WHerE yoU wanT TO EnD uP

     I've recently started a new second job. I work from 9:30pm-1:30am, Monday through Friday, doing custodial work at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. As I've been driving there every night, I've had something impressed on my mind. Between the time when I get off the freeway and when I arrive at Temple Square, I pass a couple of bars and a strip club. There are cars in all the parking lots every night, and sometimes lined up up and down the street. One of the bars is right next to the oil refinery and the smell coming off of there can be bad, to say the least. Yet people flock there. Night after night, they flock there. Taco Tuesday. Fajita Friday. Other specials each day. The horrid smell does nothing to keep them away. The strip club is at the darkest spot on the road with lane line SO faint, that they are almost invisible, and I find THAT telling in its own way. There are still cars there when I leave.
     The thing that has been impressed on me is how much that is a metaphor for this life. Every night there is nothing to stop me from going in to ANY of those buildings. No one would know me. No one would care. No one, but ME and God would have any idea where I was. However, if I truly want to reach my goal every night. If I want to walk into a building filled with beautiful artwork, amazing statues, and decor and views that are absolutely stunning, then I have to stay on the road. I have to keep going. I have to have my goal in mind EVERY SINGLE DAY.
     We are on the road we call mortality. Along the way there are many places to stop that we can choose from. Our goal is being with our Father in Heaven again. We can stop anywhere along that road. We can take back roads or detours, but if we want to reach the destination we want to end up in, then we need to stay on the road. We need to have that goal in our minds.
     It may seem odd, but I make a point of looking at all three of those buildings every night to remind me of where it is that I truly want to be.

I look.

I smile to myself.

I keep driving on the road.