While driving home a couple of weeks ago, I noticed on the chain link fences that enclose the small sidewalks that cross the road that someone had tied ribbons on the fences in the form of three words that made a huge impact on me "Life Goes On"
These three words resounded in my head the whole ride home and ever since I saw them that day. I had seen them a week or so after the incident in Boston. After the bombings I thought a lot about suffering.
Suffering is defined as the experiencing of unpleasantness.
It comes in all shapes and sizes. It may be physical, mental, or emotional. Whatever the case may be, the existence of human suffering is altogether and entirely real to the person experiencing such unpleasantness.
It's human nature to question the reason behind so much suffering in this world, but over the past couple months I have gained an incredible insight on the suffering of human beings and why it is so necessary for our time here on earth, and what it will bring to us in the future.
I have learned that suffering comes upon all, regardless of your position in life, regardless of race, religion or political stance. Somehow, someway, suffering seems to find us all.
I reflected a lot about this suffering with the bombings in Boston and all the way back to the shootings in Connecticut. I even questioned (all the while knowing the answer) why these innocent people had to suffer in such a way? I know because I testified of God's divine plan for two years, that suffering is essential to our growth as human beings.
The suffering that is brought upon us by someone else's doing is something that we will never be able to change. I don't mean to be interpreted as saying that God is responsible for the shootings of little children, and the bombing of innocent bystanders at the Boston Marathon. But I do mean to say that the suffering we all experience from the misuse of agency of other people is meant to teach us something, it is meant to help us grow and learn and be better people.
We've all read about instances of people overcoming and rising above certain challenges and have seen them flourish because of the valuable lesson learned through the suffering they had to endure. It is a valuable lesson that may not have been learned without having to endure. Our trials in this life and our seemingly unnecessary suffering is meant to turn us to a higher plane, it is meant to lift us to a place we have never been before, and to experience something new that will bless us on life's path. Our suffering is meant to turn us to the Savior and strengthen our faith in those who only seek our eternal well being.
But if our sorrow and suffering strengthen our faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, “[our] sorrow shall be turned to joy.” (John 16:20.)
Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve said, "Suffering to develop strength will not exceed our ability to endure to the end." I believe that it is a promise, that there will be no challenge, no trial, no amount of suffering that will surpass our own ability to continue on enduring until the end.
Tragedy is a lot of times what brings suffering into our lives and it hits all of us. With the passing of the Prophet's wife, Francis, today I am reminded that even the humblest and most caring of God's children are subject to such tragedy and suffering. Although, like the scripture says, our suffering (or sorrow) shall be turned to joy. It may seem unfair that life brings us to people we love and then takes them away from us, but it's part of the plan. It's part of the suffering that we need to endure to be worthy of the blessings that lie ahead for us.
Our suffering should strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ, and I know that although President Monson's faith already exceeds much of our own faith, that his faith is even more unshaken and firm in the Savior of the world. And although the bitter pain of loss may not leave for awhile, he can rest his head tonight knowing that there will be a glorious reunion in Heaven prepared for him and his wife.
Our suffering isn't meant to lead us off the path that God has designed, but rather it is meant to give us something to fight for. At least, that's how I believe. The trials, the struggles and the pain that is felt during our mortal life is to give us something that pushes us forward.
“When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into it’s dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment”
Human suffering may deter us for a moment, but it should not cripple us and stop us completely from reaching our goals. Only when we choose to not struggle against the inevitable changes and suffering of this life, is only when we are able to grow.
To some people the suffering of others may seem minute when compared to their own trials and tests in this life. But each human being is capable of seeing human suffering in a way totally unique to themselves. I know that I have suffered many things that to me seemed like giant mountains, but when compared to the trials of others and the incredible suffering of those around me, my problems of suffering may seem like a tiny hill. Suffering is so unique and so personal to each and every one of the people living on this planet. I always told people that our trials and the suffering they bring were like pairs of shoes. That they were fit just to us. My trials, and my suffering was not meant to be endured by anyone else in the same way as I am forced to endure at this point in time. But my trials, just like shoes, are meant to fit me, and carry me to a place that I have never known, to a place where I will be way better off than in the place I left behind.
I know that during my own suffering I have felt so uncomfortable and so vulnerable. One great lesson was taught to me during one of the moments that I thought I had suffered the most (then I realized that it was only the beginning of a life filled with suffering and growth). Someone once said to me that there is no growing in a comfort zone and no comfort in a growing zone. I knew at that moment that I had felt the most uncomfortable of my entire life and that I felt as though I was suffering. But I knew that I was in a growing zone, and it wasn't right that my growing zone be filled with comfort, because there is very little growing while one is in his or her comfort zone.
"Life Goes On" even amongst life's saddest trials, it seems to continue. It waits for no one. We are expected to pick things up where we left off, learn the lesson that is to be learned and to regain the strength to face other challenges that lie ahead for us.
The Lord said to Joseph Smith when he was suffering the pains and sorrows in jail for simply believing what he knew to be true, "If the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." (D&C 122:7)
All these things, all these sufferings, trials, sadness and heartbreaks are what will give us experience and make us worthy to live in the presence of God one day.
"Suffering is universal; how we react to suffering is individual. Suffering can take us one of two ways. It can be a strengthening and purifying experience combined with faith, or it can be a destructive force in our lives if we do not have the faith in the Lord’s atoning sacrifice. The purpose of suffering, however, is to build and strengthen us."
Because God loves us He tries us. He tries our patience, our love, and our ability to put our will with His own. “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” ― C.S. Lewis
While not all of life's trials and sorrow come from God, many of them, if not all, can be turned and used for our benefit. I know and have faced some of my fair share of trials in this life and I know that as I have overcome each and everyone that I becoming a little more of what my Heavenly Father would like me to be. I am getting one step closer to becoming like my older brother, Jesus Christ. I am being molded into the person that my Father would have me be, the person who would make the most difference, and who would live a life that would make Him and myself proud.
C.S. Lewis also said:
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
"My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom." (D&C 136:31)
What I am trying to get at is that suffering in life finds us all. Young or old. Black or white. Suffering gets to us. But the most important thing we can do is relax and remember that life goes on...
