Watching the early audition videos at the beginning of an American Idol season can be strangely fascinating. The auditions draw all kinds of singers: the seasoned pros who want to bring their career to a higher level, the closet singers who hope to be “discovered” as the next big talent, and even those who are not serious about singing but thought it would be fun to try out.
There are a couple of themes that emerge throughout the auditions of those who don’t make the cut. One you see repeatedly is the singers who perform poorly and then try to explain to the judges that they were just “too nervous.”
The excuse of nerves really doesn’t help any, yet auditioners continually try to use it. When the judges kindly tell them that they aren’t what they’re looking for, the contestants somehow think that they can change the minds of the judges by explaining their poor performance. “You have to understand I’m very nervous,” one contestant plead.
Why do people think that making excuses can justify poor performances? To take this example further, what would happen if “Johnny Q” did manage to convince the judges that he should be sent to Hollywood to continue in the competition? Why does Johnny Q think he will be any less nervous onstage under a thousand glaring lights and in front of television cameras covering him from all angles, broadcasting his image to millions of viewers? If his nerves prevented him from performing well during his initial audition, how can it be any different if he’s allowed to continue? If he can’t overcome his nerves then, can he just explain to the audience that he was just too nervous to sing well, and expect that to fix everything?
Since this is LDSBlogs.com, you know there has to be a spiritual tie-in here. Well, excuse-making is something people do in “real life” as well. Sometimes we make excuses for our behavior in an attempt to keep others from thinking less of us. And sometimes we make excuses to ourselves, trying to escape feelings of guilt over our wrongdoings or failure to live up to the things we know we should be doing.
But excuses don’t solve problems. Sometimes they may hide them for a while, but they don’t solve them. Sometimes I think we fool ourselves into believing that “someday” circumstances will be different, our temperaments and abilities will have magically changed, and we’ll be ready to make those changes in our lives that we keep putting off.
Amulek puts this into perspective for us in the Book of Mormon:
33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world. (Alma 34:33-34)
Changes in our lives don’t come without conscious effort. Sometimes making these changes can be difficult work, and even painful to go through. But we cannot afford to live in complacency while making excuses for our wrong behavior and telling ourselves that we’ll be ready to change “someday.” As Amulek tells us, “someday” doesn’t come. But our day of accountability will.
President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the “Mormons“), has said:
The scriptures make the danger of delay clear. It is that we may discover that we have run out of time. The God who gives us each day as a treasure will require an accounting. We will weep, and He will weep, if we have intended to repent and to serve Him in tomorrows which never came or have dreamt of yesterdays where the opportunity to act was past. This day is a precious gift of God. The thought “Someday I will” can be a thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity. (“This Day,” Ensign, May 2007, 89–91)
There are great blessings that we can enjoy today as we make each day count, striving to overcome our weaknesses instead of making excuses for them. And just as auditioners on American Idol can learn to perform well in spite of their nervousness, we can learn to perform well in spite of our own weaknesses.
