The Wall

There is a wall I walk to everyday. I don’t know who built it but they left a simple message for the passerby: “PUSH.” I can’t help but try to move the wall. Some days there is progress. I feel strong and focused and the wall bends and tilts. Some days I look at the wall and trace the bricks with my fingers, standing entranced at its complex and interlocked structure. Other days I run up to it and kick it and throw rocks at it. Once I scratched a message of my own: “FALL.” On the worst days all I can do is lean against it and appreciate the stability its stubborn existence affords. Once I ran right into the wall. Didn’t even see it. I’m still waiting for the day the wall gives my skin back and apologizes for the bruise.

One day, the worst day, I was leaning against the wall and my knees couldn’t decide whether to push or bend. I slid to the ground and sat there. I could only stay there for a minute because I was sitting on something dreadfully uncomfortable. I stood up and looked for the object but it was nowhere to be seen. I wanted to leave the wall and never come back. I looked for a rock I could use to scratch my farewell message but there was nothing on the ground. Perplexed, I thought, “There has to be something here – I was sitting on it.” I searched my pockets and pulled a key out of my back pocket. I couldn’t remember receiving it but it looked familiar.

With the key in my hand I took a step back and looked at the wall again – the elegantly inscribed, “PUSH,” and the rudely scrawled, “FALL.” I tried to read between the lines. Nothing. I tried to read between the letters. Something. I could barely make it out, but there were four dime-sized circles in between each letter, “P.U.S.H.” A memory stirred and I gripped the key tighter. My vision sharpened and my pulse quickened – I knew I was about to solve the mystery of the wall. The sun faded and I realized I’d been there too long. In seconds all was black and I felt like the wall would engulf my body the way it had consumed my mind. My eyes squeezed shut until I took courage and peeked. There was a beam of light coming from a tiny space between two bricks. The space was so small only one thing could possibly fit – a key.

My surroundings howled and screeched like deafening thunder and without thinking I tried the key with a swift flick of my wrist. All fell silent as the hidden door swung open and everything was once again clear and bright. I took a step forward and my mind danced in the freedom this newfound space offered me. I looked behind me and the wall was gone. The dazzling light illuminated the shiny key in my hand and I could see six letters written there, “P R A Y E R.” I thought it was a curious word if a word it was meant to be. I was eager to explore this space so I dropped the key in my back pocket and kept going. One day I found a wall. It is the wall I walk to everyday. I don’t know who built it but they left a simple message for the passerby: “PUSH.” I can’t help but try to move the wall.

…..

In our world we are free to act and choose how we may. We can be the rulers of our own universe and doers of our own destruction. It is easy to forget the smallest things – keys in our back pocket that accompany us unnoticed on our journey through this vast wilderness we call life. I have recently forgotten the small and simple key called, “Prayer.” On Sunday I was reminded of an acronym that has the potential to try change everything, “Pray Until Something Happens.” We may become convinced that the only way around a problem is to push right through it, relying on our own strength. This process is exhausting, frustrating and worst of all, solitary. However, when we are faced with a true, formidable challenge there is often no quicker solution than prayer.

When Enos feared all was lost he remembered the words of his father. He recounted, “And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. And there came a voice unto me saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.” (Enos 1:4-5)

Enos could have stood up, expressed his gratitude and walked away until the next big issue consumed his mind and heart. Instead, he stayed where he was and asked the Lord how this miracle of forgiveness could be possible. He took the opportunity to develop his faith and he began to pray on behalf of his brethren – that their records would be preserved and brought forth among the Lamanites. “Wherefore, I knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it.

“Wherefore I had faith, and I did cry unto God that he would preserve the records; and he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time. And I, Enos, knew it would be according to the covenant which he had made; wherefore my soul did rest.” (Enos 1:15-17) We will continually see the wall before us unless we do what is necessary to make promises to God and have faith he will be true to those promises. Only then can our souls rest. There is no point pounding our heads against walls when we hold the simple solution in our back pocket: prayer.

Pray until something happens. We can’t rely on our own strength and intelligence. The wall will happily squish us when the next storm comes. If we do this right we can have the peace and confidence in the knowledge that God will be true to us, according to our faith. May the words of Enos one day be our own, “And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my father. Amen.” (Enos 1:27)