IT SEEMS LIKE advertisements are always targeting me to take an “experience vacation.”
This is the popular trend of not just going somewhere, but also having a unique experience built into the vacation, tailored to the place where you are traveling. For example, rather than just going to Paris, you might take a cooking class from a French chef while in Paris.
What if you went to a place and found out later that it was a destination where you could have had a transformational experience but missed out on the opportunity?
What if that experience was the entire purpose of going there, and you somehow overlooked it?
From a religious standpoint, I have thought of how the ultimate destination experience is coming to earth, leaving our Father in Heaven, and traveling the road on our journey of faith; learning to put our trust in our Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ, and the experience we gain from doing that.
In other words, the ultimate experience of our life’s mortal journey is developing a close relationship with our Father in heaven, learning of His Son Jesus Christ and His Atoning sacrifice for each of us, and the joy that it brings to our souls as we have faith to live the gospel.
“Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25).
The prophet Alma taught that our mortal time on earth is “a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God” (Alma 12:24). How do we take advantage of this ultimate destination experience and prepare to meet God?
When someone joins our church, we sometimes refer to them as a convert. But conversion is a process, not a one-time event.
It’s a lifetime experience of happiness as we become more deeply converted. We are converted as we follow the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Some steps are: Faith in Jesus Christ. Repenting of our sins. Being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The prophet King Benjamin declared, “The Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”
As we proceed through this amazing experience, we are converted to Jesus Christ, and our hearts change.
We want to do good.
We desire to become more like Jesus Christ.
We seek the peace and sweet feelings that come from the Holy Spirit as it enters our lives.
After Jesus Christ’s resurrection, He appeared to the people of ancient America. This is recorded in The Book of Mormon.
He taught the people, their hearts changed, and they became converted.
“And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people” (4 Nephi 1:15).
Imagine how that must have been. All of them were striving to follow the example of Jesus Christ, loving their neighbor and serving their fellow men.
As we contemplate what we might want to experience in our lives, and believe me, I love French food and am all for learning how to cook with a French chef in Paris. But as we examine our lives, I can imagine the most fulfilling, the ultimate experience we could have in our mortal journey, is the relationship that we develop with God as we become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What amazing joy, what tremendous peace, and what incredible love and charity can fill our lives as we have an eye single to the glory of God.
The cost for this ultimate destination experience?
It’s having a willing heart and mind.
It is losing the pride that keeps us from turning to God.
It’s putting God before all other worldly things.
The ultimate experience is coming unto Christ.
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Bishop Jason Bringhurst is the leader of the Mount Pleasant Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Port Angeles, ComeUntoChrist.org. His email is jasonbring@gmail.com.
