Look Forward With One Eye

Recently the First Presidency issued an update on COVID-19 guidelines and suggested that local leaders should determine “whether masks should be worn or other precautions should be observed in the various Church meetings and activities.” In response to this my stake presidency sent out an email to let us know they were no longer requesting us to wear masks in our Church meetings, and they ended with this statement: “We pray that members will make decisions that will be best for them and heed the admonition of Alma by seeing that: ‘there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith … and having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.’ (Mos. 18:21)” I appreciated that final encouragement and reference to Alma’s people who had united together in faith to follow the Savior as taught by Abinadi. These past two years have brought a lot of contention even inside the Church as many have had very strong feelings concerning how we should respond to the pandemic. Some have been vocal supporter of masks and been offended by those who refused to wear them because they felt it was a danger to them and their families. On the other hand, some have felt their rights have been threatened by the requirement to wear a mask and refused to come to church if they were required. The division around vaccines of course has been similar. The pandemic has taken its toll on the unity and good feelings among us as Saints, and I hope that as this scripture encourages we can “look forward with one eye, having one faith” and in unity focus on that which brings us together: our faith in the Savior Jesus Christ.

                We studied last week in our Come, Follow Me readings the story of Lot and his wife as they were taken out of Sodom. As the two angels urged them out of the city to save them from the pending destruction of that wicked city, they were told this: “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” Despite that counsel, as they fled “his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:17,26). In a well-beloved BYU devotional, Elder Holland spoke about the lesson from this story for us all: “I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone….  We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.” As we move on from the pandemic, I hope that we can all apply that counsel to our disagreements and hard feelings concerning masks and vaccines and mandates and school closures and the rest of it—let us point our faith to the future and not look back or dwell on “days now gone.” Elder Holland also quoted this scripture from Paul: “But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). May we, like Paul, forget those things which are behind us—leaving our differences over the pandemic in the past—and look forward in unity towards the future, focusing on the Savior Jesus Christ. We should remember the Savior’s warning to the Nephites: “For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention.” It is not His doctrine to “stir up the hearts of mean with anger” but, He declared, “this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away” (3 Nephi 11:29-30). There will undoubtedly be many challenges ahead for those of us striving to be disciples of the Savior, so I hope that we can “be done” with our differences over the pandemic and look forward in unity to the future. As we do so we can have the Spirit of the Lord with us again and prepare for the fulfilment of President Nelson’s prophecy and warning: "Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost."