In some ways, I look back to who I was right when I got home from my mission and imagine myself singing then, like Rapunzel, “When will my life begin?” That period of actively waiting is almost over – once I marry Meghan, it feels like the rest of my life will “truly” begin. 

And what an odd time for my life to begin! When misfortune and difficulty seem to rage around the world, this seems like a weird time for the Lord to be telling me, “Now is the time to get moving.” How is movement possible when the ground beneath you is uncertain? Well, for starters, a foundation focused on Jesus Christ is a foundation that actually doesn’t move and leads in a consistent, correct direction. And also, there are countless examples of people having to move when movement seems difficult.

My study of the Book of Mormon has led me to the story of the leader of the Nephites, Lachoneus, and the band of Gadianton robbers in 3 Nephi 3–4. The leader of the robbers sends a letter to Lachoneus warning him that he will soon attack with his thousands of vicious followers. Pay attention to how Lachoneus responds:

“Now behold, this Lachoneus, the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber; therefore he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers should come down against them” (3 Nephi 3:12).

Rather than succumb to the intimidations of the enemy, Lachoneus turns to his own form of strength. In this experience, we find the principle of faith. Lachoneus doesn’t know what’s going to happen — for all he knows, the robbers outnumber him and will easily overrun his people. However, he chooses instead to turn to God. 

But he doesn’t stop there. He comes up with a plan: he gathers all his people into the capital city with enough provisions to last them all 7 years. They patiently wait for the robbers to attack, and when they do, they battle relentlessly and consistently for years, eventually starving out and driving away all of the evil robbers. They end their victory with rejoicing and praising their God (3 Nephi 4:29-33)

Our day is full of evils trying to get us to throw in the towel and stop moving. Nothing cripples someone like fear. When difficulty leads us to fear, we are essentially stopped still in our progression. We’ve all felt that sense of hopelessness that fear gives us. It’s awful! 

What, then, is the cure? Well, for Lachoneus and his people, it was prayer and immediate, faithful action. Perhaps it’s the same for us. Meghan and I have been praying often about our wedding in December. I’ll be honest, it’s a fearful thing trying to plan what’s supposed to be the greatest day of your life amidst a global pandemic, natural disasters, and political turmoil. But through our prayer and faithful action, we’ve found peace and miracles helping us along. Fear is horrible — thank goodness we have access to a perfect, loving, all-powerful being we call Father.

Something special happens when we choose to follow God and not succumb to fear. And when I say follow God, I don’t mean simply following His commandments. This is a day in which following God only as a secondary priority simply will not cut it: fear strikes and beats down those who do not place God as their primary focus. Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said, “If, in the end, you have not chosen Jesus Christ it will not matter what you have chosen.” Following God means we have to go the second mile.

Vaughn J. Featherstone, in 1990, shared this historical lesson about going the second mile:

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“In ancient … times, soldiers could [force] teen-age boys in Roman provinces to carry their heavy backpacks for one mile, but no more. In a typical scene, we would see a soldier walk into a community. A teen-age boy sees him and starts to run and hide. The boy knows that if the soldier has seen him that he will be caught and whipped for running. The soldier does see the boy and motions for him to come and pick up the heavy backpack. Reluctantly, the boy shoulders the heavy load. The soldier motions toward the road leading out of town, and together they trudge toward the first mile marker.

 

“When the marker comes into sight, the soldier motions for the boy to put the pack down. The boy instead agrees to carry the pack another mile. The soldier reminds him that only one mile is required. However, the boy agrees to go ’the second mile.’ As they continue down the road, the soldier begins to talk with the boy. He asks him if he has seen the mighty ocean. The boy replies ‘No,’ so the soldier gives descriptive accounts of his adventures on the high seas. The soldier then relates stories about military campaigns in distant countries and describes snow covered mountains, which the lad has never seen.

 

“The vivid accounts stir the imagination of the young lad as he hears the tales of the seas and of distant lands. The second mile goes quickly, and the boy discovers the secret of ‘going the second mile.’ You go the first mile and you discharge a duty; you go the second mile and you make a friend. The great men and women in history have been those willing to go the second mile.”

When we find ourselves filled with fear, perhaps we should ask ourselves, “Am I following God closely enough?” Those who follow God still have fear, but are not overwhelmed. That second mile is the mile that trades fear for hope, anxiety for peace, sorrow for joy. Getting through the first mile is the challenge. But once we do, with the help of Jesus Christ, we start to see why things are the way that they are and what we can do to help it.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.

That sounds rather dramatic. I don’t mean to say that my life was ever truly “out of sorts,” but rather that I never felt like I “fit in” with life since coming home from my mission. My older sister described it best when she said that arriving home from your mission feels like jumping off a cliff into a river. You crash into the water and start to float down. You always feel your faith in God keeping you afloat, but you don’t really know where you’re going. It takes quite a while to get your bearings and figure things out. Now, I can finally say I’m getting past that floating stage and moving in a direction that I want to be going.

This has happened for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that I’ve found the girl I’m going to marry. Dating her has felt like coming home in many ways, and our relationship has given me the direction that I need to be going in. Secondary to that, I feel like I’m getting the hang of finances, understanding how college works, figuring out career opportunities (I even made a LinkedIn account!), and I’m now understanding how the gospel works in the real world. If I’m being honest, high school isn’t the real world, and even a mission is not completely real world. It’s been amazing to see how all of my past experiences have prepared me for what I’m doing at 21 years old, and I know that what I do now will prepare me for when I’m 22, and so on.

A variety of lessons have stood out to me throughout this process of getting on my feet, and I’ll share one quickly. I feel strongly that the Lord is patient with us. Indeed, He is all-knowing and all-loving, so why not all-patient? He knows when we are facing something new and has patience with us as we try to figure it out. I faced a myriad of new things when I came home from my mission, and now, as I look into marriage, I’m bombarded with even more new things. This has caused me stress and I feel like I’m not as able to serve others because I’m dealing with so much on my own.

There’s a balance to this: yes, we must serve others despite how busy we are, BUT we cannot run ourselves dry. I am confident that there are times in our lives when we must focus more on ourselves, and then there are times when we have a greater capacity to reach out. Jesus Himself even took time for Himself, such as when He heard John the Baptist had died and sought alone time for prayer and recovery. We too need time for recovery, and there is no sin in seeking that time for ourselves.

In perhaps my favorite BYU devotional of all time, “Personal Ministry: Sacred and Precious,” Bonnie D. Parkin discusses the idea of having a personal ministry. For example, Elder Neal Maxwell served as an apostle, but he constantly remarked that his personal ministry was in ministering to fellow cancer patients. Even Jesus, whose mission saved all of humanity, served a personal ministry throughout Jerusalem and its surrounding villages. We too have a personal ministry, and much of it lies in one-on-one actions as we go from daily task to daily task. So long as we live in the moment and seek to serve while we get things done for ourselves, we will be fulfilling our personal ministry AND taking care of ourselves at the same time. It doesn’t have to be too much; all it takes is a willing heart and a love for people.

Another lesson Sister Parkin teaches is that we must be willing not only to serve but to BE served. I recently had my 21st birthday. Anyone that knows me knows that I typically dislike birthdays. I just hate being the center of attention sometimes! However, my mission taught me that allowing others to serve you not only gives you relief but gives others joy in service. Thus, I am trying to do better at letting others serve me, especially when I find myself weak and tired, for in their service everyone is benefitted.

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What I’m trying to say is that both service and being served are required. We go through a variety of phases in our lives. Some phases will be dedicated to service, such as my mission, while other phases are dedicated to getting our own lives in order, like the 9 months since coming home from my mission. Whichever phase we are in, we can be patient with ourselves because we know God is patient with us. And then, when the time comes that we figure things out – and we will – we can enter a phase of service and truly advance our personal ministries. I know that planning my wedding and beginning marriage will be a phase of figuring things out, and it will be hard and I may feel selfish at times, but I know that that phase will soon be over and my wife and I can truly do some good in this world.

The Lord is patient while we figure stuff out. We don’t have to do everything to please Him. All we have to do is rely on and trust Him. And then, when things are figured out, we will be in the ideal place for our service to truly begin.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.

The key lesson I have learned during this time is trust.

It can be incredibly hard to trust sometimes. It involves putting your well-being into the hands of another. The natural protective measures within us rebel against this — we don’t know if this other person or thing will support us, so we naturally hold back. Trust, then, is something that takes practice.

Lucky for us, we don’t have to rely only on imperfect people to put our trust in. We have a promise that if we “Trust in the Lord with all [our] heart,” He will “direct our paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). We are also told that “whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 36:3). We know that Jesus Christ is perfect, infallible, omnipotent — He will not, indeed cannot, let us down when we trust Him. He will support us when we lean on Him; He will catch us when we fall.

Now, if there’s one thing this current world has taught me, it’s that trusting this is easier said than done.

Let me share a parable to illustrate. Imagine you are on the bank of a river. The day is calm, the water is crystal clear, the birds are singing. You see a strong, sturdy bridge in front of you made of clean-cut stone. A man stands on the other side and asks you to cross over to him — he assures you that the bridge is safe and nothing will hinder you. You cross over without a care in the world.

Now things change. The day is no longer calm. Rain is pouring, thunder is roaring, the wind is blasting by. The river is raging and pulling logs and foliage with it. The bridge is now nothing more than a few pieces of rotten wood strung together by old twine and looks like it will fall apart any moment. The man is still on the other side of the river. He asks you to cross over to him, promising that the tattered bridge will support you to the other side. You look upstream and see a large wave coming. How can you muster the courage to cross that bridge?

And here is found the lesson that I have learned: trust is illogical. It often does not make sense. Evidence does not support it, reason does not encourage it, observation does not justify it. Relying on physical and mental faculties alone, one cannot sufficiently trust in the Lord to life and salvation. And when we describe trust as being necessary for faith, we can then admit that faith in God is not a logical thing. It does not make sense in a worldly view.

How then can we ever trust in God when so many factors tell us it’s impossible? In this is another lesson that I have learned. When seeking to trust someone, you must examine two things:

1. Their dealings with you in the past
2. Their overall character

Let’s see how this works with Jesus Christ. What are His dealings with us in the past? Generally, we can read the scriptures and see how He has pulled through for God’s children every single time. We can follow Alma’s counsel: 

“I would that ye should do as I have done, in remembering the captivity of our fathers; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he surely did deliver them in their afflictions.” (Alma 36:2)

The Bible and Book of Mormon are replete with examples of how God has saved His children. Certainly, we can examine those and trust that He will do the same today.

All of us can also look at our own personal lives and see how Christ has supported us up to this day. I look back in my mission journals and find countless examples of how Christ helped me in my endeavors to share the gospel and serve others. I can look back to high school and find how Christ helped me manage a busy workload and succeed in my talents. I can even look back to my days as a young teenager and how Christ helped me to find my place among my peers. One could look at my life and call these things “the effect of a frenzied mind,” but no one other than me experienced them, so aren’t I the only one who can accurately decide if divine aid was involved? And my decision is that, yes, it was divine aid.

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After we look at the past and determine that Christ has kept His promises thus far, we can examine His character and determine if He will do so in the future. I find no better way to do this than by reading of His ministry in the New Testament. We know that “he went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). Indeed, the good He did was done amidst intense persecution. No matter what was thrown His way, He still did good! His character never faltered and never broke, even until the very last moment upon the cross when He said “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Someone with character like that is in every way trustworthy.

So then, here we find ourselves in turmoil, both on a global scale (pandemic) and maybe even on a personal level (stuck in quarantine, strained relationships, etc.). We are, in effect, asked to cross that river on a bridge that seems uncrossable. The only assurance we have is the promise of the man on the other side. Good thing that the man is Christ, and we know that “God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words… For he will fulfil all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers” (Alma 37: 16-17). 

During these tumultuous times, we should look to the scriptures and find what Christ has promised us. Among other things, He has promised us peace, safety, well-being, joy, and eternal life. If our focus is on these promises — and living worthy of them — rather than worrying endlessly about the sad state of the world, we’ll be okay. If we trust in the Lord, we’ll always be okay.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.

In Mark chapter 5, this incident is recorded:

Touch of Faith, by Simon Dewey

“And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

 

And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

 

When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

 

For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

 

And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

 

And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

 

And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

 

And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

 

But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

 

And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”

 

(Mark 5:26-34)

This is, at face value, yet another account of Jesus healing yet another suffering soul. That in itself is wonderful, but when we analyze the account further, we can learn of its deeper significance and gain a greater appreciation for Christ and for the faith of this woman.

A woman having this “issue of blood” not only suffered a physical ailment but suffered exile. Women with this condition were considered unclean and thus unable to be touched. Imagine spending 12 years unable to be touched. She would be viewed with scorn, a social pariah deemed unworthy of not only touch, but perhaps even love itself. That would be a pain possibly even worse than the issue itself.

Imagine then the coming of Christ being announced abroad. This woman would hear of a man known as a healer. Yet how did He heal? He healed predominantly by touch. But this woman was unclean! She could not be touched! Perhaps she, in that moment of realization, had her last hope dashed — no one would touch an unclean thing like her. 

What faith it would have taken to pursue Christ anyways! Perhaps the Spirit beckoned her onwards, giving her just enough hope to justify her leap of faith. She pushed through the crowd and touched Him. An unclean being as herself just pushed through an entire crowd, risking chagrin, simply to touch a man’s clothing. And then, this man turns around asking who touched him! If this healer found out it was her, he could easily have her punished for her rash action. Perhaps fear rippled through this woman, fear developed after being a social pariah for the last 12 years.

But then the comforting words of Christ wash over her, not only providing physical healing but peace, a peace I believe to have washed away the emotional and spiritual pain of exile and social uncleanliness. One socially impossible touch healed this woman who, for the last 12 years, had been forbidden to touch anyone.

We can all see ourselves in the story of this brave woman. We have all at times had physical ailments or been socially outcast. And I am sure all of us have been healed at some time by the touch of the Savior. His touch can be found in tender mercies, in loved ones, in silent prayer, in humble scripture study, in nature, and in a myriad of other, perhaps unlikely ways. The one thing that all of these “touches” have in common is that a bit of faith and a positive perspective (hope) are required. Those two ingredients can reverse any affliction or pain, even the physical and emotional pain of an “issue of blood” for 12 years. Note how one action on one day changed the entire life of this woman.

The peace from that touch can penetrate even the darkest days of our past and begin to reverse all negative emotion. The touch is not only a band-aid on the surface — it’s an antibiotic that cleans the wound and heals everything, however deep that wound may be.

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His touch can influence a marriage, save a family, help in our career, motivate us to accomplish our goals, conquer despair, give the strength to get up in the morning, provide direction, quell anxiety, encourage goodness, increase love, and enlighten the mind. Quite literally, His touch can do anything and everything in our lives, so long as we ask for it, act faithfully with belief in Christ and His power, and trust that God’s will comes in His own way and His own timing. 

We all can use His touch after what we have been through the last few months. Truthfully, this world needs His touch. It’s easy to look around and give up hope. But it’s essential that we never forget that “He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him” (2 Nephi 26:24).

Nothing can save us but Christ. Nothing can save this world but Christ. Let us all seek for His touch as we live through our own trials and help the world through its own. 

And let us never forget that no matter how bad, no matter how long, no matter how deep, suffering can always be healed by the Savior’s touch. 

I am grateful for the woman with an issue of blood who taught me that lesson.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.

The protests happening these last few weeks have been pretty intense — more intense than many of us expected, I would say. They’ve eclipsed the state of the pandemic for a moment! That just shows that one issue inevitably follows another. In the past, it seemed like problems were more spread out, but now it seems that they overlap and compound. Once again, what a time to be living in!

Generational Preparation

These events have reminded me of a principle I heard some time ago, though I can’t say where. It was something about how each generation is sufficiently prepared for the challenges that they will face in their lifetimes. That was true of the generations living during WWII, the Civil Rights movements of the 50s and 60s, and, in essence, every other generation with their specific challenges. 

In this there is an incredible truth found when we consider the “general” plan of God for the world. In every age and circumstance, it seems that a generation is raised up to meet the needs at that time. That generation is often led by an inspired, prepared leader, be it Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Moses, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, etc. And those are just the obvious ones we speak of often! There are thousands of unsung heroes in every nation and in every age of the world. When we complain about the challenges that God allows to happen in the world, we must recognize that there is something to be said about the miraculous ways in which He delivers the world!

This same principle — the principle of preparedness — can be applied not only generally, but specifically to our lives (as can almost any principle). The Lord will use our trials as means of preparation for the future.

We all know how painful preparation can be. Anyone that has ever been to a sports practice, studied for a test, started at the bottom of their career path, been swamped with homework, or spent hours at the driving range trying to perfect their swing knows how rough preparation truly is. However, anyone that has received the fruits of that preparation knows it was well worth every effort.

Now, this can feel quite dismal — are trials simply meant to prepare us for greater trials? Is this a never-ending cycle of forced growth? Well, in a way, that is true — trials we have now will prepare us for greater trials to come. And we should be grateful for that. But that is not all they’re for. 

Challenges Prepare Us for Joy

I am a firm believer that our trials, both current and future, prepare us for the joy that will be received later on.

This is a principle that is evident everywhere in our lives. I recently took up some part-time work at Pizza Pie Café, a local buffet of pizza, pasta, and salad. I used to go there all the time in high school and enjoyed it. But I’ve learned something about buffets (and food in general): you enjoy it more when you’re hungrier. If you’re really hungry when you walk in those doors, that pizza is going to taste a whole lot better than if you’re already full. 

Simple and obvious, but true, huh? Hunger is a preparation before food can be enjoyed. Thirst is a preparation before water can be enjoyed. Fatigue is a preparation before sleep can be enjoyed. Somehow, the lack of something makes receiving that something infinitely sweeter than if we already had it in the first place.

Is the same not true with joy? If we were always happy, happiness would be stale and meaningless to us. That is the way it was for Adam and Eve before they left the Garden of Eden. It is because of sadness that joy can be attained.

Jesus Christ ventured into the greatest depth of sadness and suffering — so deep that it’s not even ;[ conceivable to our minds. He did so “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2). How far we must sink into that abyss before we receive that same joy, I don’t know, but I do know that no matter how far we must go, we will not be alone. Christ will pick us up and the reward will be joy.

Gratitude for Our Mountains to Climb

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I absolutely love hearing people describe their mission in this way:

“Every day was its own kind of hard. Every day someone would yell at us, someone would throw something at us, someone we love would cast us away and ask that we stop teaching them, my feet would hurt and the heat would give me a headache. I was always tired and sore. I often missed home and shed a lot of tears. My companions were hard and the language was brutal. I loved my mission more than I can say.”

The listener scratches his head and says, “Uh… are you sure you meant loved and not hated?” The returned missionary then replies, “Oh yeah, I absolutely LOVED my mission! It was truly the best two years imaginable at this time of my life.”

I stand firm in that very conviction. I could talk for hours about the hardships of my mission in Sydney, Australia, but never will I fail to mention that I loved every moment of it! 

Yes, I do admit that in the moment, it was pretty dang hard. But with the blessing of hindsight and a heightened perspective of completion, every single moment strengthened and blessed me in ways I could not have then imagined. 

I am very, very confident that our lives will be the same way. We will be in heaven after all is said and done, looking back on the time we spent here. We’ll be able to see more clearly how each trial prepared us for the next, and how ultimately those trials prepared us for the joy we’ll be feeling right then. We’ll look back and say, “Wow, life was hard. I loved every moment.”

This perspective can leave us like Spencer W. Kimball, who pleaded “Give me this mountain” so that he could receive the associated blessing from climbing it. (However, we must be cautious, for Henry B. Eyring quoted this in 2012 and promised that the prayer for a mountain to climb will be answered!)

Either way, mountains to climb WILL come, whether we want them or not. But I’m confident that when we stand on top of those mountains, we’ll understand that they truly were what was best for us, for without them we could not have the joy we feel at the summit.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.

What is it?

For those of you who know Tolkein’s story The Hobbit, you’d recognize this as Gollum’s final riddle for Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo was stumped for some time until finally he stumbled on the answer accidentally like I just did in this sentence…

The answer is time!

The Key to Agency

Time is all powerful! Like the riddle says, time is really the only mortal force with the power to destroy all these great things — kings, towns, mountains. It is an integral part of our lives and is often what makes life so hard. It is the foundational principle that makes agency possible, for deciding what to do with our time is really the key to our life’s purpose.

Book of Mormon prophets talk about how “this life is the time to prepare to meet God” (Alma 34:32) and Bible teachers declare that there is “a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). That biblical chapter goes on to describe all of the different things we encounter in this life, a striking reminder that we can’t do everything at once.

But no matter! We are told that our time is “sufficient,” so why worry about lost time? Well, easier said than done — we are a people who regret easily and wish things could have been better. So how can we work to change that?

Once again, easier said than done! But President Russell M. Nelson is, as always, onto something here. In June 2018, when he spoke to the youth of the Church, he invited the youth to, among other things, make a “weekly sacrifice of their time” for something good for three weeks. 

Since then, President Nelson has discussed how we should invest our time, often suggesting things like doing temple work, participating in humanitarian aid, and spending time with family. 

The Time and Happiness Principle

Every missionary – and I mean EVERY missionary – will learn at some point during their mission that investing time in others before seeking personal gratification ALWAYS leads to a happier feeling inside. Now, not all missionaries act on that knowledge, but every single one learns that principle. That is one reason I love my mission: because now I know without a shadow of a doubt how to become most happy with the time that I have.

The challenge is finding how to wisely invest our time during different phases of our lives. I know, just as every other RM knows, that it’s hard to invest time in others at the same rate we did as missionaries. We now have school, work, money, and social relationships to worry about, and thus distractions are easy. I’m sure it’s hard for a new parent to balance their time with budding careers and young children. I’m also sure it’s hard for a recently retired couple to deal with their abundance of time and an empty house.

And, of course, it’s hard for us all to use our time effectively now that we seem to have all the time in the world.

This has weighed heavily on me as I’m sure it has on all of you for the past few weeks. With all of this time on our hands, shouldn’t we be doing something amazing, like becoming a master on the piano or writing a best-selling novel? And also, do we feel guilty for having watched six episodes of our favorite TV shows a day or for losing the desire to reach out to friends?

I was recently inspired by my favorite musical artist, Tom Chaplin, lead singer of Keane. He was interviewed on a British YouTube show and asked the question, “What advice do you have to maintain creativity during this lockdown?”

He responded by saying that an abundance of time can create pressure that you have to create something great, but really that’s not what it’s about. Instead of worrying about the end result, focus on the process and let the result simply come from that. Don’t allow the presence of newfound time burden your creativity.

Sacrificing Our Time

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In a way, we have all been asked — or rather, forced — to give up many of the things we love most during this time. This is a sacrifice if ever I saw one! Granted, it’s of a relatively small degree compared to some, but it is a sacrifice nonetheless. Thus, we will be blessed for acting well within it. We will be blessed in ways we could not have previously imagined if we act well in this time! 

Now, as Tom Chaplin wisely suggested, this is not meant to pressure and burden us into thinking we have to become something great during this season. With this, I am inspired by the scriptural phrase “prospered by degrees.” With that in mind, this time has now become a “small and simple things” experience when we can read new books, try new hobbies, spend family time, and strengthen our relationship with God in ways now unhindered by many distractions of the world. In a way, it is now easier to invest each moment in worthwhile, “simple” things.

The difference between the eagle and the hog — or a thought of true character — has always inspired me.

The Eagle:

This bird works as hard and as efficiently as any other animal or bird in doing its daily work. It provides for itself and its young by the sweat of its brow, so to speak, but when its daily work is over and the eagle has time of its own to do just as it pleases, note how it spends its recreational moments. It flies in the highest realms of heaven, spreads its wings, and bathes in the upper air, for it loves the pure, clean atmosphere and the lofty heights.

The Hog:

This animal grunts and grubs and provides for its young just as well as the eagle, but when its working hours are over and it has some recreational moments, observe where it goes and what it does: the hog will seek out the muddiest hole in the pasture and will roll in and soak itself in filth, for this is the thing it loves.

People can be either eagles or hogs in their leisure time.

This is in no way a callout of any kind, for if it were, I would be among the first to be called out. What it is, rather, is an opportunity for us to prayerfully decide how best to use our abundance of time. And as this lockdown period seems for some parts of the world to be drawing to an end, it is an opportunity to decide how we will use our spare time once life gets busier. 

I am sure all of us have learned the importance and difficulty of time during this lockdown. Let us all remember those lessons and apply them aptly in the future.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.

WAIT.

See what I mean? It contains much power, but also much apprehension. All of us have memories of being young and having our immediate dreams shattered by our parents or teachers firmly asserting this word. All of us remember the conflict that  often ensues when we debate whether we should take this word’s advice or act hastily — and often rashly — towards our desires. I for one can list many times in which I should have waited but didn’t. Failure to do so resulted in things such as a stomachaches, headaches, bruises, hurt feelings, and almost always regret. Thus, we see the obvious battle between the blessings of waiting and the difficulty of doing so. 

A key principle when it comes to waiting is that it differs from the word “stopping.” The word “stop” is also a 4-letter word with power and apprehension, but in a different way. You see, to stop means to halt your progress completely. While stopped, you really don’t do anything productive. The mentality is that since you’re not moving, you might as well stop trying. Standing in opposition to this is “waiting,” which, when done correctly, implies that you are consistently bettering yourself even while visible progress towards a goal is halted. Actively waiting means you consistently do the small, character-improving things while you anxiously await your path to continue. Actively waiting means you have hope, while stopping means you have none.

It’s quite easy as a missionary to actively wait. Every day you do productive things that not only lead to goals but also naturally lead to character development. I found that I almost always felt hopeful and productive as a missionary, even on days when we didn’t find visible success, simply because we never, ever stopped. Now, upon coming home, I find much more temptation to stop, relax, and let the character development stop. That has caused me much sadness at times and has led me to write this article.

I have learned a few valuable lessons since coming home that have helped me tremendously. The first comes from an odd source — a recent Disney movie, one with much hype and acclaim. Frozen 2, the long-awaited sequel to possibly the best Disney movie of all time, really lived up to its name. I think the music was great and the story was fulfilling!

However, what got me the most was the theme of the movie. The head troll — I believe his name is Pabbie — shows up to offer some trademark advice to Anna and Elsa. He looks into the future, deems it uncertain, and then makes this golden remark:

“When the future is uncertain, all you can do is do the next right thing.”

What a brilliant saying! Never does Disney fail to produce divinely inspired wisdom worthy of a gospel insight. What do we do when we don’t know what to do? What do we do when we choose (or are asked or forced) to wait? We simply do the next right thing! By doing so, we secure blessings such as character development, joy, and further guidance. Waiting isn’t so hard when you stop focusing on the fact that you’re waiting and start doing right thing after right thing. Pretty soon we will find what we were waiting for — or something far better than we could have imagined.

All of us wait for something.

For starters, we are all waiting for life to become normal again.

What else are we waiting for?

We may receive promises and assurances that things will be okay, but find ourselves waiting desperately for them to be realized.

We may wait and pray and plead for those we love to be healed or to make better choices but find that things only get worse.

We may be waiting to find love but struggle to recover after a broken relationship.

We may await blessings we know we have earned and deserve but find only trial after trial after trial.

We may desire faith and actively seek it but are blocked by continuous clouds of doubt and disbelief.

We may yearn for deliverance, either for ourselves or others, but only find that while waiting, burdens continue to build upon us.

We may eagerly anticipate a glorious reunion with family and eternal rest in heaven but are, for now, expected to endure a difficult and often dark world — one in which we have to wait for almost everything worthwhile.

To read more of Adam’s articles, click here.

Whatever we are waiting for, let us be firm. Let us actively wait and never stop improving ourselves. Let us do the next right thing, and then the next, and then the next, keeping an eye out for immediate blessings rather than focusing on those that have not yet come. And let us help others along the way, for actively waiting is never something that should be done emotionally alone.

I close now on a spiritual note with words from a beloved Church leader:

“God’s promises are not always fulfilled as quickly as or in the way we might hope; they come according to His timing and in His ways…  

Looking back, I know for sure that the promises of the Lord, if perhaps not always swift, are always certain… 

Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Continue in Patience,” April 2010).

I know and promise that waiting, though difficult, is possible. I have been waiting for a long time for certain blessings and promises to be fulfilled, and I know you have too. If anything, we all wait for a better life after this one, one with all of our family and with our God. Let us rely on the Savior, Jesus Christ, Someone who made all of our waiting not only possible but worth it.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.

Hope is the natural combatant to the evils we face in our day — oftentimes, it is all that we have to defend against the onslaught of darkness thrown our way. It is a sad reality then that talking of hope is much easier when things are good, and much more difficult when times are hard. We can so easily say “joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5) when it is already midday, but we often cannot fathom that reality when darkness is all around us.

It is in these moments of hopelessness that we experience a difficult emotion to master — disappointment. Disappointment is tough because it can twist our thinking in ways that are not optimistic or righteous. Let me explain through an experience from my earlier years.

During my senior year of high school, I was determined to ask a certain girl to senior prom. All of our friends knew of my intentions and were excited for me. As the allotted time for boys to start asking the girls grew closer, I began preparing, imagining how fun prom would be with this girl. And then, the very day before I was going to ask, the unthinkable happened – another guy asked her to the dance. And she agreed to go with him. I was crushed! In a moment my high school dreams were shattered, and all my preparation was wasted. 

Yes, you could say I was quite disappointed.

That disappointment led to a few poisonous thoughts such as “I’m worthless,” “I feel betrayed and want revenge,” and “How could God allow this to happen?” Those thoughts, which you could say are “natural” in a seemingly unjust situation, did nothing for my Christlike progression and only brought me into anger and bitterness. No, I did not become wicked — but I certainly felt little peace. Bitter disappointment acted as a barrier to heavenly comfort.

Those feelings didn’t last forever. Through prayer I was able to forgive and largely forget, and I asked another wonderful girl to prom and we had a great time. But the lessons I learned from that experience are real. I certainly wasn’t grateful for it at the time, but looking back, I’m happy to have learned those lessons while still young.

Disappointment comes when we find that our dreams and desires are not achieved. In essence, we are disappointed when we don’t get what we want or feel we deserve. There is nothing unnatural or unhealthy about feeling disappointment — it shows us that we cared about something, and there’s nothing wrong with that! It’s perfectly okay to feel disappointed when we lose the championship basketball game or do poorly on a test we thought we were prepared for. 

And how about when a pandemic hits, stopping all of our forward progress, cancelling all of the events we looked forward to and forcing us to wait indoors with nothing we can do about it? Talk about disappointing! I believe it’s highly unlikely that anyone wanted this to happen, thus it can be quite a disappointment, because that’s what disappointment is — not getting what we want.

So what if we change our outlook just a bit?

What if we focus not on what we missed out on or on what DIDN’T happen, and choose rather to trust He who in His wisdom “knoweth all things” (2 Nephi 2:24)? Do we think God didn’t know this pandemic would happen? Do we think God didn’t know that all of our events would be cancelled? Do we think God didn’t know that we would be disappointed?

Yet I believe that God allows us to be disappointed for us to learn and to trust Him.

Whenever I am disappointed, I am humbled when I look at the lives of righteous saints who have lived before me. I imagine the disappointment on Moses’s face when he saw his people reduced to idolatry. I picture the daily disappointment faced by Lehi as he tried in vain to teach Laman and Lemuel the ways of righteousness. I envision the fierce disappointment faced by Joseph and his companions, stuck in a rotten prison for five months while their families are beaten and driven out of their control. 

What bitter disappointment! Yet how did they react? With continued faith in God. Their will was swallowed up in His will. They chose not to dwell on what things could’ve been, but rather they focused their energy on what was and enduring it well. And because of that, they were blessed exceedingly — blessings which I am sure were never fully realized in this life but await them in celestial glory. They saw the promises afar off (Hebrews 11:13), not receiving them yet but knowing that they would someday.

And so too should we face disappointment. Yes, the pandemic is still sweeping the earth and we don’t know when it will end. But rather than sulking in disappointed despair, why don’t we take this time to refocus our lives on what matters, build stronger relationships with God and with family, and gear up for what will come after? Rather than focusing on how hard things are now, why not trust that God has purpose in it all.

My mission president’s wife, Sister Runia, taught me a valuable lesson that we can all benefit from now. She shared this scripture with us:

“Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:3).

She called this principle “spiritual alchemy” — seemingly bad things in our lives somehow work for our good. I know this is true because I look back at my mission, an immensely difficult two years, and cannot possibly enumerate its immense effect for good on my life. 

I also know it is true when I watch President Oaks give a talk about opposition with a smile on his face! All of the Brethren have been through so much difficulty in their lives, and their current callings are very hard to bear at times, yet they can speak of their trials with a smile. How? They must trust in God’s ability to transform their hard times into invaluable lessons and growth impossible in any other way. Amazing.

C.S. Lewis summarized spiritual alchemy in a way far better than I ever could. In his book The Great Divorce, he said this:

“‘Son,’ he said, ‘ye cannot in your present state understand eternity…That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say “Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences”: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why…the Blessed will say “We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, “We were always in Hell.” And both will speak truly.”

If we believe this, then we know that if we respond to disappointment righteously, a time will come when we forget all disappointment and remember only growth and joy. That time may not be here now, but soon, if we endure well, the day will come.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.