Anchored to Christ
Bound to the Rock of Heaven, every setback becomes part of the ascent.
By Edward B. Rowe (BA ’92) in the Winter 2026 issue
Confidence Born of the Spirit
Let’s begin with a few words about confidence. What is your confidence based on? It’s easy to look for confidence in all the wrong places. If our confidence is based on what we believe others think of us, our ability to get likes and followers on social media, our physical appearance, our ability to do something better than others, how much money we make, or whether we accomplish a host of other things the world praises, then our confidence will be shallow and fleeting. It will be based on things we ultimately cannot fully control.
There is another type of confidence, however, that is available to us. President Russell M. Nelson declared, “When we make and keep covenants with God, we can have confidence that is born of the Spirit.”1 Confidence that is born of the Spirit is a confidence instilled in us by God. It’s a confidence that is not subject to the conditions of our lives because it’s rooted in Christ through sacred promises made and kept with Him.
Our Covenantal Relationship with the Lord
How then does making and keeping covenants give us this type of confidence? To help answer this question, I’d like to share an analogy.
Picture a climber standing at the bottom of a vertical granite face. The climber’s goal is to reach the summit. Gravity makes scaling the cliff difficult, even perilous. The path is rarely straightforward. It’s discovered one reach, one foothold, and one careful step at a time.
Anchors have been driven securely into the hard rock, laying out a path to assist the climber. The climber can secure himself with carabiners that he clips to the anchors as he ascends. Because the anchors are in solid granite, they will hold.
Although the climber who is anchored to the rock doesn’t fall to the ground, he often slips and even finds himself detached from the rock and suspended in the air. In climbing, this is not failure—it is part of the process. When overcoming an especially difficult part of the climb, the climber analyzes the route and knows that multiple attempts may be required. In climbing, they call this “projecting” a route—trying again and again and at times slipping until persistence and learning enable the climber to overcome his obstacles. Because the climber is clipped to anchors, each slip is temporary and each attempt safe. The climber can be confident in the solid anchors that prevent him from plummeting to the ground as he navigates his ascent.
In this analogy the summit represents exaltation—reaching Heavenly Father’s presence in His highest glory. Gravity represents opposition that is essential to His plan—the many trials and temptations that come with life in a fallen world. Slips and falls symbolize our sins and flawed efforts as imperfect climbers striving to learn how to overcome life’s many challenges. Slips and falls are also inherent to His plan. The anchors are God’s covenants—promises we make in sacred ordinances to help us and to guide our path. The carabiners symbolize our personal choices to make and keep those covenants—to connect ourselves securely to the rock. And most importantly, that Rock is Jesus Christ.2
The vital truth of the analogy is this: Only by directly engaging and, when we slip, reengaging with the Rock can we progress toward the summit. Indeed, Heavenly Father designed His plan so that we could rely upon and continually interact with Christ and His Atonement to ascend. Christ Himself declared:
I am Messiah . . . , the Rock of Heaven . . . ; whoso cometh in at the gate [whoso enters into covenant] and climbeth up by me shall never fall. (Moses 7:53)
Bound to the Rock of Heaven, every setback becomes part of the ascent. Every slip is recoverable. Every step forward brings us closer to the summit. Without our connection to Christ, unanchored and “free climbing,” our mistakes could prove fatal. Most importantly, when we are anchored securely, through our direct and repeated interactions with the Rock, our very natures change because of the climb. We become more perfected climbers.
