A Really, Really Long-Range View (1 Nephi 2:4)

“[Lehi] departed into the wilderness. And he left his house,…inheritance,…gold,…silver,…precious things, [taking] nothing [but]…family,…provisions, and tents…” (1 Nephi 2:4)

Do I even want to go here? To make a comparison and contrast between myself and Lehi?

[deep sigh]

Okay, (reluctantly) I ask myself, “How hard would that have been?” I imagine myself, my husband, my daughter and her husband, my unmarried son and two other unmarried daughters taking off into the wilderness with just our packs and tents. Set aside the reality that we’d probably die from starvation or be eaten by bears within the first week. How hard would that be?

In previous readings of this story, I’ve always looked at what I would be leaving behind. That is a huge sacrifice. But this reading something dawned on me. It’s not just a question of the life we’re leaving behind (complete with cell phones, microwave ovens, flush toilets, and the like). It’s also a question of the life we’re going to. Just us. What kind of work will we do? How will we survive? How will we entertain ourselves? What if someone gets sick? Where will we find spouses for our unmarried children? Where will their children find spouses? To me, that’s the harder part of it. Not what I’m leaving behind, hard as that would be, but the empty and uncertain wilderness I’d be going to.

How sick of each other would we all be after just a few weeks?! And Lehi and family did it for 8 years, then crossed the ocean to do it for the rest of their lives. No wonder Laman and Lemuel wanted to kill Nephi. Even if they were basically good at heart, I can imagine coming to blows just from the unending sameness of it all.

Yes, Lehi went back for wives and a few other people, adding in some variety to the basic family unit. But still. Even the pioneers trekking to Utah had a larger social group for support and interaction.

What would it take to make this decision?

Nothing short of divine intervention, an absolute and unshakeable certainty that you were doing God’s will—and a really, really long range view of the eternal plan for this world.