A word of hope is poured out on every generation of people by those who advocate accomplishment, an exemplary life, living up to one’s abilities, and keeping one’s commitments. Events and circumstances in the last days make it imperative for us to become more grounded, rooted, established, and settled. The journey to God allows us to come to a space where climatic revelation is disclosed. The basic purpose of our pilgrimage is to heighten our devotion to God and to reveal his will, and the practice has many beneficial ancillary effects as well. For instance, it is a reminder of the equality between humans, all distinction of rank and hierarchy is removed, and we stand before God in our undivided humanity. It also provides a useful service in international relations as it brings people from various countries together, while demonstrating that we have a common loyalty that transcends any bonds to warring kingdoms of humans. Reading and studying the scriptures make us conscious of the many conditional promises made by the Lord to encourage obedience and righteous living. The Lord made a covenant with Noah, and the rainbow became the token of that eternal covenant with all humankind that God would never flood with World again. Remember, God did not just flood a city or state, at one time he flooded the World because he did not approve of how wicked people had become. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

Our life with our people obviously goes more smoothly if we behave morally, but if ultimate reality does not support such conduct, if our World is such that morality does not pay, we face an impasse in how to live. It is required that for a meaningful existence that immoral, vindictive, and capricious behavior must be denied. Our God possesses none of these traits. God meted out the Heavens with a span of goodness which is supposed to be from everlasting to everlasting. “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and saw everything he had made, and behold it was very good.” For whatever now exists, exists for the good of the whole, and because this whole is always and everywhere equally perfect, all its parts must always exist. Hence, on the principle of the Good, every ultimate entity in the Universe is eternal. Fresh with the morning of Creation, the Earth was to be relished with zest. The abundance of good made the Promise Land a good land, a land of wheat and vines and figs which people were allowed to consume without scarceness. There is good reason to make our decision now to serve the Lord. Because we are so involved in the Universal purpose of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to the Lord. If we choose, we can disobey God and grieve our Lord. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

When the complications and temptations of life are somewhat removed, and when we have the time and more of an inclination to take an eternal perspective, we can more clearly evaluate what will bring us the greatest happiness in life. We should decide now, in the light of morning, how we will act when the darkness of night and when the storms of temptation arrive. True happiness is not made in getting something. True happiness is becoming something. This can be done by being committed to lofty goals. We cannot become something without commitment. We should be diligently engaged in a good cause, and do many things of our own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. Individuals should det there own goals, and goals should always be made to a point that will make us reach and strain. However, success should not necessarily be gauged by always reaching the goal set, but by the progress and attainment. In setting our own goals, we need to examine our own needs and abilities. This direction in which we are moving is more important than where we are at the moment. Goal setting should cause us to stretch as we make our way. There is no way to have any evident knowledge of any substance other than one’s own soul starting from the objects of sensation or of inner experience. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

A divine, forgiving, and timeless love beyond history gives meaning to human life. Nothing can actually operating in human history can ever be sufficiently dominant over sinful narcissism and sensuality to deliver humans from despair, although some people attempt to conceal reality with optimistic illusions. However, if we look beyond the temporal process to transcendent being, we find, though faith, a forgiving and perfect love which gives to human life a grandeur being the reach of despair and a zeal beyond the reach of apathy. This love from beyond history has been revealed to us in Christ. We know it is from beyond history because in history this kind of love, called agape, is ineffective before the powers that rule the World. It is futile and meaningless except when, as in the Christian faith, it reveals the ultimate purpose of our existence by an evaluation which transcends all time and space. Sin arises from anxiety, although anxiety is not sinful in itself. People are rendered anxious by criticizing themselves and our World, by recognizing our own limitations and the contingencies of our existence, and by imagining a life infinitely better than what actually is. When our progress seems to be at a standstill, we must have the drive, the push, the want to will us to succeed in any field. We must also learn to employ the power of prayer. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

It is important to learn the value of commitment, and remember to turn to God for direction, guidance, and help. If we brought it under control by trusting ourselves to God’s forgiving love and ultimate power, anxiety would not lead to sin. However, instead of this, we seek to bring anxiety under control by pretending to have power or knowledge or virtue or special favors from God, which we do not have. This pretense leads narcissism, cruelty, and injustice. Or we seek to escape anxiety by dulling the awareness of it with sensuality. All this is sin because it is a turning away from God to a self-centered existence. Sin thus induced is not inevitable, but it is Universal. Sin was in the World before humans became sinners, this prehumen sin being symbolized by the adversary. In this predicament we have to alternative. We may trust ourselves along with the whole of human history to God’s forgiving love. The other alternative is twofold: to sin into annihilating despair or to conceal our predicament with illusions that render our condition ever more desperate in the end. If we take the first alternative, we live not only for whatever love can be attained in history but also and primarily for the divine love beyond history. In this way the whole of human history takes on meaning. Otherwise we have only glimpses of meaning in developments occurring here and there but no meaning for the whole history. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

Many people are motivated by spiritual goals. Total commitment to correct gospel principles brings joy, satisfaction, and the abundant life. If we are not in the process of becoming the person we want to be, we are automatically engaged in becoming the person we do not want to be. Transcendence is the timeless ideal of perfect love. But this love is not merely an ideal. It is a God who loves, yet is beyond time, cause and World. Self-transcendence means that the self can change into a better self. It does this by surveying past and future and by self-criticism. However, to survey past and future is to be aware of one’s involvement in time; and in self-criticism the self in retrospect is criticized by the self at a later time. However, we can predict how we might behave and the future and think about how we would like to respond to situations and therefore adjust our behavior before it happens. Humans are both bound and free, both limited and limitless; we are, and yet are not, involved in the flux of nature and time. A spirit we stand outside time, nature, World, and self, yet are involved in them. Freed of paradox, these affirmations assert that humans are free in the dimension of spirit but not in the dimension of natural existence. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

The human spirit transcends the self, time, and nature because the individual can know oneself as an object, can judge oneself to be a sinner, can survey the past and future. The ultimate proof that the human spirit is free is its recognition that its will is not free. The unknown reality extends beyond our knowledge; but if we refuse to conceal our ignorance by superimposing religious beliefs where knowledge cannot reach, then our spirit is free, but our will will be condemned to doing evil things. And as you know, there are consequences for wicked actions. Therefore, in a sense the will is no free if we want eternal life because have are commanded to live a righteous life. Belief in God and following his commandments also relieves anxiety by providing courage and hope. Another sinful use of reason is to make it the basis of a false security, thus turning away from the one sure ground of security, which is a belief beyond the tests of reason, namely, that, God in forgiving love will overrule all evil at the end of history. Christian beliefs offer courage, hope, peace, zeal, love, sense of being forgiven, and other psychological effects resulting wen these beliefs are affirmed. These psychological effects are offered as the grace bestowed upon us by God when we affirm these beliefs with the total self. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

Thus, we are assured that we are loved and forgiven by God, while we are sinners. However, again, there is a clause. We must repent and make a conscious effort not to repeat the same sins because at sometime it will be too late to repent and we will be held responsible by God, in a spiritual realm, for our choices, actions, thoughts, and decisions.  Still, beyond all the incoherence of our existence and beyond all our rational powers we know there is an all-comprehending and perfect coherence which somehow overcomes and absorbs all the manifest incoherence that we experience. We must realize that not all of our problems can be solved at once. A commitment to solve our daily needs and the reaching of immediate lesser foals will bring meaningful success. We have to realize that God will judge us by the way we make use of all our possibilities. Humans beings cannot come together, with the pack mentality and judge us, by thinking they are the Godhead. “If we judge and condemn, how much more just will be our condemnation,” reports Mosiah 4.22. It is wise to male the most of every opportunity, but do not quit nor weep because of failure or disappointments. We can always divide huge commitments into smaller one that we can handle. Then self-esteem will grow and commitment toward goals of greater magnitude will become possible.  #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

The journey of success is long and possesses a series of commitments to worthy goals. A person does not become committed to worthwhile goals just by making the declaration or decision. It must be a daily progression toward established purposes. When one is wholly committed, added strengths and talents become evident. Assistance comes from unexpected sources. Who of us has not accepted some assignment with fear and trepidation, feeling totally inadequate to take on such a responsibility? However, with concern and obedience we move forward—working hard and praying often. As the task is completed, to our surprise, we have been successful. We humbly realize that our own abilities have been added upon. What we can do, or dream we can, it is important to begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Commitment also has genius power, and magic in it. “For I know that the Lord gives no commandments unto the children of humans, without preparing a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he has commanded them,” report 1 Nephi 3.7. Our enemies are becoming more hostile with each passing week. They seem intent on not only deceiving the uncommitted among us, but also on leading astray the elect. They criticize our leaders and scoff at what they consider to be sacred. They mock ordinances and covenants we know to be true and holy. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

The wicked delight in discovering and sharing human flaws and frailties among our leaders past and present rather than acknowledging and benefiting from the truths they taught. They go to the tree, and instead of enjoying the fruit thereof, they point out the scars discovered on the tree trunk. Do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. We have no intention of quarreling or demanding equal time to refute. We invite the dissenters as well as all others to open their eyes and see the beauties and thrills available to those who walk in God’s path looking for good. There are three kinds of love: heedless love (agape), which seeks nothing in return; mutual love; and human beings by God’s grace may have it to some degree. Since it seeks nothing in return, it cannot have the intention of awakening responsive love, although this may be its unintended result. Suffering endured with intention to awaken responsive love would be calculating love. Hence God’s suffering love in Christ is not to awaken responsive love, although this may be its unintended result; but the intention is to protect God’s righteousness in forgiving sin because forgiveness without atonement would be condoning sin. To reap the full benefits of life, we must fill our days with commitment to worthy goals and principles. There is no other way. A productive life here on Earth will open the door for eternal life with our Father in Heaven. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

In making political judgment, the individual is inevitably biased by the social positions and historical process in which one finds their security and personal identity. No one can be entirely free of this bias, but its distortions are reduced by a faith which finds its ultimate security not in any social position or historical process but in the God of love and mercy who rules supreme over the whole course of history, determining its final outcome as no plan or purpose of humankind can ever do. Such a faith in God’s power and forgiveness enables one to practice Christian realism, whereby one is able to see the evil in the self and in the historical process with which the self is identified, as well as the depth of evil in all human life. Political judgment can then be more free of the illusions generated by false pride, on the one hand, and by despair, on the other. Justice requires the coercions of government to support moral demands; and the power of opposing parties must be equalized if one is not to be subordinated unjustly to the interests of the other. Also, to have justice, freedom to criticize is required. Justice serves love by providing the social conditions required for the practice of love. Love is the final norm but cannot by itself guide political action, because every project set forth in the name of love amid the contests for political power is infected with self-interest whereby the needs of others are falsely identified with those of self. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

With our highly developed rational powers and critical intelligence, we know that some people’s lives attract more attention from interpreters. Misrepresentations of almost every facet of an individual’s life are crucial, for they bear on an understanding of one’s significance. It is also difficult to obtain reliable information on the authenticity and relative importance of one’s work through when things are taken out of context or distorted or completely fabricated. Life is supposed to be meaningful and moving. However, where is the pleasure for people who, attending a big league baseball game, will not cheer or clap for the home run hitter who drives the winning runs, but rather would dwell upon the fact that when the start, according to their “research” out of the darkness of their mind, in grade school he was kept after school for misconduct. Woe unto those who feast on the dirt and the distasteful instead of the fruits.  Contrast that attitude with that demonstrated by a senior widow acquaintance of ours who travels to the temple every morning, spend the day attending sessions, and returns home by buss tired and work just because, “I love everyone, even those I cannot see.” Her attendance records? “I go every day it is open. Sometimes when I do not feel too strong it is difficult, but I make it somehow.” The word is commitment. We all have eyes, ears, and minds to lift, lead, and love. Each day, we must be committed to lofty Christian performance because it is essential to our eternal joy and happiness. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12