Neither Journey in Another's Track

In a revelation commanding many of the Elders to travel from Kirtland to Missouri, the Lord paired them up with companions and said this: “Yea, verily I say, let all these take their journey unto one place, in their several courses, and one man shall not build upon another’s foundation, neither journey in another’s track.” They were to all “take their journey unto the same place” (Missouri) but they were to go by different routes (Doctrine and Covenants 52:8, 33). The Saints book describes their journey saying that “they traveled mostly on land, preaching the gospel along the way and talking about their hopes for Zion.” I think the verse is suggesting that the Lord wanted all of them to be preaching the gospel to different people, similar to how it is better for a group of missionaries now to spread out when traveling so they have more opportunities to meet those around them. Sister Emily Utt talked about this verse in a recent podcast and applied it to herself as she chose a career: “I saw everybody around me having these grand ideas, you know, the only way to be successful in life is if you're a doctor or a lawyer, or I'm gonna start a tech company and I'm gonna change the world, and me, little history major, I'm like, I'm gonna go take my Shakespeare comedy class now. I don't know, and I felt such weight and pressure and guilt because I wasn't interested in that same track. That reminder for me as a college student was, it doesn't matter how you get there. The goal is Zion, don't copy another guy because his path seems to be the right path. Take your own path.” We do not need to be exactly like everyone else, but we do need to strive to build Zion wherever we are.

                Other scriptures, though, speak about how there is only one way. The Savior said this: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Nephi put it this way, “Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 31:20-21). The angel put it this way to King Benjamin: “And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent” (Mosiah 3:17). These confirm that there is only one way back to our Father in Heaven: through Jesus Christ. I don’t think, though, that these are inconsistent with the idea of following our own “track.” For all of us it is the same and it is also different: it is the same because we must all choose to follow Jesus Christ, but it is different because the Savior might have a different work in mortality for each of us to accomplish. We all must receive the same saving ordinances in the name of Jesus Christ, but we each have personalized patriarchal blessings to fulfill. We all must follow the same first principles of the gospel, but we each have been given different spiritual gifts to magnify in mortality. We each can receive the same Gift of the Holy Ghost, but that Spirit will inspire us each to do different things with our time. What matters for us most is to understand what the Savior wants us to accomplish and then to strive to do it. As Smith Joseph Smith said in the Lectures on Faith, that part of having faith in God is to know that “the course of life which [we are] pursuing is according to [God’s] will.” That course may take a different track than our neighbor, but as we strive to follow the Savior’s desires for us, all our courses will lead to Zion and the building up of the kingdom of God.