Exodus

Throughout history (don't you just love that intro? it's usually my cue to take a nap... haha!), God has commanded his people to make certain exoduses. Adam & Eve made a symbolic exodus when they "left" the innocence and harmony of the Garden of Eden to take on the "real world" and corresponding agency. Noah made a type of exodus with a few family members and the world's zoo when they left society and survived via boat. Lot and his wife were commanded to leave Sodom & Gomorra. The classic exodus story involves Moses leading the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and into freedom from oppression. Lehi led his family out of Jerusalem when the Lord commanded it. And of course, our pioneer ancestors mustered the courage to trek across North America to the Great Salt Lake Valley-- because the Lord commanded it.

Now, I live in the twenty-first century. The state of the church and the state of our everyday standards are extraordinarily different from the relatively similar daily circumstances that our native ancestors faced. Advances in technology and industry have yielded exponential progress. Times have, indeed, changed. I haven't been asked to make a long trek across an arduous landscape, but I am asked to make symbolic exoduses of my own. Sometimes I rise to the challenge and heed the call; sometimes not. I'd suspect that, in part, we'll be judged by how we responded to the Lord's command for us to do something uncomfortable, unpopular, or just plain difficult. If we don't respond as well as we ought to one time, we should repent, get back up, and give it a stronger go the next time. My testimony is that, no matter who we are or what age we live in, be with the Hebrew slaves of Moses' day or the latter-day saint pioneers chronicled in D&C section 136, I know that God is with us to guide us, strengthen us, and protect us as we make our personal exoduses. We can do it! "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phillipians 4:13). And the reality is, not only can we do it-- we must.