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Elder Boyd K. Packer
Elder Boyd K. Packer, Conference Report, October 1969,
Afternoon Meeting 36.
© 2001, Deseret Book, GospeLink
2001, Used by permission
The Other Side of the Ship
Recently two unusual gatherings of young people have caught the attention of the
world. At White Lake, New York, nearly half a million young people gathered.
Later a similar gathering was held
on the Isle of Wight. They came from all countries, from all levels of society. These meetings were billed as
music festivals. Certainly they did not come to hear the music—they came to be
there.
These gatherings, so appealing to
our youth, are unique in history, and they mean something.
Some suppose that the youth
responded to political or philosophical motivation. It is not so. It would be a
mistake to so conclude, even though they are deeply entangled in the political
and social issues of today.
Unquenched spiritual desire
Frantically youth clings to whatever social issue is foremost at the moment,
not realizing perhaps that it is not so much the cause that ignites them; it is
rather having a cause that satisfies their need. Neither is it an intellectual
movement, although it has many of the attributes. Nor is it a cultural one,
though they have developed their own style of music, a vocabulary, art forms,
and poetry. It is spiritual motivation that brings these young people together.
They may not know it, but a whole generation of youth is athirst with an
unquenched spiritual desire. As has been foretold:
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in
the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the
words of the Lord:
"And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the
east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find
it.
"In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for
thirst." (Amos 8:11-13.)
Thirst for life's meaning
Youth suffers from a lingering thirst that has become a drive. Though it
gnaws within them, it is not physical. They want to know what it all means—they
are seeking the true meaning of life. There is something missing from their
lives, some vital substance that they have not tasted.
Many of them unfortunately seek it in physical satisfaction. They smash down
the boundaries of morality and wantonly indulge themselves in every manner
conceivable to the limit of physical experience, seeking in physical
gratification some taste of life. They come away less satisfied than before, the
thirst and the craving more acute.
Escape from futility
Then many of them turn elsewhere, seeking to escape the futility in life.
They turn to drugs and find for a moment the escape they seek. At last their
spirits soar. They reach beyond themselves, erase all limitations, and taste for
a moment, as they suppose, that which they have been seeking. But it is a
synthetic, a wicked counterfeit, for they return to a depression worse than the one they
left.
Then they become players in the saddest of human tragedies. For, as they turn
again to this release, they are not seeking what they sought before, but indulge
to escape the consequences of each previous adventure with drugs. This is
addiction! This is tragedy! This is slavery! When a remedy becomes worse than
the disease, then we have found futility itself.
Advice to young people
If one of these young people would listen for a moment—listen seriously
enough that I could speak from the depths of my soul—there are some things I
would tell him.
Why, he may first ask, do you appeal to me, the most criticized and
uncomfortable of all in society? That is easy to answer.
First, you are right, you know, when you assess that most of society is
interested only in immediate material success, too comfortable to really care,
too preoccupied to listen to any significant message.
Because you are trying to change things, perhaps you will at least listen.
We are trying to change things too. We have many thousands of young people,
something like yourself, assigned across the world to change people. But they
must sift through literally thousands to find one who will listen—really
listen.
We appeal to you because you are young. Our message requires a change so
monumental that few but youth have the courage for it.
Cast net on right side
In your rebellion, so called, you have cut yourself loose from your moorings,
perhaps even from family ties, and set adrift on the sea of life. Now you may be
drifting on the right sea, you may even be in the right boat, but you might try
fishing on the other side. Some others were fishing on the wrong side of the
ship.
"And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and
ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for
the multitude of fishes." (John 21:6.)
When we mention that there is a spiritual answer to your need, I hope you
don't dismiss it or ridicule the possibility. "Don't knock it till you've
tried it" is sound counsel. If you haven't tried it yet, you are as yet no
witness on the matter. Surely you have that much honesty.
You may say you've been to church, that you've tried religion and not been
satisfied. That is little wonder. It isn't in them all, you know, only a
flavoring of it. The substance of it, the fullness of it can be found in only
one place. Perhaps you have looked for it here, in that one place, and have not
found it. And so I repeat, you might try fishing on the right side.
Finding the true light
No one can compel you to taste of this living water. It can come only when
you consent. There are no conscripts, only volunteers.
If you are to find it, you must pay more, by a
thousandfold, than ever you
paid before, reach farther than you have ever reached, use more courage and
self-discipline than you ever knew you had. But at the end of all that comes the
promise:
"Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who
forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my
voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;
"And that I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into
the world." (D&C 93:1-2.)
I must be plain also to say to you, my young friend, that when you come to
know, it will be on his terms—not on yours.
"Therefore," he has said, "sanctify yourselves that your minds
become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will
unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way,
and according to his own will." (D&C 88:68. Italics added.)
Facing issues with new light
The fact—the positive, irrefutable truth—is that what you seek, my young
friend, exists. And when you find it, it will not take you out of the world. You
will find a greater need to be in the mainstream of life facing the same issues
that are so disturbing to you now, but you'll face them with a different light.
It will not require that you give up anything essential or fulfilling in
life, whether it be physical, emotional, spiritual, or intellectual. You will be
the same height, the same weight, you'll be under the necessity of eating to
live and being sheltered. You'll have dislikes and likes, passions and desires.
At first glance nothing will change at all, and yet positively everything will
change.
Quench spiritual thirst
We bid you—our restless, drifting, seeking youth—to come, quench that
spiritual thirst.
The Lord has said: "Whosoever drinketh of . . . water shall thirst
again:
"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:13-14.)
Oh, how we pray that as you drift, seeking everywhere, trying everything,
that one day you will cast your net on the right side of the ship.
I bear to you my witness, as one among those authorized to bear that witness,
that God does live, Jesus is the Christ, this is his church, The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. He directs his church and ministers in the midst of
his Saints. There is a prophet of God directing this work. Youth is needed to
carry it on. We bid you to come, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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