And the Winner is...

We as a society speak in terms of winners and losers. If I were to ask you to describe to me what a loser is, certain people would come to your mind. Maybe even yourself. Words associated with losers are criminal, team, misfit, failure or bad. A loser is someone who consistently proves they are not worthy of respect. But when you think to yourself, "I'm such a loser," what you're really saying is that you have somehow failed at life. You are consistently proving to yourself your ineptitude at this game we call Being Human. 

Ok, so you are a loser. What does that mean? Even the loser gets to play. But that's not really what you want to hear, is it? What you want to hear is, "No! You're not a loser!" Ok, so you're not a loser. Do you feel better? No? Why not? I told you what you wanted to hear. In that case, let's try something else.

What does it mean to Be Human? In order to figure that out we have to go back a little bit. Rewind to before we were born. We all lived with Heavenly Father together. Chances are we've met before. Hello again. Anyways, we were presented with a choice. Heavenly Father's plan involved coming to earth, learning how to be like Him and one day return to Him to receive of the glory which we choose. Lucifer (who, by the way, was every bit our brother as Christ was) decided he didn't like that plan. He didn't want to see any of us perish because of bad choices. And he also wanted all the glory to himself. Maybe more so the latter. In any case, Lucifer proposed his plan, and maybe it sounded pretty good. None of us would be lost, what did we care who the glory went to? There was just one flaw in Lucifer's plan. You can't take glory away from the Father. It can only be given. So when he demanded the glory go to him, he set his will in defiance with the Father's. We took sides, and the mere fact that you are sitting in that chair with that rather stunned look on your face means that you chose not to follow Satan's plan. Congratulations, you won a free body! Unfortunately, bodies come with all sorts of things that Spirits don't. Like livers and pancreases. And hearts and brains. And hearts and brains develop very differently than our Spirit versions do. They are susceptible to decay, disease and malformation. And our emotions, which are tied to pretty much everything we do, came right along with this wonderful body. Isn't it great? Now, raise your hand if you have complete control over your emotions. Put your hand down. Even the "best" of us are prone to emotional hijackings. Some of you are wondering what "best" means. Well, that depends on you. So, think about that for a minute. Got the idea in your head? Great, now throw it out the window. Because who in the world are you to decide what's "best" as far as people go? Now I admit that the Avengers are the best at what they do. But they have superpowers. If you haven't got superpowers, forget it. Given the chance, we could all come up with a list of the "best" people we know of, historical or otherwise. Names like Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King would crop up quite a bit, probably. But they were only the best at being Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. Some of you are laughing right about now, shaking your heads and saying, "Well duh!" But if they could only be the best at themselves, why do you have to be better than everyone you know, and even some people you don't? Because that's what being a loser means. It is a word that implies competition. Because if you're are a loser, somewhere out there is a winner. Which, as you can hopefully now see, is preposterous. The only way you can lose at being an imperfect human is if you stopped being human. And barring any zombie apocalypse, that ain't going to happen. So just be yourself. You, my friend (and I do not use that term lightly) are NOT a loser. You wish you were different? Change. Not tomorrow, not next Friday. Right now. That doesn't mean that everyone else will see the change tomorrow. But you will know, and so will God. Change takes practice. But if I can learn how to do multivariable calculus and quantum mechanics, you can do this. You can learn to not think of yourself as a loser. And that is the most important change you can possibly make, because it is the most self-fulfilling prophecy on the planet. In other words, if you think you're a loser, you will be. If you think you're a child of a loving Heavenly Father who expects nothing more than His imperfect human child can offer, then you will feel that, too. You'll feel love. Perfect love.

Ready? Go!