“He lives to bring me safely there” (Samuel Medley, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”). “Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name. Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked— And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.” (Helaman 3:27-30). We should never underestimate the natural creativity, ingenuity, and perseverance of humankind to find new and inventive ways to make themselves miserable. There is an ever widening and ever deepening Gulf that will cheerfully and greedily swallow up all of us who try so very hard to do all of the things that will inevitably make our lives worse. But if we have fallen into the Gulf of misery, there is One Who can lead us safely out. Jesus Christ can cut through the snares and wiles of the devil, break the chains which bind us down, and show us the one and only strait and narrow path that will take us out of the Gulf of misery and land us at the right hand of God. I know we are easily distracted by the glittering lures twinkling up from that Gulf below us, and that we are often frustrated by the straitness and narrowness of the way, and disheartened by the glacial pace of our progress, but every time that we abandon our guide and jump once more into the Gulf below us, we will remember once again that there is only misery down below. But hopefully each time we repent and follow our guide once more, we will place a little more trust and faith in our Savior and make it a little farther across that Gulf and get a little closer to landing safe and sound at the right hand of God.
