55 Dollars

I was at BYU for five years. I occasionally sold back my textbooks, but usually just forgot and kept them. I spent hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on these books. Five years of schooling, thousands of dollars worth of textbooks, and I finally went to sell back these books that had been laying around.... and I was able to get 55 dollars back. And I'm grateful for those 55 dollars.

This post isn't an anger post. It's a post on widening and changing your perspective, and a little more if you care to read until the end. Sometimes, we make investments that last a long time and take up a lot of our resources. We feel like we're entitled to more, like something else should have come out of it. But.... the fact is... the world doesn't really owe us anything. People don't owe us anything. Everything we give has come willingly out of our own hands. The textbook companies technically don't have to pay anything back for textbooks, it would probably make them more money to keep selling back original copies of the newer editions, and not paying anything for old books. But, they do give something something for it. They give you something back, and with that something you can go buy an ice cream cone or whatever you please, and think about the fact that you were just given a gift. It doesn't matter whether or not the return equals the investment, I want to pose the idea that maybe there's more to it than that.

It relates a lot more than just to textbooks. It relates to every experience you'll ever have where you feel like what you were given fell short of what you put into it. Maybe what you received out of an investment was an experience, but without the ending you really deserved. Maybe you received a lesson, but a lesson that left you in a worse place. Maybe you received some fund that was miserably lower than you gave. You're going to want to be angry, upset that you didn't get what you were owed.

Instead of being upset, use those experiences to guide somebody else. Teach that lesson to somebody who is naive of whatever you learned. Or use those meager funds just to be a little happier. There's going to be a greater good in those 55 dollars if you look for it. But, you need the patience to look beyond and see what you're really getting.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, somebody came to earth who could see beyond that 55 dollar initial return. He could comprehend beyond that. He came to teach a message of hope, of salvation and forgiveness. He came to inform people of a greater truth beyond each of their own meager returns. He spent is whole life teaching people, giving Himself to a great work. And, initially for that, He was beaten. He was humiliated. And He was crucified after suffering every pain imaginable to mortality. It became so difficult that He pondered aloud if it could all just be taken away. And, when it could not, when the initial return had to be what it was, which was a lot of suffering, He declared, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42)."

As I'm sure you know, this was Jesus Christ. This was our Savior, the man whose initial "55 dollars" didn't seem fair at all, bringing along more suffering than any of us could understand. But, what he was given at first wasn't the end of the story. What came after the lowest initial return in history, after being put through the greatest agony ever given, was also the greatest return in the history of mankind. It was the Resurrection, and along with that the Salvation of mankind. His patience to look past what He could first see made the Greatest Gift possible. Through being willing to accept what was first paid out, He gave us all something far greater. 

Now, the most important message of Easter is that of the Resurrection, and Christ's triumph over death. Even as I write this, I want the reader to remember the more important message that today, Easter, brings. I just want to share this other perspective, as well, so that we can all remember to have patience, and trust the Lord in what He gives us. It may seem like a hard thing, and we may also ponder if the outcome could be different, but the Lord knows what we and others will ultimately gain from whatever we're given. 

As you're pondering the greater messages of Easter, it may be worth it to also broaden your perspective on your current situation, and to remember the Lord's power to multiply what we're initially given into something far greater than we realize. He had the power to turn the greatest agony into the greatest victory. And Christ had the patience and wisdom to understand this was possible. Remember that, no matter how meager your return, your investment won't be lost. It will all pay off if you allow it to. Allow the Lord to show you what your compensation is truly worth.