Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation ...” (John 16:33). Most of us, though, have positive expectations for the future. But what if life is not as we had hoped it would be? How do we manage the unexpected, and the not-so-desirable turn of events?
To the paralytic man lying helpless on a bed, Jesus proclaimed, “Be of good cheer” (Matthew 9:2). To the frightened Apostles battling the tempestuous sea, Jesus appeared on the water, declaring, “Be of good cheer” (Matthew 14:27). To Nephi the son of Nephi, who was subject to an arbitrary law threatening his life and the lives of other righteous Nephites if the signs prophesied by Samuel the Lamanite didn’t occur, the Lord said, “Lift up your head and be of good cheer” (3 Nephi 1:13).
As Joseph Smith met with ten elders about to be sent out, two by two, to missions fraught with trouble and danger, the Lord announced, “Be of good cheer” (D&C 61:36). In each instance the people had every reason to be anxious, fearful, and hopeless, yet the Lord directed them toward a reason to rejoice.
How does the Lord’s admonition of cheer sound when it is applied to you and me in our world today? When economic uncertainties, terrorist threats, and corruption provide top stories for the evening news, where does the good news of the gospel intervene? When we experience personal loss in so many ways and on so many days, what is left to be cheerful about?
THE KEY TO CHEERFULNESS
We find the key to understanding this seeming contradiction in the context of the Last Supper. Speaking to the Apostles in His final moments before Gethsemane, Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “How was it possible for the Twelve to be of good cheer?” Elder Neal A. Maxwell asked.
The unimaginable agony of Gethsemane was about to descend upon Jesus; Judas’ betrayal was imminent. Then would come Jesus’ arrest and arraignment; the scattering of the Twelve like sheep; the awful scourging of the Savior; the unjust trial; the mob’s shrill cry for Barabbas instead of Jesus; and then the awful crucifixion on Calvary. What was there to be cheerful about? Just what Jesus said: He had overcome the world! The atonement was about to be a reality. The resurrection of all mankind was assured. Death was to be done away with—Satan had failed to stop the atonement. [But a Few Days (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1983), 4]
How does the Lord’s admonition of cheer sound when it is applied to you and me in our world today? When economic uncertainties, terrorist threats, and corruption provide top stories for the evening news, where does the good news of the gospel intervene? When we experience personal loss in so many ways and on so many days, what is left to be cheerful about?
THE KEY TO CHEERFULNESS
We find the key to understanding this seeming contradiction in the context of the Last Supper. Speaking to the Apostles in His final moments before Gethsemane, Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “How was it possible for the Twelve to be of good cheer?” Elder Neal A. Maxwell asked.
The unimaginable agony of Gethsemane was about to descend upon Jesus; Judas’ betrayal was imminent. Then would come Jesus’ arrest and arraignment; the scattering of the Twelve like sheep; the awful scourging of the Savior; the unjust trial; the mob’s shrill cry for Barabbas instead of Jesus; and then the awful crucifixion on Calvary. What was there to be cheerful about? Just what Jesus said: He had overcome the world! The atonement was about to be a reality. The resurrection of all mankind was assured. Death was to be done away with—Satan had failed to stop the atonement. [But a Few Days (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1983), 4]
I wish to focus my remarks today on the role of Christ’s enabling power in our ability to feel cheer amid mortal gloom and doom. Misfortune and hardship lose their tragedy when viewed through the lens of the Atonement. The process could be explained this way: The more we know the Savior, the longer becomes our view. The more we see His truths, the more we feel His joy. But it is one thing to know that’s the right answer in a Sunday School class and quite another to experience firsthand a cheerful outlook when current circumstances are far from what we hoped. If we would develop faith to apply the Atonement in this manner and not merely talk about it, awareness of imaginary finite boundaries, inadvertently placed on the Savior’s infinite sacrifice, can be meaningful. Consider two false assumptions that, if pursued, will block our appreciation and access to the Lord’s divine assistance.
First is the false assumption that, if we are good enough, we can avoid having bad things happen to us and those we love. If we can just keep all of the commandments and pay an honest tithing and have daily prayer and scripture study, we can appease God, earn His good pleasure, and thereby assure ourselves of His protection from heartache, accident, or tragedy. When such thinking drives us, we “want victory without battle,” Elder Maxwell observed, “and expect campaign ribbons merely for watching” (Men and Women of Christ [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1991], 2). So trials will surely come, including when we are trying to do everything right. Elder Richard G. Scott warned, “Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously.” He explains that a “reason for adversity is to accomplish the Lord’s own purposes in our life that we may receive the refinement that comes from testing” (“Trust in the Lord,” Ensign, November 1995, 16).
If we hold the belief that God will shield us from tribulation because of our obedience and then adversity strikes, we may be tempted to accuse God of not hearing our prayers or, worse, that He doesn’t honor His promises. Obedience to God is not insurance against pain and sadness. Some unpleasant things just come with this telestial turf. Challenges have always been included in God’s great plan to test our faith, to stimulate in us growth, humility, and compassion. Heartache and struggle were divinely designed to stretch us to where we have nowhere else to turn but to God.
The ground was cursed for Adam’s sake, and Eve was promised that her sorrow (or hardships) would be multiplied (see Genesis 3:16–17). The Apostle Paul acknowledged, “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, . . . to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2 Corinthians 12:7). The Lord required Sariah to send her sons back into harm’s way before she found her own conviction of God’s will for her family (see 1 Nephi 5:1–8). Christ’s mission was never intended to prevent hearts from breaking but to heal broken hearts; He came to wipe away our tears, not to ensure that we would never weep (see Revelation 7:17). He clearly promised, “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 16:33).
First is the false assumption that, if we are good enough, we can avoid having bad things happen to us and those we love. If we can just keep all of the commandments and pay an honest tithing and have daily prayer and scripture study, we can appease God, earn His good pleasure, and thereby assure ourselves of His protection from heartache, accident, or tragedy. When such thinking drives us, we “want victory without battle,” Elder Maxwell observed, “and expect campaign ribbons merely for watching” (Men and Women of Christ [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1991], 2). So trials will surely come, including when we are trying to do everything right. Elder Richard G. Scott warned, “Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously.” He explains that a “reason for adversity is to accomplish the Lord’s own purposes in our life that we may receive the refinement that comes from testing” (“Trust in the Lord,” Ensign, November 1995, 16).
If we hold the belief that God will shield us from tribulation because of our obedience and then adversity strikes, we may be tempted to accuse God of not hearing our prayers or, worse, that He doesn’t honor His promises. Obedience to God is not insurance against pain and sadness. Some unpleasant things just come with this telestial turf. Challenges have always been included in God’s great plan to test our faith, to stimulate in us growth, humility, and compassion. Heartache and struggle were divinely designed to stretch us to where we have nowhere else to turn but to God.
The ground was cursed for Adam’s sake, and Eve was promised that her sorrow (or hardships) would be multiplied (see Genesis 3:16–17). The Apostle Paul acknowledged, “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, . . . to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2 Corinthians 12:7). The Lord required Sariah to send her sons back into harm’s way before she found her own conviction of God’s will for her family (see 1 Nephi 5:1–8). Christ’s mission was never intended to prevent hearts from breaking but to heal broken hearts; He came to wipe away our tears, not to ensure that we would never weep (see Revelation 7:17). He clearly promised, “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 16:33).
We cannot know the future, but we certainly know this — we will have unforeseen difficulties that take us by surprise. This happens to everyone. While some appear to live a fairly trouble-free life, we cannot know what may be happening in their lives.
Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany and died in 1827 in Vienna, Austria. He was one of the most gifted composers in history. He composed nine symphonies, six overtures, thirty-two piano sonatas, nineteen sonatas for strings, seven concertos, one opera, and numerous other works.
It was 1802. He was 32 years old, and miserable. Why? He was losing his hearing. He had tried all the remedies, but it seemed inevitable, and he eventually became totally deaf. He wrote to his brothers, “What a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing. . . Such incidents drove me almost to despair. A little more of that and I would have ended my life.”
Had Beethoven’s difficulties overcome his passion, the world may have never known the extent of his musical genius.
But what about ordinary people? We may not consider ourselves so gifted, with some unique genius to give the world. When we face challenges, we may have no special passion from which to draw strength. How can we overcome despair?
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). What Christians do have is the knowledge of the gospel. Therein is the Christian’s gift to the world (cf. Romans 1:16). In this he has a purpose and strength for living. He has knowledge of the double-cure, greater than a cure for diseases and more consequential than all the medical research of the day.
We do have a strength for living that counter-balances all our unforeseen challenges and disappointments, if we have obeyed the gospel and we are living with sincerity and diligence, with heaven as our primary objective.
