“The Process Will Change Us”

In the film “Mans Search for Happiness” Elder Evans states:

“Life offers you two precious gifts—one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for base desires. You may invest it in greed. …

“Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are no bargains, for in them you find no lasting satisfaction.

“Every day, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years must sometime be accounted for. And it is in this‍ life that you walk by faith and prove yourself able to choose good over evil, right over wrong, enduring happiness over mere amusement. And your eternal reward will be according to your choosing.

“A prophet of God has said: ‘Men are that they might have joy’—a joy that includes a fullness of life, a life dedicated to service, to love and harmony in the home, and the fruits of honest toil—an acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—of its requirements and commandments.

“Only in these will you find true happiness, the happiness which doesn’t fade with the lights and the music and the crowds.”  Elder Evans “Mans Search for Happiness”

President Heber J. Grant said this:

“There is but one path of safety to the Latter-day Saints, and that is the path of duty. It is not testimony, it is not marvelous manifestations, it is not knowing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, . . . it is not actually knowing that the Savior is the Redeemer, and that Joseph Smith was His prophet, that will save you and me, but it is the keeping of the commandments of God, the living the life of a Latter-day Saint.” [Heber J. Grant,Improvement Era, November 1936, p. 659]

Much has always been asked of a true disciple of Jesus Christ. The accounts we have in the scriptures teach us of the blessings of performing our duty. Those that follow Christ are not free from heart ache and adversity but they know as Nephi said “in whom they have trusted”.

Let me encourage you by telling you a story. President Eyring told this story that his father shared with him. His father told it with the intent to chuckle at himself. It was a story about his trying to do his duty, just the way you try to do your duty.

Quote “Now you have to know a little bit about my father. His name was Henry Eyring, like mine. His work in chemistry was substantial enough to bring him many honors, but he was still a member of a ward of the Church with his duty to do. To appreciate this story, you have to realize that it occurred when he was nearly eighty and had bone cancer. He had bone cancer so badly in his hips that he could hardly move. The pain was great.

Dad was the senior high councilor in his stake with the responsibility for the welfare farm. An assignment was given to weed a field of onions, so Dad assigned himself to go work on the farm.

Dad never told me how hard it was, but I have met several people who were with him that day. One I talked to said that he was weeding in the row next to Dad through much of the day. He told me the same thing that others who were there that day have told me. He said that the pain was so great that Dad was pulling himself along on his stomach with his elbows. He couldn’t kneel. The pain was too great for him to kneel. Everyone who has talked to me has remarked how Dad smiled, and laughed, and talked happily with them as they worked in that field of onions.

Now, this is the joke Dad told me on himself, afterward. He said he was there at the end of the day. After all the work was finished and the onions were all weeded, someone asked him, “Henry, good heavens! You didn’t pull those weeds, did you? Those weeds were sprayed two days ago, and they were going to die anyway.”

Dad just roared. He thought that was the funniest thing. He thought it was a great joke on himself. He had worked through the day in the wrong weeds. They had been sprayed and would have died anyway.

When Dad told me this story, I knew how tough it was. So I said to him, “Dad, how could you make a joke out of that? How could you take it so pleasantly?”

He said something to me that I will never forget, and I hope you won’t. He said, “Hal, I wasn’t there for the weeds.”

Now, you’ll be in an onion patch much of your life. So will I. It will be hard to see the powers of heaven magnifying us or our efforts. It may even be hard to see our work being of any value at all. And sometimes our work won’t go well.

But you didn’t come for the weeds. You came for the Savior..” President Eyring

The refining process is different for each of us. The amazing thing, when we think of the billions of God’s children, is his plan accounts for us each individually and offers us each a personally tailored path back to him. Complete with the necessary trials and triumphs. The real challenge is to submit ourselves to the Savior and accept his will as our own. To make his duty our duty.

We read that the Apostle Paul sought to be healed from the “thorn in the flesh” that buffeted him (2 Corinthians 12:7). I’m sure he must of thought “if only I was free from this affliction just think of the people I could help and teach”. Yet on three separate occasions the Lord declined to heal him.

Have we ever thought to ourselves “if only I had more strength, if only I had better health, if only I was younger or if only I were older then I could make a difference”.

Paul later wrote that the Lord explained, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9). Paul obediently responded that he would “rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me … for when I am weak, then am I strong” (vv. 9–10).

Years ago when I started my business we were just getting by trying to find work and get established. I spent a great deal of time praying for the Lords help to provide for my family and the families of those that worked for me.

During one particularly slow time I was praying and searching for a job to get us through the slow winter. I was presented with an opportunity to perform the demo work for a bag house.

For those that are not familiar with what a bag house is. It is a huge enclosed structure that sits about 40 feet in the air above burners. It contains filters to filter the air from the burners.

 Now this bag house was at a silver refinery and had been out of use for some time. The bag house had over 600, 11 foot long filters each about 8 inches in diameter that needed removed and the filter bags separated from the cages.

 I went and looked at the job, pulled one of the cages that was loose and cut the filter from the cage. I was comfortable with our ability to perform the work even though I had never before seen anything like this.

The most astonishing thing was that the payment amount offered was almost exactly what we needed to get through the next month. I saw this as an answer to prayer and agreed to start that next week.

We started Monday morning, but it wasn’t long before we realized how difficult the task before us really was.

 The filter I pulled while looking at the job was the exception. The remaining filters required unbelievable effort to remove them. We tried hammers, crow bars, pics, hammer drills, grinders and nothing seemed to help. As we worked and pulled the filters, the soot from the filters caused a dark, black cloud to fill the bag house. We would constantly take turns walking outside to get fresh air.

 We worked late into the evening only removing a few dozen that first day. We went home that night exhausted and covered in black soot. It was a sobering thought as we anticipated the next day’s labor.

The next day was much of the same. The work was draining. My fingers were blistered and sore from pulling the filters and my back was aching from hauling the long awkward cages.

At one point I found myself alone in the bag house kneeling down pulling on the filters. The others had gone out for fresh air. I started to feel as though I could do no more. My strength was gone. I prayed to my Heavenly Father “I Know this is a blessing from you but I don’t have the strength to go on and if we don’t finish we will not receive the payment we so desperately need. Please help.”

 As I closed my prayer, I felt a wonderful warm feeling inside me and new I had help from above. The work didn’t get much easier. We did develop some techniques that help speed up the process but day after day we went home filthy and exhausted and woke the next morning able to press on.

We finally completed the job! It did require, however, discarding every tool or item of clothing we used on the job as the thick layer of soot wouldn’t come off, but I was reminded of a valuable lesson that day.

 I keep a picture in my scriptures, which I would love to show anyone interested, of us as we finished on the last day working on that bag house. Covered in black soot head to toe with tools in hand and smiles on our faces. I wrote a scripture from Moroni 7:33 on the back with a note that simply says “faith in Christ = power to accomplish his work”,  and now when I am faced with difficult tasks or feel I have given all I can I look at that picture and remember the strength of the lord, the strength beyond my own.

 

 

 

 

Alma taught his son Helaman, as he began his ministry:

“Preach unto them repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ; teach them to humble themselves and to be meek and lowly in heart; teach them to withstand every temptation of the devil, with their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Teach them to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls.” [Alma 37:33–34]

President Eyring said:

“The good works that really matter require the help of heaven. And the help of heaven requires working past the point of fatigue so far that only the meek and lowly will keep going long enough.

The Lord doesn’t put us through this test just to give us a grade; he does it because the process will change us.”

The evidence of this process is all around us. We see it in our friends and family those we respect and admire most for their strength and determination. We can also see it in ourselves if, we look close enough. It’s often marked by challenges and trials. Not because we seek for difficulties but because doing the right thing often means making sacrifices or coming out of our comfort zone to reach out to those around us.

Most off the fruits of this process are found in quiet times of reflection. We can see the blessings. We know as the storm rages on around us the inner peace the Savior offers us. “Peace I leave with you, (He said), my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27

Brothers and sisters I have a testimony of this process. Each of us must accept the Lord’s sacrifice and the eternal gift of the atonement through more than word alone, but through action.

 I pray as we receive guidance from our prophet and, as we receive goals and challenges from our stake and ward leaders, that we will see them as part of our duty and remember“Faith in Christ = Power to accomplish his work”.

 I Testify, that he is, as the scripture says, “Him who is mighty to save.” 2Nephi 31:19

May the Lord bless each of us as we press forward calling on His holy name, is my prayer.

 In the name of Jesus Christ amen.                               -Joshua James Tidwell (The first)