Wind

In the Book of Mormon, there is a story about a group of people called the Jaredites who came to the Americas in ships at the time languages were confounded when the Tower of Babel was destroyed.  This small group of righteous people were blessed by God not to have their language be confounded, and by a prophet referred to as the Brother of Jared, they were led to the American continent, a promised land.  (See the Book of Ether for the complete story.)

One part of the account of their journey describes: "And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind. ... And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land..."  (See verses 5-8.)

Have you ever been on a boat for a long period of time?  I love short adventures with any kind of watercraft, but after about 24 hours at sea, I'm ready to be done.  I feel sick, cagey, and restless, even if the whole point is to be relaxing and have nothing to do.  I've never been on a ship that has encountered a furious wind, but I have tried walking to the metro during one of D.C.'s near hurricanes.  It's not easy, and it's not fun.  I certainly never feel like the wind is assisting me in reaching a better place.

I don't think of the story of the Jaredites as an allegory--I believe it literally happened.  However, I see it's allegorical value.  At times in my life I have been stuck on a figurative ship, in the middle of a difficult situation with no easy way out.  Sometimes it feels the way I felt on a hike several years ago in Canyonlands National Park.  My group had hiked down into a gorge, was running out of water, and the only way to get back to our cars was to keep pushing our way up.  The prospect of climbing the wall of the gorge was incredibly unappealing, but we had no other option.  Once the Jaredites boarded ships to the promised land, there was no other option--they had to keep going or get out of the boat and drown.  When I came to this earth, I had made the decision to stay faithful through all trials in order to reach the promised land my Heavenly Father is preparing in heaven.  The only other option is to metaphorically drown--to succumb to Satan's temptations, particularly of discouragement and defeat, abandoning the hope of Heavenly Father's promises.

The amazing thing is that the harder the winds that Heavenly Father frequently designs just for me and my ship, the better the end result.  At the moment life feels like being riding a jet ski on the glassy morning Pacific with dolphins and sea lions.  (I'm not making this up; I really did this and it was amazing.)  On the other hand, the past two years had some lengthy bouts of furious winds.  I have no doubt there are more furious winds ahead, but instead of pushing me back, they will be pushing me forward to solid ground.