Faith of a Drowning Person

In the most recent general conference, Elder Sandino Roman spoke about faith in Jesus Christ. He told about a day when he helped teach a friend to learn to swim. After their lesson, that friend went into the deep end and started to drown. Elder Roman related, “I threw myself into the water and swam toward him while praying for help. As I grabbed his hand to pull him to the surface, my desperate friend climbed onto my back and put me in a choke hold. Now we were both drowning. Trying my best to reach the surface, I prayed with all my might for a miracle from God. Then, slowly but steadily, the power of God was manifest as I felt a hand propelling me toward the shallow end of the pool, bringing us to safety.” He related it to a teaching from President Nelson that I have thought often about: “When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours.” Elder Roman literally was that drowning person reaching out for power from Jesus Christ, and he did obtain it. The story highlights our need to pray with all our might as we seek His strength and help in our lives. And it also suggests that faith in Jesus Christ does indeed precede the miracle. Moroni summed up this principle when he taught, “For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith…. And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God” (Ether 12:12, 18). We need strong faith in the Son of God first, and then He can work miracles in our lives.

            In his address, Elder Roman asked, “How can you walk undaunted toward Him?” He answered that question with these words: “Imagine that you are an explorer in uncharted territory. To overcome the obstacles ahead, you need a source of light. Your faithfulness to God and your constant interactions with Him are the fuel for your lantern. So when you encounter dark and perilous situations, instead of walking toward them blindly, you will turn on your lamp filled with the oil of faith in Christ to shed glimmers of hope on the uncertain path. Your past experiences will increase your hope that the Lord will sustain you on your journey.” As I consider his proposition, I realize that we don’t have to really imagine—each of us is exploring in uncharted territory as we live our unique lives. We do not know everything that awaits us or how to perfectly prepare for the personalized challenges we and our families will face. But we know that we will need spiritual light and direction and that it will take faith in and faithfulness to God in order to move forward with confidence. The scriptures are full of peoples making physical journeys, journeys for which they too needed to exercise faith and receive direction from the Lord. That includes Nephi and his family traveling to the promised land, the Jaredites crossing the great deep, the children of Israel journeying in the wilderness, and even the pioneers traveling to the Salt Lake Valley. I love this direction that those pioneers received on their journey through a prophet: “Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear; For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite” (Doctrine and Covenants 136:32-33). The light that we seek will come to us as we are humble and receive His Spirit. Perhaps we might consider that the stones that the Savior lit up for the brother of Jared as being symbolic of the Gift of the Holy Ghost that we each can receive. These stones were with the Jaredites always on their journey, giving light and reminding them each day of Jesus Christ from whom they came. The Holy Ghost similarly will testify to us of the Savior and light our way before us, even if we still do not see too far ahead in our uncharted territory. As we exercise faith with the fervency of a man drowning, we will have His light and direction to move forward despite the “dark and perilous situations” that we face.