Thoughts on Easter

The resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate on Easter, is the single most important event in mankind's history.  Regardless of whether or not people are good or bad, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ means we'll all live forever. Immortality is guaranteed. Imagine the teacher saying, "Even if you get a 0% on this test, you'll still pass the class." Jesus told us essentially the same thing when he said, "[D]eath hath passed upon all men" (2 Nephi 9:6).

Yet, the blessing of immortality is rarely mentioned during Easter. Instead, we celebrate bunnies and eggs. Why bunnies and eggs? The tradition became common in the 19^th century when people saw that bunnies’ litters, which are rather large, bearing new life (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/17597617). The meaning, however, has been lost in time; we only think of egg hunts and chocolate bunnies during the holiday. To make matters more confusing, the name of the holiday—Easter—means Passover. However, Passover did not even occur during the resurrection of Jesus Christ; rather, it was the week before the resurrection. I'm left to conclude the meaning of "Easter" and our celebrations have distracted us from the true meaning of Easter. 

Easter should be a holiday of joy, hope, and peace. How can we experience these three things? I suggest three things: (1) Reading the account of Christ just like we read Luke 2 during Christmas. (2) Doing family history of our ancestors. (3) Expressing our love and gratitude for our Heavenly Father for the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Even though I just wrote a list of how to respect God, don’t see myself as an incredibly religious person; rather, I see this holiday as incredibly sacred. While Christ didn’t specifically command us to keep the holiday sacred, I believe keeping Easter special is a poignant way to show how much we appreciate His divine sacrifice.

The Importance of Planning

Many aspects of my life are more cyclical. While I clearly progress in many aspects of my life, I find myself in crummy situations I have been in, whether it be in school, social, spiritual, or financial areas. For example, I find that I get burnt out from school every three months. Even worse, I find myself mentally drifting away from God just because I'm preoccupied with other things and fail to do the elementary aspects of the gospel. 

Unfortunately, my planning habit is also very cyclical; I create effective plans and follow through on them for a while... then lose track of them. These planning sessions are critical because they allows me to continually progress rather than fall back to crummy situations. 

Thus, I want to make planning a top priority for the rest of my life. Goal setting will become my anchor that keeps every other aspect of my life intact. I believe that the lives of notable people like Elon Musk confirm I can succeed in multiple areas if I simply plan correctly.  With my coming internship at Amazon in the summer and my position as Executive Director of Marketing for the student council in the fall and winter, I'll need to anchor my life around a set schedule that will guarantee positive results in every aspect of my life. 

The World Needs General Conference

I'm slowly transitioning from the academic world to the business world. I know I need to pay closer attention to how I express my religion beliefs in the business world than ever before. Hiding my beliefs is new to me because my academic world has included spiritual learning with its secular learning because I attend a school funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The business world, in comparison, has many amazing people with a plethora of ethnic and religious backgrounds all with a common goal: success in one's chosen profession. These people offer unique perspectives on how to succeed in every aspect of business. I enjoy scrolling through online magazines and LinkedIn just to see if I can be successful just like everybody else.

Although I have learned a lot through reading business media, I've realized that the world doesn't have every secret to a successful career. I'm confident that my spiritual learning has made a difference. One main way I learn how to be successful is the church's semiannual General Conference. There, prophets, apostles and leaders of the church speak to the public. These men and women have proven successful in their professions (though they typically don't mention them). If the world needed to have a conference with successful professionals from a wide array of disciplines, the world should choose the speakers from General Conference. For example, look at the following professions of just a few of the speakers from the April 2017 General Conference:

• Gary R. Stevenson: Founder and COO of the world's largest manufacturer of sports equipment, ICON fitness
• Dallin H. Oaks: Law professor at University of Chicago Law School and Chairman of the Board of Directors for PBS
• Russell M. Nelson: A recognized authority on coronary artery disease
• Gary B Sabin: CEO and Chairman for Excel Trust, a real estate firm

These speakers are truly successful people. With the gospel at the center of their lives, they became successful in business. I've noticed that much of their advice applies to situations everybody faces. Their lessons teach us how to be kind, honest, hardworking, and grateful people. I don't want to impose my religious beliefs on anybody I'll meet in my professional life, so I won't typically bring this up in a professional setting. Nevertheless, I'm confident that if the world listened to their lessons taught in General Conference, we'd have better employees, coworkers, and bosses.