From the book of the above title, author Bruce C. Hafen writes in his Introduction:
This book begins by discussing a disciple’s journey, even though Anchored is the main word in the book’s title. How can we go anywhere when we are anchored? That sounds like being held in place, unable to move. Is that any way to go on a journey? Yet the tension between being anchored and going forward is actually a productive gospel paradox, an apparent contradiction that resolves into greater meaning upon deeper inquiry.
Think of a mountain climber ascending steep, rocky cliffs. He needs anchor points planted firmly in the rocks, so he has sure places to tie his ropes and to put his feet. In that sense, being well anchored is crucial to his ability to keep moving upward.
So it is with a disciple’s journey, which must often traverse rugged high terrain and turbulent seas. The disciple needs to be fixed and secure with his relationship with the Lord in order to move ever closer to Him—especially against the stiff winds of opposition, which sometimes whistle hardest around the highest peaks.
As one friend said, we must increase the depth of our testimonies in order to decrease the distance between ourselves and the Savior. Or in the words of Thomas S. Monson. “If we do not have a deep foundation of faith and a solid testimony of truth, we may have difficulty withstanding the harsh storms and the icy winds of adversity which inevitably come to each of us.”1
The Prophet Ether understood how being anchored is essential to a stable spiritual journey.: “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” (Ether 12:4).
. . . . I have noticed lately a number of people who are thrown off course by unexpected attacks on their testimony of the gospel. A neighbor recently dropped by with urgent concerns about a member of his family who, without warning, just announced that he had lost his faith—not only in the Restoration but in God. Not long ago a former missionary companion called seeking help for his grandson, a returned missionary who said he no longer believed that God really answers prayers.
I have also noticed a tendency among some Church members, especially younger ones, to see testimony and inspiration as primarily a good feeling. , , , ~ Bruce C. Hafen, Spiritually Anchored in Unsettled Times, Introduction. . . . continued. . . .
2 ~ Bruce C. Hafen, ‘Spiritually Anchored in Unsettled Times’, Introduction p. 1-3
