Lay it To Heart

Elder Uchtdorf gave a devotional to young adults a few years ago and told them this: “As you seek to follow your Savior, your confidence will grow. And as you walk in faithfulness and open your heart to the Light of Christ, your love of God will mature and your ability to love your neighbor will be refined. And all this will bring you happiness and joy. It will bring you peace. One day, it will bring you eternal glory. On that future day, you will look back on this cherished and exciting adventure of mortality, and you will understand. You will see that the dots really did connect into a beautiful pattern, more sublime than you ever could have imagined. With unspeakable gratitude, you will see that God Himself, in His abounding love, grace, and compassion, was always there watching over you, blessing you, and guiding your steps as you walked toward Him.” This was quoted in a Come, Follow Me podcast this week in discussing the book of Ruth, and looking at the full life of Naomi we can see that indeed the Lord was guiding her and watching over her, and we can see the great blessings he ultimately gave her despite the severe difficulties she faced. But in the moment after losing her husband and two sons she understandably could not see how the Lord was blessing her. Crying out in pain she declared, “The Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me” (Ruth 1:21).

And so surely it is with us as we face challenges in our lives. We may at times feel that the Lord is against us, but we must press forward with faith even when we don’t understand and we will in the end understand. The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith this: “Blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven. Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.” We will have tribulation, even “much tribulation,” but it is all part of the design of God for us. The hour is not yet for us to fully understand—“for now we see through a glass, darkly”—but we must continue with hope to keep His commandments (1 Corinthians 13:12). The Lord continued, “Remember this, which I tell you before, that you may lay it to heart, and receive that which is to follow” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:2-5). I love that invitation: “lay it to heart.”  We must get it into our hearts that God will give us tribulation and that is all part of His plan. We must get it into our hearts that we will keep His commandments no matter what trials come. We must get it into our hearts that if we are faithful in tribulation then there is indeed glory for us in the future. If we truly know this in our heart then we will not be surprised when “that which is to follow” is full of difficulties and challenges. We can trust this invitation and promise from the Savior: “Be patient in tribulation until I come; and, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, and they who have sought me early shall find rest to their souls” (Doctrine and Covenants 54:10).

The lyrics to Rob Gardner’s song Sometime We’ll Understand from the Lamb of God oratorio capture well these ideas:

 

Not now, but in the coming years,

It may not be when we demand,

We'll read the meaning of our tears,

And there, sometime, we'll understand

 

Why what we long for most of all

Eludes our open, pleading hand;

Why ever silence meets our call,

Somewhere, sometime, we'll understand.

So trust in God through all thy days;

Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;

Though dark thy way, still sing and praise,

Sometime, sometime we'll understand.

 

Sometime, we'll fall on bended knee,

And feel there, graven on His hand

Sometime with tearless eyes we'll see

What, here, we could not understand.

So trust in God through all the days;

Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;

Though dark thy way, still sing and praise,

Sometime, sometime we'll understand.