Taking Time For Communion

Yesterday I read an interesting article about an LDS author named Greg McKeown who has proposed a way of living called “essentialism.”  He said that as members of the Church as we read the scriptures we are prone to “see just those stories that say, ‘You’ve got to do more.’ I might ignore all of the scriptures that talk about meditation…. We don’t talk about meditation. We’re too busy doing everything else.”  He further commented on the Savior’s way of life: “It is breathtaking to me what he didn’t do in his earthly ministry. You think about all of the places, from his birth until his death, all the places he didn’t visit, all the people he didn’t heal....  What did he do? A 40-day fast out in the wilderness. Why did he do that? Why was he off on the boat? He’s trying to create space to figure out what does Heavenly Father want from him.”  I really like that perspective, and I believe it is true that we often miss the messages in the scriptures that tell us to slow down, to ponder, to take time to figure out the will of the Lord for us.  This is so essential, at least according to the Prophet Joseph Smith, that one of the three things “necessary, in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation” included “an actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing, is according to his will.” 

               The scriptures are indeed full of examples of those who took time to commune with God and learn His will.  The Savior, as Brother McKeown mentioned, spent 40 days fasting.  He also spent much time in prayer.  On one occasion, “he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12).  Mark also recorded one time when He sent the people away and “he departed into a mountain to pray” (Mark 6:46).  When He was among the Nephites even after His resurrection, He spent much of His time praying among them.  Understanding His Father’s will and communing with Him was even more important than getting a few more “things” done, even if those things included helping others.  He of course helped and served and loved countless people during His mortal ministry, but personal pondering and communion with God was so important that it was a major part of what He did.  In the Book of Mormon we see right in the beginning the importance of communing with God and understanding His will.  After Lehi departed with his family from Jerusalem, they traveled to the wilderness and then went “three days in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 2:6).  There they stopped and pitched tents, and they spent a large amount of time in this valley they named Lemuel with Lehi and Nephi receiving much revelation.  Even after Nephi and his brothers returned from their two trips back to Jerusalem, 1 Nephi 6-15 recounts events that all took place at that same spot.  The Lord wasn’t in a hurry to get them on their way; they had great spiritual truths to learn from the Lord first to prepare them and help them.  Lehi had his vision of the tree of life recorded in 1 Nephi 8, and then Nephi had his incredible vision of what his father saw as recorded in 1 Nephi 11-14.  After describing these and other moments spent teaching his brothers, Nephi recorded “all these things were said and done as my father dwelt in a tent in the valley which he called Lemuel” (1 Nephi 16:6).  It’s interesting that it was after all of this communion with God—at least on the part of Lehi and Nephi—that they received the Liahona, something that proved invaluable to their journey.  If they had simply hurried on after getting Ishmael’s family to the valley of Lemuel, instead of taking time to commune with the Lord, it would have been a very different trip indeed.  Other scriptural examples of taking the time to commune with God include Enos who prayed all night, the Brother of Jared in his experiences at Shelem, Elijah who also fasted 40 days, Moses who climbed mountains more than once in order to be with God, and Alma who “fasted and prayed many days” to know the things of God (Alma 5:46). 

               The Prophet Joseph stated elsewhere, that “The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out.”  Our lives are not meant to be one big list of things to do that we go about frantically trying to accomplish.  As the Savior and so many other prophets showed, we must take the time to “be still,” commune with the Lord, and learn what is really important for your life.  As Brother McKeown stated, “I just have to figure out from the Lord what he wants me to do, what my errand from the Lord is…. You just have to face it, admit it and then you’re going to be on your knees. And then you’re going to be in the temple and then you’re going to be reading scriptures and writing in a journal and then you’re going to be asking that question because it’s so painful not to have an answer.... That takes courage. That takes humility. And that’s what to do, go to Him.”