Staying On Course

A few years ago I wrote about a trail runner who missed a turn and went off course a few hundred feet ahead of me during a race. I was so surprised that I hesitated and lost my chance to help her as she kept running down the hill. By the time I thought to call out to her she was out of sight and earshot.

This month I had the chance to redeem myself. I ran a trail 10K race with two of my boys. (It was their first time running that distance. Good job, boys!) About a mile into the race we were climbing a rough road, and I knew that we were approaching a turn off to a single track trail on the right. This was a turn that I had missed in a previous year on that trail, so I was watching for it closely.

When I spotted the green flags and the arrow sign marking the turn I could see about half a dozen runners ahead of us who had passed by the flags and were still climbing up the road.

“Hey!” I called out. “You missed the turn! You’re going off course!”

The wayward runners turned around and saw the flags. All of them made it back onto the marked course.

This is a parable about staying in the straight and narrow way. Our task is to study the course and its markings so that we can stay on the path and help everyone around us stay on it too.

“One aspect of being valiant in the testimony of Jesus is to heed His messengers. God does not force us into the better path, the covenant path, but He instructs His prophets to make us fully aware of the consequences of our choices. … Through His prophets and apostles, He lovingly pleads with all the world to heed the truth that will make them free, spare them needless suffering, and bring them enduring joy” (Elder D. Todd Christofferson, April 2024).

But every analogy can be taken too far, and it is instructive to consider a few places where this one breaks down.

First of all, the purpose of life is not a race or a competition. It doesn’t matter how fast we are. What really matters is what direction we are going, and whether we are making progress over time. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like we are getting very far, and it seems like every other runner is passing us by, but when we get to the top of the ridge and see the glorious view we will be impressed at how far we have come. This is the essential lesson of Jesus’s parable of the laborers.

Second, how do we help those who are off of the covenant path? We must do it with love. Obviously it won’t work to yell at them, “Hey! You’re going off course!” That would just drive them further away. In the spiritual work of reaching out to those who are off the path, whether or not they have ever been on it before, we really only have three plays: Love, Share, and Invite.

Third, on race day the race director is usually waiting to cheer the runners as they cross the finish line. But God is not just sitting in heaven waiting for us to arrive there by our own power. He is with us on the course, strengthening us with his power and encouraging us as we go.

The ordinance of the sacrament is an important part of how we cultivate the presence of God in our lives. When we take the bread and water, representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we promise to always remember him, and we receive the promise that as we do so we will always have his Spirit to be with us.

Fourth, on race day everyone has to follow the same course if they want to finish the race, but life isn’t like that at all. The world is a big, wonderful, diverse place full of people to meet, things to experience, and places to explore. No one life is quite like another. Some things that I love will be uninteresting to you, and some of your interests will be incomprehensible to me. We don’t all have to be the same. You don’t have to love running like I do.

God wants us to experience this wonderful and beautiful world that he created for us. He wants us to learn everything we can about it:

“Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—

“That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:79-80).

That is a pretty long list of things to learn about, and I think almost anyone’s interests can fit in there somehow. Surely this includes all fields of science, technology, history, political science, economics, and sociology. How does this world work, and how do its people interact with one another? Let me learn it all!

In all of this education we are guided by the bedrock principle of how to determine what is good and what is evil. One of our best guides in this was given by the prophet Mormon:

“For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.

“For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

“But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him” (Moroni 7:15-17).

So try a different sport, or a new hobby, or visit a place you have never been. Develop yourself intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially as you explore what the world has to offer. And do it all while anchored to the Lord Jesus Christ, with your feet firmly planted on the covenant path.

One last thing to point out is that life has opportunities for redemption. I still regret that I didn’t help that runner who went off course all of those years ago, but I feel better now knowing that I learned my lesson and that I improved. When the same thing happened again this month I was ready to serve. That is the hope of the gospel: that we can move beyond our past mistakes and become a force for good in the world.

If you feel like you are lost and off the path, then I invite you to learn the course markings and follow those who know the way. If you feel like you are struggling to make any progress on the path, then I encourage you to keep trying and trust that God will be with you and help you. This course is challenging, but the scenery is gorgeous! And when we make it to the finish line together we will definitely say that it was all worth it.

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Alan B. Sanderson, MD is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is a practicing neurologist.