Thoughts on Tent Pegs
“The prophets likened latter-day Zion to a great tent encompassing the earth. That tent was supported by cords fastened to stakes.” (Ezra Taft Benson, “Strengthen Thy Stakes,” Ensign, Jan. 1991).
That the great Church, which is to receive the return of our Savior, is likened to a mere tent instead of some grand structure, is interesting. To me, the imagery reminds us that we’re only sojourners on the earth who are yet to get home; that we should be able to pick up and go on short notice wherever the Lord commands us to go.
That the units that comprise Zion are likened to something we get from a hardware store may speak to the down-to-earth (pun intended) nature of stakes. The very pragmatic self-reliance work that stakes have been commanded to establish, for example, would be an expression of that symbol. And as the Church is built one stake at a time and each stake is driven into the ground inch by inch, indeed no magic is involved, only hard work and perseverance.
Of course, being “self-contained with all that is needed for the salvation and exaltation of those who would come within its influence…” (Boyd K. Packer, “A Defense and a Refuge,” Ensign, Nov. 2006, 87), and holding those priesthood keys (in the person of the stake president), stakes are preeminently spiritual and are endowed with the power to secure and hold down spiritually.
Not all stakes are the same, however. When we first moved here, not knowing the fierceness of the Ohio wind, we set up a storage tent in our backyard using some straight pegs. It wasn’t a pretty sight when the pegs started to pull up one by one. Quickly we replaced them with some spiral pegs, and never had a problem since.
I wonder if the different strengths of each ward within the stake, and for that matter, each member in the stake, may be seen as the divergences in a spiral stake that would render the implement much stronger as a whole.
While a stake deeply driven into the ground presents a picture of security, a ward by its very title also bears the image of protection, guard, and safety. A stake and the wards in the stake fulfill hand-in-hand the mandate in D&C 115:6 to serve as a defense and a refuge. (By the reverse token, no one is secure absent a ward and stake.)
And how much we have to defend: our families, values, faith, and the doctrines of Christ amidst the subtle worldliness of the world and the direct fiery darts of the adversary. And what a refuge we need from the chaos and evils surrounding us—so we may not just keep our sanity and cope but enjoy the peace and joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, Zion and its stakes have much to do, as they’re commanded to teach their children to understand the first principles of the Gospel (D&C 68); increase in beauty and holiness and enlarge and put on her beautiful garments (D&C 82); to be awake and put on her strength (Isaiah 52); gather the righteous (D&C 109); and arise and shine forth (D&C 115).
Here again, the stake and its wards work unitedly to achieve those injunctions. In that collaboration, and perhaps in the wisdom of God, the stake and the wards are designed to arrive at a balance between the big picture and the day-to-day, the programs and the people, the ideal and the realities, the strategies and their echoes, the doctrines and their applications.
Let each of us do our part and pound away deep into the foundation that is Jesus Christ (Helaman 5:12), facing our own tent like King Benjamin’s people toward the Temple (Mosiah 2:6), and help the Akron Ohio Stake become a true, firm Stake of Zion.
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