BEARING OUR BURDENS WELL....

NOTE:  I have been trying to go through files and papers a little at a time to reduce some of the clutter of my life.  Over the years I have saved talks, lessons, letters, you name it--any little scrap of paper on which I jotted a note or an observation of some kind.  It is time consuming.  But it has also been rewarding.  And sometimes there is a little gem that seems worthwhile to pass on.

This is an excerpt of a talk I gave to a Seminary class in our ward a few years ago.  The teacher asked me to share some insight about the topic "Bearing our Burdens Well" as it related to some of Nephi's challenges in the Book of Mormon.  It might seem disjointed as you read it, but I hope the message of enduring well comes through loud and strong.  This quote from Elder Clayton was also on the reference page the teacher gave me.

Whitney L. Clayton in October 2009 General Conference gave this message about enduring well.

“No matter the burdens we face in life as a consequence of natural conditions, the misconduct of others, or our own mistakes and shortcomings, we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father, who sent us to earth as part of His eternal plan for our growth and progress. Our unique individual experiences can help us prepare to return to Him. The adversity and afflictions that are ours, however difficult to bear, last, from heaven’s perspective, for “but a small moment; and then, if [we] endure it well, God shall exalt [us] on high.” We must do everything we can to bear our burdens “well” for however long our “small moment” carrying them lasts.

…I know that as we keep the commandments of God and our covenants, He helps us with our burdens. He strengthens us. When we repent, He forgives us and blesses us with peace of conscience and joy.”

D & C 121:7-8                                                                                                                                                                                     7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;                                                                                                                 8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

I like hymns.  I like LDS hymns of the Restoration and those hymns in our hymnal that are also sung in other churches.  I like to listen to them.  I even hear them sometimes when I am shopping in Hobby Lobby.  And I also like hymns from other churches that we don’t sing in our LDS meetings.   I like the combination of a strong structure of music, the harmony and melody of the verses, and the repetitive chorus.  I like to play them on the piano and the organ.  I am continually awe struck that many of these hymns were written long before the Restoration of the gospel or by people who had no knowledge of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but they were aware of the divinity of Christ and His role as Savior and Redeemer to us ALL through his resurrection and Atonement. 

There is a song that is sung in many Christian churches called “It Is Well with My Soul” written by Horatio Spafford.  It expresses that very message emphasizing the Lord is our Savior and will keep us in peace and comfort.  And all will be well.

These are the words of the first verse, and then it continues three more verses in equally beautiful poetry.

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

Yes.  I like hymns.  And most especially, I like the stories behind the hymns. 

Horatio Spafford’s is a true story of a man who believed in the Savior’s Atonement and was firm and steadfast in spite of suffering a life full of sorrows, loss, and grief. 

He was a prosperous Chicago lawyer and devout Presbyterian Church elder who was active in the abolitionist crusade and other significant reform movements.  His life was characterized by his creed which was simply to go about doing good.  But the things that happened to him could easily have turned him to self-imposed pity.

First, Horatio Spafford lost most of his business and real estate holdings in the Chicago fire of 1871. 

Two years later in 1873, still shaken from the challenges to his family from the fire’s destruction to his livelihood, he arranged for him and his wife and four daughters, aged 11, 9, 7, and 2, to go on a ship to Europe hoping they could renew and rest from their worries.  At the last minute, Horatio was detained by business and sent his wife and girls ahead. 

They were sailing on the ocean liner S.S. Ville du Havre which was hit by a British iron sailing ship.  Within 12 minutes the ship sank into the Atlantic, killing 266 passengers, including all of the Spafford daughters.  Horatio’s wife Anna was picked up, unconscious and floating on a plank of wood, by the crew of the ship which hit their ocean liner.  Nine days later she cabled her husband from Wales, “Saved alone.  What shall I do?”

Of course, Horatio Spafford immediately left Chicago to sail for Europe to bring his stricken wife home.  Though some sources say he wrote this hymn during that voyage, after the captain called him into his office to tell him that they were just going over the spot where his four daughters perished, in truth he actually wrote it a couple of years later. 

As time went on Horatio continued to rebuild his life and extend service to the reform movements which were changing society for the better.  In due course, he and his wife had two more daughters and a son who died at the age of four.

Eventually, Horatio Spafford and his family moved to Jerusalem.  He wanted to live where the Lord had lived, suffered, and conquered death.  His wish was to learn how to live, suffer and especially conquer as the Savior had.

Then, he contracted malaria and died in Jerusalem just four days before his 60^th birthday in 1888.

Focus on one line in this background story….What he did was to go about doing good.

There is a key there that underscores how this man bore his burdens well.

We may not be prosperous or prominent, but Horatio Spafford’s life was a pattern that we can use to assist us as we, too, are confronted with natural conditions, misconduct of others, and our own shortcomings and mistakes.

Lehi’s dream illustrates how we need to hold fast to the iron rod  throughout our lives.  This enduring well is a process of becoming, not a one-time event.  Byron Packard said, “Enduring to the end is an example of strength to everyone else.”  So, we also have a shared responsibility in this process, as well.  And in all of this, it will be our FAITH that will see us through.

First of all, be aware that WE are not the only one who is suffering.  But we can choose HOW we deal with it.  I once read of a very gifted young man who contracted a debilitating condition.  He had been destined to greatness in his field of athletics, and people often commiserated with him by saying what a horrible thing to happen to him—of all people.  They would ask him if he ever said, “Why me?” And this is what he told them, “Why NOT me?  Why should I be excused from the same disease other people have to endure.”  He was aware that we have no control over some things.  But his attitude was positive even though his life wasn’t what he had been looking forward to.

Another young man with this same positive attitude was on one of my flights.  He  had no legs.  But, he had mechanical legs which he USED in his efforts to help other people.  He did not get on the plane in a wheelchair.  He walked on.  And, not only that, he helped several people put their luggage into the overhead bins as he chatted with them and made them feel comfortable during the boarding process.  My flying partner and I were incredulous!  So, when he came to the rear of the aircraft to use the lavatory, we asked him about his “disability”, which didn’t seem like a disability at all.

He said one night when he was a teenager, he was with some friends.  There had been drinking involved and, in the process, some risky behavior in the railroad yards.  A train ran over his legs, amputating them just below the knees.  It was a horrible mistake to face.  But he said during his long and painful recovery he decided that rather than feel sorry for himself, he would do everything he could to help other people who also faced life with limitations.  He was on his way to a conference for people with amputated limbs where he would assist them in putting their lives back together through prosthetics or other means.  And on the way, he helped whomever he came in contact with.  What a contrast to most people who fly with disabilities.  They usually linger to be waited on and are often cross and grouchy and impatient.

We have been blessed with tools to help us in this process of feeding our spiritual selves so that we, too, will be able to endure well to the end.  No matter where we are in life, the first steps are very important because they “set the pace” for our journey.

Do you think Nephi was able to call on the Lord in his extremities in chapter 18 with his brothers if he had been remiss in his personal spiritual habits?  I don’t suspect.  I KNOW that he prayed. He searched the scriptures.  He knew about Jesus Christ and his power to assist us.  That didn’t start the morning his brothers decided to tie him up.  That started years earlier when they were still living in Jerusalem.

And, so it is with us.  The prophets have made promises to us that if we read the scriptures daily, pray, attend Church, and keep the commandments, the Lord is BOUND to help us.  That is part of the promise.

We need to keep our covenants, starting with our baptismal covenant.  Our lives are going to average 30-50% mistakes.  We are not going to escape mistakes.  So repent.  Take His name upon you again each week as you partake of the Sacrament. 

Go to the temple.  Do family history work.  Honor the Sabbath Day.

Then when your trials begin, you will be fortified with all the spiritual reservoir you built along the way.

That has been true in my life.

On a beautiful summer day in 1987, my ten year old boy fell from a big old cottonwood tree about a mile from our home.  He died the following afternoon of a severe closed head injury.  Life was pretty dark.  But it got worse!  My husband quit going to Church and was unfaithful to me.  Eventually he told me he didn’t want to be married to me anymore, and we were divorced after 29 years.

At this period of time when my life was overwhelmed with my husband’s leaving the family, the seemingly impossible tasks of new employment that was more than stressful, and my teenaged son’s chronic health condition, I felt like I was drowning.  However, because I had become familiar with the teachings in the Book of Mormon, I knew treasures of truth appeared when I “likened” the scriptures to my own circumstance.

In chapter 24 of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, Alma and his people were living under great burdens placed on them by the Lamanites.  They prayed for help and received an answer that the Lord was mindful of their situation and would deliver them—but that until they were delivered, their burdens would be eased so the people could withstand them.  The Lord told them he would deliver them from bondage so they could stand as witnesses that he took care of his people in their afflictions.

I had studied that chapter many times before in my life, and I had taught it many times to other people in gospel classes.  I believed the truth of those verses.  So, I read that chapter every day for nearly a year just to sustain and maintain myself—to remind myself the Lord cared about me, too, and would make things easier.    Though I still had to experience those trials, he did make the burdens lighter.  In time, through a series of circumstances, those burdens were lifted, and I was delivered from the “bondage” I was experiencing. 

Those verses in the Book of Mormon carried me through a time of great personal adversity with peace and a comforting knowledge that the Lord is mindful of all his children.

That was how I held on to the Iron Rod and got through the mists of darkness. But it wasn’t just the scriptures that got me through.  It was other established habits.  It was regular Family Home Evening, family prayer, family scripture study, attending Church as a family, honoring the Sabbath Day, fulfilling my calling, doing my personal ministry of service.

I was Gospel Doctrine teacher at the time.  It was through my study for those Sunday lessons that I felt the Lord’s spirit with me.  And, I came to realize that others were praying for me, too!  Their prayers also carried me along when I got low.

Those habits you establish are also part of your process:  your calling right now is the most important one for you at this time.  Make it a priority.  Pray for others.  Look for ways to serve that aren’t always organized service projects. 

Sometimes when you hear the word “SAINT” you might think of Catholic saints, St. Christopher or St. John or even St. Patrick.  But a SAINT is one who receives gifts of the spirit.  Love, Patience, Temperance, etc. Be open to those gifts as you develop habits that invite the spirit. 

Horatio Spafford wasn’t a member of the Church and he wasn’t a SAINT, but as he went about doing good, I believe he cultivated habits that invited the Spirit so he could be confident the Savior would bless him and comfort him in his extremities.  We can do the same.

In Mosiah 3:19 a SAINT is marked by the ability to recognize and respond to a spiritual environment.  We in the Church are called SAINTS for a reason—it is because of our potential to inherit eternal life with our Father in Heaven.  We are imperfect, but we can try perfectly to emulate the Savior.   My personal favorite definition for a SAINT is a person who keeps trying after they “sin”.  We endure well when we do not give up!

Make sure you put yourself in tune so you can feel comfortable with spiritual things, rather than squirm in your seat when things of a spiritual nature are discussed.  For after you have endured well, to the end, it will ALL be spiritual.