Hannibal Was Right

I have fond memories of gathering on the couch with my family to watch our 8 o'clock shows in the evenings. Dukes of Hazzard, Fantasy Island, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers to name a few. Those were the days when hamburgers were 29 cents at McDonalds and you could play outside anywhere, just as long as you were home when the street lights went on.

One of our favorite shows was the A-Team. They would be called on various missions, usually involving aiding or rescuing a innocent person. The plan would invariably get botched by the bad guys and the A-Team would turn to their leader, Hannibal, for a mid-episode plan-change. After many gunshots, in which no one was ever hit, and a master-plan followed by every member, the A-Team would conquer every time! At the end, Hannibal would often say with a grin, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Ah, if life could be a tidy as that; a battle fought and won in one hour. If you think about it, there are alot of similarities. We have been called here on a mission to save ourselves, and help others along the way. The bad guy, the Adversary, is always trying to botch our plans. But, as we turn to our leaders, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, we can make those mid-life corrections and adjustments that, if we follow, will allow us to succeed in the end. Then, when we meet them again, hopefully they will be able to smile and say, "We love it when a plan comes together."

What is their plan? It's called The Plan of Salvation. It is the plan that, if we follow, will provide the way to personal perfection, pure peace and eternal existance with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and our families.

As I spoke of in my post Before, Before, Afta, Afta, there is a longing in each of us to know who we are and why we are here. The Plan answers those questions.

First, we must acknowledge our eternal spirits. We existed before we came. We lived with God, our loving Heavenly Father, and each other. We are all brothers and sisters. We have been, and always will be, creatures of progress. Even then we learned line upon line, precept upon precept, the ways of God. We were, if you will, in elementary school.

After we had learned what we could in the presence of God, a place had to be prepared where we could go and experience the things we had learned; where we could be tested, use our agency, choose for ourselves, and prove ourselves. We needed bodies so that we could learn self-mastery, we needed opposition so the we could appreciate the good, we needed agency so that we could choose, for ourselves, God or Mammon.

Here it was that the Plan was presented to us. Even then we had agency to choose to follow God's plan for our eternal progression. Each of you reading this, in fact, every person who has ever live and will live chose to follow God's plan. No one was forced to leave the presence of God and come here. In fact, it was quite the contrary. We shouted for joy at that thought of becoming more like our Father.

So, now, we are here. And, like the A-Team, we have a mission. It is not an innocent person who'd been done wrong that we need to save. It is we ourselves. We are here to fight the good fight and gain eternal life.

I am excited for my new blog. It's a forum I'd like to use to write Gospel, which is the Plan in action. I look forward to your visits, your comments, and your friendships. I love studying the Plan of Salvation, from the simplicity to the complexity. It's a divine plan. It's God's plan. I'll end by echoing good ol' Hannibal, as I smile as say, "I love it when a plan comes together."