Chapter 24

The Pursuit of Excellence

Avoiding pride when seeking after the ideal—The risk of virtue overdone versus the risk of
apathy—The mainstream of the Church is where Zion resides—The pairing of humility with desire.

As a Church we’ve achieved stability and significant success in the world already, but we
can’t simply be satisfied with being better than the competition. Zion is what we want. As
members of the Church, we seek after excellence; excellence, as well as stability, is needed in all
of our congregations. To move closer to the ideal, and to establish prototypes of Zion throughout
the world, we need greater levels of excellence in all that we do.

Moderation in the pursuit of excellence is not a virtue, but rather mediocrity and
apathy—a general lack of passion, interest, and desire for the gospel. Salvation in the kingdom of
God is impossible to achieve by following the iron rod of apathy. Equivalent in stature with
pride, a twin brother or sister in a sense, apathy is perhaps the greatest sin of today’s world. A
person with apathy may not be puffed up with pride and may never get burned on the hot stove
of virtue overdone; rather, he or she is uncooked, sitting lukewarm or cold in the fridge, waiting
to spoil, and waiting to perish. This person cares very little about the important things of life.
One church, one faith, one baptism––why worry about such things? What is important is the TV
show that's on tonight or the exciting event happening downtown. This is the philosophy of the
apathist––the prevailing religion of the masses.

One filled with apathy can belong to a formal religion or not. He or she might even be
Latter-day Saint in name, calling, priesthood office, or paper certificate. Such persons live out
their lives in a state of nothingness, their souls empty and lifeless. They are led carefully down a
path that is spiritually uneventful—a slow, lukewarm slide to nowhere. Their olive branches
grow wildly, much like persons filled with pride, except that they grow at a slower pace. Seeking
out few things in their lives with passion, they receive few things back in return. They are neither
good nor evil; they embrace neither truth nor error. They make no righteous judgments in life,
deferring to the consensus of the popular culture on matters of morality. They know not God,
although they may know of him... not recognizing his hand in all things. Their barns may be full
of fruits and goods, or they may be empty. But in either case, what is in the barn is what matters
most. They devote their lives mainly to the cares of the moment.

The pursuit of the ideal, indeed, the pursuit of perfection, is the essence of the restored
gospel of Jesus Christ. The perfecting of the saints, and of all men and women of the earth past,
present, and future, is the mission of the Church. But can this pursuit lead to a tarnishing of

virtue where what is put on the stove, once heated with desire, becomes overcooked, or even
accidentally burned?

To say this clearly: Can the pursuit of Zion in our lives lead us astray from the
mainstream of the Church?

Read this question again and ponder upon it. The answer depends entirely on us.

Certainly, there is a risk of making mistakes as you work towards the ideal in the gospel.
The road is not well-traveled. Making your way, step by step, you can’t possibly have a full
knowledge of all the things that lie ahead of you. The passion you have in such an effort might
be misdirected by the adversary, especially if it’s driven hard, or, in fact, if it's driven in any way
at all by pride and self-aggrandizement—seeking after the ideal of Zion as a means for honor,
power, riches, and the like.

Therefore, because of the risks involved, maybe we think the safer play in life is to not
seek after the ideal? In fact, that’s pretty much what we are doing today. We take no risks,
hoping that nothing bad happens. We play a cautious defense against evil and the critics of the
Church, hoping not to lose our situation in life. We avoid outright apostasy and any significant
sins—which most assuredly, is a very important accomplishment—but still end up with minimal
spiritual assets to take with us to the Final Judgment. In other words, we were given many talents
by the Lord at the beginning of our lives, but end up breaking even or going backward, losing
part or all of what He has given us.

Unfortunately, there is no safety in pursuing a cautious “four corners” style offense of
limited good works, hoping to run out the clock in our lives. That’s because it’s not driven by
faith, but by fear (a close relative of apathy and pride)—something that can be as equally true of
an entire ward as it can be for an individual member of the Church. Running out the clock in our
lives is not the same as enduring to the end. It does not lead to the salvation of our souls.

As we look to Zion, we must first look to ourselves. Best is to establish a carefully laid-
out, long-term plan, one designed to improve ourselves over decades. It’s something best started
early in life, but if not, it is still possible to launch the effort starting today. A full repentance and
true happiness in life are achievable at any age.

The ideal certainly cannot be achieved overnight, but it is certainly possible to initiate a
change in our lives and begin the movement towards it overnight. The critics sitting on the
sidelines will ultimately prove to be right, and we will indeed fail in our quest for Zion, if our
passion becomes so singular in nature that it creates a tunnel vision effect in front of our eyes.
This happens when we pursue one particular principle of the gospel at the expense of others. It’s
no longer a beautiful spectrum of gospel principles expanding within our soul, growing like a
mustard seed; instead, our acts become a nuisance, bothersome to everyone, like an aggressive
encyclopedia salesman at our door, or like the loud noise of a passing motorcycle heard
throughout the neighborhood. Specialization in one area is fine, but zealotry is not. If that
happens to us, we become like the wild fruit spoken of by Zenos in which the branches overcome
the roots, even though the roots themselves are possibly quite good. It leads us to a state of

loftiness in our small spot of land in the master’s vineyard. The branches grow faster than the
strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves, existing only for themselves.

And if the pursuit of the ideal causes us to leave the mainstream of the Church, then we
can know assuredly that we have gone in the wrong direction, for this is the place where Zion
resides. Why would anyone feel the need to build Zion elsewhere?

Pride, selfishness, and loss of faith are no respecters of persons, leadership position or
dispensation of the gospel. We are all witnesses, having seen great fallings away in all four eras
of the scriptures: the ancient Israelites in the Old Testament, the peoples of the Book of Mormon
in ancient America, the early followers of Christ in the first century, and many even within the
newly restored Church of the 1830s. Many great and notable persons fell away after having great
knowledge, signs, and wonders shown to them. Pride was often the reason. Pride for some,
unfortunately, was not checked with their coat at the front door upon entering the Church, setting
them up for a quick fall from grace. For others, pride came along later, even after years of
faithful service in the Church. In either case, pride was often the reason they left. Feeling
unhappy about something, whatever it might have been, these members of the Church pulled
their coats and scarves from the coat rack, dressed themselves up snugly, and made their way out
the door. Some left the Church quietly through the back door, while others, desiring to make a
stir, left noisily through the front door.

In the case of ours, however, the final dispensation of the gospel, we should remember
that the early saints, and even the early leaders of our Church, encountered challenges very much
like those of the Founding Fathers during the American Revolution. They did not have
everything organized and in place the way we do today. They were learning many important
things for the first time with events transpiring very quickly around them. In those early days of
the Church, only Joseph had more than a decade of experience in the restored gospel, and part of
that was while he was still a young teenager. The foundation of the Church was just being laid;
they were all newly baptized converts finding their way in difficult times. They did have the
newly published Book of Mormon and many other precious things that they could treasure up in
their hearts, but they did not have the restored gospel truths all settled, organized, and taught to
them from their infancy like many of us today have enjoyed throughout our lives.

In spite of this, Brigham Young and most of the early leaders and saints remained
obedient and faithful. They passed through the same trials as those who fell away, but reacted
differently, pressing on and enduring to the end. With the shock and outrage of the martyrdom of
the prophet Joseph Smith, these humble saints kept calm and didn’t seek revenge. Instead, they
put their faith in Christ and waited patiently for further guidance to come. Once it became known
that Brigham Young had been chosen by the Lord to lead the Church, the great majority
followed him west to the Rocky Mountains and, upon arrival there, created the prosperous,
successful Church and society we enjoy today.

The lesson? Be like Brigham Young, humble and faithful. Be like the saints that came
west. Be a catalyst of Zion, but a humble one. Avoid apathy, and avoid being puffed up in pride;
either one of these can derail us as we seek after greater righteousness in our lives. In the case of
virtue overdone, it’s simply a mixture of something good with something bad, a hybrid of false

pride and desire. That’s simply not a good pairing for desire. Desire needs something better as its
lifelong partner. Humility is the perfect fit.

Desire overcomes apathy. Humility overcomes pride. If we can just link these two things
together in our lives, desire and humility, there is no limit as to what we can accomplish in the
gospel. Establishing a prototype of Zion in our wards becomes possible. We can complete the
work and achieve the dream of the pioneers.