Jairus Pace

Faith · Talk

One Step Enough

His commandments, invitations, and promises teach us to walk toward Christ one step at a time — a lamp at our feet, not a map of the distant scene.

By Jairus Pace

For much of my life, I have known what came next. School. A mission. Marriage. Work. Children. There was always another step in front of me, and I knew what it was.

Some of you know that feeling already. There is a grade you are working for, a team you are trying to make, an application that has to go in by a certain date. Underneath all of it is a quieter question: am I doing enough? I have been asking my own version of that question for most of my life. Then a season came when the milestones I had been counting on were behind me. I looked up and did not know what was next.

That question still returns every month or two: What am I doing with my life? Where do I go from here?

A few months ago, my wife and I were on our evening walk, talking about a promotion I had been working toward that was not going to happen. I had worked hard for it, so I expected to be disappointed. But as we talked, I realized I wasn’t. That surprised me. I had been treating the promotion as the next step simply because it was there, not because it was where I actually wanted to go. If the next milestone was not going to set my direction, who would?

I still don’t have this figured out. Prayer, scripture, the temple, and honest conversations are helping me find my way. I keep hoping for a clear plan. But I am learning that Jesus Christ does not have to show me the whole path in order to lead me. He gives me enough light for the next step, and He walks it with me. My plans and goals still matter, but they are not what leads me. He does.

When I go to the temple now, or sit down with the scriptures, I am usually not looking for a task to finish. I am looking for Him. I do not often walk out knowing how things are going to turn out. I walk out knowing I am not alone in it. I am learning that His presence is more valuable than the certainty I went looking for.

I have seen that same ache in people I love, and I have felt it in myself. It is easy to live the gospel as a set of checkboxes. Don’t do this. Don’t watch that. Dress this way. Check, check, check. Then we look up, having done everything we thought we were supposed to do, and we still feel far from the Spirit. We still wonder why the peace we expected hasn’t come.

Where is God? I have been keeping the don’ts. Why isn’t He here?

If that is you, whether you are sixteen or sixty, you are not the only one, and God is not holding out on you. Sometimes keeping the list has become the point. We have been so focused on doing everything right that we have forgotten why the commandments are there: to lead us to Christ.

That is why I love what the Lord has done with For the Strength of Youth. It teaches the true purpose of the gospel, which is becoming like Christ. The commandments are how we learn to walk with Him.

We do not need a longer list. We need Him.

A checklist can tell me whether I completed something. It cannot tell me whether my heart is turning toward Christ. I can read a chapter, say a prayer, attend the temple, and still keep Him at the edge of my attention. Those practices matter, but their purpose is relationship. They create places where I can listen, repent, remember Him, and receive His grace.

That changes the question. Instead of only asking, “Did I keep the rule?” we can also ask, “Did this choice bring me closer to the Savior? Did it make room for His Spirit? Am I becoming more like Him?” Those are harder questions than a checklist, but they are also more hopeful. When we fall short, the answer is not merely to try harder alone. It is to turn back toward Christ and let Him strengthen us.

One of my favorite hymns has been teaching me how to live this:

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom; Lead thou me on! …Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene—one step enough for me.1

One step enough for me. That line has described this year for me.

Peter also learned what it meant to take one step in the dark. The Lord’s apostles were once out on the water in the middle of the night. The wind was against them, and they were a long way from shore. Then they saw Jesus walking toward them. Peter called out, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come.” And the Lord said, “Come.” Peter stepped out of the boat toward Him. He did not have a map. He had a Person in front of him, and one step into the dark. And when Peter began to sink, Jesus “stretched forth his hand, and caught him.”2

Notice that the wind had not stopped when Peter stepped out. Peter still became afraid and began to sink. But when he cried, “Lord, save me,” the Savior caught him. Peter’s strength was not perfect confidence or flawless steps. His strength was Jesus Christ, close enough to reach him.

I can testify that this is not only Peter’s story. I have had moments when fear and uncertainty began to pull me under, and I have felt Christ reach for me and pull me back up. He did not always remove the wind around me, but He did not leave me to sink.

Christ does not wait for us to see the far shore. He comes to us, and He guides us along.

That is the heart of the updated For the Strength of Youth. Many of us still hear that title and think of a yes or a no for every possible choice. Elder Uchtdorf said it plainly: “The best guide you can possibly have for making choices is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the strength of youth.”3 The purpose of the guide is to point us to Him. The First Presidency put it in one line: “Remember: Jesus Christ is your strength!”4

That is true whether we are fifteen and preparing for a mission, or fifty and wondering what the next thing even is.

For youth, that means the guide is not asking you to predict every decision you will ever face. It is teaching you where to turn when a new decision comes. For adults, it is a reminder that we never outgrow that need. At every age, strength is not having every answer. It is knowing whom to follow.

In the scriptures we find His commandments, His invitations, and His promises. That is the same pattern the guide follows under every topic. The commandments teach us how to turn toward Him. They are not what save us.5 If we treat the list as the destination, then sooner or later something will fall through — a plan, an opportunity, an expectation — and we will ask, “I did the things. Where is He?” The list was never the destination. He is.

The psalmist said, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”6 A lamp at our feet shows the next step, nothing more.

That is how the Restoration started. Joseph Smith was fourteen years old. He was surrounded by competing churches and conflicting answers, and he was worried about the salvation of his soul. He wanted to know which church was right and how he could know where he stood before God.

James promised that if we lack wisdom, we can ask God.7 Joseph trusted that promise enough to act on it. He did not wait until he had resolved every question. He took the question he had into a grove of trees and knelt to pray.

He did not come out of that grove with a plan for the rest of his life. He came out knowing that God knew him, that the heavens were open, and whom he could trust to lead him. That was enough light for his next step. More light came as he kept walking.

The Lord’s Apostles still invite us the same way:

He invites all of us to come unto Him and His Church, to receive the Holy Ghost, the ordinances of salvation, and to gain enduring joy.8

We can see that pattern in chapter 5 of For the Strength of Youth, called “Walk in God’s light.” It opens with a verse from Galatians: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”9 Not stand in the Spirit. Walk in it.

We make better choices when we can see clearly, and Heavenly Father has given us a source of light to help us: the gift of the Holy Ghost.10 When we were confirmed, we were invited to receive Him. And the Savior said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”11

Some choices make it easier to notice the Spirit; others make His voice harder to hear.

Isaiah warns us not to replace God’s light with sparks of our own making:

Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand—ye shall lie down in sorrow.12

I recognize that in myself. I try to use the next achievement to tell me where my life is going. It works for a little while, but it is not the same as letting Him lead.

So the guide invites us to make time for the Lord every day: to learn of Him, to pray, to live what we learn, and to turn toward the things that invite the Spirit.10

That is how we get closer to Him. We walk. Some mornings I still open the scriptures the way I used to open a to-do list, counting how many verses until I can say I did it. Lately I have been trying to come with one real question and stay there until I find something. I do not always get an answer. I usually get enough light for the next step.

The hymn is honest about the other impulse:

I loved to choose and see my path; but now Lead thou me on!1

That is the honest version of what I want. I would rather see the path and choose it myself. What He asks is that I let Him lead.

And here is what He promises. “You can have the Spirit with you always.” That is the promise we renew each week when we take the sacrament.10 The guide says the Spirit will “comfort, guide, warn, and sanctify” us. He will help us recognize truth and see the good around us.10 Those are not rewards reserved for people who already know where they are going. They are the help God gives us while we walk.

So when we find ourselves asking, Where is God? I did the things, the way forward is not another box to check. It is to turn toward Him again, receive His Spirit, and take the next step with Him.

I still do not have a finished picture of what I want my life to look like, and the hard days still come. What is changing is who I look to when they do.

So what does this look like this week?

One step is enough. Whether your plan is a mile long or you are stumbling around in the dark, the invitation is the same: take one step toward Him.

Some of us are waiting for clarity about school, work, a relationship, a child, a calling, or our own faith. I cannot promise that the whole answer will come this week. But I believe Christ will meet us in the next faithful step.

It will probably be small. Five minutes in the scriptures because you want to hear from Him, not because you are behind. A prayer about something you have not said out loud to anyone.

Open For the Strength of Youth this week — it is in the Gospel Library, and it is not only for teenagers. Choose a chapter that speaks to a decision or question you are facing. Look at what it teaches, what it invites you to do, and what the Lord promises. Then act on one invitation.

The point is not to turn this invitation into another checkbox. The point is to let the guide turn our attention to Christ. Read until you recognize one invitation from Him, then act on it. You do not have to see the distant scene. You only have to step toward Him, and He is already walking toward you.

Keep thou my feet. One step enough for me.

Jesus Christ lives. I have felt Him near when I could not see what was next. He is our strength. He will still lead us on.

References

Footnotes

  1. “Lead, Kindly Light,” Hymns, no. 97 (John Henry Newman). ↩ ↩2

  2. Matthew 14:24–31. ↩

  3. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Jesus Christ Is the Strength of Youth,” October 2022 general conference. ↩

  4. First Presidency, “Message from the First Presidency,” in For the Strength of Youth: A Guide for Making Choices. ↩

  5. 2 Nephi 25:23–26. ↩

  6. Psalm 119:105. ↩

  7. James 1:5. ↩

  8. “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World,” April 2020. Joseph “had questions regarding the salvation of his soul and trusted that God would direct him.” ↩

  9. Galatians 5:25, cited at the opening of chapter 5. ↩

  10. “Walk in God’s light,” For the Strength of Youth: A Guide for Making Choices, chapter 5. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  11. John 8:12. ↩

  12. 2 Nephi 7:11 / Isaiah 50:11. ↩