Say Thanks for the Trials...
"Come unto me, all ye that labour 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)
Do
we believe these verses? If we do, do we understand them? I guess I
have believed the Savior when He says this, but I have never truly
understood these words until the past few days. Thanks to my friends
Brigham Young and Gordon B Hinckley, I have come to more fully
understand this comforting invitation from the Savior.
My boy Brigham put it this way... "As to trials, why bless your hearts, the man or woman who enjoys the spirit of our religion has no trials;
but the man or woman who tries to live according to the Gospel of the
Son of God, and at the same time clings to the spirit of the world, has
trials and sorrows acute and keen, and that, too continually...Cast off the yoke of the enemy, and put on the yoke of Christ, and you will say that his yoke is easy and his burden light. This I know by experience."
So
Brother Brigham, are you telling me that there are no such thing as
trials? Not even when I lose my job, or my loved ones die, or my
children suffer, or when I don't get what I want? How absurd! But
that's exactly what Brigham is telling us. Basically, when we cling to
the things of this world and to the selfish desires of our hearts, while
at the same time we try to live the Gospel and serve the Lord, all we
will feel is sadness, frustration, anger, and confusion, because we just
want to do our time so God can give us the things the we think will
make us happy. And then we beg and plead for God to just give us what we
want because we think they will make us happy, and feel we are doing
what He wants us to do. But God says no, that's not how this works. You
don't know what makes you happy. I do. Just trust in Me and let me lead
you! Stop thinking and dreaming with your finite mind and put this yoke
on your neck and just let Me lead you! Don't fight Me anymore! I promise
what I have in store is better and happier than anything of this world
that you can dream up and fantasize about!
Tell us more Brigham!
"Now if you possess the light of the Holy Spirit, you can see clearly that the trials in the flesh are actually necessary...
Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation...
If
the Saints could realize things as they are when they are called to
pass through trials, and to suffer what they call sacrifices, they would
acknowledge them to be the greatest blessings that could be bestowed
upon them...
We are the happiest
people when we have what are called trials; for the Spirit of God is
more abundantly bestowed upon the faithful..."
What?
So trials are actually blessings? Yup. And we should actually rejoice
in them. Say thanks for those trials, because they are actually some of
the greatest blessings God can give us. Let's here from my boy Brigham
again, " In everything the Saints may rejoice-in persecution, because
it is necessary to purge them...in sickness and in pain, though they
are hard to bear, because we are thereby made aquainted with pain, with
sorrow, and with every affliction that mortals can endure...I rejoice
because I am afflicted. I rejoice because I am poor. I rejoice because I
am cast down. Why? Because I shall be lifted up again. I rejoice that I
am poor because I shall be made rich; that I am afflicted, because I
shall be comforted, and prepared to enjoy the felicity of perfect
happiness, for it is impossible to properly appreciate happiness except
by enduring the opposite."
If we claim to
know and understand the Great Plan of Salvation, and the purpose of our
short time here in what is called mortal life, we hopefully understand
one of the simplest and most over used scriptures in all of missionary
work, which reads, "For behold, this is the time for man to prepare
to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to
perform their labors." (Alma 34:32) God didn't send us here so we
can get rich, get pretty, get buff, get a big house on the beach and
just spend all the rest of our lives playing around and enjoying the
company and comfort of our loved ones on the beach for all time and all
eternity. Now doesn't that sound happy? But God has better things
planned. He sent us here to perfect us.
It says
in Hebrews chapter 5 verses 8 and 9, that Jesus was made perfect
through suffering. Trials, and challenges, and sufferings, and heart
breaks, and persecutions, and pain and death are all essential for our
temporal progression here in mortal life and for our eternal salvation
in the life to come. So maybe we oughta do as Jesus invites, and put on
that yoke of His, and cast off the yoke of the enemy, and turn our
thinking around, and put smiles on our faces, with a spirit of trust,
humility and gratitude towards the Lord, along with some foresight for
the eternal life and the fullness of joy that is surely to come, and tell
ourselves, Come what may, and love it! So as Brigham says, " Have no fears, for if the word of the Lord is true, you shall yet be tried in all things..." because
life will keep on changing as it always has, and the trials will never
stop as long as we still draw breath and we can be assured that those
trials are actually for the furthering of joy and progression, and as Gordon B Hinckley says, "...the trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride;
and really, isn't it a wonderful ride? Enjoy it! Laugh about it! Sing
about it!...In all of living have much of fun and laughter. Life is to
be enjoyed, not just endured."
We must humble ourselves, and follow King Benjamin's counsel in Mosiah 3:19,
and become humble and submissive and full of reverence and trust toward
our Father in Heaven, willing to submit to anything the Lord seeth to
inflict upon us, because it is for our good. We should be like Paul, and
rejoice that we are afflicted and that we suffer, because we are
following in the foot steps of the Master, who also was made perfect
through trials and suffering.
I don't know
about you guys, but all the sudden I think trials are fun. I might be
going insane, but really I almost want God to give me more. I see it as
almost like a game. To see how many 'bad' things can happen to me and
proof to the world that I can actually have joy and triumph in the very
moment of the intense heat of the refiner's fire, because trials are
actually blessings! So if any of you happen to see me stub my toe or
something, don't freak out if I look heavenward and say "Thank You!"
HAHA
Sorry about the super long and deep
spiritual shpeel and for all the quotes, but my mind was blown this
week and i just really wanted to share it with you guys.
This
week was dope. We had exchanges with both the A.P.s and the office
elders and I learned a bunch from them. My brain feels like mush and I
am forgetting how to speak English and Tagalog and any other means of communication because my brain is constantly thinking a million miles
per second because there is so much work to do in my area and in my zone
and yah life is crazy as a missionary...but guess what I actually love
it cause it makes me stronger.
I do hard things; it makes me stronger. -my uncle Mathis
Love you all and thanks for the prayers!
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