Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Lloyd Newell each Sunday during the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broadcast. This was recorded in Mexico City, Mexico, in June 2023. This will be given on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023.
From this vantage point in Mexico City, you can see for miles. This high-altitude, culturally rich city of 22 million people is the largest not just in Mexico but in all of North America. You could easily lose your way in such a massive city; but if you go a little higher, elevate your perspective, you can orient yourself in a way that simply isn’t possible from ground level.
For example, have you ever been in a maze and found that it’s difficult to find your way out? But if you climb a ladder to a higher vantage point, you can rather easily see where you’ve been and how to get to where you want to go.
Life can be like that. It’s sometimes confusing at street level — loud, busy, full of distractions. Perhaps we need our own spiritual and emotional high places — mountaintops, if you will — where we can see beyond the here and now. From a higher perspective, we can think more clearly, see more accurately, and understand truth and goodness with a sharper focus. Problems that once seemed so imposing suddenly look a little smaller, more manageable.
We may not be able to remain at such an elevated position forever; life, after all, must have its ups and downs. But once we’ve seen things from above, we approach life on the ground differently. We’re a little kinder, more forgiving and more compassionate with others and with ourselves. We hold on to hope and faith a bit longer, even in the face of heartache and difficulty. Most of all, we turn our hearts more readily to the Lord, having glimpsed our life, if only briefly, from a perspective a little closer to His.
Perhaps this is why the prophet Isaiah said: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. … For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:6, 8-9).
Here in Mexico City and anywhere on earth, heaven is always within reach. We can find our way to the Lord and His higher thoughts and ways and look at life from a higher perspective.
Tuning in …
The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast is available on KSL-TV, KSL News Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM (Ch. 143), tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir and Amazon Alexa (must enable skill). The program is aired live on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time on these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedules.
