Several years ago, I taught mathematics at a small high school in rural Wyoming and helped coach several different school-sponsored sports. One day, one of my responsibilities included preparing equipment for drills intended to increase the agility of the athletes on our team. The drills involved athletes running through several rope ladders stretched out flat on a field.
The school had eight such ladders and, to help the next team who would use them, it was important to carefully roll each ladder before storing them all together in a single bag. One day, I found the ladders had not been properly stored. They came out in one big, knotted mess. I was hopeful that I could untangle them, but soon realized that the task would not be quick or easy. It was hot, I was tired, and very soon frustrated that I may not have the equipment ready for the team. I worked for 10 minutes trying to separate the ladders but had no success.
I share this experience because I have faced times when my life resembled something like that tangled mess of rope ladders. In reality, many of us might relate to that. President Henry B. Eyring recently said,
Many years ago, I was first counselor to a district president in the eastern United States. More than once, as we were driving to our little branches, he said to me, “Hal, when you meet someone, treat them as if they were in serious trouble, and you will be right more than half the time.” Not only was he right, but I have learned over the years that he was too low in his estimate.[1]
The arithmetic of President Eyring’s statement means that you or one you love is likely experiencing serious trouble. I echo the sentiment that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland shared in general conference many years ago:
I speak to those who are facing personal trials and family struggles, those who endure conflicts fought in the lonely foxholes of the heart, those trying to hold back floodwaters of despair that sometimes wash over us like a tsunami of the soul. I wish to speak particularly to you who feel your lives are broken, seemingly beyond repair.[2]
The devotional discussion board last week asked, “How has Heavenly Father come to your aid during difficult times?” I invite you to ponder that question and how you have been the recipient of divine support as you worked through a trial.
Our mortal trials usually come from one or more sources that Sister Camille N. Johnson recently described. She suggested that each of us carries a figurative backpack on our mortal journey. She said,
This metaphorical backpack is where we carry the burdens of living in a fallen world. Our burdens are like rocks in the backpack. Generally, there are three kinds:
- Rocks there of our own doing because of sin.
- Rocks in our backpack because of the poor decisions, misconduct, and unkindness of others.
- And rocks we carry because we are living in a fallen condition. These include the rocks of disease, pain, chronic illness, grief, disappointment, loneliness, and the effects of natural disasters.[3]
Today, I want to talk about all these burdens and how we can rely on our Heavenly Father to get through them.
Those rocks in our backpacks that got there by our own poor choices (in other words, sin or rebellion) often have two opposing properties. On one hand, thanks to our agency, we have the power to do something about these rocks even if, at first, we can do little more than get on our knees to pray to Heavenly Father for help.
On the other hand, Satan will try to use such rocks to deceive us into thinking our sins have rendered us worthless or bad or unlovable, and we might as well give up. It may feel like these thoughts and feelings represent reality, but they are detrimental to our progress, and they are not true. Contrast these falsehoods that Satan wants us to believe with the perspective taught by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
Godly sorrow leads to conversion and a change of heart. It causes us to . . . love goodness. It encourages us to stand up and walk in the light of Christ’s love. True repentance is about transformation, not torture or torment. Yes, heartfelt regret and true remorse for disobedience are often painful and very important steps in the sacred process of repentance. But when guilt leads to self-loathing or prevents us from rising up again, it is impeding rather than promoting our repentance.[4]
In last week’s devotional, Brother Mat Miles taught that each of us is afflicted by some weakness, temptation, or inclination that might remain with us throughout our life on Earth. He emphasized the importance of showing greater love, compassion, and forgiveness to ourselves and to others when we fall short of overcoming these kinds of burdens.[5]
Elder J. Devn Cornish further confirmed this truth when he said,
[God] will love and correct but never discourage us; that is Satan’s trick. . . . The God of heaven is not a heartless referee looking for any excuse to throw us out of the game. He is our perfectly loving Father, who yearns more than anything else to have all of His children come back home and live with Him as families forever.[6]
Another reason we may hesitate to take the steps required to separate ourselves from sin boils down to unbelief. For whatever reason, we may not grasp the truth that the Savior’s priceless gift is available to us.
Alma taught the Zoramites, “For behold, [Zenock] said: Thou art angry, O Lord, with this people, because they will not understand thy mercies which thou hast bestowed upon them because of thy Son.”[7]
Zenock is focused on the idea that there has been an inestimable and majestic gift given to believers and yet, for whatever reason, the people of his day did not understand, or maybe fully appreciate, that gift.
Our loving Heavenly Father yearns to grant us mercy. Elder Holland taught, “[S]urely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.”[8]
The truth is that each one of us can lay claim to that precious gift of God’s mercy. It is available to us if we desire it, regardless of the nature of the errors we have made in the past. Elder Boyd K. Packer taught, “Save for those few who defect to perdition after having known a fulness, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no offense exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness.”[9]
Elder Holland reiterated this truth:
However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.[10]
What a priceless gift! I testify that the divine mercy and grace of Jesus Christ are available to each one of us! We need not be buried by shame nor deceived into believing that we have lost our eternal value as sons and daughters of God because of our poor choices.
Now let’s turn to the two other types of burdens that Sister Johnson described—those caused by the choices of others and those that are the natural consequences of living in a fallen world.
If we let them, these types of trials can work for our good. They provide opportunities for us to learn humility, develop compassion for others, and forge deep and abiding faith in God.
Elder Uchtdorf has suggested that even the COVID-19 virus was an opportunity for us to grow and improve. He said,
My message today is that even though this pandemic is not what we wanted or expected, God has prepared His children and His Church for this time. We will endure this, yes. But we will do more than simply grit our teeth, hold on, and wait for things to return to the old normal. We will move forward, and we will be better as a result.[11]
Similarly, the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob provided encouragement to the people of his day by reminding them that, although they had been driven out of their homes in Jerusalem, God was mindful of them and had actually improved their situation:
And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land.[12]
The God of heaven sometimes leads us, by means of our afflictions and trials, away from what we thought we wanted toward something even better.
Despite the benefits that will come by patiently and faithfully working through trials, there is no dismissing the fact that they will push us to our limits emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Our trials are often poignantly painful, primarily because they seem to be neither fair nor consistently distributed.
Furthermore, the aspect of time embedded within these trials can be burdensome. Some trials appear without warning, like a thief in the night, and rob us of time and opportunity with loved ones. Other trials require an individual or family to suffer for years or decades with no way of knowing when relief may come.
When we experience these difficult burdens, trusting in the Lord is critical. And often that trust requires us to exercise a great deal of patience. Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught,
Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. Either way we are questioning the reality of God’s omniscience as if, as some seem to believe, God were on some sort of postdoctoral fellowship and were not quite in charge of everything.[13]
When I was 12 years old, I was injured in a BB gun accident that caused the complete loss of sight in my right eye. In addition to the insecurity that came from the slight disfigurement, I was more than a little anxious about living life without full vision.
About a year after the accident, I traveled with my father and brother to attend a general priesthood meeting in Salt Lake City. In anticipation of being in the same auditorium with a prophet of God, I began to think that if I could just look at President Ezra Taft Benson with my injured eye, somehow the powers of heaven would flow from God through that prophet directly to me, and my sight would be restored.
President Benson did not speak at the priesthood meeting that evening, though he was on the stand. During the first few talks, I directed the gaze of my blinded eye (if you can call it a gaze) directly at President Benson.
Initially, nothing happened, but I was undaunted. Hoping that decreasing the distance to the prophet would increase the possibility that a miracle would occur, I inched forward in my seat, leaned my entire body over the balcony, and gazed even more intensely at the stand.
Now, I really would like nothing more than to relate to you an inspiring account of how my faith was rewarded and my vision miraculously restored. But it didn’t happen that night in Salt Lake nor in the days that followed. In fact, even today, I still have vision in only one eye.[14]
Thankfully, what I can see is how Heavenly Father has provided me with everything I need to live with the consequences of the accident. Some of my other senses became more acute, which helped me compensate. I was given divine courage to try things I didn’t think I could do. Most importantly, I received confirmation that this physical limitation does not define my worth or limit my ability to contribute to the Lord’s work. We all have challenges that remain with us throughout this life. I know from personal experience that the Lord will strengthen us in our trials so that we are able to “bear up our burdens”[15] in a determined and cheerful way.
Probably more challenging than impaired vision, however, are times in our lives when we realize that our fondest hopes and dreams have not yet been fulfilled. Perhaps the circumstances of our current lives look nothing like the ones we had yearned for, or even expected, in younger years. To make matters worse, there may be nothing on the horizon to suggest that things will change anytime soon. This realization can be terribly disheartening.
But when life doesn’t seem to be working out as we had hoped, we must “just keep going—with faith—no matter what.”[16]We can focus on making the best of those aspects of our lives that are within our power to influence. And for everything else, we simply wait patiently and “cast our burden upon the Lord.”[17]
Putting this principle into practice is often easier said than done, because sometimes the most challenging part of an intense trial is the temporary absence of peace in our lives. At times, the burdens we must carry are so heavy and the pain we feel is so intense that no earthly comfort can provide full relief. Thankfully, we have the promise of the Savior: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”[18]
Let’s listen to Elder Holland testify of this truth:
This search for peace is one of the ultimate quests of the human soul. We all have highs and lows, but such times come and they usually always go. Kind neighbors assist. Beautiful sunshine brings encouragement. A good night’s sleep usually works wonders. But there are times in all of our lives when deep sorrow or suffering or fear or loneliness make us cry out for the peace which only God Himself can bring. These are times of piercing spiritual hunger when even the dearest friends cannot fully come to our aid.
Perhaps you know people in . . . your local ward or stake—or in your home—courageous people who are carrying heavy burdens and feeling private pain, who are walking through the dark valleys of this world’s tribulation. Some may be desperately worried about a husband or a wife or a child, worried about their health or their happiness or their faithfulness in keeping the commandments. Some are living with physical pain, or emotional pain, or disabilities that come with age. Some are troubled as to how to make ends meet financially, and some ache with the private loneliness of an empty house or an empty room or simply empty arms.
These beloved people seek the Lord and His word with particular urgency, often revealing their true emotions only when the scriptures are opened or when the hymns are sung or when the prayers are offered. Sometimes only then do the rest of us realize they feel near the end of their strength—they are tired in brain and body and heart, they wonder if they can get through another week or another day or sometimes just another hour. They are desperate for the Lord’s help and they know that in such times of extremity nothing else will do.[19]
Can you, or someone you love, relate to Elder Holland’s poignant descriptions: carrying heavy burdens, feeling private pain, walking through dark valleys, desperately worried, wondering if you can get through another week, day, or even hour? If so, I hope you know that you are not alone. When we are asked to travel these difficult roads, there is only one source of true relief, and that is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We can rely on Him.
Going back to that hot afternoon in Wyoming, eventually I did get one of the ladders untangled. It gave me hope to keep working. A second ladder soon shook loose, and before long they all unraveled. To me this event was a “tender [mercy] of the Lord,”[20] though not miraculous.
But when God untangles the knotted circumstances of a seemingly broken life, it most certainly is a miracle. And I testify that God is in the business of miracles.
So please keep moving forward, keep doing what you can, and trust that not only will Heavenly Father sustain you in your times of deepest anguish, but one day “[He] shall wipe away all tears from [our] eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.”[21] In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Henry B. Eyring, “Try, Try, Try,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2018, 90.
[2] Jeffrey R. Holland, “Broken Things to Mend,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2006, 69.
[3] Camille N. Johnson, “Jesus Christ Is Relief,” Liahona, May 2023, 81.
[4] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “You Can Do It Now,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2013, 55.
[5] Mat Miles, “Expectations, Christian Living, Belief,” BYU-Idaho Devotional, Aug. 8, 2023, https://www.byui.edu/devotionals/mat-miles.
[6] J. Devn Cornish, “Am I Good Enough? Will I Make It?” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 32.
[7] Alma 33:16.
[8] Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Laborers in the Vineyard,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2012, 31.
[9] Boyd K. Packer, “The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 18.
[10] Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Laborers in the Vineyard,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2012, 31.
[11] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “God Will Do Something Unimaginable,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 51.
[12] 2 Nephi 10:20.
[13] Neal A. Maxwell, “Patience,” BYU Speeches, Nov. 27, 1979,
[14] Thankfully, the testimony of ancient and prophets (see Alma 11:44 and Alma 40:23, for example) indicate that someday my vision (and my hair) will be fully restored.
[15] Mosiah 24:15.
[16] Carl B. Cook, “Just Keep Going—with Faith,” Liahona, May 2023, 13.
[17] Psalms 55:22.
[18] John 14:27.
[19] Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Peaceable Things of the Kingdom,” Ensign, Nov. 1996, 82.
[20] 1 Nephi 1:20 and Elder David A. Bednar, “The Tender Mercies of the Lord,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2005, 99.
[21] Revelation 21:4.