Quote of the Day

"What is said is not as important as what we hear and what we feel."  Robert D Hales

Live by Faith

In an effort to understand why things are happening to people I love I turned to Job.  I'm sure I've read Job before in seminary studies, but I've never read it before with questions in direct need of answers.

After reading some of Job, I still felt like I needed greater understanding and turned to the Institute Old Testament manual for more insight where I found this quote by Spencer W. Kimball.

"Who is responsible for man’s troubles? Was it the Lord who directed the plane into the mountainside? Did God cause the highway collision? Was it He who prompted the young child to toddle into the canal or the man to suffer the heart attack? Responding to these questions, President Kimball said:

“Answer, if you can. I cannot, for though I know God has a major role in our lives, I do not know how much he causes to happen and how much he merely permits. Whatever the answer to this question, there is another I feel sure about.

“Could the Lord have prevented these tragedies? The answer is, Yes. The Lord is omnipotent, with all power to control our lives, save us pain, prevent all accidents, drive all planes and cars, feed us, protect us, save us from labor, effort, sickness, even from death, if he will. But he will not.” (Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 96.)

Spencer W. Kimball continues in Faith Precedes the Miracle with this thought in Chapter Eight:

"If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective.

Is there not wisdom in his giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?

If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.

Active Patience

Today a few things I have been studying have come together.  This morning I was studying an article entitled Patience in Affliction  by Elder Angel Abrea.

TRIALS

Trials and tribulation are as much a part of life as are the joys.  However, when we are in the midst of these trials they can seem to be more than we can bear.  Elder Abrea stated:

Tribulation, afflictions, and trials will constantly be with us in our sojourn here in this segment of eternity, just as the Savior said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” (John 16:33.) Therefore, the great challenge in this earthly life is not to determine how to escape the afflictions and problems, but rather to carefully prepare ourselves to meet them.

I say prepare ourselves because it demands persistent effort to develop patience as a personal attribute. In practicing patience, one comes to understand it and to acquire it.

From Liberty Jail, in a time of anguish and deep suffering for the gospel’s sake, the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote the following message to the Saints: “Dear brethren, do not think that our hearts faint, as though some strange thing had happened unto us, for we have seen and been assured of all these things beforehand, and have an assurance of a better hope than that of our persecutors. Therefore God hath made broad our shoulders for the burden. We glory in our tribulation, because we know that God is with us, that He is our friend, and that He will save our souls.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 123.)

Joseph Smith's account here helps give me understanding regarding my own trials.  Despite being put in jail in awful circumstances, Joseph still has hope. Sometimes it is hard to find hope, but we can pray for hope.  And even at times we can rely on someone else's hope.  We often pray that our trial will be taken from us or that the Lord will help us that things will work out.  But often God doesn't take the trial away.  We know the Lord didn't remove all trials from before Joseph Smith.  I've seen many around me push forward in spite of physical illnesses.   As I was also contemplating my own trials, the thought came to me about a book I read almost 20 years ago.  The book was The Hiding Place by Corrie Tenboom.  It is a memoir of her and her sister's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp.  Their trial was not because they deserved it or because they weren't good, quite the contrary.  Sometimes bad things happen to good people.  Corrie and her sister continued to have such a strong belief in God and amazing faith even through all the torture, despair, and even the death of her sister.  I remember her describing the overcrowding, filth, and bugs in the sleeping area where they spent the majority of their time.  Corrie's sister pointed out to Corrie that their conditions were in a way a blessing, because it was so bad that the Nazi soldiers wouldn't even come in there, providing them some protection.  Their optimism was absolutely inspiring.  Neither of them lost their faith or doubted God, they held on to hope and eventually Corrie was freed from the camp.

In addition to praying that the trial might be removed from us, we can pray to recognize the blessings we do have.  We can also do as Joseph Smith and pray that God will broaden our shoulders to be able to endure the burden.

Elder Holland said in this video Wrong Roads, sometimes the only way to get from point A to point C is to go through point B.

Joseph had an eternal view of the mortal things he was enduring, for he said, "for we have seen and been assured of all these things beforehand."  I think sometimes part of the test associated with the trial is to maintain an eternal perspective while experiencing the stress, pain, and suffering that we may be required to endure.  It is easier said than done.  For some, their trials are as of Job's or as extreme as Corrie Tenbooms. But for each of us the question is the same:

When we have lost everything, had everyone we love taken from us, will we still love God?

PATIENCE

We have been told we must be patient in our suffering and trials.  I love the insight Elder Abrea gives on how we should be patient:

It should be made clear that we are not talking here about a passive patience which waits only for the passing of time to heal or resolve things which happen to us, but rather a patience that is active, which makes things happen. Such was the patience Paul described in his epistle to the Romans when he used the words “by patient continuance in well doing.” (Rom. 2:7.)

Perhaps one of the best examples of patience which gives us an eternal perspective of its application in our lives is found in the words of Peter: “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” (1 Pet. 2:20.)

Patience in affliction and adversity means to persist firmly and never forsake that which we know to be true, standing firm with the hope that in the Lord’s due time we will gain an understanding of that which we do not understand now and which causes us suffering.

Then the promise in Malachi will become a reality: “Then shall ye return, and discern … between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” (Mal. 3:18.)

One day I was praying for a specific situation and what I could do to change it, or at lease some how help out and the answer came to me to SERVE OTHERS.  Sometimes, when we want so badly to have an affect in our personal life it is more effective to seek to do God's will by serving others.  By serving others we are serving God and therefore bringing blessings to others as well as ourselves.  By serving others when we are in need we learn selflessness and perspective on our own circumstances, helping us to be ACTIVELY PATIENT.

If we are Actively Patient we are still working to change our situation, seeking guidance, serving others, and not just sitting by waiting for things to change.  The key is someone with Active Patience works in faith while at the same time being accepting of God's plan and timing in our lives.

I know that God is mindful of all our experiences, both joyful and painful.  And maybe, just maybe our experiences are so that we will understand the power of the Atonement and how it can be effective in our lives. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and our sorrows, our mistakes and pain-whether self inflicted or by someone else.  He does have the power to heal our souls, even if the trial is still before us.