I See... Losing Faith

My great-great grandfather William Tait left his frail, pregnant young wife Elizabeth in Poona, India, not far from Bombay, in the Spring of 1855 for Zion. He had to exercise great faith that Elizabeth would be able to safely follow him after the birth of their third child. He had no contact with her again until 18 long months later, in October 1856, when he rescued his precious Elizabeth on the frozen high plains of Wyoming, living on the precipice of death in the infamously ill-fated Willie Handcart Company. They eventually settled in Cedar City Utah and raised righteous generations.

Meanwhile, one morning a few weeks ago I accidentally left my cell phone on the kitchen table as I was rushing out the door to get to work on time. I realized to my horror that now, I would have no way of warning my sweet wife that I was caught in terrible traffic and would be terribly late arriving home. She would have to exercise faith for the next 90 minutes that I would arrive home without incident.

The blessing of modern technology has also brought us an incredibly daunting spiritual challenge: the loss of a need for faith. If “faith is things which are hoped for and not seen,” (Ether 12:6) then modern communications technology has seriously compromised our need for it. While great-great grandfather William had to hope for 18 months that his unseen wife would safely arrive in Zion, I usually don't have wait more than 18 seconds, anywhere in the world, to know if my wife is healthy and happy.

So... do we bury our cell phones in the earth and return to the faith born of waiting? Or do we rise to the challenge and harness modern miracles to strengthen our faith?

We won the war in heaven, so it's our choice.