Call Upon the Name of the Lord

A faithful prophet in the Book of Mormon, later identified by Joseph Smith as Mahonri Moriancumr, had led a small group of faithful followers of Jehovah from the doomed Tower of Babel to a beautiful land on the shore of a vast ocean. The Lord had told Mahonri he would lead this little band of believers to a promised land. After journeying a long time through a trackless wilderness, this bountiful land by the sea must have felt like the promised land. So Jared, Mahonri, and their family and friends settled down and enjoyed the bounties of their supposed new home.

We then read this verse in the story of Mahonri:

And it came to pass at the end of four years that the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared, and stood in a cloud and talked with him. And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord.
--Ether 2:14

The seeming lapse in the prayer life of this prophet is a well-known account from which perhaps we can learn some valuable lessons about prayer. God chastened (i.e., corrected) the brother of Jared for failing to "call upon" Him. It seems highly unlikely to me that this faithful, humble prophet would have neglected his daily prayers. I mean, he may have missed a day here or there, but to stop praying all together for four years seems totally out of character for a man who had established a deeply personal and revelatory relationship with the Lord. So what was God upset about, and why did the brother of Jared need correcting?

I suggest that to "call on God" is more than the recital of a perfunctory prayer. It is more than just "saying" our prayers. When we call on the Lord, we put ourselves at His disposal, offer up our will, sacrifice our personal comfort, and find out what He wants from us. We don't stop seeking the Lord's will simply because we are in a comfortable place. However idyllic life on a sunny beach may seem, if we stop seeking more from God, we may never know how far He actually plans to take us.

Mahonri and his people had obeyed the Lord in leaving Babel, they had traveled many miles and crossed many rivers and mountains, and now they were at the edge of an impassable body of water. What more could the Lord possibly have for them to do? Were they not at the end of the journey? What more could the brother of Jared ask for?

Yet, there was more for him to do. The ocean was not the impenetrable barrier that it seemed to his mortal mind. The greatest revelatory experience was still ahead of him. The promised land was not a lazy beach but a vast continent in another hemisphere. The brother of Jared was missing the best the Lord had to offer because he had stopped calling on Him for more.

We ought not to assume that today's answer is tomorrow's answer, anymore than we should assume that every generation should build an ark or part the Red Sea or relax on the sea shore. God does not change, but our limited view within earthly time causes our circumstances to change. And with those changes must come new directions and added knowledge and inspiration from God. We have to stay open, seeking, and willing every day for when He is ready to give us the next piece of the puzzle.