SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2010 Are you settling for not enough of second best?

I recently received an email from my sister who lives in San Francisco. She asked me if I had a friend named Mike Kruckenberg. The question took my mind back about a decade and a half ago when I was attending Ricks College. Mike and I met in our college ward. He was the executive secretary and I was the sunday school president, so we attended PEC meetings together. We also had a chemistry class together. I was very impressed with his goodness and we both liked to joke around and became good friends. I haven't heard from him in over 10 years, so I thought I might google him and find out where he is. The result of that search was his blog. There was a particular entry he made on May 25, 2006 that I really liked and want to share here today.

" 'Are you getting what's important or not enough of second best?' - I love this phrase from David Wilcox in "Eye of the Hurricane" from "How did you find me Here?" Well I'm not sure if love is the right word, but its a phrase that I've thought about many times over the year:

When you lay your dream to rest

You can get what's second best

But it's hard to get enough

The question raises itself every now and then if I spend more of my time on what's most important, or if I'm in an endless struggle to get enough of second best. Its been more than 15 years ago that david wrote those words and I've been wondering about it ever since. My guess is that when you really get down to the core of people there are only a few things that are really important enough to be first. The rest is stuff we can never get enough of, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to get, we'll never be completely satisfied with, and as time passes we'll realize that it just wasn't that important. I'm not sure how good I am at prioritizing things, but I figure it's a good sign to at least be asking the question. Right?"

This entry by Mike makes me think of the scripture in the Book of Nephi and in the Book of Matthew that says, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven , where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (3 Nephi 13:19-21)