Sabbath Devotional :: Lodestar

My father passed away almost eight years ago. A good friend called him my “lodestar parent,” and losing him left a hole in my world. While he rarely offered course corrections and was adamant that we captain our own ships, he lived a life you could nonetheless safely steer by. He exhibited patterns of integrity, courage and grace. He made hard moral decisions (often at great personal cost), was generous even when his means were limited, and always welcomed in the stranger. I have missed him very much, but in these fraught times I miss him more.

Recently, as I was facing some hard decisions, I tried to imagine what he would do in my place. As I considered, I realized that, particulars aside, his counsel would be what it had always been — I should do what I knew was right and good and let the rest sort itself out. This thought brought a great deal of resolve and clarity, and helped me to get to a good decision point. My lodestar had come through for me even in absentia.

One of the reasons that I could trust my father so implicitly, was because he too had a lodestar. My dad was deeply oriented toward Jesus Christ, and this gave him a distinct sense of guidance and direction. It gave him courage in difficult moments when he had to act in ways that would be consequential and unpopular. At my own point of decision, I had oriented first to my father — his lived example helped me to make the right decision.

But I also knew that I would need a great deal of help as I dealt with the consequences of the choice, and that this could only come from a divine source. In the words of another father to another child: “yea, see that ye look to God and live.” (Alma 37:47)

Christ comes to our rescue in the difficult moments that inevitably follow “right” decisions. We can lean on him as we deal with consequences and “sort it out” with real people who might disagree with us or who are angered by our choice. He exemplifies love, commitment, sacrifice and courage, and can be a source of deep and lasting peace. When Christ is our lodestar, we not only can make courageous choices, but we can respond with love to those we anger and find comfort for our weary souls as we deal with the fallout.

I don’t think that it is unduly pessimistic to say that there are few lodestars left among our society’s leaders. We are living in a period of confusion, disruption and destruction, without trusted and visionary guidance. This week I was reading in Isaiah 45, and for the first time felt a distinct kinship with a people in captivity:

Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.

Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

But just as my father has been for me, I believe that as we counsel together, and through our discipleship, we can step forward and shine in a way that gives others comfort and guidance. We can be lodestars to those who are seeking a way out of the gloom. To do this well we do not need to have power, or worldly influence. We simply need to reflect outward the light of Jesus.

In one of my favorite conference talks from decades past, Elder Holland shared the following:

“In a world of some discouragement, sorrow, and overmuch sin, in times when fear and despair seem to prevail, when humanity is feverish with no worldly physicians in sight, I. . . say, “Trust Jesus.” Let him still the tempest and ride upon the storm. Believe that he can lift mankind from its bed of affliction, in time and in eternity.”

My hard earned experience has taught me that exhibiting that trust gives me a clear line of sight to the Lodestar. I believe that Christ has the power to lift us from our beds of affliction and that he is willing to do so. I also believe that he calls us to do this work with him, and most importantly that we can shine and illuminate a pathway for those who cannot yet see him. Let’s shine.

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Jennifer Walker Thomas is the co-executive director at Mormon Women for Ethical Government.

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