Jesus Lives to Lift
Your Saviour is your lift. He is your ever-rising air. There is no limit to how high you can climb with Him.
A few weeks ago, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf took me aside and said, “Patrick, your talks—they’re OK, but where is the aviation?” So here’s just a little aviation.
My Early Ambition
I spent much of my childhood at boarding school in England looking up at aeroplanes crossing the sky, dreaming of flying home to my parents thousands of miles away in Arabia. I yearned to fly! I wanted to become a fighter pilot.
The Basics of Learning to Glide
The Royal Air Force was recruiting pilots, and the fastest way for me to fly was learning to glide.
A glider is a lightweight aircraft with long, slender wings—and no engine—that stays aloft by riding within rising currents of air.
So in my mid-teens I spent part of two summers at an airfield in Oxfordshire learning to fly a glider with the air force. First I learned to fly “straight and level,” then to make stable turns, next to take off towed by a tug plane, and finally to land safely back at the airfield. Only then was I ready to learn to stay in the air, climb, and eventually soar—all without an engine!
Lift
The crucial skill in gliding is finding rising air. You cannot see it, but you can see what it does. I was taught to look for cumulus clouds because they often mark where warm air is rising, and I learned to fly toward them.
But even more important than using visual cues to find rising air is to learn to feel it. While flying along, I would begin to feel that I was being lifted by an unseen force. This rising air is called “lift.” One wing would tip upward, and I would turn toward it, into the lift.
I was taught how to stay in lift, circling upward to gain altitude, and to often join other pilots who had found lift, climbing with them in the same invisible column of rising air.
To be flying is fantastic, but climbing in lift and soaring with no engine is almost beyond description. For me it was beautiful—with only the whistle of the wind, the occasional creak from the glider, and the magnificent sensation of being drawn upward!
Sink
Just as there is rising air, there is also sinking air, called “sink.” It likewise cannot be seen, but it can be felt, and I quickly learned to avoid it. Gliding into sink can feel like falling, sometimes quickly. It shortens the distance you might fly and may threaten a safe landing. When I encountered sink, I learned to turn away decisively.
Our Saviour Loves to Lift
A decade after those gliding days, and not far into my journey of faith, I recognised that the principles of gliding I had learned in my teens have significant similarities with spiritual principles: We must avoid sink and find lift.
At the heart of our faith is the glorious truth that we have an adoring Father in Heaven, whose Son, our Saviour, loves to lift!
The Finisher of Faith, by Kelsy and Jesse Lightweave
Talitha Cumi, by Eva Koleva Timothy
Just think of all the scriptural accounts that show our Redeemer lifting people from despair, out of their figurative “sink.” With His all-powerful hand, He lifted His beloved Peter from sinking in the waves; He lifted the daughter of Jairus from the depths of death; and after healing the boy plagued with an unclean spirit who “was as one dead; … Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up.”
Our Saviour constantly sought out the most desperate souls sinking into darkness and dread and lifted them up. And He wants to lift you!
We Can Learn to Avoid Spiritual Sink and Find Spiritual Lift
Through the amazing grace of Jesus Christ, we can avoid spiritual sink and find spiritual lift. Spiritual lift cannot be seen, but as we learn to discern and act upon the sensitive impressions of the Holy Spirit, we can feel it—as surely as I felt the rising air lift a wing beneath me.
Can you identify moments when you have felt undeniable spiritual lift? Where were you? How did it feel? Isn’t it magnificent to feel like you are being drawn upward, rising higher and higher toward your Heavenly Father and your intended eternal potential?
Can you likewise identify moments when you have felt spiritual sink? You likely remember how this felt in contrast. Just as with gliding, we turn away from it decisively.
If You Aren’t Rising in Lift, You Are Descending
In gliding, if you are not actively climbing in lift, you are descending. This is an uncomfortable fact. A descent can be so gradual that, unless you watch your altitude, you may not notice you are sinking.
Isn’t it the same in our lives? How easy it is to slowly slip from spiritual heights we have worked so hard to climb when we neglect the practices and behaviours that brought us there. We rarely intend to sink. We want lift—its joy and blessings—but we may not recognise the quiet cost of neglecting vital communion with our Father, Saviour, and the Holy Spirit.
Experiencing Lift
When we first experience spiritual lift, it is wondrous. We may feel a soul-expanding lightness of being unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.
A compelling example of this in the Book of Mormon is when Ammon praises God for “[loosing his] brethren from the chains of hell.” They had been “encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction” and were then “brought … into … everlasting light, … encircled about with the matchless bounty of [God’s] love”—redemption from the ultimate sink to the ultimate lift!
Ammon then tries to express his thanksgiving: “Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.”
Ammon cannot begin to describe this profound transition from devastating sink to the most glorious lift. And I haven’t met anyone who can. The language of the Spirit of God is not a language of words.
Staying in Lift
But lift and sink in the spiritual realm are nevertheless real. Pay close attention to the sweet, peaceful feelings that come when you choose spiritual lift, the rising forces that bring you into the Saviour’s loving upward pull.
Likewise, pay attention to the dim and dampening feelings that lead away from the Redeemer and His infinite love.
And oh! the joy that comes when others experience lift, circling upward with us in the love and light of Jesus Christ! As children of the covenant, we are privileged with the responsibility of assisting the Lord in fulfilling His promises to all His children. Helping others turn from sink and into the lift of Jesus Christ is our glorious opportunity and brings joy beyond compare.
Jesus Christ Lives and Loves to Lift
We can learn to live in spiritual lift. And when we sink, our gentle Saviour is there to lift us up as we turn to Him. Jesus Christ loves to lift!
What does living in lift actually look like? A few simple things. Find a faithful guide and learn from them where lift is found. Actively tune in to the sweet feelings of the Holy Spirit and the things in your life that lead you there. Join those who are climbing. Do what they do. Watch closely for the subtle signs of sink in your own life, and turn away decisively. And when you find lift yourself, show someone else where and how to rise! Then soar in the joy of the Lord!
The Saviour’s promise is “If ye do these things blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day.”
None of this is complicated; we simply need to keep turning toward the Saviour, into the source of lift, and keep choosing to rise into the light rather than drift imperceptibly into the shadow.
Remember: our Father sent His magnificent Son to be lifted up upon the cross that thereby He might draw all of us into His loving embrace.
Your Saviour is your lift. He is your ever-rising air. There is no limit to how high you can climb with Him. Jesus Christ lives to lift. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.