Pointed Towards the Sun and Feet Moving Forward

“The struggle.”  Those two words encapsulate a major theme of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography Long Road to Freedom and are repeated over and over in reference to his and many others’ efforts to bring racial equality to South Africa.  As I listened to the book I was impressed by his incredible determination in this cause to bring freedom and self-determination to all in his country.  He spent 27 years in prison, but during that time never faltered in his efforts to move the cause forward.  When he was released he picked up right where he had left off, was soon the president of his political party seeking these reforms, and within only a handful of years was then the new president of the country.  I was impressed especially by this statement in the book after he entered prison with a “life” sentence: “I never seriously considered the possibility that I would not emerge from prison one day…. I always knew that someday I would someday feel the grass under my feet and walk in the sunshine as a free man.  I am fundamentally an optimist.  Whether that comes from nature or nurture I cannot say.  Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.  There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity were sorely tested.  But I would not and could not give myself up to despair.”  He had an unbelievable ability to persevere despite all odds and to always point himself towards the light of freedom he saw ahead.  It took nearly his whole lifetime to effectuate the change he was hoping to see, but he showed that he was in the fight for the duration, “however hard and long the road” as another great political leader once said.  

This kind of stick-to-itiveness is exactly what we need in the gospel—when we enter the covenant path we do it for the duration.  Our promises to God are not like worldly contracts to be broken when we want to move on; rather, we “covenant to serve him until [we] are dead as to the mortal body” (Mosiah 18:13).  As President Ballard quoted Brigham Young saying, “We are on the old ship Zion. … [God] is at the helm and will stay there. … All is right, sing Hallelujah, for the Lord is here. He dictates, guides and directs. If the people will have implicit confidence in their God, never forsake their covenants nor their God, He will guide us right.”  We stay with the ship wherever she goes, and we know that if we will never forsake our covenants, if we will “hold out faithful to the end,” the Lord will guide us in the right to “a state of never-ending happiness” (Mosiah 2:41).  The Savior taught this to the Nephites in these words, “Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life” (3 Nephi 15:9).  We must, as Nelson Mandela said, keep our head “pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward,” and that sun for us is the Son of God, the Light of the World who promises us eternal life if we will keep His commandments and continue faithful to the end.  We must be as devoted to the Savior’s cause, the cause of Zion, as Mandela was to the struggle for the freedom of his people, and then the Lord has promised us, “You shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7).