Sister Neuenschwander and I are so pleased and honored to be with you this afternoon. During my service as a General Authority I had a few opportunities to visit the BYU-Idaho campus. They were always wonderful experiences. I pray the Spirit of the Lord will attend my few remarks and that they will be of some worth to you. The title and text of my message is found in the words of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, wherein he writes: "I take my journey."[1]
The scriptures are full of references to significant journeys, be they of peoples, families, or individuals. They also describe in some detail the "paths," "ways," "roads," and "highways" on which those journeys take place. To cite just a few examples, there is the path of righteousness and the paths of the just and the wicked; there is the strait and narrow path that leads to the Tree of Life, as well as forbidden and unknown paths along the way; there are also paths of duty, wisdom, and virtue. Additionally, we can read of broad and strange roads, as well as the plain and strict ones. The Savior taught that He was the way,[2] which is in sharp contrast to His statement to the Prophet Joseph Smith that "every man walketh in his own way."[3]
Each of us is walking the road of our life's journey which is composed of countless smaller ones. Even though family, friends, and colleagues may counsel and help us along the way, each of us, like the Apostle Paul, comes to a point in our life where we must say: "I take my journey." My life has been full of interesting journeys. Today I would like to share with you four simple observations that I have noted along the roads of my life. They are:
1. The destination you choose will determine the road you take.
2. Your every road in life will be a toll road.
3. Believe in yourself in the face of the challenges along the roads of your life.
4. Learn to enjoy the journey.
First, the Destination You Choose Will Determine the Road You Take
Every journey has a destination and every destination a road. The only way for you to arrive at a pre-determined destination is to walk the road that takes you there. Consequently, identifying your various destinations, both spiritually and temporally, is no small decision for you to make. But destinations are more than a place and their attainment more than completing a checklist of requirements. Lofty destinations of lasting worth are composed of intensely personal dreams, aspirations, and ideas that demand the very best in you to reach them. The destinations you set for yourself must inflame your imagination and bring passion to your life. They must be worthy of the sacrifices you will surely make for them.
Your destinations are the driving force of your life. They bring purpose, focus, hope, and enthusiasm to the roads that will eventually bring you to them. Your chosen destinations will assist you to make good decisions and solemn personal commitments. The purpose of our mortal journey is to prepare us to return to Heavenly Father's presence. This destination encompasses all others you may set for yourselves in the course of your lifetime. Fulfilling a mission or being sealed in the temple, for example, are important destinations but they only lead you along the road to your ultimate destination. Nonetheless, they will require your full commitment to achieve them. Your educational experience is likewise enlivened by the destination you have in mind. In my own case the image of teaching Russian literature in a small university where I could gather students together in the evening to talk about what they were reading was imprinted deeply on my mind and gave me reason to persevere through the difficult years of my educational journey. The destinations you set and the dreams that accompany them must make your road worth walking.
The selection of destination most often takes place before you begin your actual journey. The best example of this is that of Jesus himself. In promising to be our Savior and Redeemer, He chose the road from Bethlehem to Golgotha, to the tomb, and beyond long before He ever put His foot there. His destination decreed His road. So it is with you and me. By choosing Heavenly Father's plan in the pre-mortal council, we chose our mortal road long before we ever started walking it.
We understand this principle of destinations and roads very well when it comes to our spiritual progression. But, it can also be applied to your current educational journey. The decision regarding your academic destination is the basis of your academic success. The more quickly you can decide the purpose of your education, the more surely you will reach it. I must sadly admit that in my own case I fished around the university for a couple of years, between high school and my mission, taking courses of great interest to me, but with no real direction. I didn't know what courses to take because I didn't know where I was going. Once I made the decision to study Russian, my road through the university was clearly defined. Now I had a basis for deciding which courses, regardless of personal interest, would bring me closer to my destination or take me away from it. Simply put, if I wanted to learn Russian, I could not spend my time studying psychology.
Now, just to review these few points relating to roads and destinations. Both spiritually and temporally, your destinations decree the roads you will walk. Destinations are more than places you wish to be. They represent the deepest of personal aspiration and enliven the roads you walk and give purpose to your lives. The more quickly and surely you can decide upon your destinations, the more defined your road will be. Determine your academic destination as soon as is practical. This decision will bring focus, purpose, and reason to the road of your educational journey.
Second, Your Every Road in Life Will Be a Toll Road
The attainment of a worthwhile destination, whether spiritual or temporal, comes at a cost and there is never a shortcut to paying it. The Lord revealed that whosoever desires a blessing "shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world."[4] An essential part of success in any area of your life is calculating the cost of achieving it. Thereafter follows the decision regarding the level of your personal commitment in paying the cost. The Lord poses a most interesting question that illustrates this. "For which of you," He asks, "intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?"[5] Money may be the first thing that comes to mind in calculating cost, but it is not the only one. Uncompromising personal commitment to the achievement of a goal is, by far, the greater cost. The road to the completion of your academic degree is charted by the university. The commitment and personal discipline required to walk that road are up to you. Perhaps these words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow are familiar to you:
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not obtained by sudden flight.
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night[6]
Great destinations are not achieved in a single step or by "sudden flight", but by the accomplishment of numerous smaller or interim goals all along the way. These interim goals should be written down and placed where you can see them often. I recall entering a missionary apartment in Greece and noticing a number taped to the ceiling. When I asked what it was, the missionaries told me that it was their baptismal goal for the month and that they had put it on the ceiling so that it was the first thing they saw each morning when they opened their eyes and the last thing they saw at night before they fell asleep.
The setting and accomplishing of daily goals lead you little by little to your destination. May I give you just a personal example of this? I had finished my qualifying exams and should have been writing my doctoral dissertation, but was not getting to it in a sufficiently serious fashion. One day my chairman called me into his office - hardly ever a pleasant experience - and asked me a very specific question: "Will you write your dissertation this year?" I tried to skirt the question with some very lame excuses. But he kept pressing me. Finally I realized that I had to answer with either a yes or a no. If my answer were "no," I knew that my formal education would be over and that I would never reach my goal, even if I had traversed much of the required road. If my answer were "yes," I knew that I would have to act differently than I had up to that point. I soon realized that he was doing to me what my mission presidents had done. He was trying to get me to make a personal commitment to a specific course of action. When I finally said yes with some conviction, his demeanor changed. He became my mentor instead of my tormentor. "Good," he said, "I will tell you how to do it." Then there came a series of questions: "How many months in a year?" I was a doctoral student and felt that I could answer that one. "Twelve," I answered. He then demanded that I set twelve goals. The next question was: "how many weeks in a month?" To which I answered four. He wanted me to write four goals for each one of the twelve. Then he had me set seven daily goals for each of the four weeks in each month. He knew that if I could complete my goal every single day, that I would complete my dissertation by the end of the year. He then gave me this counsel: "don't go to bed any night until you have completed your daily goal." He was right. I completed each of my daily goals, often without sleep. By the end of the year I was defending my dissertation. It is the constancy of your commitment and personal discipline that bring you to your destinations. The toll required of you is repaid many times over by the fruits of your accomplishment.
I wish I could say that life were a series of decisions that always turn out as we expect. I am reminded of a little statement I once heard: "good decisions come from wisdom and wisdom comes from bad decisions." Mortality is full of surprises, disappointments, and unexpected intrusions. They will require you to make adjustments along the roads and paths of your lives. Those of you who are close enough to see can observe that I have colorful black eyes and a number of stitches in my forehead. They were the result of an unanticipated accident during a recent windstorm. The accident certainly adjusted my plans for the following few days, but it did not release me from the obligation of my visit with you.
The adjustments you make are called experience and relate to your eternal journey just as surely as they relate to the many lesser journeys you undertake. Life is an accumulation of such experiences, but experience can be your greatest teacher, if you are wise enough to learn from it. We often hear that a certain tragic experience "changed life forever." But this is not true just of cataclysmic events. It is true of every experience. The thoughts we think, the words we say, and the deeds we do all change our life forever. Once we have undergone experience, we can never return to the exact point when we did not have that experience. When the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins returned from his adventures, Gandalf, the wizard, observed that he was "not the hobbit that you were."[7] Experience is meant to enrich you, to make you wiser, more humble, grateful, and more obedient.
"By experience," says Roger Ascham, a classical scholar, "we find out a short way by a long wandering."[8] There may be times in our lives when we wander off the roads we have set for ourselves. When this happens spiritually, the Lord has extended the incomparable blessing of repentance. This gift permits us not only to learn from the experience, but to return to the path from which we wandered.
So, every road is a toll road and the toll is often our personal commitment, perseverance, and discipline. Set and meet good daily goals in order to achieve your destinations in the long term. Adjustments along the road of life are called experience and they will be your most exacting teacher.
Third, Believe in Yourself in the Face of the Challenges Along the Roads of Your Life
When I was a little boy, my mother worked for an insurance company. On the walls of her office were a number of motivational statements. One of them said: "doubt whom you may, but never yourself." This little statement made a great impression on my young mind. I memorized it and even yet quote it to myself. It has given me courage in critical moments. There will be many along life's path who will speak words of discouragement to you. When you hear such words, you may begin to believe that you can't measure up or that your gifts and talents are not as good as another's. May I just remind you of what you already know? Each of you is a unique being. No one comes into this life with what is called tabula rasa, that is, with a blank mind that is only written upon by the experiences of this life. Each brings forgotten experiences, inclinations, gifts, talents, and abilities that have been developing since the moment of creation. Your mortal experience, of course, draws upon them and your education enhances, fortifies, and further disciplines them.
One of the great challenges of your life is to discover your own uniqueness and to develop it. The Lord revealed that "To every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God. To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby."[9] Each of you has something that is uniquely your own - something that distinguishes you from all others. There is no reason to think that you must be exactly like someone else. You would do well to remember the counsel of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said: "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."[10] (End of quote) When you envy others their gift, or feel that you somehow must have one exactly like it, you will miss the beauty, strength, and power of our own gift. You will miss the uniqueness that Heavenly Father put in you. Don't waste your time trying to act, speak, or dress like someone else. Your time is better spent focusing on, and developing, your own abilities and talents. This takes courage. It also takes a willingness to try many things and to fail at some. It takes introspection and education. But in the end, it is those who have discovered their own uniqueness and who have developed it, who make lasting contributions to the goodness of the world. The more you develop your gift and the more you discipline it, the richer we all are.
When the road gets hard, which it inevitably does, your first inclination might be to turn back or even "to go home." In the midst of their wanderings the Children of Israel looked back longingly to the predictable, but fruitless, life in Egypt. Leman, Lemuel, and a few others of Lehi's party wanted to return to their familiar surroundings in Jerusalem. Even God's assurance that a Promised Land lay at the end of their road did not dissuade them. In the difficulties of your mortal journeys you may at times wish that you could return to your heavenly home, as you might to the comfort and predictability of your childhood home. But anyone who has gone back to a childhood home knows that you can't go forward by going back. Once you commence a journey the only way home is in front of you, never behind you. It is paradoxical, is it not, that the only way for you to return home to Heavenly Father is by going forward, beginning from where you are.
My brothers and sisters, even when you are firmly in "the right way,"[11] as Moroni writes, and moving toward your destinations there are times that you may feel lost and insecure. These are the moments that you cling to the iron rod more firmly. Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. Please realize that He has destinations in mind for you that you may not at the moment recognize. Believe in yourself and in your own uniqueness. Bring your gift forward for the benefit of the world. Move forward with faith and determination.
Fourth, Learn to Enjoy the Journey
I say "learn" because not all of us naturally enjoy a difficult road. Our inclination is often to make things easier. Journeys, by their very nature, are not always short, easy, or pleasant particularly if they lead to the Promised Land. On the other hand the scriptures are full of the admonition to be happy. When Lehi partook of the fruit of the Tree of Life, he found that it filled his soul "with exceedingly great joy."[12] Lehi's journey was anything but easy. Yet, his teachings confirm that God intends, through the Atonement of Christ, that His children feel His confirming love and the joy that comes from partaking fully of the Tree of Life.
Only as we near the end of a journey do we truly see its great worth to us. It is then that we see what experience has taught us. It is then that we are most grateful. I have found that there is great satisfaction in accomplishment, but greater joy in the successes along the way. Perhaps Cervantes had this in mind also when in the 1500's he wrote: "The road is better than the Inn."[13] When my grandmother was nearing her death, my brother asked her what it was like to have lived 95 years. Her answer was simple. "It has been like a single day." So it is with our journeys. We can look forward to them with anticipation and, in the midst of them may think they will never end. But finally, when we come to our destination, our road will seem like a single day.
Conclusion
Just in summary:
1. The destination you choose will determine the road you take.
2. Your every road in life will be a toll road.
3. Believe in yourself in the face of the challenges along the roads of your life.
4. Learn to enjoy the journey.
I encourage you to have faith in Jesus Christ. It will bring you peace and comfort. Have faith in your testimony. It will provide you with spiritual strength. Have faith in the living apostles and prophets. It will bring you guidance in our present world. Make your decisions with fasting and prayer. It will move you forward.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Romans 15:24
[2] John 14:6
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 1:16
[4] Doctrine and Covenants 132:5
[5] Luke 14:28
[6] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Ladder of St. Augustine", verse 10, lines 1-4.
[7] JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit, Ballantine Books, New York, 1973, p. 284
[8] Book I of The Schoolmaster (1570) by Roger Ascham, quoted in Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Ubervilles, Bantam Books, 1984, p.
[9] Doctrine and Covenants 46:11-12
[10] Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes. Think exist.com. Web
[11] Moroni 6:4
[12] 1 Nephi 8:12
[13] De Cervantes, Miguel, quoted in Thought of the Week. Thought of the Week.co.uk. Web