Divine Advocacy and the Spiritual Edge

 

I had a chance today to talk with someone standing at the threshold of a life-altering decision. It was the kind of choice that could only be made through faith. As we spoke, I was reminded of a quote by Hunter S. Thompson:

“The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”

That line brought back a vivid memory — the moment in my own life when I stood at the edge and had to decide whether to step forward in faith or fall back into fear. I remember the peace that came when I finally surrendered. It was a peace rooted not in certainty, but in trust — trust in Jesus Christ, who had already gone before me.

Christ reached His own edge in Gethsemane. In that moment of agony, He uttered the ultimate prayer of surrender and advocacy:

“Not my will, but thine, be done.”
He showed me the way to cross over. He stepped through the unknown not just for Himself, but for all of us — pleading our cause before the Father, becoming our Advocate.

So when I needed to step through my own fear and uncertainty, all I had to do was follow His example — to trust in the path He opened, and in the Gospel He lived and died to advocate.

This is the key to facing any edge, especially the edge of judgment:
We are not alone.
We have an Advocate with the Father.
He knows the fear of the edge, and He knows the way through.

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Crossing Over: Recovery and Redemption

One of the first edges I ever stepped through was the doorway of Alcoholics Anonymous — the day I finally got sober.
Another came when I chose to be baptized — committing my life to a new direction, a new power, and a new identity in Christ.

In both moments, I stood at a turning point, and by God’s grace, I stepped through.

Here are a few scriptures and insights that continue to guide me at those edges:

“We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.”
— Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 59

“I had to believe in a Spirit of the Universe, who knew neither time nor limitation.”
— Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 10

“If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
— 1 John 2:1

“He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”
— Matthew 10:39

“Take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
— Luke 9:23

“Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin… Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name.”
— Doctrine and Covenants 45:3–5

“When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours.”
— President Russell M. Nelson, April 2017

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When we come to the edge — of addiction, despair, fear, or change — we don’t need to cross alone.
We have a Savior who stepped through before us.
We have an Advocate who pleads for us.
And if we will reach out, His hand is already extended.