The Faith of Joan

Yesterday I watched the BYUtv production of Joan of Arc depicting the incredible faith of this 15^th century young French girl.  I was amazed at how this teenage girl could do such miraculous things and stay so true to the cause that she was sure God had called her to perform.  She did not want the calling she had received but she could not rest until she had done what God told her to do.  She apparently said, “This is not my proper station, but I must go and I must do it, because my Lord wills that I do so” (Pernoud and Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story, pg. 119).  This of course sounds much like 1 Nephi 3:7, and she had the faith and determination and obedience of Nephi.  As one author wrote, Joan as “a girl who never saw her twentieth birthday, but stirred by a cause, lifted by voices from God, motivated by love of country, and touched by compassion for the victims of war’s brutality, simply did unbelievable things!” (S. Michael Wilcox, 10 Great Souls I Want to Meet in Heaven, chapter 3).  Joan’s example and life tells us that we to can accomplish incredible things if we trust in God and do His will.  

                Several scriptures come to mind as I think about the story of Joan of Arc.  The Savior promised, “If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me” (Moroni 7:33).  Later on in the same chapter Mormon taught us, “it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain” (Moroni 7:37).  Surely she showed us the power of faith and that miracles hadn’t ceased even in the Middle Ages as long as there were those like Joan with faith.  Like Paul, her life declared, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).  Another scriptures that certainly comes to mind thinking about Joan is this from the Lord’s preface to the Doctrine and Covenants: “The fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers” (D&C 1:23).  If anyone was weak and simple it was certainly her, a girl who was, to borrow from Joseph Smith’s language, “obscure” and “of no consequence in the world” (see JSH 1:22).  And yet the Lord used her in a most marvelous way because she was obedient to God’s commands.  Nephi ended his writings with this statement, “Thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey” (2 Nephi 33:15).  That was how she lived her life, declaring, “I have done nothing except by revelation from God” (Donald Spoto, Joan: The Mysterious Life of the Heretic Who Became a Saint, pg. 136).  I think that one of the most important lessons that Joan’s life teaches us is that real success in life comes from two things: learning the will of the Lord, and then having the faith to do it.