Why I believe the Jazz could win a championship

This is kind of a continuation of the last post. I have many thoughts on the subject, as you can see.

This particular thought is on the fallacy of predicting future behavior according to past events. Yes, I see the logic, but I also see some limitations.

As I discussed in the last post, though, it only takes one instance to provide us with further insight, or to prove something that we once thought impossible is indeed possible. It could not happen 999 times, and we would think we knew all about it. Some would even say it's never going to happen, and people would agree with them because for the last 999 times, that's been true. If you looked only at what had been, there would be no reason to believe it would happen. It only takes one time, though, to alter everyone's thinking and become "possible."

This is a very hopeful principle. It applies to nearly everything we do. We are not a creature of probability. We love the one time out of a thousand. We love when the underdog wins. We speed everywhere hoping this won't be the one time we get caught. We (some people) buy lottery tickets believing that this will be our one in a million. We eat at McDonalds because they give us Monopoly pieces that mean we might win something. We go one date after date waiting to find the one. We cheer for our team, honestly believing that this might be their year. We hope. We hope even when hoping might end up hurting. We hope because we don't want the alternative. We know that it's a long shot, but we hope.

There seems to be one area that we don't carry this principle over very well, though. When it comes to other people, we bind them to probabilities. This is what Christ never does, and what we must become. Christ sees the best in us and believes in what we can become. We can make the same mistake over and over and over, yet He believes in us. He is waiting for that one time in a thousand that we decide to act differently.

There are times that we do this. This principle is demonstrated with the mother who offers prayer after prayer that her wayward child will come back. She is waiting and hoping for the one in a thousand. It is demonstrated in the bloody knuckles of a missionary. He is looking for the one door in a thousand. It is demonstrated in the home teacher who goes month after month even though no progress is readily apparent. He is persevering until that one month that the message gets through. It is demonstrated by the single mother who persistently takes her children to church. She will not let them follow the statistics. It is demonstrated by the sinner who repents after years of sin. He is realizing his one in a thousand, and with open arms the Savior welcomes him back. Letting people change is a manifestation of the hope that is in us.

 

What seems impossible is not. Regardless of how many times something may seem to fail, it must not fail forever. Our understanding is limited by our perceptions of what is possible. I believe this is one small part of what is meant in 2 Nephi 9:29 where we are taught that "to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God." No matter how learned we become in this mortal realm, we do not know as much as God. No matter how hopeless a situation may seem, it is not. God is in control, and He is not bound by the frailty of mind with which we bind ourselves.

Hope is an eternal principle. As we learn to hope we become more like Christ, which is the goal of this mortal existence. As we are doing the things that the Master has instructed us, there is always hope. Impossible is a word of the devil. Each situation requires varying degrees of hope. It is in the ones that seem hopeless, though, that we must remember that people call things impossible until someone does them.