Endure

Jesus taught us the importance of enduring to the end with a simple, practical example:

Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

Luke 14:28-30

In Nephi’s final chapters, he teaches us how to get onto the strait and narrow path (baptism). He also teaches us what to do when we are on the path (follow the Spirit). And he gives us an important warning:

Thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better for you that ye had not known me.

And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.

And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.

2 Nephi 31:14-16

In this passage, both the Savior and Nephi frame the principle as a warning: If you don’t endure to the end, you won’t be saved. But quoting the Father, Nephi also provides the affirmative version: If you endure to the end, you will be saved. Jesus taught the principle both ways during His mortal ministry and during His postmortal ministry in the Americas. (See Matthew 10:22, Matthew 10:33, Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13, 3 Nephi 15:9, 3 Nephi 27:6, 16-17.)

Obviously, when you start down a path, your intention is to reach the destination. But these warnings speak to something that we can all relate to: It’s a lot easier to start something than to finish it. We may get distracted. We may get discouraged. We may become myopically focused on details and lose sight of the big picture. In our daily lives, it’s not hard to find examples of things we start but never finish.

In the Agile software development methodology, there’s an aphorism: “Stop starting, start finishing.” The idea is that you’ll never get anything done if you keep adding new projects which distract you from the existing ones. Better to focus on a few important things and get them done before tackling new challenges.

This is a good microcosm of our path of discipleship. Our focus must be on finishing, not just getting started. To that end, we need to be careful not to overcommit, not to overcomplicate, and not to overextend ourselves. Our goal, both today and throughout our lifetime, should be to finish what we’ve started, to stay focused, to get the job done.

Today, I will be a finisher. I will focus on completing important things that I have started and avoid taking on new projects which could be a distraction. I will remember that this discipline also applies to my spiritual journey, and I will maintain my commitment to “press forward” on “the path which leads to eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:18, 20).