Enduring to the end

“…we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things.” - 13th Article of Faith

I spoke in our ward sacrament meeting this week. The topic was "enduring to the end". I shared an example that I thought was very interesting. The story is of Donald Crowhurst, who in 1968 entered a sailing endurance race - to circumnavigate the world in a sailboat all by himself. The route was to leave England heading south in the Atlantic ocean, hang a left at the Cape of Good Hope (tip of Africa) and sail through the "roaring 40's" and "furious fifties" at the bottom of the globe - thousands of miles of endless storms and dangers, then hang another left at Cape Horn (South America) and back up to England. It takes more than 8-months to make the journey. No stopping.

To make a long story short, while the other racers were going through their trials in the roaring 40's and furious 50's, Crowhurst was reporting his coordinates as record pace, and would likely win the race. In actuality, he hung out in the Atlantic ocean, stopped in South America for repairs (stopping was against the rules) and appeard to plan to return to England 'posing' as the winner of the race. His boat was eventually found, but not Crowhurst. His logs suggest that he eventually went mad as he had a hopless decision:

1) Turn back, and risking humiliation and financial ruin.

2) Go forward, assuming he will not survive the challenge.

3) Fake winning the race, and live the rest of his life knowing he faked it and wondering if his deception would eventually be found out.

My analogous point is this: Do we act this way sometimes? We know where we SHOULD be. We may even 'fake' like we're there. But is our heart really there? Are we enduring (as we promised Father before we came to this earth) as we know we should? Or just hangning out, fretting about the journey and actually making things harder on ourselves in the long-run.

I wrote this poem to cap my thoughts:

When in life, hard times we face,
In this we trust: Eternal Grace.
We fight the fight, and try our best,
‘til we find one day, we’ve passed the test.
So work the work, you’re here to achieve.
This above all, always believe.

A letter from Mormon to his son Moroni at the end of the Book of Mormon:

"And may the grace of God the Father, whose throne is high in the heavens, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who sitteth on the right hand of his power, until all things shall become subject unto him, be, and abide with you forever. Amen. " (Moroni 9:26)