It is often too easy to accept a
good thing, and dangerous too. Good things can be bad for you. Let me explain.
Years ago, I had to leave college
and take a full-time job. I didn’t have the time or funds to be a student. I
paid off my student loan debt, and stayed in that same job that I was in. It
wasn’t what I wanted, but it was comfortable. I had an easy job that didn’t pay
badly. It wasn’t great, but not bad. I owned a house, a dog and was married to
my beautiful wife. I spent my days at the office, would come home to my wife
and dinner. Some days I would do yard work, others we’d go out. It was good.
As is always does, the rains came.
There was a sudden change in management. My boss was replaced by one of my
least favorite co-workers. He didn’t give me a chance. He immediately
restructured the business, folding my responsibilities into three other
positions to reduce costs. After seven years I was unemployed and uneducated. I
had trouble finding a job that fit my skill and payment requirements. I knew what
had happened: I had become complacent. Now I had to pay the price.
I’d had chances to go back to
school. I’d had chances to find another job more suited to me in a field I
could advance in. I did not. I was lured into complacency and lulled to sleep by
comfort. I was not working where I wanted to be.
In The Book of Mormon, the Jaredites had a similar problem. They
followed the word of the Lord to a good place, the valley of Moriancumer. It
must have been beautiful. I think about the group of refugees that had suffered
fear, doubt, and loss, gathering as a small group of friends and family in a
good place and building a home. After four years they built a new normal, they
had a good life and became comfortable. Their spiritual leader, the brother of
Jared, finally went to the Lord in prayer. He was chastened for hours.
He had followed the word of the
Lord. He’d faithfully lead his friends and family away from everything they had
ever known into nothingness based solely on prophecy. They had left everything
they had to follow the Lord, is that not good?
It was not enough. It was only
good, not great. It was too easy to accept the good thing the Lord had given
them and not look beyond it to receive more. The Lord had more in store for
them. In Ether
2:7-8 we read:
 |
| Despite his earlier failings, the brother of Jared had such faith that he saw the finger of the Lord |
7 ”And the Lord would not suffer
that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they
should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all
other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people.
8 And he had sworn in his wrath
unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from
that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God”
That is a far greater destiny than
a small village in the old world. The Jaredites were meant to expand, to travel
to a land of promise where they would expand to cover the whole face of the
land. They would build cities that the Nephites would marvel at hundreds of
years later.
They followed the word of the Lord
and traded “good’ for “better.”
We too are meant for more. I don’t
care who you are, you could be a millionaire, President, or a genius – you
haven’t actually arrived yet. We are infinite children of an immortal Father.
We are not meant for small things, or even mortal things. We are not meant to
toil in obscurity and mediocrity. Our Father built us for more than that. He
calls us to higher things, and He will qualify those he calls. His is a way of
glory.
We won’t reach these heights all at
once. He will have steps for us to take. Sometimes we will need to stand and
wait on the Lord. He may need us to put down roots and build a life somewhere,
but we should never be too comfortable. The whole of eternity is lies before us.
We have time. We may need to start small or fall to grow. We may have to fight
our way up, but we should never stop moving. The moment we stop looking forward
– we have lost. We can always pick up our burden and repent to keep following
him, but that calling may be gone. We can miss steps and still reach our
ultimate goal, but a chance may only come once, passing irretrievably into our
history as something that could have been.
 |
| John Greenleaf - Poet and author |
“For all sad words of tongue or
pen, the saddest are these ‘it might have been’” – John Greenleaf
Our God is a loving God, and a God
of second chances. The Lord stands with his hand out-stretched ready to lift us
to greater heights, But first we have to reach out to him.
My goal now is to never become
complacent again. I never want to be left in the dust and ruins of my own
inaction again. I wish to keep moving forward, always improving and growing
until I reach that perfect day. And then, I will look on to what lies ahead.
