Rowing Among the Stars

I just finished listening to the book Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown that tells the moving story of nine young men from Washington who against all odds won the Men’s Eight event in rowing at the Berlin Olympics of 1936. The nine university students who came together as this crew were humble and united and overcame immense adversity to win gold by a fraction of a second. I was amazed at how they persevered in that final race despite everything being against them: one of them was terribly sick, they got a late start because they didn’t hear the call to begin, and they were placed in the worst lane being much more subject to the wind and storm that day than the other canoes. But in the end with their incredible unity as a single crew they came from behind, overcoming unbelievable pain, and crossed the finish line 0.6 seconds ahead of second-place Italy. What impressed me most about their story was how unified they became as a crew, a unity that would last throughout their lives. One of the key figures in the story was George Yeoman Pocock who built the boats and was a mentor to the team. At one point he took the main character Joe Rantz, who was struggling, under his wing and tried to help him see the need to put his trust completely in the team. He said, “Joe, when you really start trusting those other boys, you will feel a power at work within you that is far beyond anything you’ve ever imagined. Sometimes, you will feel as if you have rowed right off the planet and are rowing among the stars.” He did just that and the united effort of Joe and all the boys in the boat led them to achieve the impossible. As the psalmist wrote, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)

Surely one of the lessons from this story is the need to seek humility and unity in our own lives with our families, friends, and fellow disciples of the Savior. This is one of the things that the Savior yearned for among His own followers. He prayed to the Father for them in this way, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are…. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:11, 20-23). He taught the same thing in our dispensation: “I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified for the sins of the world, even as many as will believe on my name, that they may become the sons of God, even one in me as I am one in the Father, as the Father is one in me, that we may be one” (Doctrine and Covenants 35:2). He also warned, “I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:27). We know that to build up Zion we must be “of one heart and one mind” as a people of the Lord (Moses 7:18). The incredible story of these rowers showed the power in complete unity to accomplish far more than the simple sum of their parts, and we should seek for this unity with those we love in the most important aspects of our lives.

Surely the most critical place where we should seek unity is within marriage—this is one of the very first teachings of the Bible: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Man and woman were meant to be one in marriage, something the Savior repeated in His earthly ministry: “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6). That is the unity we should strive for if we want to accomplish great things in our families and in the work of the Lord. I love Paul’s admonition which is particularly applicable for marriage partners: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). With that we can figuratively “row right off the planet” and “among the stars”, united in one with each other and the Savior.