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Visualizing the Greatest Story Ever Told
By Richard and Linda Eyre

Editor's note: During the "first half" of this column, Richard outlined and defined “The Three Deceivers” of Control, Ownership, and Independence, and detailed how our obsessions with them can ruin the quality of our lives. If you missed any of the earlier columns in this series, you can go to the Deceivers Archive (see right sidebar) to catch up. Then, in the second phase of the column, he replaced the deceivers with "The Three Alternatives" of SERENDIPITY, STEWARDSHIP, and "SYNERGICITY.” Richard is currently presenting a series of suggestions on how to make the attitudinal shift from the Three Deceivers to the Three Alternatives. Send comments to Richard@meridianmagazine.com.

Merry Christmas Readers!

Many of you have been with me on Fridays and weekends in this column for nearly a year! The Three Deceivers/The Three Alternatives will close with its last columns early in the new year, but before we get to those concluding and summarizing messages, let us all pause this week and next for a Christmas message (this week) and a New Year's message (next week.)

After all, Christ is the author and the exemplar of the words and the life that have inspired The Three Alternatives, and the coming New Year of 2008 is the perfect time to make and live the new resolutions that will allow us all to distance ourselves from the false ideas of Control, Ownership and Independence, and embrace the gifts of Serendipity, Stewardship and Synergicity into our daily lives. Linda joins me in sending this article, and our love and best wishes for an especially memorable Christmas.

Life (and Eternity) as a Movie

Sometimes when we see something in a movie — even something we are already very familiar with — it makes the incident seem more real. Something about the perspective of seeing it on a big screen, sharp and focused, and just how it is — being able to zoom in, and pan back, and really see it from every angle, and to watch it unfold and happen before our eyes makes the reality of it more clear to us.

I knew about World War II, but certain movies have made it seem more real. The same with so many other things — space flight, the Holocaust, certain sporting events, even various places on the earth that I had seen, but somehow saw them better and clearer when they were depicted in a movie.

So today, let’s see if we can imagine the greatest story ever told as a movie. The biggest story, the story of everything, the story of our lives and our eternity and of God's plan of salvation. I don't know what the name of it would be. It is too epic to ever come up with an adequate title. But it is the story of the mission of God himself, of Heavenly Father's purpose of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. If it were rated, it couldn't be with a G or a PG. It would have to be rated B, for "beyond our understanding."

It would begin in the pre-mortal existence where we all lived as God's children, and it would have other major scenes, some here on earth, some in the spirit world to follow, and some in the kingdoms left to come. It would be the incredible story of our transformation from children in our Father's home to beings with agency and options and with missions and children of our own. It would be a story that never ends, but that progresses to points we can scarcely imagine, points where we begin to become as He is.

Casting Director

Now, imagine for just a minute (because imagining is what you do when you make a movie) that you are the casting director for this vast story. What are the major roles?

What are the parts for leading actors? And what supporting actors and bit parts are there? Since you know the broad outlines of the story, you should be able to make a list of the leading roles that must be played, of the characters in the drama that play the key individuals in the most pivotal scenes. The list might look something like this:

The Advocate/Candidate. The character in the first scene where the battle begins and where sides are taken, where everyone in the cast makes the decision of whether or not to participate in the drama. This is the major role of the presenter of the plan who somehow convinces us to take the risk that lets the whole play unfold. The magnificent leader that wins the vote of two thirds of those who are there.
The Creator of the Earth. This movie has extraordinary and remarkable scenes and sets. An entire planet, with unimaginable beauty and variety. It will test the cinematographers to capture even a fraction of it. Our second key role must be played by a major actor who will be the designer, the builder, and the creator of the world. There will be some important supporting actors in this scene, particularly one named Michael.
The King and the Law Giver. The major character in this scene, which lasts nearly 4,000 years, will be the one who gives the rules and direction to Moses, Noah, Abraham and all of the other supporting actors.
The Revolutionary Teacher. At a highly exciting and emotional part of the movie, a character appears, miraculously and accompanied by angels, as the Prince of Peace. He turns the world upside down and replaces the old law of laws with the new law of Love. Helped by supporting actors like Peter, James and John, Joseph Smith and other Prophets and Apostles, the major actor here must project a message of that resonates through all mankind. This actor must be the very definition of charisma.
The Atoner/Savior. The role that, without which, the whole movie would fail. Because every bit player in the movie is imperfect (the cast, by the way, is huge — something like 40 or 50 billion) the story can be saved only by one perfect performance.
The Equalizer and the Judge. In a dramatic scene change, the movie shifts to a spiritual level and to a place where those who had incomplete experiences in the earlier scene have a chance to catch up. The major character here is the one who leads the teaching effort and who judges how well each and every person does and where all will fit into the finale.
The King and Lord of All. In the magnificent wind-up, filmed in a place of unimaginable glory, the key role, of course, is the King, who has now accomplished all that His Father sent him forth to do, and who now presides over the accomplished mission of God.

The Real Casting Director, and the One and Only

This would be quite a challenge for a casting director. Each of the seven major roles in the movie is extraordinarily difficult, requiring a range of emotions and power that seem impossible. Each of the seven roles is absolutely critical to the success of the movie, and each must be acted our perfectly if the story is to succeed. How would you ever be able to cast such a play, to find even one of the actors you would need?

That is the point. You could only find one. Only one. One who could play any of the roles. One who could play all of the roles. One and only one. The only one that could play any of the roles is the only one that could play all of the roles.

And of course, (and thank goodness) you are not the casting director. That is God, the Father of us all. And He, according to His perfect wisdom and to the poetic necessity of eternal reality, cast His firstborn spirit son, and his only begotten son in all seven of the major roles. May we think of them all, marvel at them all, at this magical and majestic time of year, trying with all our hearts to grasp even a small part of the beauty as we celebrate the one time when a Son was begotten, and the one magnificent Brother who could, and did, and will play all of the crucial roles in our eternal story.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell wondered if the scripture that says "there was one who was greater than they all" may mean not that there was one who was the greatest, but there was one whose intelligence, whose power, whose purity was greater than all of the others combined.

C.S. Lewis tried to capture a similar thought when he said, "Beware of professed Christians who posses insufficient awe of Christ." And Elder Maxwell, again, said "The more we ponder where we stand with regard to Jesus Christ, the more we realize that we do not stand at all, we only kneel.”

Merry Christmas!