Becoming More in Christ: The Parable of the Slope

In the Lord’s timing it is not where we start but where we are headed that matters.

Christ considers what we do with what we are given.

For those with elevated starting points: can we show some humility for advantages we did not create ourselves?

I was repeatedly denied admission to my school’s advanced academic program. My teachers finally suggested I should just stick to the standard classroom. Over time, I developed compensating study habits. But it wasn’t until my mission to Japan that I felt my intellectual and spiritual possibilities begin to emerge. I continued to work hard. But for the first time in my life, I systematically involved the Lord in my development, and it made all the difference.

Brothers and sisters, in this Church, we believe in the divine potential of all of God’s children and in our ability to become something more in Christ. In the Lord’s timing, it is not where we start but where we are headed that matters most.

The intercept, for our purposes, is the beginning of our line.…

We all have different intercepts in life—we start in different places with different life endowments. Some are born with high intercepts, full of opportunity. Others face beginning circumstances that are challenging and seem unfair. We then progress along a slope of personal progress. Our future will be determined far less by our starting point and much more by our slope. Jesus Christ sees divine potential no matter where we start. He saw it in the beggar, the sinner, and the infirm. He saw it in the fisherman, the tax collector, and even the zealot. No matter where we start, Christ considers what we do with what we are given. While the world focuses on our intercept, God focuses on our slope. In the Lord’s calculus, He will do everything He can to help us turn our slopes toward heaven.

While we cannot overcome a low current or starting intercept in an instant we can at any time choose to turn a negative slope into a positive slope.

1. Focus on where you are headed and not where you began.
   • It would be wrong to ignore your circumstances—they are real and need to be addressed. But overfocusing on a difficult starting point can cause it to define you and even constrain your ability to choose.
2. Involve the Lord in the process of lifting your slope.
   • The prophet Nephi taught “that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” We must do our best, which includes repentance, but it is only through the Lord’s grace that we can realize our divine potential.

1. Can we show some humility for circumstances we may not have created ourselves?
   • As former BYU president Rex E. Lee quoted to his students, “We have all drunk from wells we did not dig, and warmed ourselves by fires we did not build.” He then called on his students to give back and replenish the educational wells that earlier pioneers had built.
   • Failure to reseed the fields planted by others can be the equivalent of returning a talent without increase.
2. Focusing on a high starting point can often trap us into feeling that we are thriving when in fact our inner slope may be quite stagnant.
   • Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen taught that the most successful people are the humblest because they are confident enough to be corrected by and learn from anyone.
   • Elder D. Todd Christofferson counseled us to “willingly [find ways] to accept and even seek correction.” Even when things appear to be going well, we must seek out opportunities to improve through prayerful petition.

We should always be looking for ways to reseed fields of opportunity for those who might need a hand now or in the future whether or not we have needed that particular field of opportunity ourselves.