This week we talked about Epic’s and what they are and what examples we have of them in our society. We named a few in class and they were Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. All of these Epics have a system to them all have a call to adventure, a refusal of the call, they are given a mentor and or companion, they cross a threshold of a supreme ordeal, and they become master of the two worlds, and then eventually return home. As I was taking notes this week I thought about our lives as human beings, it is an epic in itself just as much as these great stories. Our lives really are, so, totally, EPIC!
As I was reading over my notes I realized that everyone if you put it in spiritual terms has an epic life that is if you are LDS. In the pre-existence had a call to adventure. In the scriptures and from Latter-Day Saint doctrine we can see that we have accepted to come here to Earth in order to experience mortal life. They next step in an Epic is the “refusal of the call” in a sense we all have gone through this. In the pre-existence we had to choice to follow Satan and not come to earth and receive a body or to follow Christ and come to earth and receive a body and experience life to the fullest. And also we can relate it to a mission call if we decided to go on one within the church. After we turn in the required papers we receive our “Call” in the mail and in the envelope we have the chance to deny or accept the call. After the refusal or in this case acceptance of the call we are given mentors or companions. In this life our mentors are our parents the ones who teach us how to overcome adversity, teach us how to act, teach us what we need to do to get through life. They are a necessity in life, so that we do not die from “master mind tricks” or “flashbacks from the dark lord” now, of course I am joking, but I still recall many teachings my parents taught me. And they have come in handy in the real world. Just like in any epic the mentor’s skilled teachings pay off during battle scenes! Then the threshold crossing, we all go through this whether it is we have grown up and have a family of our own, or our missions to foreign places. Brother Williams called this “your not in Kansas anymore” phase. This is when you encounter your “demons” so to speak, not saying that everyone’s life is full of demonic presence, oh no! We will all encounter a “growing up stage” and we have to apply all that we have learned either by our parents or things we learned in the MTC and here is where we defend whom we are. The next stage is the Master of the 2 worlds. If you think of it in the mission sense that you have come into a world with rules, teaching requirements, and people you are unfamiliar with. But at the end of your mission you have mastered the skills that were so hard to accept when you first came out, you may not be a master, but nevertheless you have come out victorious. And in this life at the end of all that we have done we hope to have kept all the Lords commandments, taught our children well, given service, helped those in need, and become a disciple of Christ. We all hope, or at least I hope we all hope to accomplish this. Then after all is said and done we go Home back to live with our Heavenly Father and rise victorious and be seated upon a thrown.
This may be a little far-fetched, but this is what I thought of. If we take the elements that make up an Epic and apply it to our life the Call to Adventure-pre-existence, Refusal of the call-choosing to follow Chirst, our mentors- our parents, crossing the threshold-our mission/life, mastering the 2 worlds- becoming a disciple, and going Home- to heaven. If we put that into context we can see that our lives are awesome, and so totally Epic! Who needs a made up story told in movies and books when we are living one of our very own?
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