I love Mondays!

I do love Mondays. In our faith, we have a lot of young people out serving missions. Monday is what they term their "preparation day". It is a day for them to take care of things like laundry and such. It is also the day that they write to their families and friends. I get about a dozen emails on Mondays, forwarded from parents, from an incredible group of young people that I love and admire. So, I really, really look forward to Monday.

One email that I received yesterday really struck me. It spoke of an address, given to the missionaries by their mission president, where he discussed the concept that
"casualness will lead to casualty". WHOA!! As soon as I finished this letter, I began to play with this concept and pulled a few things off of the shelf and began to study. I pulled out works by those who are not casual or indifferent is another word I would use for casual. One of my heroes, Elie Wiesel stated the following, "Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life." We live in a time where the passive, indifferent (casual) life is a real danger. After reading Mr. Wiesel's passage, I turned to my two first resources, scripture and Webster's 1828 dictionary. I was blown away by what I found under the definition of casual, in Mr. Webster's dictionary. In today's world, the word casual has come to mean lighthearted or fun or pleasurable. In fact, in the latest Oxford dictionary, here on my desk it defines casual as "relaxed and unconcerned". But I prefer Mr. Webster's definition, after what I have pondered today. "1. Falling; happening or coming to pass, without design in the person or persons affected, and without being forseen, or expected; accidental; fortuitous; coming by chance. Taking place, or beginning to exist without an efficient intelligent cause, and without design."

I see so many that I love who are falling, who are working without design and therefore are finding themselves in casualty because of this casualness. We cannot be casual any longer. We must use our intelligence and design our futures. As Mr. Wiesel says, we have an obligation to give meaning to life. In the scriptures, in this morning's study, I love Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 14:8, "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" We cannot be laid back or casual about our words or our lives or our plans. We must trumpet loudly so that those around us both hear and understand the challenge and the plan. And then we must act, with surety and power to enact the plans that we have created. This does not mean that we will not have failures or struggles, but we can avoid casualty, most of the time, at least casualty that was our doing. This is the lesson that I needed to learn today. And it is a lesson that I will pass on to whoever will listen because as Paul further reminds us in 1 Corinthians 14:10 "There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification." NONE OF THEM! Every voice is important, whether one chooses to use that voice for good or evil, it must be heard and not simply allowed to drift away in casual indifference, for that is the greatest tragedy.