Near the end of his life, and after his great journey to the Promised Land was complete, Lehi gathered his children. As part of his sermon, he said: “I know in whom I have trusted. My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep” (2 Nephi 4:19-20).
I was reminded strongly of that statement recently, as my own journey that will hopefully culminate with a spot in the Promised Land, hit a stumbling block that made my knees buckle. But through some things that have happened these last few weeks, I can say, as did Lehi: “I know in whom I have trusted. My God hath been my support (2 Nephi 4:19-20).
If you don’t mind, it’s a little personal, but I’d like to share it with you because I think it has a universal application. My life is almost always pretty good. But, occasionally, something will happen that really shakes up my soul, and my life will feel like it’s collapsing. I had such a Day of Despair recently. After suffering by myself for a little while, I knew there was only one way out; I was going to have to have a blessing. And I was going to have to ask for one—which is always hard for me to do.
So I called up Jeremy Schudde, and I asked him to come over to give me a blessing. And he did. And it worked, like blessings always do. One of the things he said in that blessing was, “Some day, this day will look faraway.”
That line particularly hit me. And it became even more meaningful last Sunday during our Priesthood/Relief Society combined meeting when we were watching President Hinckley’s speech. My first year I was at BYU, I took a Teachings of the Living Prophets class, and, in that class, we studied a packet of President Hinckley’s talks. And in that packet was a speech similar to the one we heard last Sunday. And so I knew that he was going to tell a certain story—and even before I heard him say it, the Spirit was telling me what the message was for me.
First, I’ll give the story, and then I’ll share with you the message:
“A group in Cedar City were talking about [Ellen Pucell Unthank] and others who were in those ill-fated companies. Members of the group spoke critically of the Church and its leaders because the company of converts had been permitted to start so late in the season. I now quote from a manuscript which I have:
“One old man in the corner sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it. Then he arose and said things that no person who heard will ever forget. His face was white with emotion, yet he spoke calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity.
“He said in substance, ‘I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. A mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited was there too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company ever apostatized or left the Church because every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.
“‘I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it.’ ” He continues: “ ‘I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.
“‘Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.’ ” (Relief Society Magazine, Jan. 1948, p. 8.)
Now, for the message I was given to help me:
The first part of it is to liken the experience of the Handcart Pioneers to my situation. Like them, I am on a journey. My intended destination isn’t the Salt Lake Valley, it’s the Celestial Kingdom. Like them, my trek will encounter difficult days. There will, at times, stand before me huge obstacles—such as the one I faced the other week. At such a time, it’s easy to say: This is it. This is as far as I can go.
Such was the attitude of Laman and Lemuel, who wanted to stay in the Land Bountiful—instead of pushing on to the Promised Land. But it wasn’t the attitude of Nephi, who wanted to keep going, until he reached his destination. Like Nephi, my job is to keep pushing forward—to keep walking the strait and narrow, now matter how sharp the incline, no matter how difficult the trail.
But like Brother Webster, I never walk the trail alone. The Savior said: “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” (Matt. 11:28-30).
I have found this past week that, indeed, the Savior has been yoked to me, and he helped get through this trouble and over the rock. In a very real way, He bore my burden and made it light. And, now, it is behind me. Perhaps the message I most needed to hear that day was the same that Jeremy gave me in the blessing: “One day, this day will seem so far away.” The stumbling block I faced that day would one day be behind me—never to be encountered again. The Martin Handcart Company didn’t return every winter and say, “Let’s do it again.” Once it was behind them, it was behind them. The stumbling block of today will one day be just a rock in the path of yesteryear—a distant memory I faced and overcame long ago. Those rocks the pioneers pulled their humble handcarts over where one day hundreds of miles behind them—out of sight, never to be seen by them again. A mere pebble I faced and overcame. Perhaps I will have similar trials in the future. But those rocks will not be nearly as difficult because I now know how to manage the course. One day, should I see my journey through and arrive at the Celestial Kingdom, it will not matter how difficult my journey was—what will matter is that I’m there. That I arrived where I wanted to be.
I’ve been thinking about that experience this week as I prepared this lesson, and I’ve seen some similarities between that experience and the stories of Hezekiah and Josiah.
When I asked Jeremy for a blessing, I was asking him to do what a priesthood leader does: Act in the name of the father. And in so doing, act as a conduit between me and my Heavenly Father.
As he stood between my Heavenly Father and me, I know that my Heavenly Father was providing, through one of his priesthood holders, living water for my soul. I thought of that as I studied Hezekiah’s conduit. I am certain that the words I heard in that blessing weren’t Jeremy’s; they were Christ’s. And I’m certain the message I heard on Sunday was a message not from President Hinckley or Bishop Shepherd but a message from God to me. I was also reminded that Hezekiah once stood and urged the priests to “be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him” (2 Chronicles 29:11). On that day, when I needed a blessing, Jeremy wasn’t negligent in his call as a priesthood holder and he stood between God and me. How grateful I am that he was ready when I needed him to be.
In realizing how my prayers were answered, I thought of what the Lord had said to Josiah: “Because thine heart was
tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.” I know God heard my prayers. It was tough for me to swallow my pride and call and ask for a blessing. But I knew I needed that added strength, and I knew I needed a blessing. So I humbled myself. I prayed that God would bless me with the comfort I needed to get through this time. How grateful I am to have a Heavenly Father who listens to his children’s prayers.
Another thing I thought of as I reflected back on this was what had been said of Josiah: “And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.” And I had that verse on my heart this week, when I just happened to stumble across this verse in Alma: “[Christ] cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong” (Alma 7:20).
As I thought about how Josiah prospered because he turned not aside to the right or the left as he walked the strait-and-narrow; or, in other words, he was so focused on walking God’s path that he didn’t consider other paths, and as I thought about our Savior, how in his life, he walked the path so perfectly that even his shadow fell in perfectly with path. I made a realization. I had, in some ways, brought this trial upon me. Because I had been walking that path, but I had been walking while looking off to the side. I wasn’t focused on what I should’ve been focused. I was looking, somewhat enviously, at other things. And that had caused me some problems.
One of the things Jeremy said—or I should say, the Lord said, in that blessing was “Remember that it’s much easier to be happy than it is to be sad.” I agree with that wholeheartedly. By veering my eyes off the path, I allowed myself to start thinking about things that were wrong in my life; not what was right. Satan has a way of just getting into your brain and building a case for why you should be despondent and why you should be in despair. Satan loves to have worry weigh us down. He loves to manufacture fears in each of us; unease in each of us. Satan loves to prey on the small things we dislike about ourselves or our lives and turn those little molehill problems in mountains. Satan has to work overtime to make such arguments because each of us has a million things to be happy about. Sadness almost always is engineered, but happiness is almost always available. It’s just a matter of perspective. Life is to be enjoyed. Not only should you cont your blessings; you should enjoy your blessings. This is the time to smell the roses. To enjoy hanging out with good friends and just enjoying the life that is ours here in America. Of course, that enjoyment should never come at the expense of the commandments or our responsibilities, but there is plenty we can do to enjoy life right here, right now. And our God wants us to be happy.
That falls in with the major message I got from this blessing: Be still and know that I am God. God’s on my side; things will work out; they always do. It was as if the Lord was saying to me what Hezekiah once said to his armies: “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed …: for there be more with us than with him” (2 Chronicles 32:7). The important get me through this time was that I be not like the Israelites who “turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs” (2 Chronicles 29:6), but that I do, as Hezekiah once instructed his people to do: To yield myself unto God.
I know the time will come when my life will have run its course and my journey will be few. And the trial of these past weeks, if remembered at all, will be just a long-past rock. But I hope no matter that no matter what happens to me in my life that I can come to the end of it, as Lehi did, as say as he did: “I know in whom I have trusted. My God hath been my support” (2 Nephi 4:19-20). I know that if I can say such a thing, then I will have done the things that ensure that my destination will be where I want my destination to be: In the Kingdom of My Father.
