Go To Work and Build

One of my favorite lines from the story of the brother of Jared is this simple instruction from the Lord: “Go to work and build.”  This was given after the prophet was chastised for not calling upon the Lord as he should have during a four year period in tents upon the seashore.  During this time the group had made no progress in making it to the promised land, and after repenting the brother of Jared was given this direction to get to work.  The command is applicable to all of us as we seek to learn and do the will of the Lord in our lives—if we want to make it to our own “promised land,” the future that God has prepared for us, we must likewise learn to go to work and build that future.  The Jaredites did just that: “Jared did go to work, and also his brethren, and built barges after the manner which they had built, according to the instructions of the Lord” (Ether 2:16).  Of course they never could have made it to the promised land without the miraculous power of the Lord, preserving their lives upon the ocean and blowing them continually in the right direction, but the Lord required first their best work before He did show forth His power in doing “great things… in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land” (Ether 7:27).

               This story of the Jaredites sitting on the seashore for four years before the Lord finally spurred them into action to start building vessels to cross it reminds me of a powerful story told by John H. Groberg in general conference many years ago.  He was a missionary in Tonga when he was informed that a family on another island was waiting to hear the gospel from him.  He got in a sailboat with four men and they set off to meet that family by nightfall.  In the middle of the day, though, the wind suddenly stopped blowing and they stopped moving.  The men prayed and prayed for the Lord to bring wind so that Elder Groberg could reach the family waiting to be taught before nightfall, but no wind came.  Finally an older man grabbed Elder Groberg, got into a little raft, and informed the missionary that he was going to row him to shore which was still miles away.  Despite Elder Groberg’s protests and offers to help row, the man did just that: “The old man did not look up, rest, or talk, but hour after hour he rowed and rowed and rowed. The muscles of his back and arms, strengthened by faith and moved by unalterable determination, flexed in a marvelous cadence like a fine-tuned watch. It was beautiful. We moved quietly, relentlessly toward an inevitable destiny. The old man concentrated his efforts and energy on fulfilling the calling he had from the Lord—to get a missionary to a family that wanted to hear the gospel. He was the Lord’s wind that day.”  Elder Groberg did arrive in time to teach that family, and they accepted the gospel and were baptized because that man had chosen to be the wind they needed when there was none.

This was the lesson that Elder Groberg took from this experience: “How often do we not do more because we pray for wind and none comes? We pray for good things and they don’t seem to happen, so we sit and wait and do no more. We should always pray for help, but we should always listen for inspiration and impressions to proceed in ways different from those we may have thought of. On the boat, five men prayed, but only one heard and acted. God does hear our prayers. God knows more than we do. He has infinitely greater experience than we have. We should never stop moving because we think our way is barred or the only door we can go through is closed.”  This story and that of the Jaredites teaches us that we must always keep trying to move forward to make it to our “promised land,” whether that metaphorically means getting off the sand and starting to build our vessels to take us there or just starting to row in the direction we need to go.  If we will “go to work and build” the future He wants for us, then He will bless us to make it possible.