FAIR's Rising Generation

Posts Tagged ‘cool’

Anyone who reads a topic line like that has got to wonder what I mean. I know. I wrote it.

Personally, I’m a cool guy. Why? Simple.

Some people think football is cool. Sorry, it’s not. Rugby? Oh yeah…real cool. I love Halo as much as the next guy (and I think I can beat him, too), but I wouldn’t call it cool. Board games on the other hand are very cool–like Settlers of Catan (I think I can beat the next guy at that, too).

Cool comes in many colors. For example, all the new military technology is pretty nifty. Yeah, that’s right; I said nifty, and I’m not ashamed.

Skateboards would be cool, but I can’t ride one, so I’m not so sure.

Anyway, the point is anything can be cool. Don’t expect everyone to agree with you, but since you define what’s cool, their opinions don’t count. But the more cool things you know about, the more you’ll get along with people. Experiment!

Still, that doesn’t mean everything should be cool. I know guys who used to be on hard drugs. Definitely not cool. You can ask them. There’s a bigger and more important thing that we should never let be cool. That’s church.

Well, some parts we can make cool–like youth nights. Try staying awake in seminary; it’s worth it. What’s never cool is the sacrament. If you really wanted to, you could pretend it’s cool: “You take the sacrament? That’s pretty hip. Me, too.” It doesn’t really work; does it? It shouldn’t.

Taking the sacrament every Sunday is how we make a personal promise to Heavenly Father, showing that we are going to be better people now. I regret a lot of things each week. My goal is to never regret the same things I did the week before. Taking the sacrament is like hitting benchmarks which show how I’m doing. If I hit the same problem week after week, I need to put more energy into it so I can make taking the sacrament a rewarding personal report: “Heavenly Father, I did it. What’s next?” Sacrament is not the time to repent; it’s the time to be forgiven. But wait! Is repenting cool?

No. People who backpack know it’s cool. People who repent know it’s not. But wait. If I’m a cool person, should I stop repenting? What do you think?

If the purpose of life was to be cool, then we wouldn’t need repentance. Repenting often means we made the wrong things cool, and now we know it. Do you remember the time when you did something to get your friends to like you more? No, I’m not talking about the gallon challenge. It was worse than that, and you knew it (or know it now). I’ve been there, too. I stopped, made sure my friends knew I stopped (not always easy, but always important), and then it came time to let God know I stopped. Part of it was telling Him I wished I didn’t do it in the first place. That’s repentance.

Repentance isn’t fun, it’s not cool, and it doesn’t make anyone cool. But it does give us the chance to try again and try harder. Then we can be cool again.

If you’re into paintball, sweet. If you like mysteries, nice. If you and I make sure cool doesn’t replace our link to Heavenly Father, then everything we do will have more meaning and feel better. Not cool, but definitely worth it.