Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in addressing Brigham Young University students and faculty in September 1981 said. . . .
Whatever our vocation, we should be sweetened, not hardened. Keeping our sense of proportion whatever we do, keeping our precious perspective wherever we are, and keeping the commandments however we are tested reflect being settled, rooted, and grounded in our discipleship.
A Precious Perspective
Remaining settled and established is not easy, for we are crowded by the cares of the world. We are diverted by the praise of the world; we are buffeted by the trials of the world, drawn by the appetites and temptations of the world, and bruised by the hardness of the world. But when we are grounded, rooted, established, and settled, we can have a precious perspective which puts other things in their proper place. This is no small blessing, for it lifts us above our immediate circumstances and concerns, giving us a larger view of things, as this secular episode illustrates:
In 1918, Ernest Rutherford, a physicist, missed a meeting of experts advising the British government on anti-submarine warfare. When criticized for missing the meeting, he replied, “I had been engaged in experiments which suggest that the atom can be artificially disintegrated. If it is true, it is of far greater importance than a war.” [George F. Will, The Pursuit of Happiness, and Other Sobering Thoughts(New York: Harper and Row, 1978), p. 228]
The precious perspective of the gospel also helps to keep before us the reality of what lies ahead. Malcolm Muggeridge put it so very well:
Now, the prospect of death overshadows all others for me. I am like a man on a sea voyage nearing his destination. When I embarked, I worried about having a cabin with a porthole, whether I should be asked to sit at the captain’s table, who were the more attractive and important passengers. All such considerations become pointless however, when I shall soon be disembarking. [Ian Hunter, ed., Things Past (New York: Morrow, 1979), p. 166]
Guidance of the Holy Spirit
So it is, brothers and sisters, that neither a sense of impending cataclysm nor of our eventual death should keep us from proceeding with our mortal chores. It is very desirable, for instance, that you go forward with your education even in the midst of the gathering storm. I cherish these lines from C. S. Lewis given over 40 years ago to students and scholars at Oxford in the midst of another gathering storm. He said:
If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun. . . . Life has never been normal. . . . Humanity . . . wanted knowledge and beauty now, and would not wait for the suitable moment that never comes. . . .
Be true, therefore, to the buoyancy in your nature which responds to your innate cravings for truth and beauty in spite of circumstance. Besides, in a very real sense, given the purpose of the mortal experience, your university education is an education within an education. You will wonder sometimes about life—if mortality consists only of large classes. In fact, life is designed to be quite tutorial in nature so far as how the lessons are usually taught and learned. Each of us will surely need to take the Holy Spirit as our Teacher, Guide, and Comforter throughout this stretching experience (see Doctrine and Covenants 45:57). He can reassure us that the president of the Church is a prophet of God. There will be times when you will need that reinforcement. After all, prophets are not just for following in the Sinai or on a westward journey. President Brigham Young told of one man who, instead of going west, wanted to wait in the East for the impending redemption of Zion and who was told by George A. Smith that the nearest way to Missouri was through Salt Lake City (JD 8:198). There will be some equivalent counsel given to you in your lifetime. (For Elder Maxwell’s complete talk, click. . . Grounded, Rooted, Established.)
