TO SUFFER

I have a dear friend whose central attribute of character is compassion. She questions why some people have to suffer so much in this life while others don't? It positively wrecks her soul when she hears of someone's pain.  I have thought about her question long and hard and I offer here my understanding which admittedly comes from a finite and limited mortal view.

I believe fully and completely in the principle of free agency. Because of it we can never blame God for anything we experience. I believe we exercised the privilege of this agency even before we were born as spirits, while we were so called 'intelligences'  (Abraham 3:22).  It makes sense to me that back then  we chose to be born as spirits with a view to be embodied in flesh on our journey to godhood.  I believe that in the spirit world we advanced on different levels and that each of us mapped out a plan for our mortal experience which would enable us to work out our salvation. In other words, we each chose our life's difficulties. We wanted to advance ourselves and because of that there were certain qualities, characteristics and attributes we wanted to acquire and develop. Our lives were planned with  challenges that corresponded with the goals we had to give us the desired end. We also opted for difficult situations for the benefit of others who we wanted to help. I do not believe that we are here to be subjected to random and arbitrary experiences . To randomly have to suffer without any cause  would be supreme injustice. Since God is just this  theory of random suffering does not ring true to me. Hence my belief is that we chose our suffering. That's justice and justice can only exist where there is free agency. The idea that we chose afflictions such as abuse, neglect, physical pain, mental anguish, starvation, poverty and horrific earthly experiences is a bitter pill to swallow now that we are here and are experiencing it. Our understanding is finite and our eternal perspective difficult to maintain.

Two questions arise out of this theory of free choice. Firstly, did we really understand what suffering was having never experienced it prior to mortality? Many of us would argue that we did not. For instance, a woman does not know what child bearing is like until she is wheeled into the labour ward. The interesting point is that she chooses it again even after experiencing it once.  I would argue that we understood exactly and perfectly what suffering would be like and that this understanding was given to us by the power of God's spirit, He himself having experienced mortality and having experiential knowledge thereof. This truth is confirmed to me by the fact that a third of God's children backed out of the Plan because they understood exactly what mortality was going to be like and therefore opted for Satan's plan with the promise of 'free lunch' (D&C 29:36). The understanding must have been incredibly comprehensive and thus Satan's plan very appealing for those spirits to forsake the all consuming love of God the Father and his promise of eternal life with Him.

Secondly, if we understood it so well how could we possibly choose to suffer so cruely? Those who kept their second estate and were brave enough to embrace mortality with the full understanding of what that actually meant must have been brave enough to embrace it for only one reason: they had explicit faith in Jesus Christ and His power to save us from it. So dependable and honourable was Christ from the beginning that we knew with certainty that He would see the task to the end and save each and every one of us. I believe even those who were not to know Him in this life chose His plan because they knew that in the end the Atonement would bring them healing.

I see other reasons for suffering in mortality besides our desire for self-advancement such as a test of faith but all of these reasons pale in significance to the greatest reason of all. Jesus plainly demonstrated this principle when He healed people of their physical infirmities during this ministry. He didn't heal people  just out of His compassion. There was an important lesson to be learnt from it. It is most obvious in the story of a woman who suffered from 'an issue of blood' for 12 years. The Gospel of Mark records that she suffered many things at the hands of many physicians and none could heal her while she grew worse. Imagine hemorrhaging for twelve years with no end in sight. Out of desperation was born faith that Jesus could heal her and heal her He did merely by the touch of His garment. Both Matthew and Mark cite Christ saying to her that her faith had made her whole but Luke adds something more that the Saviour said to her: "Go in peace" (Luke 9:48) denoting spiritual healing as well as the physical one. What was He trying to teach the people He healed?  That the greatest suffering is not of the body but of the spirit and it is this suffering that we stand to be subjected to if we do not come unto Him. The Saviour expressly said if we do not repent of our sins and allow His Atonement to pay the price of sin we will have to suffer even as He (D&C 19:15-18). The suffering of this life would pale in significance compared to such suffering.

The greatest lesson of suffering is that it is meant to bring us to Christ, the fountain of our salvation. I hear people say, "God won't give you anything that you can't handle" but I believe quite the opposite is true. He will give us whatever it takes to bring us to Him for our eternal welfare is His primary concern. Whether we learn that suffering is meant to bring us to Him here and now or are taught this principle after this life, it matters not. By experiencing suffering here we learn what it actually is and most importantly, that we don't want it and that lesson is of eternal advantage. We live in a fallen world where Satan reigns supreme. We will experience suffering from physical bodies, mental illness, from sin and from actions of others.  It all comes for a purpose even if we don't understand what it is. What we need to know and have faith in is that the Saviour has atoned for it ALL. In Him there is freedom, in Him there is peace, in Him there is joy. May we strive to live so that one day we may find refuge and rest in the shadow of His protective arms where rests eternal life.

THE EASINESS OF THE WAY

 "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."   (Matthew 11:28-30)

"In Biblical times, the yoke was a device of great assistance to those who tilled the field. It allowed the strength of a second animal to be linked and coupled with the strength of a single animal, sharing and reducing the heavy labour of the plow or wagon. A burden that was overwhelming or perhaps impossible for one could be equitably and comfortably borne by two bound together with a common yoke....

Why face life's burdens alone, Christ asks, or why face them with temporal support that will quickly falter. To the heavy laden it is Christ's yoke, it is the power and peace of standing side by side with a God that will provide the support, balance, and strength to meet our challenges and endure our tasks here in the hardpan field of mortality." (President Howard W. Hunter, Conference Report, October 1990)

The yoke in mortality that each one of us must bear is the responsibility to become perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. This responsibility is our journey to godhood and eternal life, a journey that we cannot travel alone for a yoke requires two to pull the burden attached to it. We cannot choose whether to bear a yoke, that choice was made before this world was, but we can choose which yoke we will bear. We can either choose to bear the yoke of Christ or the yoke of the Adversary. Christ has offered us His yoke and has promised that His yoke is easy. This yoke entails covenants and obedience and sacrifice. We might well ask ourselves, how can such a yoke be easy? The yoke of 'perfection' is easy because Christ is yoked by our side, gently leading us in the direction we should go to avoid the pitfalls and heartaches and shouldering the weight we cannot bear. His strength compensates for our lack and empowers us to overcome and become. With Him comes power and enlarged capacity. In short, he makes the way easy with the endowment of His grace.

A life of sin with scorching consequences which is the yoke of the Adversary is a far heavier and harder yoke to bear in mortality than Christ's yoke of commandments, covenants and sacrifice. When you are yoked with the adversary, you are left to bear the burdens of sin such as shame, addiction and moral degradation alone. The Adversary is not interested in being yoked with someone to bear burdens and consequences of sin. He is only interested in placing the yoke of oppression that leads to spiritual destruction on those who are willing to take it.  Satan's is a 'yoke of iron' that 'brings us down into captivity' (1 Nephi 13:5). Christ's yoke, on the other hand, offers freedom from sin and its devastating consequences. His compassion and mercy make it possible for us to cast off the yoke of sin and bondage and be free as is illustrated by the sinful woman who dared to enter the house of Simon, the Pharisee and who wept as she bathed the Saviour's feet. This woman would have found no forgiveness from Simon, a representative of the austere 'law' she was subject to but in his house she found the Saviour who was willing to take the burden of her sins upon Himself, to pay the price of justice in the winepress that He had to tread alone (Isaiah 63:3).

Simon, who was repulsed by the sinful woman, who omitted to observe the custom of the day to treat a distinguished guest with 'marked attention; to receive him with a kiss of welcome, to provide water for washing the dust from his feet, and oil for anointing the hair of the head and the beard' (Jesus The Christ, p. 261) stood in poor contrast to a sinful woman who acknowledged Christ's saving grace, who 'stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment' (Luke 7:38). This woman 'represents all of us with our burdens, making our way to the one true source of rest and relief. Knowing that ridicule might well follow her entrance into the eating chamber, knowing that her reputation would accompany her, and knowing that she would not be welcome by some within, still she entered. She was heavy-laden with the recognition of her sins and the downward spiral of her life' (Ted L. Gibbons, NT Lesson 10: Take My Yoke Upon You and Learn of Me, March 2011).

To those of us who are weighed down with heavy burdens of remorse and sin, mortal hardship and pain, sorrow and discouragement and who are often overwhelmed with the requirements for exaltation, the Saviour offers relief and peace, comfort and help. He alone has the capacity to carry all our burdens and all our sorrows and all our imperfections. He who has hung on the cross has taken upon Himself the hardships of mortality for each one who would come to Him and believe. He alone can wipe the slate clean and wash our garments though they be as scarlet to once again be white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). If we come to Him, He will set us free and He will encircle the faithful in the arms of His love (D&C 6:20).

For "he shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom............" (Isaiah 40:11).