At the recycling center that I use, I noticed a backpacking magazine sticking up from the box.  It was a special issue on survival, and looked interesting, so I took it home to read.  Most of the articles in the magazine were written by one guy who has devoted his life to living on the edge.  He had become an expert on survival by continually putting himself in harm’s way, and by living to tell about it.  It was true that he had learned many useful tricks, and was smart about survival; but I shook my head in disbelief that he had been as dumb as to put himself in so many situations where his very survival had been in doubt.

I, for one, never intend to be on top of a 20,000-foot-tall mountain in a blinding blizzard, or to ski across a steep slope with an avalanche coming at me, or to have to swim a crocodile-infested river because there’s no other way to get across.  You just aren’t going to find me in those situations.  I don’t go there, and I don’t do that.

And, for sure, you’re not going to find me rappelling down a cliff and suddenly finding myself at the end of my rope.  The expert wrote that reaching the end of your rope while rappelling is a real possibility—and a dangerous one—because you can’t see the end coming.  His solution for avoiding that dilemma was to tie a knot in the end of the rope beforehand so that with your foot you could feel the end of the rope coming.  The knot would give you something to stand on, so that you weren’t just dangling there on the face of the cliff with only your arm muscles holding you there.

That was the expert’s advice:  Tie a knot in the end of your rope.  I have some better advice:  Don’t get near the edge of the cliff!

Sometimes, though, we find ourselves in situations we never expected to be in.  I’ve figuratively been at the end of my rope, and I’ve known others at the ends of theirs.  In this world of trouble and trial nearly everyone sooner or later comes to the end of their ropes in this life.  What do you do when you reach that spot?

As I awoke from sleep a few minutes ago I must have been thinking about the article I’d read.  It took me several minutes to remember where I’d come across this image in my mind of hanging at the end of a rope on the face of a cliff.

In my waking thought I saw myself hanging onto the end of my rope.  To my right and left were others dangling at the ends of theirs.  Each of us had a different way of dealing with our problem.

One man that I know had let go of his rope, and was clinging to the face of the cliff with his fingers and toes.  He could go neither up nor down.  He had once been a good member of the Church, but has let go of his covenants and his Church activity.  It’s just a matter of time before he plunges into the abyss.

That, in fact, is what some of the others around me did.  I’ve known several individuals who reached the ends of their ropes and who let go by committing suicide.  I preached the funeral sermon for one such person many years ago.  In the sermon I said something that was possibly false.  I remember saying that no doors had been shut on that man’s possible future.  I’ve worried ever since that I’d said something untrue.  I probably said it to comfort his family.  It’s true that none of us were in a position to judge his actions, and that he was possibly not responsible for what he did; but if he did in fact commit suicide, I’m afraid that some doors will indeed be shut to him.  Letting go is not a viable option when we find ourselves dangling at the end of our ropes.

In my own case I chose to simply keep hanging on to the end of my rope until someone threw me another.  Someone always does.  Our Father knows our situation in life and sends someone to rescue us if we’ll just hang on.  I was so depressed that I had to quit college and go home.  I was ashamed, and so low that I didn’t know how I could ever be happy again.  The situation turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me because the gospel was extended to me in that hour.  I eagerly grasped hold of it, and have lived happily ever after.

A woman that I heard about was thrown another rope as she dangled at the end of hers.  She was a single mother with two small children living in her car.  My friend gave her two free nights in his motel, and an offer of help from his church.  Inexplicably she refused the help, and he had to ask her to leave the motel.  Some people, I think, expect to be miserable.  It’s a choice they make.  “He that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still.”  (Mormon 9:14).  “One (is) raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil.”  (Alma 41:5).  We get what we desire.

My friend told me that he’d financially reached the end of his rope many times.  He was unable to sleep, or had awakened in a cold sweat, wondering how he was going to make the payroll and pay his bills.  I think we’ve all experienced that.  “It’s always worked out,” my friend said.  “A way has always opened.”—And it does.

“Never give up,” Winston Churchill said.  “Never, never, never give up.”

Joseph Smith said, “Never be discouraged.  If I were sunk in the lowest pits of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I would come out on top.”

Put a knot in the end of your rope, and hang one.  There are better times ahead.  Take a step into the darkness, and the way will be lighted ahead.  Put your faith in Jesus.  There’s a reason He’s called the Savior.  He will save you.  He has already experienced everything that you have.  He has already paid for your sins; and has borne your pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities.  (Alma 7:11-13).  He desires that all men might be happy.  Ask His help, and don’t be afraid to ask for help from his servants.  He calls us all for that very purpose.