"They Must Needs Be Chastened and Tried, Even as Abraham"

Readings: 

Doctrine and Covenants 101; 103; 105.

The next two posts will address the age old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? This post will be about hard experience as a people.  The next will be more personal.

No one in this world will escape life without have some sort of rough experience.  Why? Why do things seem to be so hard sometimes and easy other times?  When the going is easy, we think we have life figured out.  When the going is tough, it becomes painfully obvious that we don't know much and have control over little.  Some would say that 'that's just the way life goes'.  That's true.  But there is more meaning in our hard experiences than just experiencing it and moving on.  There is more than just learning from our mistakes and trying not to make them again.  Our hard experiences shape us. They don't just shape us to be better people while we are alive, to be called survivors and victors and resilient and strong.  Our experiences shape us to become better people, and closer to God, for eternity.  Why do we care about that?  Because there just has to be more to life than being called survivors, victors, resilient and strong.  There is just too much pain, too much evil, too much struggle, too much despair in this world to only get the title of "survivor" before your death.  Hope comes with knowing that all we experience now, bad and good, will help us have true joy with God after this life.  Not only that, but to know when we return to live with God again, we will not be burdened with pain, sickness, temptations, guilt, despair, depression, addiction, sorrow and many other hard experiences.  But, how we bear these things now, as well as how we operate in our joyful times, will determine our condition in the next life.

It comes down to this: have you maintained faith in Jesus Christ through your ups and downs?  If you answered no, that's OK.  He'll take you as soon as you initiate a return to Him. Whew!

Sections 101, 103 and 105 come from a rough period of time for the new Latter-day Saints.  They were being driven from their homes because their beliefs were new and different from mainstream Christiandom at the time.  There were being hunted and their belongings and sustenance destroyed.  Why would the Lord let awful things happen to the people who were trying to follow Him?  Because whatever it looked like on the outside, the Lord knew their hearts.  Apparently there were commandments and directions not being followed, so in this case, the hard experiences were in consequence of their disobedience.

DC 101:2,6

 2 I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon them, wherewith they have been afflicted, in consequence of their transgressions;
 6 Behold, I say unto you, there were jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them; therefore by these things they polluted their inheritances.

DC 103:4

 4 And that those who call themselves after my name might be chastened for a little season with a sore and grievous chastisement, because they did not hearken altogether unto the precepts and commandments which I gave unto them.

You would think that this means God is really a vengeful jealous God only.  But listen to what he says is the purpose of chastisement:

DC 95:1

 1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you - 

As backward as it may seem, He chastens us because he loves us.  He says that he chastens us so we can be forgiven of our sins.  How are we forgiven?  By accessing the atonement of Jesus Christ, which is how we are delivered.  So, here's a summary:

we receive direction/commandments ->
we disobey ->
we are chastened with hard experience ->
we realize we disobeyed ->
we ask for forgiveness through Christ ->
we are forgiven ->
we receive more direction ->
if we obey, we progress, if we do not obey, the cycle starts over again.

There is a great scripture in The Book of Mormon, Helaman 12:3, that is painful, but a truth about humanity:

 3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

However, Hebrews 12:11 gives a promise:

 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Chastening isn't easy, but it can bring peace if we handle it with God, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Because ultimately:

DC 101:9

9 Verily I say unto you, notwithstanding their sins, my bowels are filled with compassion towards them. I will not utterly cast them off; and in the day of wrath I will remember mercy.

As I said before, what it comes down to is if we maintain faith in Jesus Christ:

DC 101:35-38

35 And all they who suffer persecution for my name, and endure in faith, though they are called to lay down their lives for my sake yet shall they partake of all this glory.
 36 Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.
 37 Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul.
 38 And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life. 

If we are faithful and hopeful in Jesus Christ through our trials, he has promised that blessings will come.  Perhaps not in the form that you think or want, but blessings that he knows you need will come. But when those blessings come, you are still accountable for how you receive those blessings and what you do with them.

DC 103:12-14

 12 For after much tribulation, as I have said unto you in a former commandment, cometh the blessing.
 13 Behold, this is the blessing which I have promised after your tribulations, and the tribulations of your brethren—your redemption, and the redemption of your brethren, even their restoration to the land of Zion, to be established, no more to be thrown down.
 14 Nevertheless, if they pollute their inheritances they shall be thrown down; for I will not spare them if they pollute their inheritances.

Before I sign off for this post, I feel that I need to make sure there is an understanding that not all of the bad/difficult things in life are a chastisement from God.  We actually do much of his work for him.  That is, we make our own bad choices that have hard consequences and we have a lot of pain and sickness and suffering that are a result of our mortal bodies and minds.  Whether our learning experience comes as a result of disobedience or as a result of our being human, both require faith for sustenance.  He will help us with both.