Enduring
Our Wilderness Trek
The children of
Israel struggled as Moses brought them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Many
complained that life was easier for them as slaves to the Egyptians and longed
to go back. Moses constantly had to remind them that they were better off with
the Lord as their God and tried diligently to prepare them to be in God’s presence
when they reached Mt. Sinai but they continued to long for Egypt instead of
what Moses was preparing them for.
Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.
And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh;
For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.
Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God;
But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory.
Because of their
rebellion, Israel was forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until all
the adults died and a new people was raised up prepared to enter into the Promised Land.
Lehi had a
similar experience with his family when the Lord commanded him to take his
family and flee Jerusalem. Of his four sons, two of them, Lamen and Lemuel,
complained that they were leaving their comfortable lives for the wilderness.
Another son, Nephi, had the faith to go to the Lord for his own witness that
his father had been commanded by the Lord to flee and he received that witness
and followed his father willingly. The fourth son, Sam, did not put forth the
effort to gain his own witness, but believed Nephi and so followed willingly.
Like the
children of Israel and Lehi’s family we are also on our own wilderness trek.
When we were born here in mortality we had to leave the comfort of our heavenly
home and come here to be in the wilderness. How do we react to our wilderness
challenges? Are we like the children of Israel and Lamen and Lemuel, constantly
murmuring and complaining that life is hard and wishing for something better?
Are we like Sam who went along with his brother and father, but not putting
forth the effort to gain a personal witness of what the Lord would have you
do? Or are you like Nephi that takes challenges you are given and says:
I will go and do the things which
the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth
no commandments unto the children of men, save he
shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which
he commandeth them. (1 Nephi 3:7)
Elder Neal A.
Maxwell spoke of this to the students of BYU when he said: “let us once and for all establish our residence in Zion and give
up the summer cottage in Babylon” (“A Wonderful Flood of Light”, Neal A.
Maxwell, BYU Devotional, March 26, 1989).
In Lehi’s dream of the Tree of Life, he
described a great and spacious building full of people mocking those who were
partaking of the fruit of the tree. Nephi tells us that many listened to those
mocking and were ashamed and fell away others gave no head to the mocking and
clung to the iron rod and made it to the tree. There are those that mock the
church and our standards saying it is outdated and incorrect. We must not give
in to them and heed them not.
What other habits or interests do we have that keep our focus on the great and
spacious building? In a devotional address at BYU-Idaho Michael G. Clark asked:
“So now I ask, what are your
individually tailored temptations that emanate from this great and spacious
building? What is pulling you into or keeping you there? How good is your grip
on the iron rod? If you are partaking of the precious fruit how well are you
dealing with the fingers of scorn that are pointed in your direction? Very
simply, we might ask, where do we currently find ourselves in Lehi’s dream? If,
as President Packer suggested, you find yourself in that great and spacious
building to one degree or another, you may want to develop an escape plan.” (“Making Your Escape from the Great and Spacious Building”, Michael G. Clark,
BYU-Idaho Devotional, October 28, 2014)
I would like to suggest three things that will
help us give up our cottage in Babylon, to break away from the great and
spacious building and become true citizens of Zion.
1.
Keep the Sabbath Day
Holy
2.
Gain own testimony of the
restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith
3.
Use technology properly
First – Keep the
Sabbath day holy. Sabbath observance has always been one of the distinguishing
characteristics of true saints of God. The Lord has commanded:
And that
thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou
shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon
my holy day;
For verily this is a day appointed
unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;
And on this day thou shalt do none other
thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that
thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that
thy joy may be full. (Doctrine & Covenants 59:9-13)
Elder Gillespie
speaking in General Conference on a Sunday said:
“Today is the Sabbath. It does not end when we
leave this session; it does not end if someone calls on the phone or knocks at
our door inviting us to come out and play, go for a ride, to a ball game, or
shopping; it does not end because we are on vacation or someone is visiting us,
whether member or nonmember.
“The Sabbath lasts all day!
“The prophet Spencer W. Kimball counseled:
“The Sabbath is a holy day in which to do worthy and holy things. Abstinence
from work and recreation is important but insufficient. The Sabbath calls for
constructive thoughts and acts, and if one merely lounges about doing nothing
on the Sabbath, he is breaking it. To observe it, one will be on his knees in
prayer, preparing lessons, studying the gospel, meditating, visiting the ill
and distressed, sleeping, reading wholesome material, and attending all the
meetings of that day to which he is expected. [Failure] to do these proper
things is a transgression on the omission side.” (“The Blessings of Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy”, H.
Aldridge Gillespie, General Conference, October 2000)
The second thing
we need to do to be citizens of Zion is to gain our own testimony of the
restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Like Nephi when
he wanted to know for himself if what his father was teaching was true, we must
be willing to go to the tops of the mountains if needed to gain our own witness
that Joseph Smith did see the first vision and was given the priesthood
authority to restore the church again on the earth. We cannot live on the
borrowed light of someone else’s testimony. On LDS.org in the youth section on
testimony it says:
“You may have heard a testimony compared to a
burning fire before, but think about how a fire is built.
“If you try to light a big log, it probably
won’t catch fire. You have to have some sort of kindling, like smaller sticks
or leaves, to get the fire going. Likewise, small experiences can kindle the
fire of your testimony.
“Sometimes people may put lighter fluid on a
log, which makes the flames become bright, but once the lighter fluid is
burned, the fire dies back down because it was the lighter fluid and not the
log burning. Your testimony may sometimes be flamed by a strong spiritual
experience, but that may not be enough to maintain a constantly burning
testimony.
“Even if you have a nice fire burning, it will
eventually die if you don’t continue to put wood on it. In like manner, you
must continue to feed the fire of your testimony so that it doesn’t smolder
out.
“We can rely on the faith
and testimony of others only so long. Eventually we must have our own strong
and deeply placed foundation, or we will be unable to withstand the storms of
life, which will come” (“Gaining and Keeping a Testimony”, Mindy Rae Friedman,
LDS.org/youth)
Once we have a
personal testimony, we must continue steadfast and immovable in keeping the
commandments by following our prophet and local leaders, accept and serve in
church callings and follow the basics of scripture study, family and individual
prayer, temple attendance and 100% home and visiting teaching. These are the
fruits of someone that has a testimony.
The third principle
in leaving the great and spacious building behind is to use technology properly
and wisely. Elder Ridd in the April 2014 Priesthood Session of general
conference told the brethren:
“Young men, you have probably heard before
that you are a “chosen generation,” meaning that God chose and prepared you to
come to earth at this time for a great purpose. I know this to be true. But
this evening I would like to address you as the “choice generation” because
never before in history have individuals been blessed with so many choices.
More choices mean more opportunities; more opportunities mean more potential to
do good and, unfortunately, evil. I believe that God sent you here at this time
because He trusts you to successfully discern among the mind-boggling choices
available.
“In 1974, President Spencer W. Kimball
said, “I believe that the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of
which we laymen have hardly had a glimpse” (“When the World Will Be
Converted,” Ensign, Oct. 1974, 10).
“And He has! You are growing up with one of
the greatest tools for good in the history of man: the Internet. With it comes
an elaborate buffet of choices. The abundance of choice, however, carries with
it an equal portion of accountability. It facilitates your access to both the
very best and the very worst the world has to offer. With it you can accomplish
great things in a short period of time, or you can get caught up in endless
loops of triviality that waste your time and degrade your potential. With the
click of a button, you can access whatever your heart desires. That’s the
key—what does your heart desire? What do you gravitate toward? Where will your
desires lead? (“The Choice Generation”, Elder
Randall L. Ridd, General Conference, April 2014)
And just this
past general conference Elder Cook said:
“A wonderful example of the need for
moderation, balance, and wisdom is the use of the Internet. It can be used to
do missionary outreach, to assist with priesthood responsibilities, to find
precious ancestors for sacred temple ordinances, and much more. The potential
for good is enormous. We also know that it can transmit much that is evil,
including pornography, digital cruelty,8 and anonymous yakking. It can also perpetuate
foolishness. As Brother Randall L. Ridd poignantly taught at the last
general conference, speaking of the Internet, “You can get caught up in endless
loops of triviality that waste your time and degrade your potential.”
“Distractions and opposition to righteousness
are not just on the Internet; they are everywhere. They affect not just the
youth but all of us. We live in a world that is literally in commotion.10 We are surrounded by obsessive portrayals of
“fun and games” and immoral and dysfunctional lives. These are presented as
normal conduct in much of the media.
“Elder David A. Bednar recently cautioned
members to be authentic in the use of social media.11 A prominent thought leader, Arthur C.
Brooks, has emphasized this point. He observes that when using social media, we
tend to broadcast the smiling details of our lives but not the hard times at
school or work. We portray an incomplete life—sometimes in a self-aggrandizing
or fake way. We share this life, and then we consume the “almost exclusively …
fake lives of [our] social media ‘friends.’” Brooks asserts, “How could it not
make you feel worse to spend part of your time pretending to be happier than
you are, and the other part of your time seeing how much happier others seem to
be than you?” (“Choose Wisely”, Elder Quentin L. Cook, General Conference, October 2014)
Making the
choices to use the technology wisely will help us focus on the things that
matter most. We are able to be clean from the sins of this generation and
worthy to have the Holy Ghost be with us. If we are worthy of the Holy Ghost to
dwell with us, we are then able to have our prayers answered when we ask to
know the truth concerning the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we
can know for ourselves that it is true.
As we keep the
commandment to obey the Sabbath, we also keep ourselves apart from Babylon and
the mocking of those who are in the great and spacious building. If we do not
heed their words and cling to the iron rod we will eventually be able to
partake of the fruit of the tree of life, which is the most precious of all
other fruits.
Then as saints
of God, instead of murmuring about our problems, we are able to see the
difficulties that we experience in this wilderness trek as opportunities to
grow and prove ourselves worthy of being citizens of Zion and exaltation in the Kingdom of God.
Your comments
and questions are welcome.
One of our family traditions is the
grandkids get their Christmas pajamas on Thanksgiving. It seems that no matter how old they are they still enjoy getting their new pajamas from grandma and grandpa at
Thanksgiving. They get to try them on and then we take pictures. They even get
to be silly in some of the pictures. This year the weather was so warm they
were able to go outside and play. We were all blessed to have the opportunity to talk on the phone with our youngest son who was not there with us.
My brother’s family is having another
homecoming this year. Their youngest son came home this past week from serving
a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Missionary homecomings are special traditions for LDS Families. The whole
family goes to the airport to greet the returning missionary. There is nothing more comforting for a mother than to be able to give her son a hug after being away
from her for two years. The biggest adjustment is seeing the growth and
maturity that has taken place from two years of selfless service as a
representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no joy greater that a mother
and father can feel than a child coming home again.
There is another
homecoming that some of my classmates form high school have experienced over
the past few weeks. They have had family members go home to their Father in
Heaven. Losing a loved one is difficult and yet if we understand where they are
going it should be a time of rejoicing for the one we have lost. They are home.
William Wordsworth in his Poem “Ode – Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood” said:
They were assembled awaiting the advent of the
Son of God into the spirit world, to declare
their redemption from the bands of death.