Our Prime Purpose

I was struck by the story that Jon Bytheway recently told in a podcast about one of the worst train accidents in American history that took place in 2008 in Chatworth, California. A freight train and a commuter rail passenger train collided head on, killing 25 people and injuring 135 others. He highlighted in the podcast that the determined cause of the accident was that the driver of the rail passenger train had received 7 text messages and send 5 during that ride. This driver had thus been distracted from his responsibility and had run a red light, causing the terrible accident. The referenced this teaching from Elder Richard G. Scott: “Are there so many fascinating, exciting things to do or so many challenges pressing down upon you that it is hard to keep focused on that which is essential? When things of the world crowd in, all too often the wrong things take highest priority. Then it is easy to forget the fundamental purpose of life. Satan has a powerful tool to use against good people. It is distraction. He would have good people fill life with ‘good things’ so there is no room for the essential ones. Have you unconsciously been caught in that trap?” Having said that well before the age of the smart phone, his words are perhaps even more applicable to us today than 25 years ago. How easy it is to be distracted from that which is most important! Elder Scott also made this statement, “While wholesome pleasure results from much we do that is good, it is not our prime purpose for being on earth. Seek to know and do the will of the Lord, not just what is convenient or what makes life easy. You have His plan of happiness. You know what to do, or can find out through study and prayer. Do it willingly.” Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of raising children is to teach them that their primary purpose in life is not to be entertained.       

                The things that distract us from what is most valuable are usually those that are easy and entertaining but perhaps don’t contribute to our mission on earth as Amulek taught: “For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors” (Alma 34:32). It does not say that “the day of this life is the day for men to perform their leisure.” The interaction between the Savior and the apostle Peter after His resurrection highlights that the Lord wants us focused on that which is most important, even if there are easier, more comfortable things to do. President Holland described the scene from John 21 this way, “In effect, Peter said to his associates: ‘Brethren, it has been a glorious three years. None of us could have imagined such a few short months ago the miracles we have seen and the divinity we have enjoyed…. He has worked out His salvation and ours. So you ask, “What do we do now?” I don’t know more to tell you than to return to your former life, rejoicing. I intend to “go a fishing.”’” They struggled to catch fish, though, and eventually the Savior appeared to them and told them to draw in from the right side of the boat, and they miraculously caught many fish. The Savior and Peter subsequently had their well-known exchange where Jesus gave His chief apostle the opportunity to affirm three times that he loved the Lord. President Holland summarized what the Savior might have been intending to say to Peter in these words, “Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.” The Savior was asking Peter to leave this distraction where he was comfortable—fishing—and go do something much harder and of much greater worth. The story reminds us that what is most important for us to do likely won’t be what is easiest or most comfortable, and we cannot fulfill our mission on earth if we choose distraction over discipleship. The tragic story of this 2008 train accidents reminds us that it is critical to stay focused on what matters most. Much of the world, as Oliver Cowdery wrote, is “racked and distracted,” but we can hear and heed our own “message from the Most High” that invites us to participate in the accomplishment of His divine work on the earth.