A Direct Course

This past week has been an interesting one.  Schools have started back up for kids.  TCU started last week.  UVU starts tomorrow and BYU the following week.  But other than my dissertation work--which never stops--being technically connected to a school year, nothing has changed for me.  I am not teaching any classes and I am not taking any classes.  It's a unique feeling after so many years of studies.  And yet it is really good.  This past week was highlighted by some important discoveries for work.

As I was studying my scriptures this past week, I came across Alma's wonderful words about the Liahona to his son Helaman in Alma 37.  Alma informed his son that the Liahona "did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day.  Nevertheless, because those miracles were worked by small means it did show unto them marvelous works.  They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey; Therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did not travel a direct course, and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions" (Alma 37:40-42).

As I read these words, I began asking myself a question.  If Laman and Lemuel and the rest of Lehi's family had been as faithful as Lehi, Sariah, and Nephi were, would they have arrived in the promised land quicker?  Would they have traveled directly to the promised land without interruption or struggle?  Would there have been broken bows, and struggles with hunger, and experiences of death and mourning?

These are simple questions, and perhaps not incredibly insightful, but I realized that I had always just assumed that what Alma meant was that Lehi's party would have made it to the promised land quicker under such circumstances.  And that well may be the case.  Perhaps it would only have taken 3 years or 5 years to make the journey.  But I realized that perhaps it was not exactly what I had thought.  I had assumed that Nephi would have made it there in a year or at the most two if everyone had been just like him.  But as I asked myself these simple questions, I began to realize that perhaps my understanding of those events had not been exactly right.

I am confident that bows would still have broken.  The party still would have experience hunger, thirst, and fatigue.  They still would have gone through the death of Ishmael and perhaps others that we don't know of.  They still might have run into the heavy storm upon the ocean.  For righteousness is not a guarantee of tranquil waters and smooth sailing.  It is not a guarantee that we will be free of stressful times and difficult challenges and sorrows.  It isn't even a guarantee of a direct course through life with no twists and turns.  What righteousness does guarantee to us, however, is that when these twists, turns, storms, and sorrows arise that we will be able to navigate them with a continued faith and hope.  Righteousness does guarantee us that as we approach these challenges, we will continue to have the Lord's spirit to guide us and direct us through the midst of our personal perils.

It is important for us to understand this because in our own lives, as we come to our own personal twists, turns, storms, and sorrows, we might be tempted to conclude that these things are the result of our own personal failings.  Certainly prolonged and unrepentant sin will cause us to deviate from the paths that the Lord has marked out for us.  And so certainly we must each ask the question "Lord, is it I?" as President Dieter F. Uchtdorf has so powerfully taught us.  Of course there are areas where we are falling short and need to repent.  Lehi had them (see 1 Nephi 16), Nephi had them (see 2 Nephi 4), and all of us will have them.  We need to identify these failings and then repent quickly.  But we must also be cautious not to automatically assume when we have challenges in our lives that they are the direct result of own failings and shortcomings, as though God was waiting anxiously to punish us for the smallest mistake.  If we are striving to follow the Lord, to hearken to His counsel, and to quickly repent of our sins, then our trials and challenges will most likely be the result of God's love for us and His desire to help us grow.  Rather than moments of divine judgment, these are moments of Divine love that give us the opportunity to exercise faith in greater degrees than we have managed up to that point.

Only the Lord knows if Lehi's party could have or should have made it to the promised land more quickly than 8 years.  And only the Lord knows if our own delays as we journey to our personal promised lands are result of personal failings or if they are actually a part of the course that He mapped out for us.  But I believe that we can trust and hope that if we are striving to follow Him, He will not let us languish in the deserts of life, but will bring us safely home as quickly and as directly as we need to come and as He sees fit.

Brett