**(I wrote this way too long just as a precaution knowing I was the second speaker and having no idea how much time would be left for me. I ended up cutting out half of this. I'm saving the full thing in a few places in case I lose the hard copy. I believe our testimonies are the most valuable thing we can leave our posterity.)
There's a song that came out when I was in the
9th grade where the lyrics go like this, "If you're on your own in this
life The days and nights are long When you think you've had too much Of this
life to hang on Well, everybody hurts sometimes Everybody cries Everybody
hurts, sometimes" - R.E.M.
We live in a fallen world, we knew we would be
tested and tried and that part of this life experience means pain and
suffering.
I don't know what each of you are going through, it could be
mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, or family or relationship struggles or
....all of the above.
...Whatever burdens each of you carry today, I know that God is
aware of them. God knows you. I know you can trust Him!
Having trust in Christ is essentially having faith in Him. In Lectures on Faith Joseph Smith taught that In order to fully trust God, we need two
things:
ONE: to have a correct understanding of who God is and His laws..
TWO: to be obedient to His laws.
Joseph Smith taught, “It is the first principle of the
gospel to know for a certainty the character [the personality, the attributes]
of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with
another.”
“If men do not comprehend the character of God,” he explained,
“they do not comprehend themselves.” They cannot “comprehend anything, either
that which is past or that which is to come."
"Having a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to approach
him, and how to ask so as to receive an answer. When we understand the
character of God, and know how to come to Him, he begins to unfold the heavens
to us."
Joseph also made it his rule that, "When the Lord commands,
do it!"
He said, "The object with me is to obey and teach others
to obey God in just what He tells us to do. It mattereth not whether the
principle is popular or unpopular, I will always maintain a true principle,
even if I stand alone in it.”....
“As a Church and a people it behooves us to be wise, and to seek
to know the will of God, and then be willing to do it; for ‘blessed is he that
heareth the word of the Lord, and keepeth it,’ say the Scriptures."
“Be virtuous and pure; be [people] of integrity and truth; keep
the commandments of God; and then you will be able more perfectly to understand
the difference between right and wrong—between the things of God and the things
of [the world]”
Corrie Ten Boom is a Christian woman who survived the Nazi
consentration camps of WW2. She declared boldly, "Never be afraid to trust
an unknown future to a KNOWN God."
There's a lot of scriptures and examples that come to mind when I
think of Trusting an unknown future to a known God.... Look at Abraham
and Sarah, look at Elijah, Ruth, and Esther, Isaiah, Nephi, Abinadi, Moroni…
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego showed their trust in God when
they refused to worship the false idols of King Nebuchadnezzar. The King was so
angry and so infuriated at their lack of conformity that he threatened to have
them executed by fire.
Their reply by refusing to uphold or support the popular trends of
their day was the perfect example of Trust!! They said, "If it be so,
our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and
he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto
thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image
which thou hast set up".
In a BYU Devotional, Brother Dennis E. Simmons testified, "Our
scriptures and our history are replete with accounts of God’s great men and
women who believed that He would deliver them, but if not, they demonstrated
that they would trust and be true. He has the power, BUT IT’S OUR TEST......
Our God will deliver us from [all kinds of suffering] but if not...we will have
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that if we do all we can do, we will,
in His time and in His way, be delivered and receive all that He has."
D. Todd Christofferson observed, "Some misunderstand the
promises of God to mean that obedience to Him yields specific outcomes....“If I
diligently serve a full-time mission, God will bless me with a happy marriage
and children” or “If I refrain from doing schoolwork on the Sabbath, God will
bless me with good grades” or “If I pay tithing, God will bless me with that
job I’ve been wanting.” If life doesn’t fall out precisely this way or
according to an expected timetable, they may feel betrayed by God. But things
are not so mechanical in the divine economy. We ought not to think of God’s
plan as a cosmic vending machine where we select a desired blessing,
insert the required sum of good works, and the order is promptly
delivered."
Sometimes beyond reasons we can’t explain, bad things happen to
very good people! In the Scriptures we learn that Job was "perfect
and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil."(Job1:1) Yet
look what happened to him!!
**A fire burned all his property, his servants, and livestock.
**He lost everything! **A storm killed all ten of his children. **His own wife
told him to give up and just die. **His body was tormented with painful
diseases and sores so bad that his flesh was falling off. **And to add insult
to injury, he was falsely accused by people who were supposed to be his
friends.
Job was confident though. He knew that these particular troubles
were not consequences of sin because he knew that he had been righteous. He had
a clear conscience before God. So they could only be trials from the
choices of others or trials of testing and refinement. Like Job, it’s vitally
important to know our own hearts before the Lord because some trials we
absolutely DO bring on ourselves, some of the unnecessary struggles we go
through ARE a direct result of our sins. And if they are from our sins, we need
to correct it through sincere repentance.. but Job knew he was in good
standing with God, he was repentant. He says he valued God’s word more than
food. (Job 23:12)
Job’s response was a great example of faith. Through all of his
suffering he exclaimed, "Though [God] slay me, yet will I trust in Him."
(Job 13:15)
Now we have to be careful because sometimes when we read about Job
we think of a man who endured suffering without feeling depressed or
discouraged, like he just rode through the waves of adversity on top the whole
time.
But remember at one point in the middle of his adversity, he
curses the day he was born, he wishes to be dead asking God why he didn't die
at birth (Job 3:11). I’d say that’s pretty discouraged.
He is terribly grieved, and rightly so... look at what he went
through!! Yes, he had strong faith in God, yes, he was righteous, but he still
felt the grief of his sufferings. Please understand that deep sorrow or grief
does not indicate that a person lacks faith!!
Observing this, the Philosopher and Theologian Dr. Adam S. Miller
said, "I think it's important to see that even Job's declarations of
despair were part of Job's religious journey, as part of his religious
commitment. It's not the case that he has to avoid feeling despair. It's not
the case that he has to avoid feeling sorrow or mourning.... It's the case that
WHEN he feels it, what he needs to DO WITH IT is give it back to God. He needs
to express that despair to God. And if he's bringing that despair back to God,
then he is in the process of redeeming even that experience of despair. We get
in trouble when things implode and we stew in that despair and we don't make
that despair itself part of our relationship to God, we refuse to acknowledge
it, we refuse to deal with it, or refuse to think that it might be part of what
a real relationship to God looks like. Job is a really good example of how this
kind of despair [this kind of sorrow] is the material, it’s the raw material
for prayer. It’s the stuff out of which our relationship with God is made, not
the thing you have to get rid of before you can have a relationship with
God." - “Follow Him” Podcast with
John Bytheway and Hank Smith -Guest Speaker Adam S. Miller - Come Follow Me:
“Yet Will I Trust in Him” Job Part 2 (time stamp 5:05)
Jeffrey R Holland taught, "every experience can become a
redemptive experience if we remain bonded to our Father in Heaven through that
difficulty. These difficult lessons teach us that man’s extremity is God’s
opportunity,"
While Joseph Smith was unjustly bound and cruelly treated in
prison, the Lord taught him,"if the very jaws of hell shall gape open
the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give
thee experience, and shall be for thy good." (D&C
122:7)
In 2007 Chris Williams experienced the very jaws of hell... he was serving as a bishop when he lost half of his entire
family to a drunk driver.
He recalls they were coming down a hill and saw the lights cross
the median, when he tried to swerve... his car was T-boned and flipped.
After the horrific noises from the crash were over,
everything fell instantly silent... and he knew within seconds that his
pregnant wife, his 9 yr. old daughter ,and 11 yr. old son were all gone. They
were gone.
He said, he couldn’t see his 6yr. old son, Sam, nor could he
hear him, but he felt an assurance that Sam was going to make it. Chris
described in his own words when he realized he had lost half his family.
“What I was witnessing was absolutely unreal. I couldn’t take it
anymore. I turned my head forward and closed my eyes. I was ready for death. I
tried to will myself to pass out; I wanted to succumb to the process of having
my spirit leave my body." Then he heard someone
screaming like an out-of-body experience and soon realized that person
screaming was himself..."From deep inside my body came a sound of
excruciating anguish and pain, a sound of body and spirit being crushed. For
the first few months after the accident, I felt the initial shock that such a
huge part of my life was now gone. It’s hard to kneel down and desire to speak
to my Father in Heaven when I'm so lonely, or when I'm so anguished... God
allowed me to get that anger off my chest…. But inevitably, He would always
come back and teach me about His Son, Jesus Christ. When I did feel anger or a
deep sense of loneliness, I [brought it before] the Savior."
Chris laid his burdens down at Christ's feet, by directing his
grief in a prayerful way to God, he showed his trust in the Atonement.
All of us dread going through something like this!! It’s hard to
see how anything good can come out of it. But like Job, Chris has healed in
miraculous ways and has since developed a strong bond, almost familial
relationship, with the kid who caused the accident. He even helped this young
man achieve sobriety.
Neal A. Maxwell counseled, "We may at times, if we
are not careful, try to pray away pain or what seems like an impending tragedy,
but which is, in reality, an opportunity. We must do as Jesus did in that
respect—also preface our prayers by saying, ‘If it be possible,’ let the trial pass
from us—by saying, ‘Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.’"
A major part of trusting God is realizing that we just don't see
the full picture, our view is so limited...
Richard G. Scott said, "We are like infants in our
understanding of eternal matters and their impact on us here in mortality. Yet
at times we act as if we knew it all." He said, "To
exercise faith is to trust that the Lord knows what He is doing with you and
that He can accomplish it for your eternal good even though you cannot
understand how He can possibly do it."
During my life growing up, I went through some extremely difficult
times. My dad had a temper that would often turn violent. My dad went to church
every Sunday, he served in callings, and he never touched alcohol but the level
of his temper at times was similar to drunk behavior. He just had unresolved
trauma from his childhood and developed some bad coping habits that created
constant guilt and him having a horrible temper.
I have a vivid memory of him in the kitchen, screaming at my mom,
as he threw dishes across the room. My stomach turned as I witnessed him
proceed to shatter glass plates over his own head…blood running down his face.
My mom took us away from him that night to live in a hotel for a few days.… I remember
how depressed he got when he realized how out-of-control he was and how
terrifying he was to his own children and his wife, he didn’t want to live
anymore. He hated himself so badly for this, he tried to take his life on
several different occasions. I'll never forget once in the middle of the night
when everyone was asleep, I woke up to the smell of exhaust. I ran
upstairs, opened the back door and found my dad passed out in the car with the
windows rolled down and the garage door shut. He survived that attempt but my
heart hurt so much to see the terrible hopeless state he was in. My mom stayed
with him until the end and… After many years, I'm glad to say that through
Christ, my dad finally found healing, hope, and forgiveness.
My life growing up wasn't easy but to get me through those dark
times I experienced, I turned to my Savior, I deeply involved myself in
seminary and surrounded myself with good friends. I studied the
scriptures and posted my favorite ones along with quotes from the prophets on
3x5 cards all over my bedroom wall. My wall was covered from top to bottom with
scriptures and quotes. It became my own little sanctuary. One of the quotes
that got me through those dark days was the following by Orson F. Whitney:
“No
pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our
education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude
and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we
endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our
souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the
children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and
tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which
will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.”
God knew we would experience trials in our lives. We are schooled
through this experience.
Jesus Christ experienced trials too. The scriptures say He
was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”, He didn't just
experience it, he immersed himself in suffering WHY? so He would “know
how to succor us”. (Isaiah 53:3, Alma 7:11-13)
Benjamin Franklin wisely observed, "Tell me, and I forget.
Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn."
An Old English Poem -Robert Browning
Hamilton
"I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow;And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her, When Sorrow walked with me."
- Neal A. Maxwell promised, "One of the ways we can have
perspective that will permit us to fight in [our dark] circumstances is to read
the scriptures and have involvement… with the case studies in the scriptures of
those men and women who have coped, and coped successfully, who have undergone
far more than you and I are asked to undergo."
Brothers and Sisters, There is great power and strength to be drawn
from the scriptures:
- Want to talk about family problems or abuse, think of
the sons of Israel and how they sold their own brother, Joseph, into
slavery, think of how Laman and Lemuel beat up and tried to kill their
brother, Nephi - all because of pride and jelaousy.
- Want to talk about betrayal and rejection among those
who were supposed to be your friends, think of Alma the Elder and how the
priests of Noah turned on him and hunted him down, think of Moses and
Pharaoh how they were once like brothers, think of Jesus Christ and the
betrayal He experienced from His own chosen disciple, Judas Iscarriot
- Want to talk about political persecutions and living
under government lies and secret combinations, think of what Abinadi went
through for his faith, think of Heleman and Captain Moroni fighting for
their lives and waving the banner of liberty, Think of Peter who was
martyred for the cause of Christ, think of Daniel thrown in the lion's den
because he prayed when it was illegal to pray. And in our time, think
of the Prophet Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail when he cried out to the Lord
in his suffering.
There is great power to be drawn from the scriptures!! Another
thing. ...We learn from each of these stories not to underestimate the power of
prayer.
Neal A. Maxwell testified, "I am grateful that God
has told us that we must be ready for the trials that life will bring our way.I
speak to this generation with some sense of vicarious anticipation in your
behalf of what lies ahead—urging you to pour out your hearts in supplication
and prayer.…There was more power processed and expended on that single night in
Gethsemane, in that small garden, than all the armies and navies have ever
expended in all the battles on the land and sea and in the air in all of human history.
The catalyst of prayer helped Jesus to cope with suffering, and by his
suffering he emancipated all men from death and made possible eternal life.
This cardinal fact about the central act of human history, the Atonement, ought
to give us pause, therefore, as we face our challenges
individually."
Since the song of the heart is a prayer unto God (D&C
25:11-12) I want to close by sharing the lyrics of a song… this is a letter to
my Savior. I didn’t write it but this is exactly what I would say….
Britt Nicole - All This
Time (Lyrics)
I remember the moment I
remember the pain I was only a girl But I grew up that day
Tears were falling I
know You saw me Hiding there in my bedroom So alone
I was doing my best
Trying to be strong No one to turn to That's when I met You
Ever since that
day it's been clear to me That no matter what comes You will never leave
I know You're for me And
You're restoring Every heartache and failure Every broken dream
You're the God who sees
The God who rescued me
This is my story
I hear these
people asking me How do I know what I believe? Well I'm not the same me
And I saw the proof I
need I felt Love I felt Your grace You stole my heart that day
You've been walkin' with
me all this time All this time
From the first tear cry
To today's sunrise
And every single moment
between
You were there You were
always there It was You and I You've been walking with me all this time
