The Lord Was With Joseph

In a recent podcast, Dr. Lili Anderson spoke about a concept called “antifragile” in connection with the story of Joseph in Egypt. Taking ideas from the book The Coddling of the American Mind, Dr. Anderson explained that some things are antifragile, meaning that “they require stresses and challenges in order to learn, adapt, and grow.” For example, our immune system grows stronger by being introduced to negative elements. Muscles will atrophy unless they are stressed, and similarly bones need weight-bearing exercise to be kept strong. For each of these, the worst thing we can do is give them no pressure or stress—they thrive and develop their full potential by being used and challenged. She suggested that we are the same: “The child of God is made antifragile. We are created to grow under stress. And we don't optimize, if we're not stressed. We just don't. We become weak.” She gave this quote from the book: “Systems that are antifragile become rigid, weak, and inefficient, when nothing challenges them or pushes them to respond vigorously. The modern obsession with protecting young people from feeling unsafe is, we believe, one of the several causes of the rapid rise in the rates of adolescent depression, anxiety, and suicide.” She then commented, “I believe it. Because God set up the world to be a big spiritual weight room. That's what it is. Are we going to build spiritual muscle?” Indeed, we are meant to be tested and tried, we are meant to struggle so that we can grow, to face difficulties so that we can be made stronger as we overcome. The Lord put it this way about the purpose of our life: “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:25). We are meant to be proved, like how we might “prove” the strength of a bridge by putting pressure and weight on it. We prove things by giving them stress and seeing if they will hold up. The Lord put it even more directly in our dispensation this way: “Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son. For all those who will not endure chastening, but deny me, cannot be sanctified” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:4-5). If we want to be sanctified, we must be tried; if we want to be refined, we cannot escape the refiner’s fire.

                As Dr. Anderson suggested, the story of Joseph in Egypt shows us that even when we are righteous we will struggle and face unfairness in life. Even when we are obedient and strive to do what is right we will have setbacks and serious challenges. But the promise of the gospel is not that we will be trial-free; rather, it is that God will be with us and refine us through whatever happens to us. He will consecrate all things for our good if we cleave to Him and stay true even when life is unjust to us. Four times in Genesis 39 we are told, even amidst the unfair treatment that Joseph received, that the Lord was with Joseph: “And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man…. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand” (v2-3). After unjustly being sent to prison the writer again emphasized, “But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy…. the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper” (v21, 23). That is the key that we must remember in our own struggles; His promise is not that He will take away injustice in this life but that the Lord will be with us. As He said to Alma’s people who were in bondage: “And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions” (Mosiah 24:14). At that time he didn’t take away their burdens, but He helped the people bear them. Too often we expect that life should be easy for us because we are trying to follow Him, but that was never the promise. Instead, he wants us to gain strength precisely by experiencing that which is not easy. Mormon’s description of Alma and the other missionaries to the Zoramites surely can apply to us as we strive to follow Him: “He also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ” (Alma 31:38). Like Joseph of old, as we trust in the Lord despite life’s unfairness and strive to live the gospel of Jesus Christ no matter what happens, He will give us strength and see us through all afflictions with joy in Christ.