No Engine: Finding Lift
From “Jesus Lives to Lift,” by Elder Patrick Kearon · Saturday afternoon session, October 2026 General Conference
The big idea
The Savior is the source of our lift; we can learn to feel it through the Holy Ghost, turn away from sink, and climb with others.
Objective
Youth will be able to describe what spiritual lift and spiritual sink feel like for them and will choose one specific way to turn toward the Savior this week.
Before you teach
- Read Elder Kearon's talk. Be ready to tell his gliding story in about two minutes without notes.
- Bring one sheet of plain paper and a pen for each person, plus a few extra sheets.
- Clear a space for throwing paper gliders, and mark a starting line on the floor with a book or a strip of paper.
- Write the three references on the board: Matthew 14:28–31; Mark 5:35–42; Mark 9:17–27.
- Ask the youth to bring their scriptures or have the Gospel Library app ready on their phones.
Lesson plan
Thirty minutes in 6 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.
Glider challenge
- As youth walk in, hand each a sheet of paper. Say only: you have 90 seconds to build a glider. Longest flight wins.
- Line everyone up at the starting line and launch together on a count of three, throwing away from faces. Cheer the winner. Run it a second time if they want a rematch and time allows.
- Ask the first question below. Draw out the obvious point: with no engine, every glider started coming down the moment it left a hand.
- Open with prayer.
- What would a glider with no engine need in order to stay up, or even climb?
Elder Kearon in his mid-teens
- Tell the story. As a boy at boarding school in England, Elder Kearon watched aeroplanes and dreamed of flying home to his parents, who were thousands of miles away. In his mid-teens he spent part of two summers at an airfield learning to fly a glider with the air force.
- Explain the two words he learned. Lift is rising air; a pilot cannot see it but can feel a wing tip upward, and turns toward it. Sink is sinking air; it can feel like falling, and he learned to turn away from it decisively.
- Tell them that about ten years later, early in his journey of faith, he saw that the same is true spiritually: we must avoid sink and find lift.
- Read the first key quote (the Savior wants to lift you).
- Elder Kearon said the most important skill was not seeing lift but feeling it. Why might that matter for how God speaks to us?
Three rescues, three minutes
- Split into three teams and give each one reference from the board.
- Each team has three minutes to read its account and prepare a 30-second report that answers: Who was sinking, and how bad was it? What exactly did Jesus do? One detail most people miss.
- Hear the three reports. Keep time with a phone timer and keep it light.
- Ask the questions below to the whole group.
- What do the three accounts have in common?
- None of these people lifted themselves. What does that say to someone who feels too far down?
My lift, my sink
- Have each person turn their glider paper over, or take a new sheet, and draw a line down the middle: LIFT on one side, SINK on the other. Promise that no one will collect or read these.
- Give two quiet minutes. Under LIFT they list places, people, music, habits and moments that leave them feeling peaceful and closer to the Savior. Under SINK they list what leaves them feeling dim, dampened or further from Him. Suggest they glance at the home screen of their phone as they think about both columns.
- Explain Elder Kearon's uncomfortable fact: in gliding, if you are not actively climbing you are descending, and it can be so gradual you do not notice unless you watch your altitude.
- Discuss the questions below honestly. It is fine to say that learning to recognize the Spirit takes practice. Elder Kearon himself described learning it, the way he learned to feel rising air.
- Without sharing anything private: what is one thing on your LIFT side that might surprise the rest of us?
- How can you tell the difference between spiritual sink and simply having a hard day?
- What would watching your altitude look like for someone your age?
Flight plan
- Read the second key quote and list the simple things on the board in short form: find a faithful guide; tune in to the Holy Spirit; join those who are climbing; watch for sink and turn away. Then read the third key quote and add: show someone else how to rise.
- Read the first aligned quote, in which Sister Muñoz Spannaus shares counsel from President Oaks about friends. Ask how it matches joining those who are climbing.
- In pairs, each person picks one of the five and turns it into a plan for this week that is specific enough to check: what, when, and with whom. Partners help each other make it realistic.
- Have each person write the plan on the wing of their glider and tell it to their partner.
- Who is a faithful guide you actually trust, and what could you ask that person this week?
When you sink
- Say plainly that everyone in the room, including you, will sink sometimes. Read the second aligned quote (Elder Dube), and remind them of Elder Kearon's words that when we sink, our gentle Savior is there to lift us up as we turn to Him.
- Have one youth read 3 Nephi 27:22 aloud. Explain that Elder Kearon gave it as the Savior's promise to those who keep turning toward Him.
- Read the fourth key quote slowly (no limit to how high you can climb with Him). Bear your testimony in a sentence or two.
- Ask them to keep the glider where they will see it. Tell them that next week you will ask two things: where did you feel lift, and did you do your flight plan?
Key passages from the talk
“Our Saviour constantly sought out the most desperate souls sinking into darkness and dread and lifted them up. And He wants to lift you!”
“Find a faithful guide and learn from them where lift is found. Actively tune in to the sweet feelings of the Holy Spirit and the things in your life that lead you there. Join those who are climbing. Do what they do. Watch closely for the subtle signs of sink in your own life, and turn away decisively.”
“And when you find lift yourself, show someone else where and how to rise! Then soar in the joy of the Lord!”
“Your Saviour is your lift. He is your ever-rising air. There is no limit to how high you can climb with Him.”
Scriptures
- Matthew 14:28–31 Team one reads it and reports who was sinking, what Jesus did, and one detail most people miss.
- Mark 5:35–42 Team two reads it and gives the same three-part report.
- Mark 9:17–27 Team three reads it and gives the same three-part report.
- 3 Nephi 27:22 One youth reads it aloud at the end as the promise Elder Kearon quoted.
Other voices that agree
“number seven is an invitation from our prophet, President Dallin H. Oaks: ‘Seek friends … who are striving to follow the Lord … with whom you can feel the Spirit and … reinforce your faith.’”
“We do not need to perfect ourselves to come to Christ. We come to Christ to be perfected.”
Three things to remember
- The Savior wants to lift me, however far down I feel.
- I cannot see spiritual lift, but I can learn to feel it through the Holy Ghost.
- When I notice sink, I turn away decisively and turn toward Him.
Ways to act this week
- Carry out the flight plan written on your glider, and tell your partner when you have done it.
- For three days, before you fall asleep, note on your phone one moment of lift and one moment of sink from that day.
- Pick one item from your SINK column and turn away from it for a week; put something from your LIFT column in its place.
- Show one friend where you find lift: invite them to an activity, to seminary, or to sit with you at church.
Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.
Music
- Let the Holy Spirit Guide
- I Need Thee Every Hour
Adapting the lesson
- At home with one or two youth: fold gliders together as a family, read only Matthew 14:28–31, and do the LIFT and SINK page and the flight plan side by side with a parent doing their own.
- Large class: run the glider contest in heats of five, and use six teams, two for each scripture account, with one team reporting and the other adding a detail.
- Short on time: keep the glider challenge, the LIFT and SINK page and the flight plan; summarize the three rescues yourself in one minute.
This lesson is an independent study aid written for this site. It is not an official lesson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quotations are word for word from the official talk; paragraph numbers count the paragraphs of the talk as published at churchofjesuschrist.org, not counting headings or picture captions. The activities, questions and ideas for acting are suggestions; follow the Spirit and adapt them to those you teach.