I have been deeply moved by doctrine regarding life and living from one of my favorite speakers, Elder a Neal A. Maxwell who served for many years until his death in 2004 as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I would like to share with you some of what I have learned from my recent study which I believe will help each of us place our challenges in life into their proper perspective. These principles I know to be true.
Christ on the cross gave out the soul cry "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" So real and exquisite was His suffering that even the Son of God cried out — not in doubt of His Father's reality, but wondering "why" at that moment of agony — for He felt so alone. James Talmage advises us in his book Jesus the Christ, that in ways we cannot understand, God somehow withdrew his immediate presence from the Son so that Jesus Christ's triumph might be truly complete. There are lessons here for all of us. We, too, at times may wonder if we have been forgotten and forsaken. Hopefully, we will do as the Master did and acknowledge that God is still there and never doubt that sublime reality even though we may wish to avoid or be delivered from some of life's experiences. If we are not careful, we may even attempt to pray away pain that appears to be an impending tragedy but which is, in reality, an opportunity. We must do as Jesus did and humbly preface our prayers by saying, "If it be possible," let the trial pass from us but then in humble submission resolutely declare, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt," and bow in a sense of serenity to our Father in Heaven's wisdom, because at times God will not be able to let us pass by a trial or a challenge.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell wisely observed, "If we were allowed to bypass certain trials, everything that had gone on up to that moment in our lives would be wiped out. It is because he loves us that at times he will not intercede as we may wish him to. That, too, we learn from Gethsemane and from Calvary.”
Consider this reality, God loves us and because He loves us he has placed us here on earth to cope with challenges that He will place before us. I don't believe we fully comprehend the implications of such divine love because His love will call us at times to do things we may wonder about and pass through circumstances that we would rather not face. I do believe that because God knows us intimately that there will be some particularized challenges that will be delivered to each of us in order to teach us things we need to know. These experiences will be what we need but not always what we like. God knows even now what the future holds for each of us. The future "you" is before him now. He knows what He wishes to bring about in your life and the kind of remodeling in your life and mine which is necessary to produce those results.
There are some of you who are reading this message that feel pervasively the weight and press of life's burdens and hardships. Please do not despair. God loves you more than you know and He is aware and His beloved Son Jesus Christ knows intimately your suffering and knows how to ease your burden if you will come unto Him.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “Isn't it marvelous that Jesus Christ, who did not have to endure that kind of suffering because he was sin-free, nevertheless took upon himself the sins of all of us and experienced an agony so exquisite we cannot comprehend it? I don't know how many people have lived on the earth for sure, but demographers say between 30 and 67 billion. If you were to collect the agony for your own sins and I for mine, and multiply it by that number, we can only shudder at what the sensitive, divine soul of Jesus must have experienced in taking upon himself the awful arithmetic of the sins of all of us--an act which he did selflessly and voluntarily. If it is also true (in some way we don't understand) that the cavity which suffering carves into our souls will one day also be the receptacle of joy, how infinitely greater Jesus' capacity for joy, when he said, after his resurrection, 'Behold, my joy is full.' How very, very full, indeed, his joy must have been!” (But For a Small Moment, BYU Speeches, September 1, 1974.)
No comments:
Post a Comment