During the time of Columbus there was an explorer named
Ponce de Leon who went on expeditions to the Bahamas and other areas of the
Caribbean in search of the legendary Fountain of Youth. The fountain contained
water, that if drunk, would restore health and youth to whomever drank it. If you’ve seen Pirates of the Caribbean 4 you
know that this fountain is what Captain Jack Sparrow, as well as others, search
for during the movie.
Captain Jack possesses a compass.
A special compass that points him towards whatever he wants most. During his
adventures in the fourth movie he uses this compass to help him find where the
fountain is located. He knows, that if he is obedient, and follows wherever the
compass leads him – he’ll get to where he wants to go. I’d like to point out that just because
Captain Jack knows where he wants to go does not mean that the trip to get
there is an easy one. During the course of the movie he encounters many problems,
but not once during his difficulties does he complain that the trip to the
fountain is just too difficult, he never gives up. He also never gripes that
the compass should point a different way than the way it does. Why is this? I
believe that the reason Jack Sparrow is able to 1) get to his destination, and
2) not become discouraged with how difficult it is along the way, is because of
what he keeps his focus on. His focus is not on how difficult the problems in
front of him are, it’s on his destination: the fountain of youth, and his
compass, which tells him how to get there. He understands that when he makes a
choice, he is really choosing the consequences of that choice.
Oft times we look at God’s
commandments as obstacles, a long list of expectations and ‘to-do’s’ that make
our lives more difficult. We balk at rules set for us, and try to justify ways
we can avoid following certain ‘inconvenient’ commands. I know I do this. I
propose that when I feel this way it is because my focus is on the wrong thing.
If Captain Jack had this attitude during his search for the fountain of youth,
the 4th Pirates movie would have been quite lame, because Jack would
have given up and never made it to the fountain.
In 2 Nephi 2:14 Lehi explains “And now, my sons, I speak unto you these
things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created
all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are,
both things to act and things to be acted upon…. Wherefore the Lord gave unto
man that he should act for himself.” God has given us our agency, and we have
the choice if we want to take control of our own life and salvation – we have
the option to become an agent to act, instead of simply being acted upon. We
can choose what we want out life. So. The question we all need to ask ourselves
is: “What is my own personal fountain of youth? And how can I get there?”
The scriptures teach us that God’s
work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Which
means that God’s greatest desire is for us to be happy and return to live with
Him someday as kings and queens in His kingdom. In essence, He suggests to us
that eternal life in his presence is the ultimate ‘fountain of youth.’
So now that we have defined that
the ultimate fountain of youth is eternal life and exaltation, I’d like to
discuss how we get there.
In Matthew 7:21 the Savior
explains that “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven.”
Christ is telling us that entrance
into the kingdom of God, as an exalted and glorified being, is not free of
charge. We have to follow the commandments, or compass, that God has provided
for us if we want to come back home to Him. However, no unclean thing can dwell
in God’s presence – so He sent a savior for us. Christ is our mediator with the
Father, and the price that he’s set for access to his mercy is that we be
obedient as we can possibly be.
Bruce C. Hafen has said: “We can
have eternal life if we want it, but only if there is nothing else we want
more.” Obedience to commandments is the key to accessing the atonement of
Christ. It allows us to partake of his grace to change and become more like
God. Now, Christ does not set these terms just to make it as difficult as he
can for us to get back – which I have personally be guilty of viewing it as
before. The reason he asks for our best efforts to obey, is because he knows
that the Father is teaching us to become like He is, and the more we practice
obedience, the more we further ourselves in our endeavor to become like God.
D&C 82:8-10 “And again, I say unto you, I give unto you a new
commandment, that you may understand my will concerning you; or, in other
words, I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn
to you for your salvation. I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but
when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” So God gives us commandments,
because they are what lead to our own personal salvation.
My friend Riley says that “The
commandments are the best advice a perfect parent can give on how to be happy.”
He understands that Christ cannot help us back to God’s presence, unless we
first do all we can to help ourselves. The third article of faith explains this
concept beautifully. “We believe that through the atonement of Christ all
mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.”
There are many ways that God gives
us His will or commandments. We can find them in the standard works, words of
the Prophet of God, Spiritual promptings, in the temple, and in wise counsel
from leaders, family and friends. These things are the ways we see the compass
that allows us access to Christ’s mercy and points us closer to God.
The knowledge that we must be
completely obedient to God’s commandments and spiritual promptings is overwhelming.
Because we are human, we are not capable of being perfectly obedient. No matter how earnestly we try, we are going
to fail sometimes. But that’s ok, because as an institute teacher once told me:
“Don’t worry if you mess up. You can always be used as a bad example.”
Luckily, we can be used as a bad
example, and we can learn from our own bad examples (as well as other peoples) and
not repeat our mistakes as we access the atonement and repent of our sins. We
can always choose to be more obedient today than we were yesterday.
When Bishop Averett asked me to speak on Obedience for my
mission farewell I thought it was slightly ironic, seeing as the topic they
assign you is usually something you need to work on. I shared this with my good
friend who was in the MTC at the time – she’s now in Russia. She knows me quite
well and knows that I’m a headstrong individual… this was part of her response
to me:
“HAHAHAHA. Remember how you have to talk on obedience?
That’s kind of funny. I laughed. That was probably the hardest part of the MTC.
It wasn’t the language, food, stress, companion. Nope. It was having to be
obedient to rules about how often I shower, when I sing songs, where I pray,
when I read mail, take pictures… you get the idea. But I decided it was a good
idea to be obedient because I’m learning Russian and I need all the blessings I
can get.”
The last part of what she said caught my attention. She
chooses to be obedient because she understands that the Lord loves her and will
bless her for her obedience.
D&C 130:20-21 states: “There
is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world,
upon which all blessings are predicated- and when we obtain any blessing from
God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”
If there is any blessing that you
desire, find out which commandment it’s tied to, and then obey that particular
commandment. God is bound when we keep our end of the bargain to fill His. So
when we choose to keep a commandment, we cannot stop the consequences of
becoming more like and closer to God. This is commonly called the law of the Harvest
– we reap whatever spiritual blessings we decide to plant. Sometimes though, we
cannot see the direct correlation between the obedience we exercise and the
blessings we receive, which can make it extra hard to obey certain commands.
I’d like to discuss with you two blessings that we invite when we keep any
commandment that is hard for us to keep, whether great or small.
Blessing 1: The Spirit is with us.
When a person is confirmed a
member of the church, hands are laid on their head and they are invited to
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We understand that we receive his constant
companionship and help, as long as we invite him to be with us by obedience to
God’s commandments. We can choose to stand in holy places, go to church, serve
God’s children, invite and follow spiritual promptings and do whatever else is
necessary for us to do in order to have his constant help throughout our lives.
As we are obedient to the covenants we make, we can always have the purifying
influence of the Holy Ghost to help guide us.
In order to explain blessing
number 2 I would like to go through a couple stories in the scriptures. The
first one is found in 1 Nephi 4. Nephi and his brothers are trying to obtain
the plates of brass. Nephi sneaks into the city at night and in verse 6 we
learn that he “was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I
should do.” In other words, he was trusting in God and his guidance completely.
When he finds Laban passed out drunk on the ground, he draws his sword and
begins to admire it, and then the scriptures read: “And it came to pass that I
was constrained (or commanded) by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I
said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk
and would that I might not slay him.”
I think Nephi’s response is
interesting. He doesn’t argue with God. He doesn’t tell himself that he must
have misunderstood the promptings of the spirit – he knows what he’s supposed
to do. He’s supposed to kill Laban because God told him to. God had a purpose
and in order to accomplish it, Nephi had to be obedient. This story always
bothered me a little – it bugged me that God would ask his future prophet to do
something that was against one of the Ten Commandments. Never mind that it was
necessary, never mind that Laban probably deserved what he got, why would God
ask Nephi to do such a hard thing? Why couldn’t God just strike him down and
then have him take his clothes and go get the plates? As I was thinking about
this one night, I looked in the footnotes of the scriptures and it led me to 1
Samuel 15. The chapter heading tells us “Saul is commanded to smite and destroy
the Amalekites and all that they have, he saves some animals to sacrifice –Saul
is rejected from being king, and told that to obey is better than to
sacrifice.” My first thought when I flipped over to this chapter was “What on
earth does this have to do with Nephi and the prompting to kill Laban?” But as
I dove into the story and began to read it I started to realize a few things. Saul
was commanded to kill all of the Amalekites and all that they had, he decided
to keep the commandment only partially- and left the sheep and oxen alive
saying that he would use them as a sacrifice for God. God sent the prophet
Samuel to rebuke him, and Samuel did so with the famous scripture: “Hath the
Lord as great delight in burned offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the
voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken
than the fat of rams” and then he keeps going and explains why: “for rebellion
is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” God
wasn’t displeased because Saul wanted to offer sacrifice; he was displeased
because Saul tried to cover up his pride and disobedience with excuses. Saul
was rejected from being king because he failed to make the most important
sacrifice: that of a broken heart and contrite spirit – which became evident
when he was unwilling to follow the commandments of the Lord. And as I realized
this I also understood what the story of Saul has to do with Nephi being
commanded to kill Laban. A beautiful principle was being taught me as I
compared to the two stories and what kind of men came out of each. Let me see
if I can explain.
To obey is better than to
sacrifice, not because it’s on a higher plane, but because willing obedience is
the highest form of sacrifice, we are sacrificing our will in exchange for
God’s. When we are exactly obedient, especially when we don’t understand why,
we demonstrate to God that we trust Him more than we trust ourselves. This
demonstration of faith does more than just show God that we are loyal to Him.
Our exact and willing obedience is an exercise in voluntary humility. It
banishes pride and brings us closer to God so that we can know Him better. Obedience is the tool with which we invite
humility and combat pride, which is the root of all other sins.
So blessing #2 is that our
humility increases which strengthens our relationship with God.
C.S. Lewis said “As long as you
are proud, you cannot come to know God.” In the scriptures we read that “And
this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou has sent.” This, brothers and sisters, I testify, is the
ultimate fountain of youth.
When I received the spiritual
prompting to serve a mission I turned in my papers and got my call fairly
quickly, and then have had the opportunity to wait 4 months before entering the
MTC. In a way the wait time has been hard, but also good because it’s given me
an opportunity to examine my priorities, prepare, and decide how I really feel
about serving a mission. Parts of me are so excited I can barely stand it, but
I have a confession as well – and maybe it’s not good for me to admit this, but
it’s true. Part of me is terrified to leave. As I’ve thought about what I’m
giving up by leaving it frightens me. I’ve pondered about the fact that I’ll
miss my little sister’s senior prom, and my brother’s high school graduation.
I’ll miss J leaving on a mission – it’ll be a long time before I see him again.
There is the possibility that something may happen to a family member while I’m
away, and I won’t be here for it. My friends may all move or marry, and many of
them probably won’t be here when I get back. I’ve had to force myself to accept
the fact that renewing my teaching license may be difficult when I return
because I’m taking such an extended break from my career. I could go on and on about all the reasons
that make me nervous to leave… but as I’ve studied about this topic of
obedience, and how merciful God is, and how much He blesses His children for
their obedience, I’ve realized that that everything I’ll miss, really doesn’t
matter. What matters most is my relationship with my Father in Heaven, and I
know that if I choose to be obedient and serve He will watch over and bless me,
because that’s what He’s always done for me. And what’s more, I know that
because He is merciful He will watch over and care for the people I love as I
serve Him. And that is a blessing that I won’t sacrifice for anything.
So in spite of any fears I may
have to conquer as I leave, I am going to go with the attitude “I’ll go where
you want me to go dear Lord, over mountain or plain or sea; I’ll say what you
want me to say, dear Lord, I’ll be what you want me to be.” –Hymn 270
I have a testimony that obedience
brings freedom – God is the most free being in the universe. He has unlimited
creative power and knowledge because of the way He chooses to live. I know that
as we listen to his perfect advice- or commandments – and willingly submit
ourselves to follow them we become free as well. We become agents to act and
not to be acted upon. That’s what this Gospel is all about.
My mission scripture that I have chosen is
Proverbs 3:5-6. It’s been my favorite scripture for a while. “Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” I trust Heavenly Father, I love Him. That is
why I am choosing to be obedient to the prompting I felt to serve a mission. I
love my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints is the only true and living Church on the face of the earth. Joseph
Smith was called of God to restore the Gospel to the earth – President Monson
is the prophet of God on the earth today. The Book of Mormon contains God’s
word and will. The temple is God’s house, and as we are obedient to
commandments we can find peace, joy and freedom, and blessings in the temple
that will bring us happiness. I am grateful for the support of family and
friends as I prepare to leave. Thank you all for your love and Christlike
examples in my life. I am grateful for them. I say these things in the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen.
