Meaning of Life and the 3 Act Play

Just yesterday I went with my wife to a screening of a Kirk Cameron documentary style movie that attempted to answer the question “why to bad things happen to good people.”

It reminded me of this old seminary video of Elder Packer comparing the plan of salvation to a 3 act play. (you can watch it on YouTube)

In a 1995 fireside address to young adults, President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, said:

“The course of our mortal life, from birth to death, conforms to eternal law and follows a plan described in the revelations as the great plan of happiness. The one idea, the one truth I would inject into your minds, is this: There are three parts to the plan. You are in the second or the middle part, the one in which you will be tested by temptation, by trials, perhaps by tragedy. Understand that and you will be better able to make sense of life and to resist the disease of doubt and despair and depression.

“The plan of redemption, with its three divisions, might be likened to a grand three-act play. Act 1 is entitled ‘Premortal Life.’ The scriptures describe it as our first estate (see Jude 1:6; Abraham 3:26, 28). Act 2, from birth to the time of resurrection, is the ‘Second Estate.’ And act 3 is called ‘Life After Death’ or ‘Eternal Life.’

“In mortality, we are like actors who enter a theater just as the curtain goes up on the second act. We have missed act 1. The production has many plots and subplots that interweave, making it difficult to figure out who relates to whom and what relates to what, who are the heroes and who are the villains. It is further complicated because we are not just spectators; we are members of the cast, on stage, in the middle of it all!” (The Play and the Plan [CES fireside for young adults, May 7, 1995], 1–2).

The idea is that life (and our role in it) will make much more sense if we know the play script – to be found in the SCRIPTures. In the Seminary video Elder packer says that things might happen in the second act that seem wrong to us. He said that we should remember that it is only in the third act that when these seeming injustices will make more sense all live “happily ever after.”

I played around with this three act play to describe what I believe.

Imagine that you and 20 other people find yourselves transported with amnesia to a deserted island. You do not know where you are, who you are, who put you there, and what you are expected to do. Over time you develop relationships with the other 20 islanders. you work together to build a sort of civil society. Some put forward theories as to who is behind this whole island experiment and what it is designed to achieve. You find such theories interesting but not hugely pressing to your life. Life as you know it is this desert island. Why ask why? Over time you marry and have kids. Suddenly a fatal illness sweeps over the island. While you survive, your spouse and children die. Suddenly these questions take on new urgency. Why are you on this island? What are you supposed to do here? Was the disease and death part of the plan? What lesson is supposed to be learned by all this?

Fast forward many many years. Generations have come and gone on this desert island. The theories once proposed by the original inhabitants to give meaning to their experience have been written down and survive to this day as holy writings. Many take comfort and a sense of purpose from these writings. Whole churches have grown up for the purpose of interpreting and expounding upon the holy writ. Every once in a while a new church springs forward with a new take and perspective on those ancient stories. People are born, live, and die grappling with the same basic questions.

To compare this to Elder Packer’s analogy, the whole history of man is contained in the second act of the play. We are born with no knowledge of anything that might have preceded our coming into the world and becoming self aware. We do not know anything for sure about if there ever was a “first act” to help explain things. We similarly do not know if there is anything to come after our current existence – a “third act” where justice will reign and we will be rewarded according to our faith and diligence in act two. We do not know for certain if there ever will come a “happily ever after.”

Why bad things happen to good people is sort of a pet interest of mine. I am fascinated by the different answers that different churches and individuals give to this very question. Many of them are reasonably good answers. They give to their adherents a sense of hope and purpose and meaning. If they do that then perhaps they are all true in the sense that they do their job and are effective in helping people make sense of the human condition.

As is stated in my signature line:

“It is not so much the pain and suffering of life which crushes the individual as it is its meaninglessness and hopelessness.” C. A. Elwood

“It is not the function of religion to answer all the questions about God’s moral government of the universe, but to give one courage, through faith, to go on in the face of questions he never finds the answer to in his present status.” TPC: Harold B. Lee 223

“I struggle now with establishing my faith that God may always be there, but may not always need to intervene” Heber13