Don't Just Go with the Flow

Last Friday, I was doing homework at the school library, and I overheard a conversation in which one person encouraged his friend not to just "go with the flow." "Fish go with the flow," he said. "Don't be a fish." However, fish do not always "go with the flow." I'm reminded of an episode of the Magic School Bus in which the class followed the migration of a school of trout, swimming far upstream to their breeding grounds. Because reaching their destination was of great importance to them, those fish fought the current and many other hardships, proving that fish do not always just go with the flow.

Despite the inaccuracy of this person's assessment of the locomotive habits of fish, I could see the wisdom of his advice, especially in light of Elder Larry S. Kacher's talk, Trifle Not with Sacred Things. In that talk, Elder Kacher spoke of a time when he and his family went to the beach. His daughter asked if she could swim out to a sandbar, but Elder Kacher decided that he should probably swim out there first, just to make sure it was safe. It wasn't. Before he realized it, Elder Kacher was caught in a riptide that was pulling him farther and farther out to sea. After a long struggle, he finally managed to make his way back to shore, and so did his wife, who had followed him into the water and into the current.

Elder Kacher used this story to illustrate a point President Spencer W. Kimball had made in November, 1974.

There are many currents in this earthly life—some safe and others not. President Spencer W. Kimball taught that there are powerful forces in our own lives much like the unseen currents of the ocean. These forces are real. We should never ignore them.

Elder Kacher and President Kimball spoke of both positive and negative currents and how we can take avoid the harmful ones and take advantage of the helpful ones, but I want to focus on what President Kimball called our "motive power" that allows us to resist dangerous currents and seek out safer ones. Despite whatever undercurrents there are in our lives, we have the responsibility to propel ourselves in the direction of our Eternal Salvation. Some currents may slow us down, so we have to swim against them. Other currents may help us along, but they won't be enough on their own. We need to swim forward rather than letting the currents carry us where they will. We cannot afford to simply "go with the flow."

God gave us our agency so we could chose our own destiny. God will help us, but never choose for us. Satan will try to choose for us, but we shouldn't let him. The currents of the world are constantly pulling us either toward or away from God. We have the responsibility to find out what currents we're in, judge whether those currents are taking us where we want to go, and then swim in our chosen direction, whether that means following a current or fighting one.