Seek the Higher Ground

I just watched a very short video featuring a message from Elder Quinton L. Cook and a community of people on an island in the pacific who were hit by a tsunami. The topic of Elder Cook's message was Seeking Higher Ground to get through the storms of life. "None of us are exempt from the storms of life," he said. But he counseled us to seek the protection and safety that can be found on spiritually "high ground." It makes me wonder, which is more difficult: enduring the storm, or climbing the path toward the higher ground?

Some people get discouraged, thinking that it would be impossible for them to climb a hill so high, so they stay where they are, and the floods come, and they are left in a very desperate situation. Others are a bit more wise. They face the hardship of climbing to higher ground so that they can avoid the even greater hardship of getting caught out in the storm.

Elder Cook's message seems perfectly analogous of the parable of the wise man and the foolish man, only we never stop to think about how inconvenient or difficult or unpopular building a house on a rock can be. Many very rich people live as close to the ocean as they can get, thinking of how glamorous it is to live on the beach. It's also more fun. They rarely consider that it's also among the most dangerous places to build a home.

I occasionally think about the difference between fun and joy. People of the world have fun. People of God find joy. One is harder to get than the other. One lasts longer than the other. One is worth pursuing. The other? Not so much. Yet everyone pursues it anyway, because we all are, to some extent "foolish men."

Elder Cook's warning, then, is to stop being so foolish. We need to stop trying to build a beach house, and instead lay our foundation on the rock of our Redeemer (Helaman 5:12). That is our "sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall," even when the devil "shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you," you can be impervious to it, if you stand on higher ground.