"Tight Like Unto a Dish"

In yesterday's post, President Monson referred to the story of the wise man who built his house upon a rock and of the foolish who built his house on sand.  A big storm came and blew down the house of the foolish man.

In the Book of Mormon, Helaman – who was the son of Helaman – had two sons who he named Nephi and Lehi.  He did this to remind them of their ancestors who were also named Lehi and Nephi, the father and son who left Jerusalem and traveled to the Promised Land in the New World.  Helaman told his sons Nephi and Lehi to build their foundation on the rock of their Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ.

“And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”  (Helaman 5:12.)

Also in the Book of Mormon, the brother of Jared was commanded to build several barges or boats.  These boats were said to be “tight like unto a dish.”  We are supposed to liken the scriptures to ourselves, so the question is: how can we be “tight like unto a dish”?

Let’s look more closely at those barges.  They didn’t have any windows and they couldn’t build a fire inside of them.  They were to ride on the top of the sea, but could also go underneath the sea – they were sometimes “swallowed up in the depths of the sea.”  That sounds a little bit like a submarine to me; submarines are one of my favorite things.  A submarine has no windows, definitely no screen doors, and no fireplaces, and they can ride on top of or below the surface of the sea.

So if the barges sound a little bit like a submarine, what does it mean to be “tight like unto a dish”?  The word in our modern language is “watertight.”  When a submarine is underneath the surface of the sea, she has all of her hatches closed to keep the water on the outside.  When all the hatches and other openings are shut a submarine is watertight.  Ships on the surface are also watertight, that is why their hulls displace water and float on the sea.  If a hole were punched into the side of a ship, or if a hatch were open on a submarine, they would fill with water and sink.  Ships and submarines have internal compartments or rooms and these compartments have hatches that open and close.  By closing all their hatches, a ship and submarine can stop the water from filling more than just the compartment open to the sea.

When I first started this blog I posted about integrity.  In discussing how effectively watertight a ship or submarine is they use the term "watertight integrity."  If all of the hatches and openings are closed to the sea, and if all the hatches to the interior compartments are closed and dogged shut, then the watertight integrity is good.  If even one hatch or opening is left open it can doom a submarine.  In May 1939, the submarine USS Squalus sank to the bottom of Long Island Sound when her main induction valve -- which drew in air for the engines when on the surface -- was stuck open.  Quick action by the crew prevented the forward compartments from flooding, allowing 33 men to be rescued.

A submarine submerges by filling ballast tanks with water and surfaces by forcing the water out of those tanks.  A submarine also has a negative tank which can be emptied of water in case of emergency.  Then there are trim tanks in which water levels can be adjusted to keep the boat level when under the surface.  If the submarine's trim is even slightly off her forward momentum can drive her either deeper until she reaches "crush depth" or shallower until she broaches the surface.  Even when properly trimmed, a submarine will gradually sink deeper unless she has forward propulsion from her engines.

Watertight integrity is especially important for a submarine because the deeper a submarine goes the greater the pressure of the water on the hull.  If a submarine goes too deep, the ocean can literally squeeze it to death.  Imagine pushing both sides of a squeezebox or an accordion together.  That can happen to a submarine; it’s the opposite of an explosion, so they call it an implosion.  In a submarine, as water enters one compartment, the pressure of the ocean can eventually force the bulkhead or wall separating it from another compartment to collapse.  Even a small hole in the outside of the submarine can be a serious problem.  Water from the outside can shoot into the submarine like a laser as it is forced through the small opening by the pressure of the ocean.

We want to be watertight when we face temptation as well as other challenges in life.  Some temptations might seem small, but as with a submarine, a small hole can lead to bigger problems.  To avoid the bigger problems we have to take care of the little things.

So, how can we achieve watertight integrity? In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon talked to a group of Nephites about how they could have every good thing.  Watertight integrity would certainly qualify as a good thing.  To have every good thing we must have faith, hope and charity.