Come, Follow Me August 26-September 1: Helaman 1-6
In 2024, the Maxwell Institute will offer a weekly series of short essays on the Book of Mormon, in support of the Church-wide Come, Follow Me study curriculum. Each week, the Maxwell Institute blog will feature a post by a member of the Institute faculty exploring an aspect of the week’s reading block. We hope these explorations will enrich your study and teaching of the Book of Mormon throughout the coming year.
The Hero's Journey
By Kimberly Matheson
Do you know this story? A young person of no special consequence happens across a seemingly nondescript object that turns out to be imbued with power. The object leads them on a journey through magical lands and unknown regions, toiling up forbidding mountains and facing their fears in murky forests. Along the way, they must discern friend from foe, spoiling enemy entrapments while yielding to the counsel of wise sages until, at last, they cross a final barrier to arrive at a palace where having discovered their true lineage, our young hero finds a permanent home.
Perhaps you know this story as the legend of King Arthur. Literature lovers might have pointed to Pilgrim’s Progress. Fairy tale aficionados could point to Sleeping Beauty, while science fiction fans would recognize the tale of Luke Skywalker. All these narratives rely on similar tropes, the familiar beats of beloved stories tucked snugly into our imaginations.
Imagine my surprise, then, to find this same story in Helaman 3:
“Yeah, thus we see … that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked, and land their souls—yea, their immortal souls—at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.” (Hel 3:28–30)
The tale begins with an Everyman (“whosoever will”) who becomes a “man [or woman] of Christ” by picking up a sword. The sword is used at some moments to cut through the devil’s traps, and at others, it serves as a kind of compass, guiding our hero across the moat, separating her from the halls of her fathers. Relying on the power imbued in this object, however, she cuts through the obstacles and arrives to claim a throne.
This passage captures my imagination in much the same way that my childhood library card was a summer-long ticket to elves and magical spells and adventuresome wizards. There is something enchanting about an average hero facing larger-than-life obstacles. Fantasy is an exploration of other worlds and the transformative possibilities of lives we can’t imagine. Fairytales are captivating as much for their reassuring conventions as for their fantastical beauties. We are willing to face the terrors of the plot because we trust that convention will see our hero through safely in the end.
In these words from Helaman 3, I feel my own moral journey elevated to mythic proportions, and I feel the stakes of spiritual life clarified by the conventions of heroic imagery. Here, good and evil are clear opposites. The path, though difficult, is clearly laid out, and readers are assured of a happy ending. The passage presents spiritual truths with the soothing minimalism of a road map. I know that the real journey will feel much messier than the words and dotted lines suggest, but I am willing to risk that messiness precisely because of the clarity I hold in my hands.
As enchanting as the heroic stakes and moral clarity of this passage are for me, I find myself equally enchanted by the object at its center: it is “the word of God, which is quick and powerful.” This is an arresting description to me, mostly because I don’t feel very much like King Arthur when I reach for my scriptures in the morning. Chiefly, I just feel tired. I drag more than I rush, my hair is still tousled rather than coiffed. Scripture study is an exercise in yielding time on my to-do list, a daily struggle with the natural (wo)man who would like to get a jump on work and a shower.
Still, this image resonates with my experience. Helaman 3 describes “the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil” as something to be “divide[d]” or cut “asunder.” This tells us something about the snares but also something about our hero. The snare is susceptible to falling apart with a single blow, and the hero, by the same token, refuses to deviate from his or her course, to go around the snare or avoid it by some detour. The best way to confront the “wiles of the devil,” we learn, is to hold to our path and trust that the word of God will make it possible to march straight through. Rarely have I resolved a doubt by reacting directly to the question when it first arises. My questions are resolved quickest when I hold a gospel course. Once I feel my steps confirmed by the Spirit—reminded all over again about the reality of the Holy Ghost and how the gospel conducts it into my life—I am grounded and steadied and only then equipped to approach my questions. With the aid of the Spirit and the confidence of my covenants, doubts and temptations always turn out to be made of flimsier stuff than I had first imagined.
The word of God is the road map that keeps our feet steady and reassures us of happy endings. We are the inconsequential Nobodies and Everymen of this story. There are swords and sages, friends and foes, crowns and castles awaiting us on our spiritual adventures. And the object that seems so unremarkable—that old, many-paged, faux-leatherbound thing on your bedside table? Pick it up and see what happens.
IMAGES
Gabriela Buenrostro, Mujeres hilando, 2020. The Book of Mormon Art Catalog, [bookofmormonartcatalog.org/catalog/mujeres-hilandomujeres-hilando/mujeres-hilando/mujeres-hilando/mujeres-hilando/mujeres-hilando/].
Annie Poon, Firm Foundation (Book of Mormon Series, 32), 2017. The Book of Mormon Art Catalog, [bookofmormonartcatalog.org/catalog/firm-foundation-book-of-mormon-series-32/.
Patti Rockus, Rock Art from How to Make a Family with Rock Art | Come Learn with Me video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjvcWXAMhPU&t=3s), 2023.
