I have a simple question for you today: What do you want? I don't mean what should you want, rather what do you really want? What do you think about most? What most influences the decisions you make? What are your predominate desires?
President Monson and the Best of Times
In a recent meeting with general authorities President Thomas S. Monson talked about you. He talked only about you. He expressed both his admiration and concern for you. He said that you are special and speaking about the times in which you live he borrowed these familiar lines:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.
It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.
It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.
It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
We had everything before us, we had nothing before us.[1]
Charles Dickens penned these words to describe life in France and England in 1775 but they describe even better the conditions of our day. President Monson said that you need to know that "this season is not the season of despair but the season of hope, and that you are on the threshold of great accomplishments in the kingdom of (your) Heavenly Father."[2] True to the charge the Prophet of the Lord gave to me I hope to help you understand how your time is the best of times depending on what you want and what you do.
The Fullness of Times
Our day is unlike any time before. We have so much more, so much more of both good and evil than any day before. From one extreme to the other, we live in the dispensation of the fullness of times both as to evil as well as for good. Unlike any other time, "everything is before us", the full spectrum from the depths of darkness and evil to supernal splendor, brilliance, beauty, magnificence, grandeur, glory and exaltation and everything in between.
Jesus said:
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven [things of eternal value], where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.[3]
Never in the history of the world has this instruction to pursue the ultimate treasures of eternal value been more critical or more timely than today. Never has it been easier to get lost in little things. Never has there been a time in which more has been available than now, more goods, more gadgets, events, shows, choices, activities, alternatives and especially more information and more misinformation than ever before. We call most of those things "diversions" and rightly so, because in fact they divert us from things of greatest importance. In such a flood of information and things, the challenge is not only sift between good and evil, rather sort between the mundane and the monumental as well.
Never has there been a time more crucial than now to understand the best of all human conditions and the ultimate of all human achievements to which we should all aspire.
The River of Almost No Return
Ten years ago my wife and I, along with two of our sons had an experience that burned into my soul the reality that there is precious little in this life that matters very much, but there are a few things that are monumentally important.
On February 12, 2003 we are in a raft careening down a canyon river in Chile. The dark river roars in our ears as we straddle either side of the raft and paddle with our might at the command of our guide. The wet suits are essential to protect us from the mean splash of the numbing cold water which was snow only three days before. There are four other people and the river guide. His name is Joe. He has thirty years of experience running the Colorado in the Grand Canyon and many other rivers around the world. He has run this particular stretch of the Maipo River hundreds of times without a mishap. We think it safe enough and so here we are, the worst of the rapids are behind and we are loving life as we approach the take-out point. And then it happens. Suddenly, the right side of the raft rises straight up into the sky. Our two sons who were straddling and paddling the right side are launched over our heads into the water, and the large raft flips over dumping us all into the raging river.
It is dark and incredibly cold. Underwater the roar of the river is muffled. There are only the muted sounds mostly of the river mixed with the chaos of people on top of people kicking and thrashing about trying to reach the surface. I expect to surface but I don't. The river holds me down. I think I am not going to surface, but I think of Jacque, Chase and Zach more than my need for air. I know that we are in death's firm grasp and feel it squeezing life from me. I feel profound regret for putting my family at such risk.
Then I hear the full roar of the river. I am finally above water. I gasp for air, desperately looking for my wife and sons, but I don't see them. I am in another dimension. Everything is happening so fast and yet it seems to be happening in slow motion as though in a dream.
In seconds I am pulled under the water again but not before I see that I am headed toward a large rock where the force of the current turns the river back onto itself in a hydraulic roller. I try to get my legs in front of me to take the brunt of the impact but before I hit the rock the roller turns me back, over and under and then spits me out to the side into an eddy. I see Chase and Zach in the same eddy along with Jessica one of the other members of our group. She is from Germany. But where is Jacque? Where is she? I am frantic to find her. Everyone else, everything else is gone, out of sight down river.
I will stop the story here because there is not time to tell it all. The rest of the story includes the miraculous rescue of my wife Jacque who was saved by the powers of heaven and a kayaker named Simón. Repeatedly Jacque grabs the handle on the stern of Simón's kayak while he attempts to paddle her to shore, but each time her strength fails as the river rips her grip away and pulls her down and under again and again. When her strength is exhausted and she can try no more a force lifts her up and over the back of the kayak and Simón paddles her to shore.
I am not here to advocate high adventure or risk and certainly not recklessness, rather I want you to understand what the river taught me that day. Problems come and go. Difficulties, inconveniences, disappointments come and go. Even life comes and goes. There isn't much that matters greatly in this life, but there are a few things that are monumentally important, even more important than life. I want to talk about some of those things. I also want you to understand that the few things that are truly important are equally available to all of you whatever your circumstances or past may be. No one is disadvantaged and no one is privileged in regard to what matters most.
What do you want and what matters most?
So, what do you want and what matters most? Hopefully you have identified in your mind the one, two or three things that occupy most of your thoughts, your predominant desires. What do you really want?
The Lord said: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."[4] While this may be understood as a declaration that we cannot comprehend the thoughts and ways of God, I think rather it is an invitation to think differently, to elevate your thoughts and, consequently, your ways to coincide with the thoughts and ways of God. He is inviting us to think like He thinks.And so, what are they, the thoughts and ways of the Lord? What are the most important things, to which we should aspire? There is not time to talk about all of them. I will mention only four.
The Most Important Thing
The first is the most important thing. Of all that you know, and of all of the information and all of the knowledge available to mankind through the internet, or in books, encyclopedias or documents in all the libraries of the world combined, is there something that surpasses all other things in importance? And if so, would it be important to know what it is? And if there is something that is more important than all other things, and if we knew what it was, would it be important to remember it and to give it the highest priority in our lives?
Alma says that there is something that is most important.
For behold, I say unto you there be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all--for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people.
And behold, he shall be born of Mary...(and) she...shall... bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.
And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
And he will take upon him death, and he will take upon him their infirmities.
[He will] take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance...
Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven;
And whosoever doeth this, and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal life.[5]
Do you remember the ultimate objective of all father Lehi saw in his visionary dream? It was a tree, a tree that "is precious above all and the most joyous to the soul"[6], a tree "whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits [the most important thing]; yea, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God."[7]
The tree is a representation of Christ and the fruits are the blessings of His Atonement.
The most important thing is to partake of the fruit of the tree of life, that is, to be forgiven of your sins and endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost. The gifts of the Atonement, to be forgiven of your sins and to be endowed with God's power, coupled with the gift of eternal life are the greatest of all the gifts of God. You should want to receive those gifts more than anything else. They are the most important.
Hear and Follow the Word of the Lord
Next, we should want to hear and follow the word of the Lord.
On one occasion, Jesus:
Entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.[8]
This was not a question of right and wrong, rather good and better, or better and best. What Martha was doing was a good thing, but she had a tendency to become distracted by good things at the expense of the best things. In response to her complaint, the Lord made this astonishing statement, "one thing is needful," that is, to hear and follow the word of the Lord.
A study performed at New York University reveals how much we are affected by our environment--even unconsciously. Students were placed in one of two groups. Each student was given a list of seemingly random words from which they were to form meaningful sentences. The only difference between the two groups was that the scrambled set of words for the first group included words associated with old age such as forgetful, bald, gray and wrinkle but explicit words like old or elderly were not included. It was only an implied or subliminal theme. The words given to the second group did not include words associated with age.
When they completed the task they were sent to another room down the hall. The walk to the other room was what the experiment was really all about. The researchers inconspicuously measured the time it took for the unsuspecting students to go from one room to the other. The students who fashioned sentences from words with an elderly theme walked down the hallway significantly more slowly than the others. All of this happened unconsciously. Their behavior was affected unconsciously by exposure to an idea. When the students of the first group were questioned afterward, none of them detected a common theme much less would they acknowledge that their behavior had been affected unconsciously by the words they encountered. But it had been. This phenomenon of influencing behavior by an idea is called "priming."[9]
Now, if your thoughts and behavior can be affected by something as harmless as the implied idea of old age, how much more the effect of explicit images on how you think and act? More than you imagine, and most of it is unconscious.
And think about this astonishing statement of Alma: "...the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just--yea, it [the word of God] had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else..."[10] This is a profoundly important truth. If your thoughts and behavior can be affected by something as benign as the implied idea of old age, how much more the effect of the word of God that has a more powerful effect on your mind, how you think, than the sword, which is the threat or fear of death, or anything else.
The Lord says that your thoughts are not His thoughts, but here they are. [Held up the scriptures.] The Holy Scriptures, the teachings of living prophets and the promptings of the Holy Ghost are the thoughts of God and they are more powerful than fear of death, more powerful than addictions, pornography or anything else. It stands to reason, therefore, that the Lord would say: "...treasure up in your minds continually the words of life."[11]
Do you understand that the Lord is not talking about just reading the scriptures but rather adopting His words to govern your life all of the time, so that they become the standard works--the standard for your works. As you do so His thoughts will become your thoughts and His ways will become your ways. You should want to hear and follow His word.
A Godly Character
Third, we should want to become like the Lord.
The Lord says, "And behold, all things are written by the Father; therefore out of the books which shall be written shall the world be judged," and then He poses the ultimate question: "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am."[12] You see, as you "hear and follow the word of the Lord" you become more like Him. Little by little the qualities and attributes of His character become a part of your character, a part of who you are.
The question is not how much you can get away with in this life or how close to the line you can walk and still be good, rather the ultimate question is, "who are you and who are you in the process of becoming?" Don't walk the line and don't walk in the middle. You should want to become like Him.
Fruitful
Finally we should want to make a difference. We should want to be fruitful.
The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon ever given in the history of mankind. It is not a random collection of truths, but rather a carefully orchestrated sermon which leads to an important conclusion.
The Lord describes a process beginning with the recognition that we are poor in His spirit which in turn may cause us to mourn for our sins, focus on that of eternal value, be filled with the Holy Ghost, then avoid all that would offend the Spirit and stand firm against adversity all to the end that we that we become the "salt of the earth"[13], the "light of the world", a "city set upon a hill"[14]. He said: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."[15]
At the end of the sermon He returns to this same conclusion to be fruitful:
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.[16]
The purpose of the Father's plan is not only that we be redeemed of sin and endowed with power from on high, but that by the power of the Holy Ghost we become good trees and make a difference in the lives of others especially by helping others to partake of the fruits of the tree of life as well, the most important thing.
What do you want?
So, again, what do you want? What are your highest aspirations?
What should you want? What should drive you? What should you think about most? What should be your dominate desires? What should influence most the decisions you make every day?
First, you should want the most important thing which is to partake of the fruit of the tree of life, to partake of the fruits of the Atonement. You should want to be forgiven of your sins and endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost, and qualify for eternal life. That is the most important thing of all.
You should want to hear and follow the word of the Lord. You should want to become like Him. You should want to be fruitful, to make a difference in the lives of others especially by helping others partake of the fruit of the tree of life as well, the most important thing.
These should be your dominate desires and highest aspirations and you should be willing to pay any price to achieve them.
No one is disadvantaged
In regard to the few things that matter most in this life, as for everything that is most important, no one is at a disadvantage. Everyone is on equal footing. The greatest gifts are equally available to everyone. This is surprising because there is otherwise so much inequality in this life. Some are rich and others poor. Some are healthy and strong and others not. Some are tall and others are short. Some are popular and others not so. Some have the privileges of education and others don't. But in the end it does not matter how well liked you are, or how much money you acquire, or how beautiful you may be. It does not matter if you win the lottery or get the biggest piece of pie. The greatest gifts are equally available to everyone.
In every other endeavor we are disparately advantaged or disadvantaged, but in regard to the most important things, everything that really matters there is no disparity. No one is disadvantaged. All have absolutely the same access to what is most important. No more and no less than anyone else.
Conclusion
It is not complicated. Seek the best things and work tirelessly to achieve them. You can. We all can. Elevate your thoughts to coincide with the Lord's thoughts, that His ways become your ways. Don't drift or become distracted by either the things of the world or the honors of men.
Your future is bright. "Be of good cheer and do not fear."[17] There is precious little in this life that matters very much, but there are a few things that are monumentally important and they are equally available to everyone. Seek after those things and your time will be the best of times, the age of wisdom, the epoch of belief, the season of light, and the spring of hope. Everything is before you. All you have to do is choose the best.
I testify that Jesus is the Christ and He invites "all to come unto Him and partake of His goodness every one, (everything that is most important) and He denieth none that come unto Him. All are alike unto God."[18]
Notes
[1] Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1
[2] President Thomas S. Monson, General Authority Training, April 4, 2013
[3] Matthew 6:19-24
[4] Isaiah 55:7 - 9
[5] Alma 7:7, 10 - 14, 16, emphasis added
[6] 1 Nephi 11:9
[7] 1 Nephi 15:36
[8] Luke 10:38 - 42
[9] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/New York) 229-232 (digital edition)
[10] Alma 31:5
[11] Doctrine and Covenants 84:85
[12] 3 Nephi 27:26 - 27
[13] Matthew 5:13
[14] Matthew 5:14
[15] Matthew 5:13-16
[16] Matthew 7:16-20
[17] Doctrine and Covenants 68:6
[18] 2 Nephi 26:33