Trial and Tribulation
By: Erin Davis
I would love your thoughts, comments, and opinions on anything I post!
Throughout my life, these trials and tribulations tend to shake my foundation that I thought was so firmly planted in the Gospel soil. There are times when my foundation goes weak, and it becomes hard for me to believe the things that I once so strongly believed. Despite all that, there has always been one thing that has always been strong. It is the love that God and His Son, Jesus Christ, have for me. It is my foundation of all foundations.
Trials of faith come in all shapes and sizes. One may doubt the divine calling of Joseph Smith as a Prophet. One may doubt the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. In the midsts of my own doubts that I have had in my life, I have never been able to logically and coherently doubt the love that God has for me. That has been my anchor in my life. It has carried me through the very darkest moments of my life, and I know it can carry anyone through the worst of times, just like it did for me. The video above by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf that always brings me tears. It reminds me that I am a literal child of God. It reminds me that He knows me, and He knows exactly how I feel in every moment of the day. It gives me strength to carry on. It gives me reason to keep going until I find my foundation again.
I testify these things are true. I know that whatever you're going through, the Lord is right by your side. I testify He loves you.
I read a talk called Bread or Stones yesterday. It was a devotional given by Michael Wilcox at BYU Hawaii a couple years back, and he talks about the concept of trials and about the feeling of waiting for answers. One of the things he discusses is what happens after Jesus feeds the multitude with five loaves and two fish. He sends the multitude away and begins to pray and His disciples head out to sea in a boat. By the time he finishes it's nightfall and His disciples are trying to row back in to shore. The wind and the waves are beating on the ship and they're struggling to make it back, and the scriptural account says Christ watches his disciples struggle against the sea as they row for the equivalent of 75 football fields. He waits until the fourth watch (so somewhere around 3 in the morning) and finally comes to them.
ReplyDeleteThis, for me, is what can make trials so incredibly hard. Because I think "ok yeah I get it trials are hard I'll learn something" and I can endure for a while but there comes a point where I think I'm done.I think "Ok I've learned what I'm supposed to time to bail me out God" but He doesn't. He sits there and watches and waits until the fourth watch of the night. And in that sense it's sometimes very hard to properly understand why He is waiting (And Wilcox talks about this in the devotional I mentioned) because you go through this process of "why isn't God helping me?" so you think 'Is He not there?" and that's wrong because you know he's there and that He loves you. So you think "Is He not listening?" and you know that's wrong because you know He does listen. And you can get into dangerous territory thinking "Well maybe I'm not worthy enough." But that's not right either because none of us are worthy enough.
I think this kind of "waiting till the fourth watch" approach to dealing with His children's problems allows God to teach us several things at once. It teaches us faith and helps us strengthen our belief that no matter what the Lord is always there, even if we can't see Him. It teaches us to learn to manage pain and sadness and grief in a healthy way--an attribute I think is actually going to be very important in the Celestial Kingdom. It helps us become more acutely aware of His love for us. I think it would be much easier to take His love for granted if every time I asked God for something I got it--that creates spoiled children. But understanding that He was there the whole time (feeling as much pain as we were) helps, at least for me, to illuminate how deep His love for me is. Especially when the relief finally comes. It's so much sweeter, so much more powerful when the Savior reaches out his hand and saves us from the darkest point in the night and finally pulls us from danger. It shows how truly powerful He is.
Anyway, just some random, rambly Tuesday morning thoughts that probably don't even have that much to do with the original point. Great post though, thanks.
I really like that! That's so true!! I often find that it's when I'm just at the point of giving up and walking away from it all is when the Lord finally steps in. I pray and pray and pray, but it's not until the very last second(the 4th watch) that he steps in and helps me. I think he does that because then we know for a fact it was His help and intervention. Otherwise, we pat ourselves on the back for having done something that we thought was of our own power.
ReplyDeleteThough it sucks sometimes, there's so much wisdom and love by doing this. It reminds us, when we're in the deepest pit and ready to abandon everything, that God is there, and He's listening. It reminds us that he hasn't abandoned us. Overall, it strengthens our faith, knowing that the Lord never truly abandons us.
Thanks for your input! I really liked it!!