Why Are We Here — Really? (LDS Devotional)

Most of us are pretty confident we know why we're here on earth. When I was a missionary 35 years ago, the answers came pretty readily to my tongue: We're here to get a body, I'd say, and to be tested. Of course that's correct.

Unfortunately, if we stop at that brief formula, we'll fall far short of our purpose and potential, which is to truly become as God is.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained that there is more to life than we often think. "A superficial view of this life... will not do," he said. If we hold to a surface-level understanding, we may "mistakenly speak of this mortal experience only as coming here to get a body, as if we were merely picking up a suit at the cleaners." Or we may "casually recite how we have come here to be proved, as if a few brisk push-ups and deep knee bends would do."[1]

There is more to being tested than doing some routine exercises. And there are more purposes in life than just two. Instead, we have many.

Failing to completely understand the purposes of life is like setting out on a journey without knowing the destination. Perhaps you set off from London and find yourself in the Gobi Desert. "Oh, I don't like deserts," you say. "I wish I had traveled a different path."

Understanding the purposes of life will show us the way we should go, and how to get there. With that understanding, we will set out on our journey knowing where we are going and why, and we will be able to travel with greater confidence and joy.

Not long ago I sat in the hospital with an old friend. He had just had surgery. The doctors suspected he might have cancer. They had done a biopsy to find out. While we talked, he grew philosophical. What if he did have cancer? Was he going to die soon?

He said, "I was recently a judge of many nominees for Scouting's Silver Beaver award. There were 150 applicants. As I looked at their resumes, I saw that every one of them was truly exceptional."

He told of shuffling through the papers and looking at their accomplishments. He was a Silver Beaver recipient himself. He knew what it took to receive that high honor. He had been involved in Scouting for many years. He worked hard in his profession. He tried to help in the community.

"The truth is, for years I was a dedicated workaholic," he said. "And it looked to me like all these exceptional people were workaholics too."

But working hard isn't all we're here for. Sometimes we get out of balance. We spend too many hours at the office or on the backhoe or beside the irrigation ditch or in the kitchen or at the gym or at the church. (On the other hand, some of us spend too many hours slumped in a chair, eyes glued to the TV.)

"I used to think the Lord was going to judge me by all I had accomplished," my friend said. "But now I'm learning that what I do is not as important as who I am."

As it turned out, he did not have cancer. He returned home and went back to work. Life goes on.

But at some point the days of his life will run out. When that happens to us, early or late, what will we have to say for ourselves?

Our success in this life depends to a great degree on our understanding of why we're here. Our mortality has deep and significant meaning. That meaning has been defined by God himself.

Some of the essential purposes of life he has given us through the teachings of the prophets are:

Of course, there are other purposes we need to discover and fulfill. Obviously we can't talk about all of these purposes in a short article. But let's choose one to demonstrate the depth and breadth of understanding we can seek about each of life's purposes.

Developing a Connection of Feeling with God We must know God with our minds and feel him in our hearts.

This connection of feeling is not new to us. We had it in premortality. And a desire to renew that feeling is the natural inheritance of every person born on this earth. As Elder F. Enzio Busche said, "Deep down inside of us we are all searching and longing for that which embraced us before we came to this earth: to feel the effect of the tender care of our Heavenly home, to be illuminated in all the fibers of our being by His unconditional love."[2]

Elder Busche speaks of the feeling of love. That is the most powerful feeling that will connect us with God. But there are other feelings we also seek. These include gratitude, reverence, respect, admiration, amazement, wonder, awe. The more we feel these feelings toward God, and the deeper we feel them, the greater our connection with him will be. The ultimate result, as Elder Busche explains, is joy.[3]

I once invited a sister in our stake to speak in a stake meeting. I asked her to express to the congregation her love for the Lord. She said, "Oh, president, I would be so thrilled to share that feeling. I love him so much, so much! And I miss him. I long for the time when I will be with him again."

That is the kind of connection of feeling the Lord invites us to have with him. Such a connection with God strengthens us in our daily lives. It draws us to him and helps us to be more like him. Discovering - or rediscovering - this connection is one of God's purposes for our lives.

The scriptures are filled with evidence that both the Father and the Son are full of feeling for us.

Three passages from Isaiah alone tell the story: I will mention the loving kindnesses of the LORD... and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.... In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.[4]

For as... the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.[5]

But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.[6] The living Christ can be seen, felt, and embraced. His heart is "filled with compassion" towards his people. As we read in the marvelous account in 3 Nephi, he knelt with the people in prayer and prayed to the Father for them. He wept for them. He blessed their children. Then "he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you. Have ye any that are sick among you? ...Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.

Then, after blessing each one and after offering another prayer for the people, "he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them. And when he had done this he wept again."[7]

Last year I attended a funeral of a faithful brother who had lived into his nineties. He had six children, several of whom spoke at the meeting. The first stood and said, "My dad and I had a special relationship. In fact, my siblings don't know it, but I was his favorite." The second said, "I also had a very special relationship with Dad. And my sister who just spoke was in error, because I was Dad's favorite." The third said, "My brother and sister were both wrong: I was Dad's real favorite!"

When it comes to our relationship with God, we can all be his favorites. We can feel that he loves and accepts us and holds us very dear, more than anyone else we know.

This concept was taught by the founding prophet of our dispensation. Emphasizing the absolute necessity of being favored by God, Joseph Smith said that "nothing short of an actual knowledge of their being the favorites of heaven, and of their having embraced that order of things which God has established for the redemption of man, will enable [the Saints] to exercise that confidence in him, necessary for them to overcome the world, and obtain that crown of glory which is laid up for them that fear God."[8]

What does it take to be favored of God? Nephi, speaking as one who knew, gave us the answer: Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God.[9]

Certainly the Lord loves all of his children, regardless of their behavior and attitudes. But when they obey him, they are "favored" of him.

It is an incredible feeling to know that we are our Heavenly Father's favorites. It increases our confidence before him. And it helps us to fulfill the purpose of having a connection of feeling with him.

The scriptures teach that certain people can be the friends of God - a truth that is repeated more than a dozen times in modern revelation.[10]

This again refers to a connection of feeling. Friends have a much greater connection of hearts than strangers do, even more than acquaintances do. Friends think about each other more. They look out for each other more. They rejoice more in each other's presence.

Elder J. Golden Kimball said that his father, Heber C. Kimball, had that kind of relationship with God. "There seemed to be a friendliness between my father and God, and when you heard him pray you would actually think the Lord was right there, and that father was talking to Him. Can you pray that way? Are you on such friendly terms with the Lord?"

Then Elder Kimball gave an impressive example of the friendly relationship his father had:

Father had men working for him for a good many years, and he had one he called Colonel Smith. It was in the days of hardships and poverty, and men had great difficulty. They employed a great many people, the brethren did; that was a part of their religion. He employed the colonel, who had been a soldier in Great Britain. And on one occasion he went to father for a pair of shoes, and I guess father felt pretty cross, and answered him a little abruptly, perhaps. So the colonel went home feeling bad, and when he prayed that night, he made a complaint to God against father, saying that ‘Thy servant, Heber,' was not treating him right.

When he came past that little place on Gordon Avenue, next morning, father came out and said, ‘Robert, what did you complain against me for? You come in and get your shoes, and don't do it again?' Now, how did he know that Colonel Robert Smith, who lived away down in the Nineteenth Ward, had filed a complaint against him? Don't you think that we can get on friendly terms with God? Not on familiar terms, but friendly terms? I tell you, God will answer your prayers.[11]

We can be God's friends. We can be his favorites. We can establish a strong connection of feeling with him. And as we do, we will be accomplishing one of our great reasons for being here on earth - to find God and develop a relationship with him, even though we cannot see him. And we will be filled with his love and the sweetest joy.

The concept of developing a relationship of feeling with God is only one example of the depth of understanding we can and should come to in regard to our reasons for being on the earth. The Lord would be pleased to help us come to similar understandings about our other purposes. Take this self-test to see how well you're doing with some of the purposes of life:

• Have there been times when my life has been changed through reading the scriptures?

In addition to the purposes we all share, each of us also has a unique and personal mission to fulfill on the earth.

Our field of labor may be as small as a family. It may be as large as the world. But the Lord knew before he sent us here what specific thing he would have us do for our brothers and sisters on earth, and he prepared us to accomplish it.

Queen Esther was placed in a position where she could save her people. But to do so she would risk her own life. She hesitated, saying that in making the attempt she would almost certainly be killed. But Mordechai, a kinsman who had raised her, encouraged her, saying, "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"[12]

So it was. She had been brought forth to fulfill a mission at that time and place, and through her courage and sacrifice she saved the entirety of the Jewish nation.

Jesus said of himself, "I know whence I came, and whither I go."[13] We also can know whence we came and whither we go. In fact, it is one of our purposes in life to do so.

As Sister Patricia Holland has testified, "I know that God... has a personal mission, an individual purpose for every one of us."[14]

"[God sent] every man and woman in the world, to accomplish a mission," President Joseph F. Smith said, "and that mission cannot be accomplished by neglect; nor by indifference; nor can it be accomplished in ignorance. We must learn our duty; learn the requirements that the Lord has made at our hands, and understand the responsibilities that he has placed upon us."[15]

This article has given only the briefest introduction to why we are really here on the earth. Our purpose is far more than to get a body and be tested. It encompasses all aspects of a godly life, a life designed to help us literally become like our Heavenly Parents.

We can't view our life's purpose with a casual or detached eye. Instead, by searching the scriptures, listening to the prophets, and seeking the Lord in prayer, we can learn why we are here - and begin to more fully accomplish God's will in our lives.

Jay A. Parry is a popular speaker and well-known author. He has worked as an editor for the Ensign magazine and for Deseret Book, for many years has been a teacher at BYU Education Week, and has spoken at countless firesides.

Brother Parry has served as chair of a general Church curriculum committee and as a bishop and stake president in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and his wife, Vicki Hughes Parry, are the parents of seven children and have seven grandchildren.

[1] Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1985, 71. [2] F. Enzio Busche, BYU-Idaho Devotional, February 8, 2005, 4. [3] Busche, BYU-Idaho Devotional, February 8, 2005, 1, 9. [4] Isaiah 63:7, 9. [5] Isaiah 62:5. [6] Isaiah 49:14-16. [7] 3 Nephi 19:6-7, 21-22. [8] Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith (1985), 6:4. [9] 1 Nephi 17:35; see also Mosiah 10:13. [10] See, for example, D&C 88:76-77; 93:45. [11] Conference Report, April 1913, 90. [12] Esther 4:14. [13] John 8:14. [14] Patricia T. Holland, in Heritage of Faith: Talks Selected from the BYU Women's Conferences, 27. [15] Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine (1977), 249.

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