Which Way Do We Face?

Which Way Do We Face?

“Which way do you face?” President Boyd K. Packer [asked Elder Lynn G. Robbins]. . . . “A Seventy,” [President Packer] continued, “does not represent the people to the prophet but the prophet to the people.  Never forget which way you face!” 

(Lynn G. Robbins, "Which Way Do You Face," October 2014 General Conference. See also, Boyd K. Packer, "Talk to the All-Church Coordinating Council," 1993;  and Boyd K. Packer, "Which Way Do You Face?", 1979.)

Are we gunslingers in a Western movie, facing each other at twenty paces, seeing who's the fastest draw? 

When did this become a stand-off?

Well, before picking sides, we should ask ourselves, "Are there only two ways to face?" 

(After all, we live in a three-dimensional universe.)

What if there was a third option:

     Why will ye die?
     Turn ye, turn ye
     unto the Lord your God.

(Helaman 7:17)

Why pick sides, why draw lines, why make it "us vs. them"?  Can't we all just face the Lord?  

     And if your eye be single
     to my glory,
     your whole bodies 
     shall be filled with light,
     and there shall be no darkness
     in you.

(D&C 88:67)​​

​Which way do we face?  

Here's an example of what we should be doing:

     And the Lord said unto Moses,
     I have seen this people,
     and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people:

     Now therefore let me alone,
     that my wrath may wax hot against them,
     and that I may consume them:
     and I will make of thee a great nation.

     And Moses besought the Lord his God,
     and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax
     hot against thy people,
     which thou hast brought forth out
     of the land of Egypt with great power,
     and with a mighty hand?

     Wherefore should the Egyptians speak,
     and say, For mischief did he bring them out,
     to slay them in the mountains,
     and to consume them
     from the face of the earth?

     Turn from thy fierce wrath,
      and repent of this evil
      against thy people.

     Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
     thy servants, to whom thou swarest
     by thine own self, and saidst unto them,
     I will multiply your seed
     as the stars of heaven,
     and all this land
     that I have spoken of
     will I give unto your seed,
     and they shall inherit it for ever.

     And the Lord repented
     of the evil which he thought to do
     unto his people.

Good thing Moses faced the Lord.

I sure miss Moses.