Continuing from Bruce C. Hafen and his book From Darkness Toward Light II:
These early sacrifices do fix our feet on a disciples path. For example, when Neal A. Maxwell was an eighteen-year-old infantryman fighting on an island in Okinawa, he faced the most frightening night of his life. As enemy mortar shells exploded ever closer to his foxhole, he knelt in the mud and pledged his life to the Lord, if only he could be spared.
God answered his prayer with divine protection. But soon afterward, days of hot rainy weather turned Okinawa into a giant swamp. Because the supply trucks bogged down in the mud, the support troops had such a hard time carrying food and water that the soldiers became unbearably thirsty. One historian said that the only thing that saved them from their thirst was coffee, boiled and hand carried from distant supply points. Neal wrote his parents a card, saying he was keeping all the commandments, but “coffee is tempting at times.” Yet despite the constant thirst, he refused to drink coffee. He did find a way to get just a little water. He said he caught rainwater in his helmet to bless his sacrament each week.7 Young Neal knew that God had heard him, and he showed his gratitude by sacrifice. His disciple’s journey gained traction in the mud of Okinawa.
As a young missionary, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley found himself in a foxhole of a different sort. From the spiritual trenches of England he became so discouraged that he told his father that he might as well return home. His father wrote back, “Dear Gordon, . . . forget yourself and go to work.8 After two years of working and forgetting himself, his mission president sent him to tell the First Presidency why they needed better missionary materials.
The visit to Church was supposed to last fifteen minutes but ended up lasting more than seventy years. President Hinkley’s entire life was about forgetting himself and going to work. His constant willingness to sacrifice kept his feet moving on a disciples path. President Hinkley’s entire life was about forgetting himself and going to work. His constant life was about forgetting himself and going to work. His constant willingness to sacrifice kept his feet moving on a disciple’s path.
4. Forgiveness and the Holy Ghost. Repentance and forgiveness eliminate the rubbish and the bad habits that can hold us captive in the worldly orbit. But we can receive the Holy Ghost as a constant companion only after being cleansed by water. Christ told the Nephites to “be baptized in my name, [so] that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 27:20). Receiving the Holy Ghost is the baptism of fire. Because that fire purges and purifies, it truly launches the refining process of becoming like Jesus—meaning, to become saintly, or sanctified.
Let’s clarify a point here that we sometimes miss. Some describe the entire process of spiritual growth in terms limited to faith, repentance, baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, the hard work is done and our exaltation is assured—so long as we don’t do something seriously wrong. Endure to the end, we say, as if that means relaxing in some eternal rocking chair. God will just reel us in, like a fish on a line. But it’s not quite that simple
On the contrary, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost marks the beginning of our real spiritual growth, not the end of it. Baptism and the Holy Ghost only let us “[enter] in by the gate” (2 Nephi 31:18; emphasis added).Then the Holy Ghost leads us along the strait and narrow path of becoming sanctified disciples—not passive spectators but by our straining every spiritual muscle, drinking in the power of temple ordinances, overcoming the adversity, feasting actively on Christ’s words to nourish us in becoming ever more holy (2 Nephi 31:19; 32:3). And the long term goal of that journey is to become like Him. ~Bruce C. Hafen, Spiritually Anchored in Unsettled Times (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2009), 14-17 (continued)
