Flat Iron

I recently set out to go hiking with a friend of mine. We were going to hike Flat Iron on the Superstition Mtn range. It's a very difficult hike and it's easy to get lost.

Prior to hiking, everyone I talked to told me to remember to stay to the left after the amphitheater. We got to the amphitheater and we saw that there were two faded paint spots on a rock to the left, so we made the assumption that we were on the right trail. We stayed to the left. We hiked with our heads down for quite a while because of the boulders that had to be climbed and the cactus that had to be navigated around. The brush got thicker and thicker. Finally, we looked up and saw that we were definitely off of the trail and that our destination was far to the right. We realized that we could not go back down the way we came up because it was too steep and over grown.

We said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help us to get safely back onto the right trail. That somehow we would reach our destination in safety. After the prayer, we made a decision. We decided that since we couldn't go back down the way we had come, we would go across to the right because we could see that our destination was to the right of us. We blazed our own trail for a time, using our backpacks as shields from the cactus and trying not to think about what could be living in the thick brush that we were stepping on.

Before long, we heard voices. Looking down to the right, we could see two men quite a ways below us and they were on the correct trail. We knew that Heavenly Father had answered our prayers. We carefully scaled some boulders and rock faces. I would throw my back pack down and then climb down to a point where I could then jump. We did this over and over again until we made it safely to the men. We eventually made it to our destination, but we didn't make it completely unscathed. We had cuts on our hands and legs, but we were safe. Heavenly Father had answered our prayers.

As we sat on top of the mountain and we reflected on the experience, a couple of thoughts kept coming to mind. First, why didn't we look up every once in a while to view our destination? Why didn't we look up to see if we could see paint dots marking the trail? In our lives, it's easy to get complacent. It's easy to say all is well in Zion. Are we looking toward our eternal destination? Are we looking up to make sure we are still on the right path?

Second, we came to realize that we had gotten off of the trail by a staying a few feet too far to the left. It was amazing how such a small difference had led us so off course into dangerous territory. Had we recognized our mistake by looking up earlier on, getting back on course would have been much easier. Instead, we had to experience a longer, and more painful path in order to reach our destination.

Much like in life, when we evaluate and correct mistakes earlier on, the journey is often less thorny. There is joy to be had in keeping our covenants and staying on the right path for our eternal destination. There is safety in keeping the commandments. I was very thankful in this analogy for the atonement. No matter how far down the incorrect path we travel, we can always pray for guidance and we can repent of the things that were keeping us from our destination. The path may be difficult, we may experience pain along the way, but through prayer and through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can conquer our spiritual mountains and reach the top.