Gah – please forgive me for resorting to an AI image… I could not find a better real photo for what I have to share below.
Today’s message is about increasing our TRUST in the Lord / leaning on our Savior, Jesus Christ in times of disappointment or adversity.
Obviously, this isn’t always easy to do.
Life can be overwhelming, as each of us face disappointments, sometimes even daily. We battle challenges in our responsibilities, at work, in our family relationships, maybe even our health: whether it be physical, mental, or spiritual.
It can feel like a constant barrage of opposition, and in our darkest moments, we may wonder if God is even there, or if He cares.
So in those difficult times, what does it look like to lean on our Savior, Jesus Christ, and how can doing so make a real difference? How can we experience his strength and support, when at times maybe he feels so imaginary?
To answer this, let me tell you a story:
We have a family friend named Layne who takes people on cycling treks around the world. Trevan has gone with him on a few of these adventures over the years, and one of the highlights of each is when Layne invites his travel buddies to slow down and get curious about their environment and the experiences they have along the way.
On one occasion, Trevan found himself at the edge of an expansive field and Layne took the opportunity to illustrate:
He explained that researchers have shown that people can’t walk in a straight line for very long without a focal point in the distance to keep them on track:
To prove his point, Layne pointed out a building in the distance and challenged Trevan to walk towards it, but blindfolded. Trevan was eager to prove him wrong, so he got a good look at the building, committed it to memory, and once blindfolded, started out confidently in that direction. He had been warned that people tend to veer off to the right, so he intentionally kept moving slightly left, just to compensate.
The field was so big that he walked for a good 10 minutes before Layne (who had been following close by), told Trevan to stop and remove the blindfold.
To his delight, Trevan looked up and saw the building straight in front of him. He was about to gloat when he recognized something in his surroundings and realized that, although he was indeed pointed in the right direction, he had actually done a full circle, ending up not far from where he had started.
This simple experience contained a profound life lesson about how important it is to look often at your desired destination, or you will get off track and not even realize it. Previous to this, I would sometimes say, “Honey, let’s talk about where we’re going (in our work, relationship, or family)” and he would sometimes respond, “We talked about that last month and nothing’s changed, so why do we need to talk about it again?” But after this experience in the field, he started initiating those conversations with me, wanting to reconnect with the vision of where we were trying to go, a lot more often.
(Trevan had come to the realization that while the goal may not have changed, where we are at any given moment – in relation to the goal – has likely changed, and therefore, the path TO the goal will also need to change. Without periodically reconnecting to the vision of the goal by taking off the proverbial blindfold, we would never know that our current path no longer leads us to the desired outcome.)
It seems to me that each lesson-rich experience in life has at least three layers to it: 1-The experience itself, 2-the life-application, and 3-an eternal application. In this case:
- The Experience Itself: Trevan was walking in a field, and did a full circle because he wasn’t looking up at the building periodically to make sure he was still on track.
- Temporal or Life Application: His experience in the field served to teach him and I to discuss and repaint the vision again more often about the life we’re trying to build together, and
- Eternal Application: It served as a reminder and a motivating reason to keep our baptismal covenant that we will always remember Jesus Christ, our Savior.
“Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36)
Can you see how the micro experience from a simple bike ride can teach something about Christ – that if we don’t look unto him in every thought, we can easily wander off the path and become lost without even realizing it? Or if our challenges keep repeating themselves, maybe we’re going in circles.
Perhaps we meander more than we know when we rely too much on the memory of our last encounter with Christ, rather than sincerely striving to have new experiences often by always remembering him, and keeping his commandments which he has given us.
Just as it was with the cycling trek, EVERY experience in our life has a nugget for us, and something to learn about HIM. In the economy of God, and with the Father’s grand plan well underway and ever in force, not a single moment or experience is wasted. His Spirit is constantly working to lead us along, and is always ready to teach us something that will help us both on our path through life and our eternal journey, as quickly as we are prepared to receive it.
“For behold, … I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.” (2 Nephi 32:5)
In short, one key to personal revelation is…
CURIOSITY
Frustrations, when they get the better of us, can cause us to lose the Spirit, but the same frustrations can also INVITE the spirit when approached instead with curiosity.
Most, if not all of Joseph Smith’s revelations were received AFTER he demonstrated genuine curiosity and a hunger to get answers. And that curiosity came AFTER becoming so acutely troubled by a problem that it caused him a tremendous amount of confusion, frustration, or agony.
Could it be that every frustration and adversity is meaningful and perfect in God’s plan, either intentionally orchestrated for our good or allowed to happen, for the divine purpose of preparing us to receive greater light and knowledge that He knows will help us return to Him?
Even Jesus’s suffering in his last moments caused him to ask a question that, to our knowledge, he had never asked before:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
It wasn’t long after that darkest moment, that he declared “It is finished”. It’s not recorded whether or not he got an “answer” to his question at that moment, I personally doubt that he did. But something had to have happened between the question and his statement “it is finished” wherein he –either gained enough knowledge, or he gained enough experience, to declare with confidence that the Father’s will had been fulfilled.
Frustrations > Inspired Questions > Path to Perfection
Bottom line, the right questions will lead us along the path to perfection in God’s Kingdom, but it is our frustrations and adversities that will lead us to those inspired questions, if we’ll let them.
So…
Is there anything in your life right now that’s particularly frustrating? What if that situation, as grating as it may be, is actually perfect for you right now, because the Father has a message for you in it, and he knows that the discontent will prepare you to receive the light and knowledge he has for you?
James 1:5 wasn’t written just for Joseph Smith, which says,
“If ANY of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
He promises to answer.
“…[R]emember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10:3-5, emphasis added.)
Furthermore, what if His answer doesn’t just give you a solution to that life-problem, but it teaches you a larger principle that he knows will give you the eternal advantage you need to return Home?
If you’re like me, maybe you’ve wondered, “What if God doesn’t answer my questions?”
S. Michael Wilcox in a speech at BYU said:
“…sometimes the reason the Lord doesn’t answer is because He has a wonderful answer, a comforting answer, a rejoicing answer, and He says, “Where do I put it? There is no place yet in your heart, in your mind for me to put the answer. But life will create a holding place for the answer. So be patient; in time it will come. I have recorded your prayers. I know your needs. I will answer … when the holding place has been created.”
Case in point:
It’s taken me nearly twenty years to wake up to a message that the Lord wanted me to receive, but it finally landed this week, as I was preparing this message.
He started carving out that place in my heart for the answer he wanted to give me, when I was called to be the Stake Preparedness specialist for a group of local church congregations in 2008.
The Stake Calling
At the time I was young, ambitious, and excited to show up and make a big difference. I had been asked to attend the stake council meetings every month, so I came ready each time with big plans, and all the details for how they could be carried out. After all, I thought that was my job. However, at each meeting, the stake president thanked me for my ideas, but wanted to do very few of them. I was confused and frustrated, and began to wonder why in the world I was even called? My attendance started to feel pointless, as I found myself just showing up and only doing a fraction of what my heart wanted to do.
Eventually I found my groove with it, and before my release from the assignment, felt that good had been accomplished; it just wasn’t everything I had imagined.
More than a decade later, I found myself responsible at work for some projects that were going to fully occupy the small company’s focus for the next several years. One member of the team was passionate, energetic, enthusiastic, and creative. She showed up at our meetings with revolutionary ideas and the enthusiasm to match. Her input was truly brilliant and inspiring, and if we could implement them, they would clearly improve the company’s success, but with all of the time, energy, and resources already allocated, we just didn’t have the bandwidth to take them on and see them through.
Her ideas were sound and would have accomplished a great many things that we did want, but the timing just wasn’t right, and she struggled to understand the bigger plan. Taking them on prematurely would have meant certain failure of not just her ideas, but of also the company plans already underway.
Her impatience and persistence eventually became a problem, requiring additional meetings and energy away from the main focus in an attempt to help her adopt the leaders’ vision, so she could understand and fulfill her part. But ultimately, she struggled to stop herself from pushing for the changes she envisioned, and eventually left the team.
Déjà vu
Working with this young woman caused me to reflect back on my days in those stake meetings, and I could finally see it from the perspective of the leaders in charge. They had been bearing the responsibility of so many things that I couldn’t see, and my ideas just didn’t fit into the bigger picture. I do believe that my ill-informed input played an important role, if for no other reason than to give them perspective that helped them have increased confidence in their decided course. I realized in hindsight that it would have blessed my life and helped me more readily support their decisions, if I had understood that they had bigger responsibilities and a wider perspective than I had the capacity to understand.
Now, I almost didn’t include this story in this message because as I reflected back on it, I realized that, if there truly are three levels of benefit to be gained from every experience, I had never identified the eternal lesson in that one. I always just looked back on it as something that aided in my spiritual maturity, for what purpose I wasn’t sure. But I wondered, is it possible that I totally missed the third lesson that God had for me in that challenge?
So this week, I finally asked the question:
“Was there an eternal message in all of that for me?”
And that’s when I discovered it. With that question in mind, and a sincere desire to know, the Lord readily opened my mind to show me that my time in that calling was a micro experience to help me understand his delays in answering some of my prayers now. What I felt then parallels how I feel sometimes even now when I have ideas for the way I think my life should go, and how I have offered so many prayers, requests, and suggestions that seem to go unanswered.
But if my work experience with the bright and ambitious young woman can help me understand why the stake probably told me no, then maybe it can also help me live with greater trust in God’s master plan when I’m feeling particularly forgotten or overlooked. Surely, my Heavenly Father IS busy at work in my life, sees a bigger picture than I am capable of understanding, and wisely holds back or tells me no when my plans don’t fit, quite yet. I have tremendous gratitude now for that young woman and the role she played in teaching me this eternal principle that is helping me today. As frustrating as it was for her at the time, she played an important part in God’s master plan to teach me things I needed to understand better.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)
Jesus taught in parables and metaphors, not just to help us understand eternal truths by relating them to experiences we’re familiar with, but so we would only grasp the eternal truths that we’re truly ready to accept. Because my heart and mind was not ready to receive the 3rd level benefit in this experience, I only saw its temporal application.
All things testify of Christ, because His mission IS the master plan
I believe EVERY experience has an eternal nugget, something that reminds us of the Master Plan, and which teaches us who Christ is and how we can lean on him in our disappointments or adversities. As we look for the metaphors and discover parables in our everyday experiences, we’ll find that all things truly point to Him.
“And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.” (Moses 6:63)
So, yes, there is a Grand Plan, Christ is at the center of it, and all of our experiences or encounters have the potential to teach us something about his divinity and role in our lives. This applies especially to our hardships.
C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, wrote:
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
OK, then how can we lean more on Christ and his promises? How do we access his strength and comfort when we need it?
Carol F. McConkie said:
“Our Father in Heaven loves all of His children and desires that they know and understand His plan of happiness. Therefore, He calls prophets, those who have been ordained with power and authority to act in God’s name for the salvation of His children. They are messengers of righteousness, witnesses of Jesus Christ and the infinite power of His Atonement. …
Modern scripture reminds us to pay attention to the teachings of the Lord’s servants:
“Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith. For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you.” (D&C 21:4-6)
“What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (D&C1:38)
Like our micro-experiences that teach us something about eternity, to honor his servants and messengers is to honor Christ himself. God has given us prophets throughout the history of the world to help remind us of the bigger picture, and to help us discover the eternal principle in every adversity.
Listen to this final story from 1 Kings 17 and don’t miss the nugget:
As Elijah approached the city, he saw a widow woman gathering sticks. He called to her, “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.”
“And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
“And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
Elijah responded, “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.”
Sister McConkie interjects – “Imagine for a moment the difficulty of what the prophet was asking a starving mother to do. …But, acting in the name of the Lord, Elijah …ask[ed] a beloved daughter of God to sacrifice that which she had in order to sustain him.
And he also promised a blessing for obedience: “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail.”
The woman gave him the last of what she had, and her supply never ran out.
What’s the nugget here that can teach us something about our temporal lives?
Do we learn that exercising faith in the teachings of the Lord’s servants will do something to help us get through life? What about the eternal nugget? If Elijah is a type or symbol of Christ, then does it also teach us that doing what he asks of us, though scary or difficult, will lead us to receive everything the Father has in the eternities?
We lean on our Savior, Jesus Christ, by looking unto him in every thought, and leaning on the promises and teachings of his servants. We lean on him by viewing our challenges as gifts to become curious about, and by asking questions to discover what else our Father would have us know and do.
While the main message here is about developing a deeper relationship with our savior, Jesus Christ, it’s also about understanding how He reaches out to us. He sends help. He invites us to listen to his anointed servants, who have given us a treasure-trove of writings since the beginning of time that help us learn of Him and His plan for us. Some people are bothered by the admonition to “follow the prophet” because, well, aren’t we supposed to be following Jesus? But once you understand that the role of a true prophet is to point people to Jesus, and when you realize that our more tangible, earthly experiences are meant to parallel and prepare us for more eternal, spiritual truths, you’ll realize that exercising our faith muscle in the words of his prophets will help us develop faith in the One whom they serve.
Wrapping it up
Whether we’re aware of it or not, I believe it is the power of Jesus Christ that sustains us through mortality, and which saves and restores us to the Father’s presence if we will strive to always remember him, and keep his commandments. Our challenges are not for nothing. This verse says it best:
“I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks; Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed they shall be granted. He giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good.” (D&C 98:1-3)
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