What is the value of a life?

On a recent LONG international journey I watched a couple movies that dealt with making life and death choices.

One was Kidnap, about a mother who was pursuing her kidnapped son.

*Spoiler Alert!* She made choices that led to others (innocent and not so innocent) being hurt, and possibly dying, in an effort to save her son. Conversely, there was also a time when she risked her own life to save an innocent woman from being hit by a car. How do you choose who's life is more important?

This movie left me with lots of unsettled feelings and thoughts. To distract myself (and pass more time :) I decided to watch another movie: Dunkirk.

Throughout the movie, there were soldiers who would do just about anything to try to save themselves. Then there was a pilot who risked everything to increase the odds that other Allied soldiers would survive. In the end, he runs out of fuel, safely landing on the beach just to be captured by the enemy. He decided that his life was not more valuable than those he could potentially save.

All of this got me thinking about intentions. We don't know what is going on in people's hearts, but in general I find it to be helpful to assume people are doing the best they can with the resources and information they have.

It also made me think about my own intentions.

A conversation I had with my brother after he watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi in Germany also came to mind. He shared a moment in the film where someone's intentions focused on good when they could have been driven by hate or anger:

“I saved you dummy. That's how we're going to win. Not fighting what we hate; saving what we love.”

The same thing can be done with very different motives or intentions, and I find that my intentions have a huge impact on me before, during and after I do things. I hope to choose to save things and people I love (and pray I don't find myself in many situations where I have to make life and death decisions!!)

What am I capable of?

Over the past few days I've been contemplating what I am capable of because of things I read in two different books.

The first was A Criminal Defense by William L Myers Jr. It was a fascinating read, but got me thinking about what kind of evil I am capable of. Could I accidentally kill someone and then try to cover it up? If someone asked me to help them do "whatever it takes" would I do so?

The second book was The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer. This is a fun series that gives a new perspective to fairytale characters - both hero's and villains. In this book, one villain tells a hero (paraphrased by me): "You're just like me, and one day you'll look in the mirror and see that and it will terrify you." To which the hero responds: "I'm nothing like you!" In the very next book, the hero finds the villains words to be true.

Between these two books, it's made me look at my life and think about some of my bad habits and best intentions gone wrong, to the detriment of others. And it made me wonder: "Am I capable of that?"

The answer: Yes, we are all capable of great good and great evil.

The real question is: where do we spend our time, our energy, our thoughts? What safe guards do we put in our life to keep us moving in the direction we want to go?

This has to include both limits/restrictions on our behavior - things we will not do/consume, places we will not go, people we choose not to associate with, etc. AND it has to include proactive things we will do. Bad habits can't be replaced by a void, we must fill our time and mental space with positive things.

That reminds me a of a concept that President Boyd K Packer taught that has stuck with me over the years.

"When temptation comes, you can invent a delete key in your mind—perhaps the words from a favorite hymn. Your mind is in charge; your body is the instrument of your mind. When some unworthy thought pushes into your mind, replace it with your delete key. Worthy music is powerful and can help you control your thoughts." (see Prayer and Promptings)

Very reassuring - I can use the power of my mind to influence the choices I make with my body. And I have the power, and responsibility, to adjust my thoughts - literally deleting things I don't want to be on the stage of my mind, replacing them with good things that are more powerful.

This also made me think about what I've learned from the scriptures on this topic, and two scriptures came to mind:

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." (see Matthew 6:24)

And

"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves." (see Doc & Cov 58:27-28)

In pondering on this subject, I feel that it is often from moment to moment that we choose which master we are going to follow. We can continue to make new choices in the following moment, hour, day and week. And as we fill our lives with positive thoughts followed by positive actions we will grow to love and more fully follow God. As we are "anxiously engaged in a good cause" we remove the time in our lives and the space in our minds for anything else.