THE DESTINATION

 

 

I was telling my friend at Church today of my struggle with bad health and how I didn’t expect something in my life that would challenge my Church attendance. I have been a devout Latter-Day Saint for 49 years with a perfect Church attendance record. It has been troubling to me that I am now not at Church every Sunday.

My friend replied with something very significant. She said:

“You know how the Jaredites were set upon by the mighty waves and turned upside down over and over again? I think this is an allegory for mortality. Ether tells us that all the tumult came about because of the powerful winds that the Lord sent.

“It’s easy to wish that the winds would stop, especially when they’re coming from One who is meant to love us so very much. Had He not sent them, however, those barges wouldn’t have made it where He wanted them to go.”

I reflected on this and realized never a greater truth has been said. The Lord will send us challenges and we will have to hang on for dear life until we have passed the test. Without those challenges which stand to refine us and prove us, He cannot ensure that we will arrive to our ultimate destination.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell noted the value of trials when he said:

“Spiritual refinement is not only to make the gross more pure but to further refine the already fine!”

-        (Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds, Ensign, May 1991, 90)

Now here is something interesting about the destination of the Jaredites. The Lord did not blow those barges to just any other land. He blew them to ‘a choice land above all other lands’ (Ether 2:15).

And so it is for the elect of God who have been given the truth and the ordinances of His house…..the elect are destined for the Kingdom where God dwells, a ‘choice kingdom, above all other kingdoms’. Your challenges and trials might be great but look who’s in charge of your barge…..

You warned me

there would be mountains to climb

But promised there would be

resting spots along the way;

You warned me of the subtle pitfalls

And how deep and wide

the waters I would wade.

But you promised me

Your hand in mine

Every minute of the day

And that You would meet me

at the finish line

When I had conquered

all there was to pay.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: AI Generated)