Many years ago, our next-door neighbor performed an act of inordinate courage to save the lives of some strangers. He and his wife were driving along a stretch of interstate highway one day when he glanced across the median strip to behold a terrifying phenomenon. Incredibly, there was a car across the way driving parallel to his own car but moving directly into the line of traffic in the opposite lanes. My friend watched with utter horror as trucks and cars swerved to avoid collision with the intruding vehicle driving in the wrong direction along the innermost lane. What to do?
In a split second, my friend made his decision. He accelerated to a high rate of speed and looked for the next opportunity to cross over the median. He maneuvered quickly toward the opposite lanes of traffic, coming to a screeching halt on the inner shoulder of the opposite lanes. Despite significant danger to himself, he then ran towards the errant vehicle and flagged it down amid the swerving and dodging vehicles.
Incredibly, the elderly couple whom he forced to stop were at first indignant at such treatment. What business did this stranger have interrupting their trip? Soon they realized, however, that he had saved their lives and were grateful for his Christian act of charity and deliverance.
This true story is like a modern-day parable of the reactions of the world in nearly all ages to the ministry of the prophets of God. The eternal message is one of warning: the call to repentance, the admonition to heed the word of God and be saved. In modern terms, it is the alarm sounded when one foolishly travels down a one-way street in the wrong direction. So often this warning is met with hardness of heart and with stubborn and prideful rebellion. “What business do you have to tell me I cannot propel myself into the jaws of destruction?” However, the alarm of the prophets is powered by the spirit of charity. As Samuel the Lamanite proclaims to his obstinate Nephite audience from the walls of Zarahemla: “For behold, they have been a chosen people of the Lord; yea, the people of Nephi hath he loved, and also hath he chastened them; yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them” (Helaman 15:3).
Would we not all do well to accept in the spirit of gratitude and humility the loving though firm entreaties of the prophets of God as they teach us to move faithfully and securely toward a destination of peace and redemption? (Richard J. Allen)