Chapter 3: The Time We Have

Here is the talk I gave for my farewell address; I hope all of you can enjoy the thoughts I had during these last weeks preparing to enter the mission field.

As we prepared to enter this life, our purpose was clear. We knew exactly what we were meant to do and we knew exactly why we were going to do it. We understood that this mortal sojourn "was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God" (Alma 42:4). We were taught the plan, that divine "way...prepared for all men from the foundation of the world" (1 Nephi 10:18). We did not spiritually walk into the womb without an idea of what laid ahead. The way forward was clear and distinguishable, each of us knew God and lived in his presence, but it could not stay this way. We were born into the world, passing through a veil which pulled that perspective from us. Our life on Earth began.

In this life we are subject to the conditions of a fallen world, a world in which exists opposition. From the presence of God all mankind enters into the presence of Satan. Here his influence has the power to bind the hearts of men and women. Here the adversary of all that is good does not simply sit on the sidelines and watch us disinterested. He is actively engaged, unceasingly aware, and completely committed. Here Satan desperately fights to cloud that purpose God's children once knew so perfectly, to twist the intent of how they use their time, to cheat their souls and lead them away carefully down to hell (2 Nephi 28:21). We are his targets. "...Satan desires to have YOU" (3 Nephi 18:18). Our eternal potential brings him eternal torment, and so "Satan (does) go about" today (3 Nephi 1:3). "Satan (has) great power" (3 Nephi 6:15) , but how does he accomplish his work? How does he cloud our purpose? Satan pushes pride, over-zealousness leading to looking beyond the mark, and temptation to fulfill his desires for destruction.

The warnings against pride can be heard across the barriers of time, religion, and geography for pride can be seen in all times, in all religions, and in all places. Pride is said to be the vice that breeds vice, a source leading one to greater iniquity. Pride clouds our purpose by causing us to forget entirely the reason we are here and the great goodness of God and His plan. We learn from many instances in the Book of Mormon that no matter the miracle, Satan can "harden...hearts, to the intent that they might not believe" (3 Nephi 1:22). People throughout the Book of Mormon experience blessings beyond comprehension and still become puffed up in their hearts and forget the Lord their God. When we forget God, we lose the direction we need in our lives that comes only through a connection to The Spirit and through a desire to follow God's will. Pride leads people to "become for themselves," as Mormon explains (3 Nephi 1:29). Pride turns one inward instead of outward, focusing minds and hearts on the material instead of the eternal. In this world, secular hedonism leads men and women to the false notion that money is salvation, that through navigating the economy, joy can be found, and that possessions and power bring about purpose and place. This may be true in the kingdoms of men, but not of God. The economy of God runs on the currency of "the conditions of repentance, which bringeth the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls," and through this economy we can find joy (Helaman 5:11). An attitude of pride clouds our purpose because central to that purpose is our Redeemer's Atonement that allows us to repent and change. Pride is the wall we build between us and the humility required to submit to God's will and repent, Satan always nearby trying to hand us bricks and mix the cement, for he is the master architect of the walls of damnation.

Isaiah speaks of another way our purpose becomes clouded, a distant cousin of the previously mentioned pride. He speaks messianically, "Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand--ye shall lie down in sorrow" (Isaiah 50:11). In the one direct description of this idea of 'looking beyond the mark,' Jacob uses it to describe the Jews who were "stiffnecked" and rejected "plainness." This led to a blindness, "which blindness came by looking beyond the mark" (Jacob 4:14). One of the subtle ways we can loose the perspective of our purpose is through looking beyond the mark and making our own fire, loosing sight of the plain truth that it is only through Christ can we find the source of all light and salvation. Jesus Christ himself explained this more clearly during his visitation to the Nephites, saying, "Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in they name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them: I never knew you; depart from me" (3 Nephi 14:22-23). The proverbial 'mark' of our purpose really is simply to come to know our Savior, to develop that intimate relationship with him, to come so close to the light of all lights that the darkness cannot be. We are to become as he is, by learning of him and making him the center of our lives as President Nelson said. This is our purpose. Not to do great things, to cast out the devils or perform wonderful works. These things are as naught without that connection and relationship to our Savior, something more simply described as faith.

Which brings us to the hope against all the schemes of the devil, The Doctrine of Christ himself. The plan. This plan begins with faith. Faith is not "to have a perfect knowledge", as we know from Alma's teachings, but rather it is to believe and trust in something greater than ourselves. Faith in Christ is to acknowledge Him in all our ways, to trust in Him with all our hearts, and lean not on our own understanding. This faith, this trust, drives us to action. When we trust in Christ and have faith in his atonement, we will naturally follow his teachings and become more like him in our thoughts, words, and deeds. This leads us to the second part of the doctrine of Christ, the idea of repentance. Repentance in the simplest terms, is to change. Faith drives change. Repentance is the plan, it is the way prescribed from the foundation of the world for us to reconcile ourselves with God's will through humility and striving. We yearn to be better. We ponder deeply the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us, leading us to the only conclusion that we must repent and make changes in our life. The conditions of repentance are the way we receive the grace of Christ, the way we allow ourselves to become as he is. Through doing this we then naturally make sacred covenants, beginning with Baptism, or the gate by which we enter in (2 Nephi 31:18). The covenant of Baptism, as are all covenants, is a sign of higher commitment to our Savior Jesus Christ and to his commandments. As a promised blessing of this commitment, we are granted the opportunity to receive the Holy Ghost into our lives and our countenance. This Holy member of the Godhead is the beating heart within us pumping the blood of our purpose through our souls. As we remain worthy of the Holy Ghost, we can learn the truth of all things and become sanctified from our sins as we repent (Moroni 10:5). We can become emboldened in our discipleship and have the strength to fulfill the final doctrine of Christ, enduring to the end. "Wherefore ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life" (2 Nephi 31:21). We must remember that each aspect of the Doctrine of Christ must be applied continually, and think of our progression in this path as unto a tree that brings forth fruit. The tree comes from a seed, and must be nourished continually as it grows. Soon a tree bears fruit, and we love the taste and feel of the goodness, but the tree is not close to done growing, and so do we slacken the hand of nourishment? Of course not. The seasons of life pass, and fruit is borne in its own time, but the nourishment of the tree must be continual. So it is with each aspect of the Doctrine of Christ, and this is how we overcome the devices of the devil. It is how we remain true to our purpose.

As a final thought, I would like to clear the looking glass of our purpose by perhaps shining the light of Christ's purpose through it. When we understand Christ's purpose more clearly, our own purpose is undeniable. My favorite description of the Savior's purpose comes from John's account of the night before Jesus's death. The hours before Gethsemane and the Betrayal of Judas. Christ tells his Apostles of a place he is about to go where they cannot follow, speaking of his coming death. The Apostles are confused, leading Jesus to, in my opinion, give the most loving and clear description of his purpose ever given from his very own mouth. I imagine him looking around at his dear friends, seeing their worried faces and confused stares, and saying, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." Here he would pause, look up at the ceiling of the small room, gaze around the table filled with the bread and wine of the Last Supper and the first sacrament and look at each of his beloved apostles, seeing in each of them all of us and say, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." Then Thomas saith unto him, as we all do at some point, "Lord we know not wither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" I see a smile on Christ's face as he says softly and piercingly to all of them, and to all of us, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:1-6).

I hope you enjoy these final thoughts as I prepare to enter the mission field this Wednesday.

Life is good

God is wise

Don't give up

Elder Childers