Some years ago a local scout outing turned tragic when a gentle wash became an angry river during a thunderstorm. The storm began innocently enough as a light rain. The adults, mostly parents of the scouts, held a brief meeting with the scoutmaster to decide whether to scrub the rest of the weekend outing due to the darkening skies. Unfortunately, the warning signs were ignored and the troop stayed put at the campground. By late afternoon the menacing clouds over Bushnell Tanks clamored in a thunderous deluge of rain. The scout troop scrambled for their cars and headed down the narrow, muddy road toward the wash which loomed between the campground and the safety of the highway just a few feet beyond. When the last SUV in the caravan became stuck crossing the rain-swollen wash, the adults and scouts in the SUV climbed out on the running boards to await the scoutmaster’s rescue.
Tying a rope to his waist and then to a nearby tree, the scoutmaster waded into the fierce current in a desperate attempt to rescue his scouts and their parents. Dusk hampered rescue efforts as the adults and scouts who had safely crossed the wash stood helplessly on the riverbank to witness the growing nightmare. With the lifeline helicopters still minutes away, the passengers in the SUV plunged into the wash when their vehicle overturned in the muscular current. Belted into the sharp rocks and dead tree stumps lining the bottom of the wash, the current dragged the passengers down river. One scout thrust his arms around the neck of the adult driver. The more the current sucked them under, the more the panicked scout tightened his grip, choking the driver. Gasping for air, she broke his grip with a mighty thrust. When she eventually emerged bloodied and bruised on the riverbank with the others, two scouts and one parent had lost their lives to the once gentle wash.
Warning Signs
As a result of the decision to delay departure from the threatening storm, a peaceful scout outing became a fateful lesson in the spidery-fine thread between life and death. The time to heed life’s warnings is here and now, before the drizzle explodes into a monsoon. Delaying our response to warning signs creates consequences which reduce choice. Just as darkening clouds signal a warning of foul weather ahead, so too are there spiritual warnings, which, if promptly heeded, can avert the raging consequences of delay:
1. The Word of Wisdom. The Word of Wisdom is a sophisticated early-warning system. Having grown up in an alcoholic home, I can bear personal witness of the lasting consequences of rejecting the Word of Wisdom. No parent, no youth starts out as an alcoholic. No one ingests the first drug or takes his first drink out of malevolence toward others. Yet family and friends are often the unintended victims of choices which seem as innocuous as a light rain when first proposed, but can billow into deadly thunderstorms in the unstoppable inertia of addiction. Once addicted, the choice which moral agency affords us is reduced to a narrow bandwidth of harder choices–including the potential loss of will to choose freedom from addiction. The warning is unmistakable when the Lord said: “I have warned you and forewarn you, by giving unto you this Word of Wisdom by revelation–” (D&C 89:4). By heeding the warning, blessings of physical and spiritual health follow–including “wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures” and protection from “the destroying angel” (D&C 89:19,21).
2. Casual Response To The Things of God. Elder Maxwell counseled: “Casual members are usually very busy with the cares and things of the world–much as honorable Amulek once was. Called many times, he would not hear. He really knew concerning the truths of the gospel, but Amulek would not acknowledge that he knew” (Neal A. Maxwell, “Settle This In Your Hearts,” Ensign, Nov. 1992). Like Amulek, when we get so busy with the cares of the world that all we are is busy, we risk losing the companionship of the Holy Ghost–or at least we risk the blessing of a richer relationship with the Spirit.
When I was a new member of the Church, I was shocked at the casual approach to General Conference by some members. The Saturday session was often treated as a day of recreation. More than once I heard the I’ll-get-the-video excuse. The problem is: few ever take the time to watch Conference later on–and if they do, they miss the spirit of obedience in the here and now for which the Lord “doth immediately bless you.
..” (Mosiah 2:4). Conference, scripture study, prayer, temple attendance and Family Home Evening are loaded with the anti-oxidants so vital to our spiritual immune systems. Given the constant attack from the world, engaged discipleship is the surest protection and warning system from the disease of apathy.
3. Stakes and Wards. In modern revelation the Lord revealed that stakes of Zion are “a defense and a refuge from the storm…” (D&C 115:6). Think of the implications of that marvelous insight! Where stakes of Zion are organized, two sentinels–two shepherds–guard the gates to the temple. In first-time temple recommend interviews each of us must pass by these sentinels–the loving guardians of the gateway to eternal life. Once a bishop and a stake president issue our recommends, the rest is up to us. Is there any doubt that as we come unto Christ within the mighty fortress of stakes, wards and branches we gain a defense and refuge from the storm? Such defenses are a welcome first-warning system.
4. The Warning Voice of Prophets. “As people heed the warning voice of prophets, the Lord blesses them. When they disregard His word, however, distress and suffering often follow” (Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Journey To Higher Ground,” Ensign, Nov. 2005). As the doomed scoffers of Noah before the flood learned the hard way, the time to climb aboard the ark is when the skies are still sunny.
Is The Sky Really Falling?
For disciples the question isn’t whether the sky is falling, but rather, the source of the weather report. When heeded, the warnings of prophets, the whisperings of the Spirit, and the safety within wards and stakes are the surest protection from life’s storms. There is safety in these early warnings, but even in safety there is a necessary angst in opposition. Were it not so, the iron rod could not have been forged alongside a filthy river, banked by the pointing fingers in the nearby spacious building. Spiritual safety takes work, even hand over hand effort amidst the chaos of gathering storms and scoffers. Angst yet safety, warnings yet blessings: these are the spiritual rhythms in approaching raindrops from cloudless skies.
