All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience

The following story is related in the biography on President Nelson about his time as an army doctor in Korea: “Russell recalls meeting a special wounded soldier in one M.A.S.H. As his team was visiting that facility, one of the doctors, knowing Lieutenant Nelson was a Latter-day Saint, asked him if he would like to meet a seventeen-year-old boy from Idaho who was a priest in the Church. The doctor thought the young patient would derive some comfort from meeting a fellow Latter-day Saint. On the way to the patient's tent, the doctor told Russell that this young man had received a gunshot wound that had severed his spinal cord, making him a permanent paraplegic. As he approached the soldier's bedside, Lieutenant Nelson wondered what he could say that would possibly be of comfort to this young man. After they were introduced, the perceptive young man could tell that Dr. Nelson was genuinely compassionate and concerned for his welfare. This fine young priest uttered words that Russell would never forget: ‘Don't worry about me, Brother Nelson, for I know why I was sent to the earth—to gain experiences and work out my salvation. I work out my salvation with my mind and not with my legs. I'll be all right!’ Russell humbly recorded, ‘The faith of that young man has motivated me ever since. He accepted the fact that he would never walk again as a challenge which would fortify his faith even further.’” (See chapter 10 of Russell M. Nelson: Father, Surgeon, Apostle by Spencer J. Condie.)  What a powerful example about perspective and the true purpose of life! 

               This story reminds me of the words that the Prophet Joseph received in Liberty Jail in his own afflictions.  After describing the awful situations that he might face—perils and false accusations and prison and the fierce elements and hell itself gaping after him—the Savior said, “Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:8).  This seems to be exactly the attitude that the young soldier who lost his ability to walk had; despite this great setback, he knew his mission on earth was to gain experience.  He wasn’t fixated on having a mortal life without challenges but sought rather to grow through challenges in order to gain eternal life.  In the book of Ecclesiastes we read this insightful phrase: “I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it” (Ecclesiastes 3:9-10).  This seems to be saying that we are to have travail—whether physical or emotional or spiritual or any other kind—so that we can be improved and strengthened by it.  The purpose of physical exercise is to improve our health and stamina and strength, but when in the midst of strenuous exercise it can feel like the opposite is actually happening.  So too, it seems, for the kind of travail we were meant to have in this life.  We rarely enjoy struggles in the moment, but “all these things” are meant to give us the experience the Lord wants us to have and ultimately be for our good.     

            Amulek exhorted us in these words: “My beloved brethren, I desire that ye should remember these things, and that ye should work out your salvation with fear before God.”  And how do we work out our salvation?  Amulek’s subsequent list included these invitations: “Humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily….  And now my beloved brethren, I would exhort you to have patience, and that ye bear with all manner of afflictions” (Alma 34:37-38).  This injured soldier showed that he could do just that, bearing with his afflictions and still finding a way to live in thanksgiving and being patient and humble before God.  Surely one of our great challenges in mortality is to similarly bear our own afflictions with patience, humility, and ultimately gratitude as we gain those experiences the Lord sees fit to give us.