Priesthood Lesson - Dealing With Adversity
Yesterday, I was priviledged to give the lesson in our ward for Priesthood Meeting. I was asked to pick one of the talks from Geneal Conference and expound on it. When given the assignment, I immediately remembered a talk which included a story about a woman during World War II who was force on a long evacuation trek in the dead of winter. She had already lost her husband and started with several children, all of whom died, one by one on the trek out of starvation and cold. Her last child died a short distance from the final destination. Upon arriving, she was said to be in the advanced stages of starvation herself. She no longer had any desire to live. But she decided to stay alive because the spirit whispered to her the eternal truth that if she kept her covenants on earth, then she would be reunited with her family in the eternities. So she did so.
I searched through numerous talks, but could not find that particular talk. I ended up printing off 4 different conference talks - all about dealing with adversity - and made the best of it.
In the class, we all commonly agreed that the main thread in the conference was that many of us are going through hard times right now. But if we will keep our covenants with the Lord, he will watch over us and be with us to overcome the trials. We must also be reaching out beyond our family circle to find ways to help others.
I was surprised to find in the lesson that when I asked the men, how many of them are personally going through hard times right now, about 2/3 of them raised thier hands. I thought to myself, the problems of today are deeper than I thought. Then we discussed the different trials that people may be going through.
Aside from the obvious trials of today’s harsh economic times, there are people who are struggling with loneliness. I pointed out that it is very possible to be lonely while being very married.
President Holland gave a really unique talk in conference called None Were with Him. He taught in that lesson a concept about the atonement that I had never heard before. Here is an excerpt from that talk.
Of course others among the believers had their difficult moments as well. Following the Last Supper, Jesus left Peter, James, and John to wait while He ventured into the Garden of Gethsemane alone. Falling on His face in prayer, “sorrowful . . . unto death,”8 the record says, His sweat came as great drops of blood as He pled with the Father to let this crushing, brutal cup pass from Him. But, of course, it could not pass. Returning from such anguished prayer He found His three chief disciples asleep, prompting Him to ask, “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” So it happens two more times until on His third return He says compassionately, “Sleep on now, and take your rest,” though there would be no rest for Him.
Later, after Jesus’s arrest and appearance at trial, Peter, accused of knowing Jesus and being one of His confidants, denies that accusation not once but three times. We don’t know all that was going on here, nor do we know of protective counsel which the Savior may have given to His Apostles privately, but we do know Jesus was aware that even these precious ones would not stand with Him in the end, and He had warned Peter accordingly. Then, with the crowing of the cock, “the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord. . . . And [he] went out, and wept bitterly.”
Thus, of divine necessity, the supporting circle around Jesus gets smaller and smaller and smaller, giving significance to Matthew’s words: “All the disciples [left] him, and fled.”15 Peter stayed near enough to be recognized and confronted. John stood at the foot of the cross with Jesus’s mother. Especially and always the blessed women in the Savior’s life stayed as close to Him as they could. But essentially His lonely journey back to His Father continued without comfort or companionship.
Now I speak very carefully, even reverently, of what may have been the most difficult moment in all of this solitary journey to Atonement. I speak of those final moments for which Jesus must have been prepared intellectually and physically but which He may not have fully anticipated emotionally and spiritually—that concluding descent into the paralyzing despair of divine withdrawal when He cries in ultimate loneliness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
The loss of mortal support He had anticipated, but apparently He had not comprehended this. Had He not said to His disciples, “Behold, the hour . . . is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” and “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him”?
With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required; indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.
The book of James in the New Testament was written by the brother of Jesus. The main theme of that book was about overcoming trials. In considering that this was a topic so close to his heart, I personally believe that family life in the home of Mary and Joseph could not have been easy. They were likely pushed around and persecuted from every side on a continual basis by supporters of the adversary. Joseph Smith’s family had their exceedingly serious share of trials; however, their trials probably paled greatly in comparison to the trials experienced in Jesus family. Unfortunately, we have no record of it. It is just something that I personally believe.
I ended the lesson in talking about the fast offering. Our previous bishop who was recently released briefly stood up in Sacrament Meeting announcing that there are many families in the ward really struggling financially today. He asked us to be very generous in our fast offerings - money which the bishop turns around to give to the families in the ward who are in need. While the bishop has since been released, I was recently riding in the car with a member of the bishopric who mentioned to me that there are so many families in the ward who are really struggling right now. I asked the members that in light of all that is going on that they seriously consider that if they have the means, then dig deeper to give generously to the fast offering. For that is one way that we can today live the law of consecration while helping those in need through these difficult times. Instead of building our kingdom on the earth, where moth doth corrupt and rust doth cancor, let us instead build up our riches in heaven by sharing of our means helping others with their needs.