The "fine line"

Obviously when someone does somthing that hurts we feel pain.  Sometimes we feel anger, frustration, fear, and a myriad of other possible emotions.  We wouldn't be human if we didn't.  We wouldn't learn if we didn't.  But it's what we do with those emotions that determines the quality of our lives and the lives of those around us.

You know the slogan "Trials, tribulations and afflictions are mandatory; misery is optional."

Often misery doesn't feel optional.   We feel powerless to overcome the hurt.  Really we are.  On our own that is.  But as I love to say "With God all things are possible."

The important thing is to not let the pain mess with us past the fine line.  The fine line is where the pain begins to take us off our course.  Our course is to stay on the path back to Father and to help others on our way.  The course is to learn divine qualities that really are mostly learned in the furnace of alliction.   We will have adversity and, as I listed as the number 1 lesson my pain taught me, it is not a punishment but an opportunity for growth.  You remove the pain you remove the lessons.  You have to stay in the ordeal to learn the lessons that experience will teach you.  I am not talking about staying in the sense that one should never leave an abusive relation.  If one's life is indangered one must run to safety.  But to stay in the ordeal means to resolve it rather that to wall it up.

Back to the fine line.  Think of our Heavenly Father.  What if all the things we do that are not His will were to make Him crazy and take Him off His course which is to love us.  What if He threw up His hands and said "That's it.  You have hurt me too much.  I am done with you".   If He were to do that the whole plan would be frustrated.  Of course He is God after all and has more power to overcome than we do.  But with His love and help we can learn the lessons well.

Our Savior did not let His pain take Him off His course to love and rescue us.  

"And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground".  Luke 22:41-44

He asked the Father to remove His cup but that request was denied.  Even His prayers weren't always answered the way He hoped.  But He continued His course and because of that we are all able to return home.  And in the process He learned.  He who was sinless learned what it felt like to be abused.  He learned what it felt like to have cancer.  He learned what it felt like to have a spouse say "I don't love you anymore."  He learned all these things and more by feeling our actual experiences.  Each of ours...personally.  And He saw our faces and knew us and His love for each of us individually grew beyond comprehension.  Imagine how your love grows for someone when you see their pain.  Think of how it pains you when your children hurt, when a friend loses a child, when a father becomes the sole parent after the death of the love of his life, when your mother suffers through the horrific pains of cancer.   Even when you see these scenes played out on TV of people you don't know your heart swells.  Think of 9-11 when we were all glued to our TV sobbing over the pain of so many lost lives.  Then imagine the One who loves you most and has  known you for eons seeing your sufferings.  He knows and loves you...intimately.

If we can learn to love when it hurts to do so we begin to become like Him and our burden is lifted.  If in our suffering we can reach out to others our burden becomes lighter (empathy during agony is a portion of divinity! Maxwell).  If in our suffering we can learn patience, truly unconditionaly love, how to access His strength and walk with Him, to trust Him and His plan for us, forgiveness, empathy, kindness, and other divine qualities we will be able to feel and say as Lehi  “But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.” 1Nephi 1:15

We won't be perfect in this life.  There will be many traits we struggle to learn and obstacles to overcome but if we let pain overcome us to the point we are not able to learn but instead become inconsolable, unkind, miserable and bitter we will have let it take us past the fine line and off our course which would utimately lead us home.  Gratefully we can always start again.  Learning never ends.

"…know thou, my [child], that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.  The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?  Therefore, hold on thy way…” D&C 121:7-9 

 The key is found in last week's blog.  Come unto Him.  Take His yoke upon you.  Come out of the world so you can feel his love for you.  Love His children.  "If with all your hearts you try to take His children home, you will be there too."  President Eyring.

I love you.  He loves you.  Let Him carry you.