Be a Rock Pusher

(Originally published in The Millennial Instructor, Vol. 1, 2017)

Imagine waking up in the morning and having someone ask you this question: Would you rather work all day today, or play all day?  No brainer, right?  Days where you choose what to do look very different from days loaded with chores to accomplish. Yet, Heavenly Father told Adam and Eve that He was going to curse the earth “for [their] sakes” – what??  The Fall made work necessary…for us? How can that be?

Work is an eternal principle. Here’s how you can tell: God does it. He works all day, every day, and at the end of some of His busiest days when He was creating our home, He pronounced that what had been accomplished was “good”.

God is a worker – His work and glory are “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39) – and He designed His children’s mortal test so we can learn to work like He does. We work for our sakes, to give us the chance to do what He does every day, and grow from doing it in a place with opposition. Wanting to live with Heavenly Father, and having a life like Heavenly Father, gives us a compelling reason to not just learn to work, but to learn to love it.

Throughout the Book of Mormon, the people of God were always described as being industrious.

·       “[I] did cause my people to be industrious” (2 Nephi 5:17)

·       “…they were industrious, and did labor exceedingly” (Mosiah 23:5)

·       “…precious things, which they had obtained by their industry” (Alma 4:6)

When describing the Lamanites in their most wicked times, Mormon describes them as an indolent people who “sought to obtain [riches] by murdering and plundering, that they might not labor for them with their own hands” (Alma 17:14). The Lamanite culture was so much more than just coveting the right to government they thought they were owed; it also included coveting the property of others, justifying any behavior to get it.

Yet, when many of the Lamanites were converted to the gospel by the sons of Mosiah, Mormon describes the fruits of their repentance: “And they began to be a very industrious people” (Alma 23:18).

Mormon describes the hard work and industry of the Nephites during years of war with this interesting commentary: “There never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni.” (Alma 50:23)

The Book of Mormon taught the early Saints of this dispensation the ancient word ‘deseret’, meaning honey bee (Ether 2:3).  As the Saints settled Utah, the use of the beehive as a symbol, and the word ‘Deseret’ were used prominently as constant reminders of the Saints’ commitment to industry and self-reliance.

In modern times, the glaring lights and blaring voices from the great and spacious building are constant – and everywhere. There are so many attractive and comfortable philosophies being peddled – “flattering words that are pleasing to the carnal mind.” One of Satan’s most alluring doctrines is about the purpose of this life: to seek pleasure, comfort, and ease. If that’s the true purpose of life, then hard work is to be avoided, working only until enough comforts have been acquired to stop.

Leisure time is important, but if we think that’s what life is for, leisure time is much more likely to become idle time.  Expecting comforts eventually becomes expecting luxuries. Remembering that the purpose of this life is to train for life with our Father in Heaven will help us stay spiritually focused, and see Satan’s distractions as only having temporary appeal, with no lasting value past its momentary pleasure.

Imagine a round stone on a steep incline. How much effort is required to get the stone from the top of the incline to the bottom? Just an initial push, and gravity and velocity will do the rest, taking the stone quickly to the bottom. Now – imagine the opposite motion: how much effort is required to get the stone from the bottom of the incline to the top?  Quite a different story.

And imagine this: not only will an initial push not get the stone to the top of the incline, if we don’t keep pushing – constantly – the first effort we made to move the stone will have been for nothing, as the stone will roll back down the incline to where it started. Now that is opposition.

It’s hard to think of work as a blessing when we have these mortal bodies that crave ease and comfort, particularly when voices from the great and spacious building are telling you it’s your birthright to live a life of ease and comfort. But you will not develop any celestial muscles rolling down the path of least resistance your whole life.

In fact, we aren’t the stone at all. Elder David A. Bednar has taught repeatedly the important doctrine that we are agents – sent here to act – not objects to be acted upon. That’s what he’s talking about. As Heavenly Father’s children, we aren’t rocks, we’re the pushers of rocks.

There’s an ancient Greek myth about Sisyphus, one of the many mortals who offended the Greek gods. His punishment was to spend eternity pushing a large boulder up a steep mountain every single day. At the beginning of the next day, the rock was back at the bottom of the hill, and Sisyphus had to start over again.

Bleak little story, for sure. But think about the many boulders you need to push up the hill every single day as you train and discipline yourself: beds don’t stay made, teeth don’t stay brushed, houses don’t stay dusted, and gardens don’t stay weeded. Thanks to this earthly arena created by the Fall, we live in a telestial world where rust never sleeps. Things in our world don’t stay ordered and done. They keep needing to be done over, and over, and OVER again.

This fallen, telestial world creates the perfect environment of opposition. That stone on the incline will not remain in the same place every day, so there are two choices: one is going with the flow and taking the path of least resistance, letting the boulder go where it will on its own – down. The other choice is practicing pushing against the opposition, and through steady and consistent effort, developing, over time, the spiritual muscle of self-discipline. The downward path only appeals to the natural man. The upward path only appeals to the divinity in man. Every day, hundreds of choices present themselves: which part of our nature do we want to nourish, strengthen, and train today?

To sleep in, or not to sleep in? To gossip, or not to gossip? To eat a second donut, or not? To start that big term project, or play another video game? To read scriptures, or check Instagram?

Every day, we are practicing becoming someone higher, or lower, than the person we are right this moment. Like the rock, there is no standing still. There’s no status quo in a soul. The lower choices require nothing of us, and chosen often enough, will quietly close doors of opportunity in our future. The higher choices require more of us, will often feel like we’re going to battle every day, but will quietly, over time, open endless doors to us.

Work will only become joyful when we stop facing the world and start facing the Son. If we keep looking at the pleasure-seekers in the great and spacious building, we’ll either join them in their temporary quests, or we’ll always feel deprived as we try to do celestial things with a telestial focus.

Boulder pushing is challenging enough with a celestial focus – it’ll feel excruciating while watching a boulder whiz down a hill past you on a zip line. Staying focused on the Savior allows grace to enter the equation: that infinite, inexplicable force that makes the efforts of boulder pushing even possible in a fallen world. Grace is the force that turns the work…into joy.

When we remember we’re working to grow up to be like our Parents, we’ll see a higher purpose to rolling a boulder up a hill. We’ll relish the developing of stronger muscles, the breathtaking views of endless vistas ahead, the exhilarating company of fellow workers making similar decisions, and the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.  Heavenly Father really did make this world a place to work for our sakes. Praise Him forever because of it.