mold us into the people we would like to be. We need to see that our stories that involve God will be far superior to any story that tries to seek glory on our own. We need to see the greater good.

All this isn’t to say that we can’t enjoy a vacation, or enjoy a concert, hockey game, or a movie night with the boys. But what we do, as natural men, is change our focus from God to these endeavours. We seek the glory of men, things that excite, thrill, the easy road, the lottery wins. We seek things that are contrary to God’s plan for us. The majority of us don’t intentionally choose things of man over things of God. Most of the time, we are socialized that way. We’ve picked up things from our parents, teachers, friends, co-workers and acquaintances that we’ve drawn into our story. And what’s worse, as natural men, we don’t try to change our story, or straighten our path. What we do is, we add these aspects of the human experience into our life, then we try to justify our story.

I learned about this a few years ago, I went with my brother and our wives to Las Vegas. We’d heard it was a great and affordable vacation destination, especially as Winter is starting up in Canada and it’s still hot down in Nevada, and for two couples with small children, it was an opportunity to recharge away from the kids. We went to some shows, ate big meals, sat by the pool, and enjoyed the sites and sounds. We avoided gambling and averted our eyes while walking on the strip. We enjoyed the trip and didn’t really worry about the distractions and danger of Vegas. We chose to go to a destination that would deaden our ability to feel the spirit and we paid money for it. 4 days into our trip, we had a free day and decided to go to the Las Vegas Temple. We spent a glorious day doing an endowment session and sealings. The peace we felt in the temple was in stark contrast to the flashiness that was found on the Vegas strip and as we got back to our hotel and wandered that final evening, we felt no joy or happiness in the hustle and bustle of the crowd. We ended up playing a friendly game of cards back in the hotel room. It was a huge learning experience for us. One I am grateful for.

So, what does all this have to do with our story? Our story is imperfect. It is flawed. It misses the point. It distracts with bright lights and loud noises. It convinces us to live life at the expense of forgetting why we are here. We still want to have faith, but we still want our story. When we endeavour to maintain our story, we tend to pray to God and try to convince him to help us with our story. We try to change his mind about the ultimate destination we are meant for. This is flawed faith. ‘Faith isn’t about getting God to play a more central part in your vision of a successful story. Faith is about sacrificing your story on His altar.’

As Latter-Day Saints, we need to stop misplacing the focus onto our own stories. We need to stop honouring the Gods of Las Vegas, tropical destinations, sports, fashion, musicians or movie stars, and most definitely the God of pride in our own lives. We need to place our focus back on Heavenly Father and what He wants for our lives. No man can serve two masters. We can dwell on our stories, or we can see the greater picture, as Richard Blaine does by the end of Casablanca.

So go to the temple, read your scriptures, say your prayers, get your rest and don’t forget to take your vitamins, cause the Church is not yet fully restored. There’s much more to come. So buckle up, hold fast and follow the prophet.

~Todd Bruce