Let Go

This view of faith that I'm about to present to you is something I've never considered before. We've all heard of the upward spiral of faith: Assurance, Action, Evidence. Assurance, Action, Evidence. Here's the illustration, in case you haven't:

from ldsscriptureteachings.org

Assurance comes from Heavenly Father, which then leads to taking action, by which we see evidence. My professor illustrated this concept using the following scenario: Say you fell off a cliff, and as you are falling, you find a lone tree growing in the middle out of the side of the cliff that you grab on to. As you dangle in the air, you look up and down, and there is no way for you to climb up, and you are too high to let go and fall. As you begin to pray, Heavenly Father asks if you believe it was because of Him you fell off the cliff, if you believe He had the tree grow right there to catch you, if you believe He can create a wind so strong that it will blow you back up to the top. You answer yes to all of the questions. He then says, "let go."
As I thought about that, I wondered what I would do. Would I let go? Would I have that much faith that there would be a strong enough wind to blow me back up to the top that I would let go of the tree? As I thought about it, I realized that there are a couple of options. You can let go, believing that Heavenly Father will bring you back up to the top of the cliff, or if when you do let go you continue falling to the bottom and die, knowing that it is part of His plan for you. Or, you can hang there forever until you are forced into an action. That is a difficult question, at least for me. Some would have no problem trusting that God would catch them if they let go. Others, like me, would be extremely hesitant to let go. It all comes down to having faith and trusting in God. At some point, we each will have to make that choice. It won't necessarily be letting go of a tree branch while dangling from a cliff, but it will be something that will test our faith. Moroni teaches us in Ether 12, verse 6, that "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." I know that if we do make the choice to trust and have faith in God, He will never fail us. My challenge both to myself and to all of us this week is to trust in God, to listen for the promptings that He gives us, and to let go of what we want in favor of what He is asking of us. It will be hard, but I know that we can do it with the Lord at our side.