Room For All In Heaven

TheDiscipleMD

Shortly after I was married and struggling to make an extra dollar, I came across an advertisement in the local paper for a job opening that guaranteed $10 an hour. As jobs are always hard to get in college towns, and my present job was paying much less, I decided to call. The young lady that answered was pleasant and I was delighted that she set me up an interview for the very next day at 1pm.

Following proper “interview” protocol, I arrived the next day for the interview in a suit and about 10 minutes early. I made my way to the 2nd floor, and knocked on the door of the appropriate suite door. The young lady that answered it told me to wait in the hallway in preparation for my interview. While I was waiting another college student arrived, knocked on the same suite and got the same response. As we were both waiting I worked up the nerve and asked him, “What time is your interview?” He replied, “One”, “Mine too” I replied. I thought that was odd that both of us had an interview at the same time. Soon many other college students, both male and female, arrived. I listened as all of them got the same response from the receptionist. Soon there were at least ten to twenty of us in the hall. At last the door opened and the receptionist invited us all in. I thought perhaps there would be a number of people interviewing us. That would explain the fact that everyone seemed to have a “1pm” interview.

 

The suite was large and open. Many chairs were set up around the room and the receptionist told us to have a seat. We all sat down and within a couple of minutes a slick-looking dressed man came in. He greeted us all and then began to tell us about the job opportunity. The job sounded wonderful, working for a multi million dollar corporation that guaranteed us $10 an hour. He went on with vague statements about how much money we were going to make, if we got the job. I was beginning to think, “How many are they going to hire?”. I surveyed the group and thought I definitely looked more professional than most. Some even looked goofy to me.  I was pretty confident that “I” would be the one chosen for the job. After about 20 minutes of indoctrination, he stopped and I thought he was going to start the interview process: take us to another room, one by one. Instead, the slick salesman gave us all a smile. And he said, “Don’t worry. Stop looking at each other with daggers because the good news is that, all of you are hired!”

The nature of this world had conditioned me to be competitive. In my heart I didn’t want anyone else to be “successful”, because their success would take something away from me. Life does teach us to be “competitive”, and we are conditioned to want to be “better” than the person beside us.  However, over the years I have thought of this experience on a number of occasions. Often it comes to mind when I am reminded that: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man…It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.” (C.S. Lewis).

The General Authorities have often reminded us that there is no competition to get to heaven. There is room for all. Knowing this should make us less prideful and genuinely happy for others when good fortune comes their way. We should not feel less when others succeed because, if we make it to heaven, it will be all the sweeter if others are there with us.

Sooo….let us be less prideful. Pride only leads to unhappiness. Let us remember that we are all in a group interview together.  And although I felt, “duped”, those many years ago when I heard the salesman say, “You’re all hired!”. It will be wonderful to have that same experience with the Savior when we have our interview and know that, no matter how many people are in line for his kingdom, there will always be room for us.

 

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