Switzerland and The Iron Trail
In Switzerland, buried in the majestic and looming Swiss Alps, there is a cozy mountain village draped on the sides of the cliffs named Murren. It is reachable only by steep hike or a cable tram ride that takes you 5000 feet up into the car-less mountain village. I found myself in this surreal place last summer with a friend, after attending the World Congress on the Family in Amsterdam. One afternoon we decided to go on a hike in the Swiss Alps. When I asked the locals where to go, they asked if I had ever been climbing or mountaineering. I told them yes but my friend had not ever done so, so we wanted something simple. They recommended a 10 mile hike called The Iron Trail.
We went to an outfitter for maps, but they insisted we should wear a full body harness, and two arm length bungee cables with two carribeaners on the end to clip into an iron cable that trailed alongside the path for safety. I thought that this was extreme for a simple hike in the woods to have a full body harness, but realize with liability lawsuits and sue-happy tourists, it was probably a necessary precaution. So we geared up and left on our hike in the early afternoon.
For the first few miles, the scenery was woody and idyllic. But the further we went, the more steep and sheer the hike became, until the trail came literally to the edge of the mountain face. The iron cables marking the path in front of us went over the edge of the cliff and led straight down the face. I realized we were expected to climb down the rock wall. We were literally descending the face of the mountain, stepping on horseshoe shaped pegs that were drilled into the side of the rock face. The drop was sheer and abysmal.
Gratefully, we made it off the cliff face. We thought that was a nice adventure but we were glad to be back on solid ground. Yet, much to my dismay we rounded the corner of the cliff face to a much more startling scene. Draped precariously across 5000 foot drop, there was a narrow suspension bridge that spanned about 1500 feet. It seemed to be out of a movie, a chasm of death that disappeared into nothingness and the bridge seemed forever long. The width of the bridge was no more than a foot across. And it was suspended, simply, by two iron cables running across the canyon, each less than an inch thick. The sheer drop below caused my heart to start racing and sent my mind reeling.
I had not realized I would be required to do this. I never thought when I left earlier that day that I would be taking my life into my hands and that I would have to do something so monumentally difficult if I wanted to live. My path that day was not only completely unexpected, but seemed impossible to me. Stepping onto that swaying bridge seemed more than I was able to do. Yet I had no choice and it was not possible to turn back. I had to cross the bridge.
I was grateful when my friend decided to go first and lead the way. But soon he was out of sight and I could no longer hear his encouragement or see his face. I was now alone to face my fears and cross the bridge. And I was scared.
Courage
I want to talk to you today about when life takes an unexpected turn or when the path becomes unclear or impossible. When you find yourself at a crossroads that you did not expect and never agreed to. When fear looms before you and you are left, seemingly, alone. When you made a plan, made preparations, and thought that reaching your destination would just be a matter of time and modest effort. And then things turn out completely differently than you anticipated.
You weren’t accepted into that program. You didn’t ace that standardized test that you prepared so long for that would open the door for graduate school. A significant friend or family member that you thought would always be there passes away. A debilitating illness or injury. Or you graduate and don’t have a job or a plan. The relationship you were really hoping for, failed. Or when you just find yourself facing the future, the lone and dreary world, with no clear path or end in sight.
The Book of Mormon records a similar experience with a path that is also flanked by an iron rod. In Lehi’s journey, as he scopes the landscape to the tree of life, he notices, “And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood”.
Elder Holland , “Safety for the Soul”.
“In Lehi’s dream an already difficult journey gets more difficult when a mist of darkness arises, obscuring any view of the safe but narrow path his family and others are to follow. It is imperative to note that this mist of darkness descends on all the travelers—the faithful and the determined ones (the elect, we might even say) as well as the weaker and ungrounded ones. The principal point of the story is that the successful travelers resist all distractions, including the lure of forbidden paths and jeering taunts from the vain and proud who have taken those paths. The record says that the protected “did press their way forward, continually [and, I might add, tenaciously] holding fast” to a rod of iron that runs unfailingly along the course of the true path.4 However dark the night or the day, the rod marks the way of that solitary, redeeming trail.
Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times—including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.”6
My talk today is about courage. Courage to step out of comfort and into the dark, and to trust the narrow and straight, if obscured, path that is secure for you. On our path to return to the Savior and taste of the fruit of His divine love, All of us will need to great exercise courage to press forward at some time in our lives. Especially when we do not know what is ahead of us, or when our path turns out to be different from what we expected or hoped. Courage to press forward, to cling to the rod and trust that the word of God, (Alma 37:44) across that gulf of misery and endless woe, and support us and protect us in our latter-days.
I want to address two areas that we can apply courage in our lives, that I think are especially important as young single adults.
1) Courage to face an unknown future
2) Courage to love others with an open heart
First, the courage to face an unknown future. As I near the ominous age 3-0 cross roads in my life, I know all too well, as do you, what it feels like to hunger for permanence but not know what the future holds. As I have waited for my fairy tale to come true, I have mastered the art of plan B. I have planned and pursued one unintended dream and pursuit after another. I have expended, time, energy, resources, and years of my life enthusiastically pursuing Plan B and all the other dreams. And then when I ran out of those plans, I chased the dreams and plans of my family and friends who lived vicariously through me. At the beginning of each new adventure, I secretly hope, maybe this is the end. Maybe this is the adventure that holds the long-awaited pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the answers of permanence and putting down roots that my heart longs for. Yet, as of yet I still find after 6 or 8 months or 2 years at the most that, once again, I am faced with the same looming life decisions and cross-roads, "what now?"
I have lived the nomadic, transient life. I know of the unsettled impermanence of sorting out a future alone and placing your heart on hopes that you hardly dare wish for any more.
But I am here to testify to you, that no matter how long, winding, and broken the road, that God is in your life. He is in the details and He is directing what may even seem like wasted wandering. He has great things in store for you. He has had dreams and destiny in reserve for you and has been preparing you for it all along the way.
In his CES Fireside, Education for Real Life, Elder Henry B Eyring states, “Your life is carefully watched over, as was mine. The Lord knows both what He will need you to do and what you will need to know. He is kind and He is all-knowing. So, you can with confidence expect that He has prepared opportunities for you to learn in preparation for the service you will give. You will not recognize those opportunities perfectly, as I did not. But when you put the spiritual things first in your life, you will be blessed to feel directed toward certain learning and you will be motivated to work harder. You will recognize later that your power to serve was increased, and you will be grateful.”
The Lord loves you. You are his precious child. You have an eternal and divine future ahead of you. Even when you are ready to give up on your hopes and dreams, He will not. He will never give up on your dreams and your future. He has been preparing it for years, for millennia. Your dreams and destiny has been in the works, and your own little land of milk and honey awaits. Just keep believing. Remember the promises. The promise of the Lord, as given in your patriarchal blessing, in temples and in personal revelation and inspiration to you, are sure. As Pres Uchtdorf says, “God’s promises, while not swift, are always certain.” They are sure. And though the heavens and the earth shall pass away, his words shall not pass away, but shall be fulfilled, every whit. Trust that he cares about you and your life and your dreams. And in time, all the happiness that your heart has ever hoped to desire will be yours.
Elder Holland- Terror, Triumph, and a Wedding Feast. “God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future; he expects you to embrace and shape the future- to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities. God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as he always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, he can’t if you don’t believe.”
So just keep believing.
Pres. Hinckley “Things will work out. If you keep trying, praying and working, things will work out. They always do.”
Second, courage to love others with an open heart. Probably one of the most difficult parts of this time of life, for me at least, is being single. When you know your eternal purpose is as a husband or wife in an eternal family, nothing is more frustrating and disheartening than not being able to achieve it.
As Elder Oaks says, “The timing of marriage is perhaps the best example of an extremely important event in our lives that is almost impossible to plan. Like other important mortal events that depend on the agency of others of the will and timing of the Lord, marriage cannot be anticipated or planned with certainty. Latter-day Saints can and should work for and pray for their righteous desires, but despite their efforts, many will remain single well beyond their desired time for marriage.”
So what should be done in the meantime? We should exercise Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must always commit to Him first and foremost. We can always depend on Him and He will fill the space in our hearts that we must leave open for marriage and a companion.
But second, we must love each other, for we are needed in the kingdom.
In this particularly precarious period of our lives, we cannot afford not to love each other, and show compassion. The Lord needs you strengthen the feeble knees and lift up the hands that hang down. There is much much work to be done in the kingdom. I worry at times that, especially in singles wards, we become more occupied with whether or not someone interests us romantically, rather than whether or not we are interested in serving and loving them as a son or daughter of God. Have courage to put aside your selfishness and to love those around you without self-serving interests, as Christ did.
Especially in a singles’ wards, we are each others' family. We are the safety net the Lord has provided for each other while we tentatively and timidly seek for love. A ward must never become a hostile or competitive environment for any member, or we have no interest in being members of the Lord’s church. In a singles ward, we literally become the brothers and sisters of one another, succor those who stand in need of succor.
Too often we sit side by side but we don’t see heart to heart. That was the initiating covenant of entering this church: we didn’t promise to come and find our spouses, or to come when it was convenient or when the ward was fun or cool enough. We entered this church and partook of the sacrament today to renew our solemn covenant to care for one another.
One of the greatest promises I remember receiving from a Stake president in stake conference was that as we learned how to become better home and visiting teachers, we would find our spouses more quickly. At first it struck me as an odd relationship. And then I realized the principle. When we put God first in our lives and take care of his children, we are learning the exact kind of skills that will lead us to being better husbands and wives- loving those whom you are asked to love out of a spiritual stewardship, even when they are not easy, loveable, or you don't have anything in common. You find common ground and you learn to love. What better preparation for marriage?
I think one of the greatest measures of our discipleship comes in how we treat those in whom we are not “interested” in. True Christ-like love and service should be extended to all ward members, not just those who are easy to love.
As Elder Holland says, we separate dating from our discipleship at our own peril.
I might be going out on a limb here, but I want to suggest that being a true disciple also means going on dates, without knowing if you are interested in someone right away- both for men extending the dates, and women in accepting the dates. Let’s have a little faith in each other and take more interest in each other as humans rather than exclusively as potential spouses as well. And maybe a little faith in this area will lead unexpectedly to the ultimate outcome in the end.
So learn to care about others, without condition or qualification. No matter how long you are here or in this ward, put down roots and find the work the Lord is asking you to do. There are those in your reach right now who are need the balm of Gilead. There is work to be done in the kingdom. So let’s get to it.
We cannot afford to not have compassion and love for one another. In the quiet heart is hidden, sorrow that they eye can’t see. The Lord is waiting for us to help Him heal those wounded hearts. Serve where you stand, because you are needed in the kingdom. Please have the courage to love others.
Conclusion
To return where I started, at the Iron Bridge in Switzerland, I’m sure you’re wondering what happened. Obviously I lived to tell the story. Which was more than I expected at the time.
As I faced that looming chasm, I felt like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom. Even though I could see the bridge, and knew the promise of the iron cables, I felt I was stepping into invisible air. But I put one foot out, and then another, and clung to the iron rod. And literally as my whole body was shaking, it took everything I had to place one foot in front of the other. But slowly, and methodically, I did pick one foot up, placed it in front of the other, steadied myself, and took deep breaths. And continued on. Step after step after step. Crossing that bridge seemed like eternity. I physically did not know I had the ability to persevere though that kind of fear.
I am here to testify to you, that when your path becomes scary, unexpected, or shrouded in the mist of darkness that, despite what you may even expect, the iron rod or the word of God will guide you, and the power of the atonement will sustain you. The Lord will go before your face. He will be on your right hand and on your left hand, and His angels will be round about you to bear you up. He will sustain you and give you the strength to go forward and to help bear others up as well. But you have to keep going. One step at a time.
He will help you to have the courage to face the unknown and to keep walking on the path, even if unexpected or more difficult than imagined. He will help you to have the courage to love others along that path and help them along their path. No chasm is too wide. No bridge too narrow. No obstacle insurmountable.
It is possible because He makes it possible. And upward and onward IS the only way to get to the happy ending. There is no promised land without the wilderness. We must each cross our bridges of fear and wilderness spaces to be prepared to enjoy and appreciate the happiness that is waiting for us. Eternal life. The love of God. The Atonement. He is the only way, the truth, and the life. And the fruit at the end, the pot of gold, which is the love of God, is more desirable than any other pursuit in this life. It will fill your soul, heal your sorrows, and bring you greater happiness than you have the ability to conceive of.
I testify that Christ is our Savior and He stands ready to sustain, save and Redeem us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteI'm "the friend."
ReplyDeleteThanks again for giving this talk AND for posting it!!!