"Jesus descended below all things in order to rise above all things...Yoked with Him, we can rise above all challenges, no matter how difficult they may be"
--- Russell M. Nelson (Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
The ups of life aren't without the occasional counterpart. As undesirable as they usually are in the moment, the tribulations of life are part of the journey of mortality. It was part of Heavenly Father's plan of happiness that we would face hardships in life, the likes of which not only have the capacity to make us stronger and more resilient, and even more compassionate, but perhaps is the only way we could know strength, resilience, and compassion. Who can put an estimate on the number of souls that have cried to the universe demanding answers to, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" or "Why do bad things happen to me?". I don't have a perfect explanation for why specific things happen to specific individuals, but it is my belief that opposition is purposeful. That doesn't mean that I believe that God takes pleasure in our pain or sorrow, but I know that Jesus Christ willingly descended below all things so that He may both be able to understand us perfectly, and also know how to heal us. Perhaps a complete appreciation of His love and Atonement can only be realized after we ourselves have gotten the smallest taste of misery and pain that He felt on our behalf.
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ON OUR KNEES
I recall a certain weekly District Meeting led by our District Leader, Elder Rangel at the Las Torres chapel in Matamoros (See "Mission Administration", "Attributes of Christ", and "4th Area: Las Torres, Matamoros"). In few words, our weekly missionary efforts fell far short of what they should have been. Hope was all but gone and quick solutions seemed unlikely. Despite dedicating roughly 10 hours a day, 7 days a week to sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, it seemed like we barely ever had anything to show for it. I don’t particularly recall what was taught in that training meeting but I remember that the air of the entire room at the end was extra sober. I swear you could almost hear a pin drop. As we always did to end the meeting, and as we so often did throughout the day as missionaries, we got up off our chairs, turned and faced them, and knelt together on the floor as Elder Rangel offered himself to say the prayer for the group. I heard his heartfelt plea to Heavenly Father for help and solutions to our problems. There was such pain in his voice, it seemed like he was crying to Heavenly Father both metaphorically and literally (Alma 18:41; Enos 1:4). There was ultimate humility in his words. Such love for us and desire for our success. It was a longer-than-usual prayer. Not rushed. His soul poured out until the tears followed suit. And I'll tell you, that it's not every day you saw your friend --- your "superior"--- broken to the point of tears. The whole time, I wasn't so focused on what he was saying as I was wanting to go over and hug him as soon as I had the chance. His sentiment was contagious. When he said amen, and we opened our eyes, we didn’t stand up right away as we usually would and go on with the day. The first thing we did, still kneeling, was silently turn our heads to look at Elder Rangel who was still collapsed, laid across his chair in blubbering tears, coughing, and pink-faced. Upon closer inspection, we could see blood was running from his nose! At first, I wondered if he had somehow hit his head on the chair, causing him to bleed and which would account partly for why he was crying. But it didn’t appear to be the case. Humbled, we all helped him to his feet, thanked him for his lesson, and went in for a group hug with renewed hope and deeper love.
GETHSEMANE AND THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST
That last night before His crucifixion, Jesus took His disciples, including Peter, James, and John with Him into the secluded Garden of Gethsemane just outside of Jerusalem. I don’t imagine much was said in their walkover. They would have had to cross nearly the whole length of the city before reaching Gethsemane to the East. It would have been dark. Maybe the stars were out. It was late enough that the Apostles fought to stay awake to no prevail. They were instructed by the Savior to wait while Jesus went a stone’s cast away to pray to the Father. Even though He did so willingly, as He prayed, feeling a depth of emotions that we can’t even comprehend nor the magnitude of which He probably anticipated, He asked if it were possible that the bitter cup (the pain He was feeling) could be removed from Him. But despite the severity of it all, He continued to experience it for our sake saying, "Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). It was in that place that the matchless miracle of all miracles began which we call the Atonement. To atone means suffering the punishment of sin, which allows the repentant sinner to be reconciled with God. Christ took upon Himself the entirety of pain, sickness, infirmities, and emotional suffering of the world past, present, and future. The complete and simultaneous culmination of all the worst sensations that not only the righteous, but even the wicked had ever or would ever experience in life physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. So tremendous was His selfless torment that the scriptures record that it caused Him, even God, the greatest of all to bleed from every pore of His body (Luke 22:44; D&C 19:18). He suffered more than man can suffer and live, He being the only one capable of performing a universal atonement as the Only Begotten of the Father. He willingly descended beneath us all, further than anyone ever could. So terrible was His suffering that an angel had to come to strengthen Him. (Luke 22:43)
When I looked at Elder Rangel, I thought of that occasion of infinite love and humility that caused the Son of God to bleed. I for one cannot recall ever bleeding while praying but I can now tell you of at least two people who have.
I have heard it suggested before that the more we try to pattern our lives after the example of Jesus Christ, the more we come to understand Him, and the more we experience things as He experienced them. None of us will ever go through the magnitude of what Jesus Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane or anything else He did in life, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that the message of Christianity is that we try to emulate Jesus Christ. We do this in small and simple ways as we strive to keep the commandments of God and grow in love and service to others. (See "Obedience: A Sign of Love")
WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?
Why do bad things happen to good people? It's a question as old as time, with a less than clear-cut universally accepted explanation. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the October 1996 General Conference offered us some words of wisdom to consider, however, said he:
“With time and perspective, we recognize that such problems in life do come for a purpose, if only to allow the one who faces such despair to be convinced that he really does need divine strength beyond himself, that she really does need the offer of heaven’s hand. Those who feel no need for mercy usually never seek it and almost never bestow it. Those who have never had a heartache or a weakness or felt lonely or forsaken never have had to cry unto heaven for relief of such personal pain. Surely it is better to find the goodness of God and the grace of Christ, even at the price of despair, than to risk living our lives in a moral or material complacency that has never felt any need for faith or forgiveness, any need for redemption or relief”.
“…As beloved Eve said, were it not for the difficulties faced in a fallen world, neither she nor Adam nor any of the rest of us ever would have known “the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.” (Moses 5:11)
So while there might not be a universal answer explaining every inconvenience or injustice, if for no other reason, what hardships do is remind us that we are stronger together and that we are strongest on the side of God (See "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism"). God wants us on His side not selfishly but because that's where the greatest blessings are, the blessings that transcend mortality. In the grand scheme of Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness, the great purpose of mortality is to prepare us to become as He is (See "Eternal Life: As God Is"). Before coming to Earth, we existed as spirits in the presence of God, but our progress was limited (See "Return of the King -- Part 1"). In order to become like our Heavenly Father, we had to obtain a physical body and exercise faith and opposition outside of God's immediate physical presence. We understood then that life wouldn't be without opposition, but we accepted the plan because we had faith in the redeemer who would enable us to overcome them. And so, just as opposition was always part of the plan, so was a Savior, even from before the world was.
I find that challenge often gives us purpose. It gives us something to hope for and to work towards, and to feel greater satisfaction having overcome those things along the way. God's purpose is to help us become like Him, and He can only do that by giving us opportunities to feel what He feels, among which are some of the most divine attributes such as compassion and mercy (See "Attributes of Christ"). And so, while I don't believe that God delights in our tribulations, He allows them to happen so that we can have chances to grow emotionally, spiritually, and so forth. How could we know compassion without sorrow? How could we know relief without discomfort? How could we know right without wrong? How could we choose without choices? It is only through diversity and adversity that we can attain a full spectrum of divine characteristics.
If ever we feel like things aren’t going as we want, if the world seems to be conspiring against us, we would do well to remember that the only perfect person in world history had a hard life as well. With His Atonement, it became unarguable that His life was the hardest life a person ever had or could have. Things were never easy! So if you ever wonder why bad things happen to good people, take a second to remember that bad things happened to the best person too!
The Son of God, despite His perfect and sinless life of service, was pursued by naysayers throughout His whole three-year ministry (See "Christ's Ministry"). At times, he was sought out to perform miracles to satisfy curiosities, but not all had faith. He rebuked such people seeking signs or entertainment (See "Falsehoods and Sign-Seeking"). In his famous “Bread of Life” discourse in which He testified of himself being the bread of life sent from heaven, we read that many who previously believed thereafter “went back and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). At the end of His ministry at the conclusion of His time in Gethsemane, He was arrested, unlawfully accused, and put to death on the cross. But because of His perfect selfless sacrifice and by virtue of His divine heritage, His was resurrected on the third day, thus completing the purpose and majesty of the Atonement. If Jesus were to ask us as He asked the Apostles, “Will ye also go away?”, I hope we would answer like Peter, “We believe and are sure that thou are that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:67-69). Even though not everyone will choose to follow Christ, I can promise you that Jesus Christ will never abandon us. Even though His mortal ministry was two millennia ago, I remind you that Jesus Christ lives still, an immortal resurrected being who is ever mindful of us and who continues to open His arms to us as we choose to accept them. It is never too late to return to Christ and His restored gospel. (See "Ministering to the One")
Just because we are upset with life at times, I can testify that it is possible to overcome the darkness and come out triumphant. I have personally seen it time and time again. Sometimes our problems don’t go away when we wish them to but that does not mean we have to give up. Every story has a happy ending if we wait long enough (See "Eternal Life: As God Is"). When things seem unbearable, remember the words which Jesus offered in that Garden of Gethsemane in that the darkest hour of history, “Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.” (Luke 22:42)
We must remember that because bad things often do happen to good people, that bad things do not always come as punishment for something. Tribulation is not always God's anger manifested! Remember the man whom Jesus healed who was blind from birth. Jesus’ disciples then believed in the common misconception of their day that such disabilities were a consequence of sin. They asked Him, “Who sinned? This man or his parents?” Jesus responded, “Neither this man nor his parents but that the works of God might be made manifest in him” (John 9:1-3). Sin was uncorrelated to his circumstance. There was no man or woman guilty of his impairment, but this impairment on this occasion ended up being a blessing in disguise. Unlike many recipients of Jesus' miraculous healing, this blind man wasn't looking for this miracle; Jesus came to him. But the miracle did not happen then and there. Jesus anointed his eyes with clay and instructed him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. I can only imagine what must have been going through this man's mind as one who'd never seen a thing in his life, now with this unusual prospect of sight. I know that I would have been a bit skeptical. Nonetheless, the man was faithful and found his way to the water and washed his face, and gained vision. To some of the spectators, so miraculous was this event that even with the man in front of them, they could not believe it. But to some, if only to the man himself, this event was something never to be forgotten as a testimony of not only Jesus Christ's divinity but also of His personal love for a single individual.
Maybe we are not always blessed in the way that we ask or hope for. Sometimes God's plan or timing is different than ours and our prayers can't always change that (See "Administering to the Sick and Afflicted"). But I believe that faith and patience are essential parts of becoming perfected in Christ (See "More Than Good"). It is faulty thinking to believe that "If I have enough faith, I'll get what I want". True faith is unconditional and is not selfish. True faith is trusting in the Lord and His timing even when things are not as we want them to be. It might just be that our tribulation is for our own good and for our long-term benefit.
“I give unto men weakness that they may be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Ether 12:27)
The prophet Job’s story is well-known. He is a paragon of resilience. He was one who committed no wrong but who suffered some of the worst things a person could. Despite losing his family and his health to his livelihood and friends, he still said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: The Lord gives, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (Job 1:21-22). I doubt that most of us would have the kind of resilience that he would when so many of us who haven't even gone through half as much as he did still cry out every now and then "Why did this happen to me?!". After all these tribulations, at length, the blessings of mortality returned to Job. But in Job we see the truest exemplar of faith, that our circumstances in life are but fleeting things and that the thing which matters most is loyalty to God. What is faith when all is well, except when things are not going well? Even if everything in life is stripped from us, I, like Job, testify that there are eternal blessings on the other side of mortality that await the faithful. I've heard it said that faith isn't faith until it's tried and I believe that.
THE CONDESCENSION OF GOD
When Nephi in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ was shown the interpretation of his father’s vision in a similar vision of his own, he saw the coming of Christ and His mortal mother Mary. The interpretation of the vision was expounded to him by the Spirit of the Lord who asked Nephi many questions, checking if Nephi understood what it all meant. At one point, the spirit guide asks him, “Knowest thou the condescension of God? And [Nephi] said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.” (1 Nephi 11:16-17)
That's a word that you don't hear every day, "Condescension". The former Bruce R. McConkie (1915 - 1985), Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints taught that condescension, “is the act of descending to a lower and less dignified state; of waiving the privileges of one’s rank and status; of bestowing honors and favors upon one of lesser stature or status”. President Ezra Taft Benson, past prophet of the Church (1899–1994) taught, “It means to descend or come down from an exalted position to a place of inferior station”. What a glorious thing it is to remember that Jesus Christ, He who descended below all things, was before mortality, the great Jehovah. We can scarcely comprehend just how glorious was His place and power in heaven even before His resurrection and yet He came down to mortality to subject himself in order to rescue us. So great was Jesus' love for us that He was willing to suffer in our stead in order to extend to us mercy that could satisfy the demands of justice and enable us to be forgiven (See "Repentance" and "More Than Good"). "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13)
While God the Father’s condescension reflects His great love for all mankind by permitting His Only Begotten to be sacrificed for even the humblest and lowliest of His children, Christ’s condescension was more personal and visible—for He was the sacrifice (See "Great Sacrifice"). His condescension was manifest by who He was and the way He lived. His condescension can be seen in almost every recorded act of His 33 years of mortality. He lived a life of humble circumstances, the son of a carpenter born in a manger who apparently during His adult life was homeless (See "Refugees"). Even the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized has the lowest elevation of any river on Earth (See "Baptism by Immersion"). Jesus went beneath it all, why?
“[So] that his bowels may be filled with mercy…that he may know according to the flesh how to succor (help, or literally “run to”) his people…” (Alma 7:12)
I don’t know that we can completely comprehend the condescension of God but if there is one thing we should be sure of, it is as Nephi knew, that Heavenly Father does everything He does because He loves us. He sent His Son as the greatest proof of this.
So when life has you troubled, remember that you are in good company. You are not alone. Not only do God the Father and Jesus Christ know what you're going through, there is no shortage of others in the world going through similar things as you. We are all in this together. As we're meant to be. And there is wisdom in this. Although I don't know all the reasons for all the bad things in life, I know that life goes on. While I acknowledge that some people go through harder challenges than others, I know that God loves all of us equally and that even the greatest of us has to know the bitter in order to know the sweet.
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