Jesus Christ Our Belayer

I remember once on a scout camp when I was young I had the opportunity to do repelling down the side of a cliff. As I went down I started to pick up speed, and I foolishly did not have any gloves. My hands started to burn so much as I held the rope going faster and faster that without thinking I let go. I was close to the bottom at that point but still several yards up in the air. Gratefully, my belayer down below immediately stopped me and I did not fall to the ground where I likely would have received serious injuries. My belayer had not been distracted but had done his job exactly as he was supposed to. I thought of this experience as I read Sister Bingham’s talk at the most recent general conference. She told of how when she was repelling an anchor bolt came loose and, as she recounted, “as I stepped off the edge, the person belaying me was jerked on his back and pulled towards the edge of the cliff. Somehow, he wedged his feet against some rocks. Stabilized in that position, he was able to laboriously lower me, hand over hand, with the rope. Although I couldn’t see him, I knew he was working with all his strength to save me. Another friend was at the bottom of the cliff, prepared to catch me if the rope ceased to hold. As I came within reach, he caught my harness and lowered me to the ground.” For her and for me it was our belayer who saved us, and she connected this with how the Savior helps us: “With Jesus Christ as our anchor and perfect partner, we are assured of His loving strength in trial and of eventual deliverance through Him.” Jesus Christ is our Belayer and as we stay connected to Him, He will always be there to catch our fall and keep us safe.

               Sister Bingham suggested that it is our covenants that ultimately connect us with the Savior and enable us to receive His help. She continued, “The spiritual equipment that keeps us from being broken on the rocks of adversity is our testimony of Jesus Christ and the covenants we make. We can rely on these supports to guide and carry us to safety. As our willing partner, the Savior will not allow us to fall beyond His reach. Even in our times of suffering and sorrow, He is there to lift and encourage. His power helps us recover from the often-devastating impact of others’ choices. However, we each must put on the harness and make sure the knots are securely tied. We must choose to be anchored to the Savior, to be bound to Him by our covenants.” One of the stories that shows this in a dramatic fashion is that of the people of Ammon and their sons. We naturally remember the covenant these former Lamanites made: “And all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth. And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives” (Alma 24:17-18). Because of their covenant with Him the Lord blessed them to be protected by the Nephites when danger came. But they were concerned about the “many afflictions and tribulations which the Nephites bore for them” and were tempted to break their covenant. But instead 2000 of their sons took up arms to support the cause of freedom, and, interestingly, they also entered a covenant: “And they entered into a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites, yea, to protect the land unto the laying down of their lives; yea, even they covenanted that they never would give up their liberty, but they would fight in all cases to protect the Nephites and themselves from bondage” (Alma 53:13,17). They were true to that covenant just as their parents’ were to theirs, and they were all preserved.  

I believe it was that covenant and their faithfulness to it that miraculously protected the stripling warriors such that none of them died in battle despite their many wounds. Helaman commented, “And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power” (Alma 57:26). There story is I believe a reminder to us of the power of covenants and linking ourselves to the Savior Jesus Christ. We keep those covenants as we “pray with a humble heart, study and ponder the scriptures, take the sacrament with a spirit of repentance and reverence, strive to keep the commandments, and follow the prophet’s counsel.” Sister Bingham left us with this promise: “I testify that as we choose to make covenants with Heavenly Father and access the power of the Savior to keep them, we will be blessed with more happiness in this life than we can now imagine and a glorious eternal life to come.” As we stay each day connected to the Savior through seeking to keep our promises to Him we will have His power and protection through all our difficulties.