On In So Great a Cause

At the beginning of Elder Holland’s talk he shared a humorous note from a 7-year-old who said to her bishop: “Dear Bishop generle confrins was Boring why Do we half to Do it? tell me why.” He laughed about this and suggested that his talk wouldn’t help her perceptions and then said that he was Patrick Kearon. Elder Kearon was the next speaker and continued the joke suggesting he was Elder Holland. The whole exchange reminds me of something that Elder Eyring once told a small group of students at BYU that I was part of. As we stood there and he was speaking to us he said something like this: “If I were President Hinckley, I would tell you a joke right now.” His point was that President Hinckley, the prophet at the time, was very good at seeing the humor in life and wanted us to be able to find joy in each day. I remember one conference talk when he said something to this effect: “Many of you go around gloomily as if you have weight of the whole world on your shoulders. I do have the weight of the world on my shoulders and yet I am happy.” (I can’t find the exact quote.) He was very good at seeing things with great optimism and facing difficulty with humor and faith.  

                Much of the message that Elder Holland gave was indeed about finding the joy of the gospel in our lives even amidst the difficulties of we face. He said, “My plea today to our youth, and to you parents and adults who advise them, is to begin your search for happiness by embracing the bounty we have already received from the giver of every good gift. At precisely the moment many in the world are asking deep questions of the soul, we ought to be answering with the ‘good news’ of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” He encouraged us to be on the “sunny side of the street” and seek to “sing the song of eternal salvation.” He suggested that “we do run into that fellow from time to time who is determined to find something bleak and dismal about everything. You know his motto: ‘It is always darkest just before it goes pitch-black.’ What a malignant vision, and what a miserable existence! Yes, we might sometimes want to run away from where we are, but we certainly should never run away from who we are—children of the living God who loves us, who is always ready to forgive us, and who will never, ever forsake us.” While not diminishing the seriousness of the challenges we face collectively and individually, he urged us to not fear but instead believe in the Savior. Indeed we have countless scriptural examples of encouragement from the Lord and His prophets, reassuring us that He will help and bless and strengthen us in our times of trial. Elder Holland quoted one from the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22). If Brother Joseph could find such reasons to rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ while he was in hiding, surely we too can find joy even amidst our difficulties. And, like Elder Holland and Patrick Kearon, we can take time even in the most serious situations to find humor and invite a smile in others.