Keeping the second estate

To begin with, the scripture: Abraham 3 verse 26 "And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon...And they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever".

So as I read this chapter, I gather that the first estate happened before this earth life in what we call the pre-existence. This was the time from our spiritual creation by God, until the time that our spirit joined with our body on earth. I'm going to focus on the second estate - which we're all traversing now.

So what does it mean to keep the second estate? To do things right while we have the advantages of spirit and body being joined into a soul? All of my life, I pretty much had a big picture of what this meant -  basically I assumed that it means doing the right things and making it back to our Father pretty much intact based on not having broken too many commandments.

I think I've grown a bit since then. In my last post I described how when our souls are rotten to the core, we won't choose to live near Father. It's not him condemning us - it's us being too uncomfortable in our filth to choose to live in His light. Not going to go there because that subject got covered in greater detail yesterday.

What inspires me today is what it means to keep the second estate. There is more depth than just completing the check boxes - baptism, temple marriage, returning to the temple. Those are the basics, but they can be done in a way that accomplishes little more than box-checking. It might be compared to what other religions believe - they expect a heaven if they live well. They might get that heaven, because I hear it's pretty awesome over there. They might get everything they hope for - and more - but it's not all they could receive. Same for us as LDS. When we do things to check the boxes, we fail to develop and refine our souls. To use an unusual metaphor, perhaps we fail to turn our black beans into the world's best chili. And when we return to the Lord with slightly warmed black beans, we'll know we never created the chili that the Lord wanted us to be.

But there is more. A story comes to mind about a friend of mine. He's the awesomest guy in the universe - incredibly talented. A musician, producer, marketer, insanely wise, photographic memory, and a man with messages to share because his wisdom easily takes him places that the rest of us can never go. But my friend has "yang" - for lack of a better term - that compliment all of his yin type gifts. He has crazy pain in many parts of his body, all of the time, is presently in fear for his job, and pretty much is controlled by fear in many aspects of his life.

On a sideways note, I see this in life. I know people who have crazy gifts. Gifts I can only dream of having. Gifts that have me looking up - way up - to them as towers in their areas. Yet these gifts always seem to come with a cost. The costs are also towering. Much as I'd love to have those gifts, I don't know if I could handle those costs. You know who you are.

So my friend, with all his gifts, has the ability to be a Steven R. Covey type of person: someone who can change the world with the talents he has. Someone of such superior intellect and capacities that, well, my words fail. Yet he is held back. His demons and his fears have the same grip on him as do his strengths.

But he is a strong member of the church and a faithful follower of Christ. He knows that when he is given direction by Christ, he must follow it. This is what keeping his second estate means to me: of course he checks the boxes, but there is more. He must keep his second estate by developing his gifts. This means stepping out into uncertainty, ignoring his demons, shedding his need for safety, even using his faith to choose his mission over short term concerns about feeding his family. These are not small concerns.

But he knows what he must do. As a follower of Christ, I am pretty certain he will choose greatness for him. May we all keep our second estate, not just by checking the boxes, but developing our souls. Refining and brightening who we are, reflecting Christ's light to others, adding light to those around us, and preparing ourselves to live comfortably in Christ's light.