Activity, Result, and Challenge

“The difference between activity and result is challenge.”  Those were the words that Elder Charles Didier, a former member of the Seventy, told the missionaries in my mission.  In other words, if we want to do things in our life that bring the most meaningful change and progress and results—whether in our jobs, sports, family, or spirituality—we need to be challenged.  Challenges push us to go beyond the limits we would normally impose.  If there were no finish line in a marathon so no one knew where the end was, there would be very few who would make it 26.2 miles. It’s the challenge and goal that drive us to go beyond what we are comfortable doing. 

I think this is the message that Elder Carlos Godoy was trying to convey in his conference talk last fall.  He told the story of how he was coasting through life with everything seeming to be going perfectly when his friend asked him, “Carlos, everything seems to be going well for you, your family, your career, and your service in the Church, but if you continue to live as you are living, will the blessings promised in your patriarchal blessing be fulfilled?” (The Lord Has a Plan for Us!, General Conference Oct. 2014.  This question led him to reflect and ultimately drastically change his plans in order to pursue more education and seek what was best for him and his family—even though it was hard.  He was challenged to learn English and obtain more education and he did it, following the counsel of President Monson, “Expand your knowledge, both intellectual and spiritual, to the full stature of your divine potential.”

                I think we see an example of this principle in the story of the brother of Jared.  It always amazes me when I read Ether 2 that after such a miraculous preservation at the time of the tower of Babel and an incredible journey, they rested spiritually and physically stagnant for four years.  They “dwelt in tents upon the seashore” for that time and apparently lost sight of the importance of prayer (Ether 2:13).  They found a place that must have been reasonably comfortable, and they rested on their laurels and relaxed.  So what did the Lord do to help them remedy their lack of growth?  After calling them to repentance, he said to the brother of Jared, “Go to work and build” (Ether 3:16).  He gave them the great challenge of building barges with some directions.  But the brother of Jared had to figure some things out for himself and he had to depend upon the Lord.  This commandment from the Lord brought the prophet out of his spiritual slump and ultimately led him to receive the greatest of all revelations: “Never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared” (Ether 4:4).  But what would have happened if the Lord had not challenged him to change and to build the barges.  He may have sat on the seashore the rest of his life with little progress.  We have to be careful in our own lives to challenge ourselves and push beyond what we are comfortable with, especially in the most import aspects of our existence, always remembering that “the best paths in life are rarely the easiest.”