In our recent general conference session, Elder Nelson's address included the words,
"When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do."
What imagery!
What powerful words.
What a measuring stick to rule ourselves by - once can ask themselves: am I reaching up to God with the same intensity as a drowning person?
What does a drowning person experience?
⦁ panic.
⦁ rush.
⦁ the educated ones will know to hyperventilate and calm down.
⦁ the spiritual ones will know that they have to act - and it will be by pure instinct: analogously and obviously, if I am drowning, I have to swim to the surface!
⦁ those practiced at swimming will know how to stroke to get around.
What does this mean for us spiritually?
Well firstly, what does it mean to drown spiritually? It can be interpreted in multiple ways - and President Nelson has left it open to the interpretation under the Holy Ghost's influence. Let's explore, shall we?
The obvious first answer is by sinning. Our spiritual selves find it hard to spiritually breathe when we are living a life of sin. When our desires are turned from God. When we are breaking commandments and being comfortable in it.
But like Nephi (2 Nephi 4), who desired to flee from his enemy and be freed from his influence, we too can run from ours. Trials are to be endured, but temptations are to be escaped from - we are to resist temptation by diminishing and relinquishing it (1 Corinthians 10:13-14).
"Like Joseph in the presence of Potiphar’s wife, just run as far away as you can get from whatever or whoever it is that beguiles you. And please, when fleeing the scene of temptation, do not leave a forwarding address" (Holland, Place No More for the Enemy of My Soul). Who wants to return to drowning anyway?
Unfortunately, the adversary has convinced many in the world that sin is an escape from worldly struggle. That justifying your unrighteous behaviour is justified. Well analogously, he's telling us to drown ourselves.
Here is a second way drowning can be interpreted, and I draw upon another visual analogy.
The Allegory of the Olive Tree (Jacob 5) is designed as an analogue of the timeline of earth and the demonstration of the role of missionary work in the Lord's plan. However, it has many "mini-analogies" amidst the beauty of the allegorical text.
In one instance, a tree grew a large root system, larger than its size above ground - it consequently died. This is symbolic of over-relying on the Lord, and not relying enough on oneself. On a small scale, this behaviour merits the Lord's reply in the form of "What will ye that I should do" as He said to the brother of Jared.
On the other hand, another tree in the allegory became oversized above ground with a little root system. It also died, symbolic of over-reliance in oneself.
As Christ is the Living Waters (and I may be taking this image of His into unnecessary territory), we can drown in His love as we over-rely on Him. Elder Maxwell said, "those who do too much for their children will soon find they can do nothing with their children. So many children have been so much done for they are almost done in" (The Man of Christ, 1975).
Those who believe God will have everything in place, and they themselves do hardly much to bring forth God's purposes in their lives will meet a similar fate to that spoken of in 2 Nephi 28:8.
"And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear Godhe will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God."
Having given the above two examples, what is the antidote of choice for each one?
For the latter, we would do well to follow Elder Christofferson's words:
"...And we do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God will helpdivine aid can be ours every hour of every day, no matter where we are in the path of obedience. But I know that beyond desiring His help, we must exert ourselves, repent, and choose God for Him to be able to act in our lives consistent with justice and moral agency. My plea is simply to take responsibility and go to work so that there is something for God to help us with" (Free Forever, to Act for Themselves).
For the former, we can follow Elder Holland's words:
"So how does one “come unto Christ” in response to this constant invitation? The scriptures give scores of examples and avenues. You are well acquainted with the most basic ones. The easiest and the earliest comes simply with the desire of our heart, the most basic form of faith that we know. “If ye can no more than desire to believe,” Alma says, exercising just “a particle of faith,” giving even a small place for the promises of God to find a homethat is enough to begin. Just believing, just having a “molecule” of faithsimply hoping for things which are not yet seen in our lives, but which are nevertheless truly there to be bestowedthat simple step, when focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, has ever been and always will be the first principle of His eternal gospel, the first step out of despair.
"Second, we must change anything we can change that may be part of the problem. In short we must repent, perhaps the most hopeful and encouraging word in the Christian vocabulary. We thank our Father in Heaven we are allowed to change, we thank Jesus we can change, and ultimately we do so only with Their divine assistance. Certainly not everything we struggle with is a result of our actions. Often it is the result of the actions of others or just the mortal events of life. But anything we can change we should change, and we must forgive the rest. In this way our access to the Savior’s Atonement becomes as unimpeded as we, with our imperfections, can make it. He will take it from there.
"Third, in as many ways as possible we try to take upon us His identity, and we begin by taking upon us His name. That name is formally bestowed by covenant in the saving ordinances of the gospel. These start with baptism and conclude with temple covenants, with many others, such as partaking of the sacrament, laced throughout our lives as additional blessings and reminders. Teaching the people of his day the message we give this morning, Nephi said: 'Follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, … with real intent, … take upon you the name of Christ. … Do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer [will] do.'"
He then gives a glorious promise.
"Following these most basic teachings, a splendor of connections to Christ opens up to us in multitudinous ways: prayer and fasting and meditation upon His purposes, savoring the scriptures, giving service to others, “succor[ing] the weak, lift[ing] up the hands which hang down, … strengthen[ing] the feeble knees.” Above all else, loving with “the pure love of Christ,” that gift that “never faileth,” that gift that “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, [and] endureth all things.” Soon, with that kind of love, we realize our days hold scores of thoroughfares leading to the Master and that every time we reach out, however feebly, for Him, we discover He has been anxiously trying to reach us. So we step, we strive, we seek, and we never yield" (Broken Things to Mend, 2006).
This is a life that reaches out to God with the intensity of a drowning person.
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