I’d like to share a story today. Well, it’s less of a story and more of a parable. Well, maybe even less of a parable and more of a metaphor. Yeah, we’ll call it a “parabolic metaphor”. Except I think parabolic is a mathematical term, not a literary one… Oh well, you get what I mean. Point is, here is what I will call the Parable of the Labyrinth.
To supply some background: In the iconic board game store that I work at, there is a game called “Labyrinth”. It’s a wooden contraption involving two wooden planks suspended on metal spokes above an empty box. You have two knobs which control horizontal and vertical rotation of the wooden planks. The planks are covered in holes, with a path marked through them, with wooden barriers placed throughout to help. Your job is to navigate a marble from the “start” position past all of the holes and land it in the “finish” position. It’s complex and addictive!
I’ll be honest, I don’t know why I spent a whole paragraph describing what it looks like when there’s a picture of it right here…
I set up one of these gizmos on our demo table for customers to try out for a bit of fun and introduction to the product. The goal is to increase sale of the product and provide an enjoyable experience for the customer in the store.
The problem is that the marbles keep going missing… But that’s a rant for another time.
My rant for today is that I cannot get past the number 16 for the life of me! It drives me crazy! I often go over to the labyrinth in the downtime of my shifts and do a dozen rounds or so, and I cannot seem to make it any further than 16. Even getting to 16 is rare for me – I typically get lost in that 3 hole (which makes me angry), or 10 and 6 are other common culprits for my demise. In my defense, I haven’t seen anyone else get past 16 either… but that doesn’t quench the fire within me to complete this challenge.
Amidst my labyrinth difficulties, a gospel message shone clearly through. I thought of the path of the labyrinth as our life, full of holes which threaten to take us off of the path marked for us. The barriers act as an “iron rod” of sorts, providing solid support possibly in the form of good role models, scriptures, and positive influences. In thinking about this, I was struck with just how often I fell into the holes – every single attempt, I fell into a hole. Is that true of life? Do we really fall into holes that often? I reckon that to an extent, we do! We do our best, yet something always pulls us down. It doesn’t have to be extreme. It could be anything from cheating on a test to skipping our nightly prayer. While some of those things may not feel as dramatic as “falling down a hole to our doom”, to an extent those things take us a bit further from the path and our final destination. The great thing is that repentance can place our fallen marble back onto the path for us to try again!
Then I thought about how hard it is to reach 60 (the end). Every new attempt convinces me a bit more that it’s impossible, that it simply cannot be done! But then I was struck again – if this labyrinth is life, then one person actually reached the end.
I read in 2 Nephi this striking verse. It read in part: “Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer” (2 Nephi 2:3)
A seemingly simple phrase at the beginning of a well-known chapter of the Book of Mormon, yet it teaches a profound truth: we can all reach the end because someone already has! Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, navigated past every hole of life and found himself at the end. He also lived His life in such a way and performed certain tasks such that He has power to help the rest of us reach the end. It all makes sense now – we are never meant to reach the end! Rather, we are never meant to on our own. My job is to navigate that marble as best as I can and repent and try again when I fall into a hole. The “righteousness of my Redeemer” allows me to access Christ’s help to do the rest and eventually make it to the end.
Maybe another thought can help drive this point home. In church history, a man named Oliver Granger is given a task. President Boyd K. Packer speaks of it in this way: “When the saints were driven from Kirtland, … Oliver was left behind to sell their properties for what little he could. There was not much chance that he could succeed. And really, he did not succeed!” Apparently, Oliver put his marble onto the labyrinth, tried his best to navigate, and fell into a hole. He didn’t fall because of iniquity or slothfulness. He simply did not succeed. But then the Lord offered this reassuring teaching based on Oliver, found in the Doctrine and Covenants: “… and when he falls he shall rise again, for his sacrifice shall be more sacred unto me than his increase, saith the Lord.” (Doctrine and Covenants 117:13)
What a great teaching! Elder Terence M. Vinson said, “that may be true of all of us – it’s not our successes but rather our sacrifice and efforts that matter to the Lord.” If I could have favorite principles of the gospel, this would be close to or at the top. It’s far less about our success and more about our effort! We do our very best to live righteously, to keep the commandments, to navigate our marble around the holes, but really our own efforts will never be enough. Rather, it is in our own best effort that we access the power of Christ. He is the ONLY ONE who can make it to the end of the labyrinth. He asks that we TRY – as President Eyring said, “try, try, try” – and give our all. God and His Son have everything. They are omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. But something they don’t have is our own will. That is something they gave to us. It makes sense that they want us to give it back – for they know that in doing so, we and they find eternal joy. Thus, we are put on this labyrinth of life not with the expectation of reaching the end in our own power, but with the expectation that we will keep trying and allow Christ to help us.
That thought gives me some solace when I fall into hole 16 again and again and again.
A final thought: A few days ago, I was called and set apart as a Stake Mission Prep teacher in my home Stake. What an opportunity! I absolutely loved mission prep before my mission. Well, let me rephrase that: I love now that I went to mission prep as often as I did. At the
time, I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. It’s at 7:30 every Sunday morning. As a high school student, I experienced true pain as I partied at high school dances or other places late Saturday night, and then had to wake up on a cold dark morning for a mission prep class. Very few things were harder than that, and sometimes I failed. Sitting in the class this morning and seeing the tired looks on everyone’s faces reminded me of just how difficult it was. My heart went out to these good youth for what they were doing.
What came to my mind at this time was this message to Oliver Granger: “his sacrifice shall me more sacred unto me than his increase”. I thought of my own mission prep experiences before my own mission. I learned a lot, yet it taught me just a tiny fraction of what I needed to know to be a successful missionary. I expect that all I can do is the same for these youth, teach them just a fraction. That’s all that is possible to be done. Yet, I felt the blessings of having attended mission prep EVERY DAY on my mission. Somehow, the simple lessons I learned, the simple markings in my scriptures, the simple things we memorized, weaved their way into my actions as a missionary and gave me comfort and direction. I stand with a firm reckoning that the temporal increase I gained from attending mission prep does little to compare with the blessing the Lord gave me for having gone. Does this make sense? Statistically speaking, temporally I learned just a fraction from mission prep, but the blessings I received from having sacrificed in order to attend far exceed that temporal learning.
This principle is true for all of us! The temporal benefit of living the commandments are great, but they do little to compare with the blessings the Lord rains down upon us because of our humble efforts. People who live the commandments are not happier because of those temporal benefits – they are happier because the Lord gives them happiness because they are trying. They put their marble onto the labyrinth and followed the path. And one day, because of the difficulty and sacrifices of this life, they will find themselves standing at the end with Christ, who wrote and finished their faith and made it all possible. Let us “try, try, try” every day of our lives.
Love you heaps!
Adam Simpson
Loved this message. Grateful we have the Savior for our mentor,teacher and example. Much easier to live this life with Him as our guide!! Thankyou for sharing Adam. Hugs Grams🥰
Another collection of pearls have been dropped at my feet! Thank you for these. I'm learning so much, especially about the sacrifice of others. Truly a highlight in my week