What would the pioneers think?

What would the pioneers think?

Some say if you cannot write about sports you cannot write about anything. Hmm. I don't know if that is at all true. But this will be about sports. I am writing about something, by default. Whether it is "good" writing, that always remains to be seen.

 

Last night I watched the BYU football team put the smack down on the recently more powerful Utah State Aggies of Logan, Utah, final score 42-14. I was happy to see my private religious Utah college alma mater on the grid iron regain some respectability there, as compared to losses to the new state rival up north in 2017 and 2018. BYU desperately needs some wins in November that were fleeting in September and October, namely to weaker opponents South Florida and Toledo. We have a chance now to improve on last year's underwhelming 7-6 record. Better than 2017; everything has to be. (2017 saw second year coach Kilani Sitake lead them to a 4-9 record, the worst for the team since the 1950s!)

Their team in 2019 so far, these 4 quarter back-lead independent Cougar squad, is better than their record on paper: 4-4 with four games left, but it will do. They blew some late game leads to lesser teams, but they also had some luck in wins against vaunted names of Tennessee and USC.

The trophy of the game against Utah St. is the Old Wagon Wheel, a tribute and reminder of the pioneer heritage that Utah shares for these two schools.

For those that don't know, or simply for a few of us legacy church members and fellow Utahns to consider and contemplate, the pioneers of Utah, maybe known as Utah territory or even Mexican territory back then to the rest of the world, in the 1840s until around 1860 were tens of thousands of people (maybe 6?) from across the globe who became converted to the message of Joseph Smith and later Brigham Young of the new founded Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Today there are hundreds of thousands, (harder to quantify the millions, precisely), who hail from the heritage and ancestry of those 1800 intrepid pioneers.

And we remember them, in one way, with this football game trophy.

Between 1847 and 1860, some 60,000 converts made their way to the Salt Lake Valley, which when began was an area legally owned by Mexico, which quickly changed during the U.S. Mexican-American War. Many came from England, some were Scottish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic (see Spanish Fork, Utah).  

Most were poor and cast off from their old lives. Many left their homes under protest of those that knew them, yet they came with hopes in a modern Church restored by men and women of God. They believed this was the newly restored and long hoped for Kingdom of God on Earth, ushered in by prophets and apostles of God with His very priesthood and authority, and "new" ancient scripture called the Book of Mormon.

What would they think of us in 2019 today?

Guys like me who attend church and regard their legacy and hope, in Jesus and His appointed leaders, yet spell bound by the bounces of a rubber pig-skin oblong ball surrounded by warriors of face-masked helmets and bulging shoulder pads, cleeted feet and rubber mouth pieces and hanging chin straps?

Have we lost our way, our vision, our purpose?

What are we doing?

These of the past were ones who sang and danced together on the plains of Nebraska and Wyoming after long, arduous days of travel on beasts, or wagons, or on foot, and eventually handcart. For the poorest and most desperate among them.

Are we spoiled today?

Have we forgotten true dedication and sacrifice?

Maybe I have.

Maybe I need to re-calibrate such hopes and visions of the inherited Kingdom of God.

The Wagon Wheel is not everything, but it bespeaks many things.

I must listen to the Spirit and spirits of those that have wielded it.

And push my own wagon wheel across the plains and mountains to the Promised Land.

Zion awaits, Zion is here.

Win the Wagon Wheel with Honor.