Psalm 30:5, 11-12 Joy Cometh in the Morning

Psalm 30:5, 11-12

For his anger endureth but a moment: in his favor is life, weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.

Thou has turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.

To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent, O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever.

I have no idea why life is so unpredictable and unfair. Take, for example, a recent video about hurricane Harvey where people were sharing how grateful they were for the volunteers that arrived to help them remove drywall and get all of the ruined things out to the curb for pickup. And yet there are still homes that have not been rescued from hurricane Katrina and Sandy - nor from the Detroit flooding in 2014. Where is the fairness when some get help and others don't?

And my own life bears witness to the fact that so often we have periods of trouble in our lives followed eventually by periods of great joy.

Humans have an amazing resilience and can rise from the deepest wounds to find joy again.

I like how the psalmist here says "to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent."

I see a lot in that simple statement. We sing praise not because God manipulated our circumstances but because he strengthened us and gave us the courage to endure, to learn, to humbly accept our trials and to rise above them. When we are at our weakest, His power and strength sustain us. We call upon Him and find Him there. For that reason we praise His name and give thanks. Of that we bear testimony.

I have been struggling this week with a conference talk called By Divine Design given by Elder Rasband. The main idea is that there are no coincidences. He says our lives are like a chessboard and the Lord is moving the players. The events in our lives are by "divine design".

Elder Rasband talks about his own life, of being placed in a home with loving parents, of meeting his wife, of a businessman who gave him a job, etc none of which he felt he had orchestrated for himself. It was by "divine design".

I could say the same about my own life. There is so much that was given to me by others who touched my life along the way, loving me, mentoring me, guiding me to become the person I am. I am not a self-made person. Rather, I just went along with the flow of the world into which I was placed. And I was given a beautiful life. I could tell of many steps along the way where I felt the Lord's hand in my life, of people that were placed there when I needed them, of opportunities opened. And I am deeply grateful for all of those blessings. I thank the Lord constantly for all the goodness that is filled my life.

But how can I say those events were by divine design when so many others have not likewise been blessed. Why would the Lord use divine design to bless some and not others?

D&C 38:26

For what man among you having 12 sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently and he saith unto the one: be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other be thou clothed in rags and sit down there - and look upon his sons and say, "I am just"?

2nd Nephi 26

For none of these inequities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men, and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men, and he invited them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female, and he remembereth the heathen, and all are alike unto God both Jew and Gentile.

From what I understand of God, it is impossible for him to bless some and not others. If he is responsible for the goodness in my life, then I must hold him equally responsible for the tragedy of others lives. If he placed the right people on the chessboard to guide me, did he also place the human trafficker on the chessboard, or the rapist, or the murderer?

I don't like uncertainty anymore than anyone else but I prefer to see life as random - a necessary condition of our mortal existence. I would never say to another human being in the midst of any sorrow or tragedy that this is by "divine design" or "for your own good". That would be cruel. 

But at the same time I find comfort in knowing the plan of salvation. Earth itself is not a random happening. The creation of this planet for our mortal probation was by divine design. There is meaning and purpose to be found in this experience. And as the Lord said to Joseph in liberty jail:

And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep, if the billowing surge conspire against thee, if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way, and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know this, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. . . 

Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee, for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

I trust - I really do - that we will look back at our Earth experience and see that it truly allowed us to grow and become more like God - more patient, more humble, long-suffering, filled with greater love and compassion. Having experienced evil, we will reject it and choose goodness. We will not be just children doing what we are told, but mature beings who now know why. That "why" will have transformed us. Our hearts will have been broken somewhere along the way and hopefully we will have discovered the One who is mender of all things broken.

I believe that much of that mending is done on the other side. It has to because of the countless lives that end in the upheavals of nature and by the hand of evil men. There was no joy to follow the morning for so many - not here on Earth. But there will be. . .

I personally like the philosophy of Rabbi Harold Kushner in his book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. ( p. 127)

"If we let go of making God responsible for everything that happens in life, then we can let go of all the problems that thinking causes: 

• You didn't get what you prayed for because you didn't deserve it.
• You didn't get what you prayed for because you didn't pray hard enough.
• You didn't get what you prayed for because God knows what is best for you better than you do.
• You didn't get what you prayed for because someone else's is prayer for the opposite result was more worthy.
• You didn't get what you prayed for because prayer is a sham, God doesn't hear prayers.
• You didn't get what you prayed for because there is no God."

I've heard so many reasons why we don't get what we pray for. Not the right time, need to pray longer to prove to God we really want it. We need more faith. We need to prove our worthiness before He will listen to us. I've even heard well-meaning people say that we have to be more specific and how we word our prayers. Hogwash!!

The restored Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that God has given us agency and God does not interfere with our agency. Life on Earth is a trial - not that we are on trial but that life here is difficult. The Gospel was given to us to help us and strengthen us during this mortal time.

Prayer, likewise, is meant to help us find strength and courage for the task.

There is a beautiful quote on page 141 of Kushner's book. He says, "We don't have to beg or bribe God to give us strength or hope or patience. We need only turn to him, admit that we can't do this on our own, and understand that bravely bearing up under adversity is one of the most human, and one of the most godly things we can ever do. One of the things that constantly reassures me that God is real, and not just an idea that religious leaders made up, is the fact that people who pray for strength, hope, and courage so often find resources of strength, hope and courage that they did not have before they prayed."

I called this type of prayer "the prayer that cannot fail". When we pray for things, for circumstances to change, for the agency of others to be overridden in favor of what we want, etc., etc. we have learned to add that prayer the words nevertheless "Thine will be done."which in fact and knowledge is we may not get what we prayed for. It also helps us to accept whatever the outcome will be.

But when we pray for spiritual gifts - for strength, courage, the ability to forgive, for charity, for increased faith or hope, and we are sincere or as Mormon puts it, "Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart", then the Lord will bestow those gifts.

And these gifts he bestows equally to all who ask - for all are alike unto God.

As we grow older those gifts are critical. We cannot ask God to turn back the clock for us. We cannot escape the fact that our bodies are wearing out. We learned the futility of praying for such. We seek strength to face one day at a time and we spend much time expressing gratitude for all we have for everything becomes more and more precious as the years go by.

Hymn # 145 Prayer is the Soul's Sincere Desire

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire

Uttered or unexpressed, 

The motion of a hidden fire

That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,

The falling of a tear, 

The upward glancing of an eye

When none but God is near.