Stake Conference Address 11/4/18

President Sabey:

AFFLICTIONS

The Area Seventy who will be coming to our stake conference in December, whose name we will be announcing later this month, is less than 45 years old, is the CEO of his own business, is working full time, has six children ages 7 to 17. As I spoke to him last week, I recalled how busy life was when our children were those ages.  I thought about him traveling on many weekends and missing children’s events. He has accepted a calling from the Lord that makes his life very busy and burdened. I said to him, “It must be really hard to have a busy family, to be working full time and to be required to travel on weekends.” He was not having any of my pity or my sense of burden. He said, “Oh, no, it is wonderful, the Lord provides what is needed, and we are figuring it out as a family.” He repeatedly expressed that he is delighted to come to Colorado and has a desire to do whatever the Lord would have us do to bless our stake. I am so impressed with him and I am excited for his visit.  I have great respect for people like him who embrace the challenges, burdens, and hardships of life and trust the Lord to see them through.

Speaking of hardships, listen to this from the very first verse of the Book of Mormon

1 I, Nephi,. . . having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days….

Many afflictions and highly favored? Apparently they are not inconsistent.

If I had been in Nephi’s shoes and had his experiences, but with my typical perspective--in which I think that God is showing His goodness to me when my life is easy and relaxed--the first verse of the Book of Mormon might have gone something like this:

I Mark, . . . a refugee from Jerusalem, having lost everything we owned, having seen many, Oh so many, really difficult afflictions in the course of my days, having been repeatedly beaten or abused, having experienced much family contention that ended in an irreconcileable split, having suffered much from hunger and hardship, I somehow struggled through, but felt like I was not particularly favored of the Lord because my life was so hard.

Aren’t you glad that I didn’t write the Book of Mormon?!

Despite his many afflictions, which were very real and very hard, Nephi came to feel favored of the Lord.  He trusted God to help him through challenges and difficulties. 

So we learn from the very first verse of the BOM that we can have afflictions and still be highly favored of God. Now let’s go a little further into the first book, 1 Nephi Chapter 8, Lehi’s vision of the tree of life, one of the great gifts of God to mankind.  Often we focus so much on tree of life, iron rod, mists of darkness, the great and spacious building, the filthy river and so forth, that we tend to forget how that vision started. 

Lehi records this:

5 And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me.
6 And . . . he spake unto me, and bade me follow him.

Who was the man dressed in white?  We don’t know, but the man said “follow me” which sounds a lot like Christ.  But if it wasn’t Christ, it was at least an angel or messenger from God.

Lehi did the right thing and followed the man in white, but listen to what happens to Lehi after he did the right thing.  Lehi reports:

7 And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.

8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.

I love Lehi for that prayer.  Again, if I had been in that situation, I might have said, Lord, what gives here?  I did the right thing by following thy messenger, and look what happened!  I was abandoned and I have been wandering around in darkness, bumping into things and hurting myself for many hours.  This does not seem fair.  Are you mad at me, are you trying to punish me?

Not Lehi. Even though he was in a very difficult situation, he continued to trust in God’s love and the multitude of God’s tender mercies.  He did not feel that God’s mercies were skimpy or few and far between.  No, he trusted in the multitude of God’s tender mercies.  After the trial of his faith and after he showed his ongoing trust in the Lord, Lehi was shown the tree of life where he partook of the most delicious fruit of God’s love, was filled with abundance and then turned outward to invite others.  [Later I will share the story of a woman who, Lehi-like, had to walk in darkness for many years before she was able to partake of God’s love.] 

Now let’s turn to Second Nephi. Before Lehi dies, he testifies to his children that, despite the many difficulties of his life, he feels encircled about eternally in the arms of the Savior’s love. Then he talks to Jacob and says:

“1 And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.
2 Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.

The Book of Mormon is all about afflictions and how God can consecrate our afflictions for our gain. I want to share two things that you and I can do that will help the Lord to consecrate our afflictions for our gain.  

1.    First, fully accepting that life is meant to be hard, we can humbly submit to and embrace the curriculum of life.

Life was meant to be hard.  That’s the truth.  The story of Adam and Eve tells us that God cursed the ground so that we would have to work hard, by the sweat of our brows, to survive, and that he did it for our sake.  I will curse the ground for thy sake, God said. Once we get over the idea that ease is what was intended, we can engage more fully in the purposes of our hard work, afflictions and suffering, instead of feeling sorry for ourselves.  

Before we would go backpacking, I would tell my children: “There is one thing you need to understand that will make this a great trip. Backpacking is pain. Really, there is some hard work and pain involved in backpacking.  Once you accept that fact, it becomes much easier to enjoy the highlights and beauties of the trail.”  That same is true of life.  

As I have shared previously, when my wife and I were going through a scary and difficult time with a child, my brother Jim said: “Mark, it seems like you just want this challenge to go away, like you think this is interfering with the planned course of your life. No, don’t think about it that way.  This is your life!  This is your mortal curriculum. You need to embrace and submit to your curriculum from the Lord.  It’s not the easy times, it’s the hard times that count.” As I thought about it afterwards, I realized that I really was wasting a lot of energy by wishing that things were different and by feeling that this was not fair or right, by feeling sorry for myself.  When I started to mentally and emotionally welcome and embrace the challenge that life had given me, I felt better and I became more productive in dealing with that challenge.

Like King Benjamin taught, we overcome the less effective natural man when we choose to be “submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father.”  Mosiah 3:19  Let’s submit to and embrace the curriculum of life.

2. Now, the second thing we can do:

Trusting that Christ shares our afflictions and suffering with us, we can come unto him as a little child and receive His help, comfort and love.

Christ’s atoning sacrifice was infinite. There is nothing we suffer that he does not already understand.  Christ, the Son of God, took upon himself in the flesh our temptations, our sins, our griefs, our sorrows, our pains, our sicknesses, our infirmities, our afflictions, our hunger, our thirst, and death.  He did this, Alma teaches, so “that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor [to strengthen, to help] his people according to their infirmities.”

D&C 133 tells us that, in a future day, at the time of the Lord’s second coming, the saints and the prophets of old will testify about how the Lord took care of them.  The will testify of “the loving kindness of their Lord, and all that he has bestowed upon them according to his goodness, and according to his loving kindness, forever and ever.  In all their afflictions he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them; and in his love, and in his pity, he redeemed them, and bore them, and carried them all the days of old.”

Like in those days of old, Christ has loving kindness towards us. He is afflicted in all of our afflictions. He will save and redeem and carry us all the days of our lives if we will come unto him as a little child.  

In the book The Christ Who Heals by Terryl and Fiona Givens it tells of one of Fiona’s dear friends who suffered an unspeakable atrocity as a little girl.  She was geographically isolated and there was no one to hear her cries or to aid her.  She buried the horror deep within, but the effects haunted her, marring all aspects of her life for many years. She suffered a series of further setbacks and abandonments.  Even after she had become a member of the Church she continued to bear the burden of trauma, in addition to the challenges of single motherhood.  Still, she remained faithful--accepting callings and attending sacrament meetings week after week, year after year.  Fiona marveled at her courage and tenacity.  There was no evidence of respite or healing. Yet still she came.   

Then one day, out of the blue, she approached Fiona with the words, I have something important to tell you.  I do not know if I was awake or asleep, . . . but last night the Savior appeared at the foot of my bed and spoke:  I am so sorry for your life.  I am so sorry for your life,” which, while weeping he continued to repeat until I awoke the next morning to find my pillow bathed in my own tears.”  Tears of divine healing.  Tears of absolute love. She awoke with the knowledge that in the absence of ministering angels, she learned what few of us experience so profoundly: “Man is never left completely alone, abandoned to his own resources. . . . God is taking part in his life and destiny.”    

Nothing extraordinary changed in her day-to-day life; she still struggles with the familiar difficulties.  Something remarkable, however, had transpired in her soul--she knows the Savior is a co-participant in her suffering, and his image is engraven upon her countenance.  

In conclusion, may we humble ourselves and embrace the work and the curriculum of life.  May we come unto Christ as a little child.  As your stake president, I leave my blessing and promise, that if you will do these two things, you will be encircled about by the arms of love and safety, and your hard work and afflictions will be swallowed up in the joy of Christ. 

President Blaylock:

President Marble: